FairTax Robo call

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Permalink Reply by Sean Fagan on October 30, 2009 at 2:30pm

I've not - but my guess is this would be part of that national campaign by Houston.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Stone on October 30, 2009 at 3:41pm

If it is part of the promotion, then YEAH!
I would like to see a big push to keep the Fair Tax in the forfront. I still think Pelosi's VAT comments were to confuse people and break our momentum.

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Permalink Reply by Ken Hoagland on November 3, 2009 at 11:33am

It's us--in fact, it's me on a lot of calls.

There are three main parts to the new national marketing program test--new media (e-mails, website ads, social media), telephone calls (both live operator and robo calls) and direct mail. Almost everything going to the country goes first to the existing supporter base.

Data is gathered on which messages resonate best. The public test goes a bit further because we are matching messages with identified groups and known characteristics of different websites. Once messages and audiences are crossed-referenced, we get a pretty definitive roadmap of how to best bring the FairTax to every household in the country at the lowest cost with the best response. The returns on the hard-charging fund raising of late is being used exclusively for this education, recruitment and advocacy test that will lead to a massive program early next year.

The aggresive fund raising program has produced some discomfort but about six times as many first time donors to the FairTax national effort as people unhappy that we are pushing so very hard. I think of it as acceleration from a too slow campaign speed that was losing us supporters. It has made some uncomfortable but has convinced others that we are really finally on the move. There are tweaks and edits when we push too, too hard and we are watching results like hawks.

Strong fund raising efforts will lead next to strong recruitment efforts which will lead to powerful national advocacy efforts. One district at a time, one member coming on board after another, new states involved and an active membership not in the hundreds of thousands but millions. It's a new model because we were losing people who believed in the FairTax--but didn't believe it possible to overcome Washington.

The best we did so far was a few of us here working 12 hours a day through four months of seven day weeks to hold two rallies in April, webcast one, launch a petition to the White House, raise funds for full page ads in newspapers across the country, appear on 120 radio shows and put us at number one on three different websites soliciting input on public policy. It just about killed us but produced 53,000 new supporters in April. This program is a bigger, better funded, more scientific and more sustainable model that will produce better recruitment results than even April of this year without killing off the the guys doing it.

The early steps are almost all positive and promise a far more powerful national effort to passage.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Tomasik on November 3, 2009 at 12:00pm

What states are ya'll doing this in?

I hope something really good comes from it.

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Permalink Reply by Ken Hoagland on November 3, 2009 at 12:23pm

Thanks Jim--it will go to people in every state directly and of course reaches everywhere through the web ads. We start with small steps, not taking on the whole enchilada initially, and analyze the results and tweak the program before going to the next step.

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