What is a Relational Call to Action

Creating Relational Calls to Action

1. Log into the Empower Web App. Click on the Calls to Action button on the left hand side of the screen.
   

1. Next, click on the New Call to Action button.
   

1. Under What kind of action will Volunteers take?, select Relational.
   

1. Under the Content section:
   
1. Give your Relational Call to Action a title in the Title box. Write your title like you are giving a direction to a volunteer. We recommend starting with a verb.
   
2. In the Subtitle box, say why this Call to Action is important! This should help inspire your volunteers to get started.
   
3. Provide additional information for your volunteers in the body section to help them get started with the call to action. The body section should be in depth so volunteers know what they are doing. (tip: engaging CTA’s use bolded text when appropriate, bullet points and even graphics!)
   
1. If you want you can use {eid} in the CTA body or in links in the CTA body and it will automatically be replaced with the EID of the person who is filling out the CTA (e.g. volunteers). 

1. Under Content for Volunteers to share, you can upload photos and links to help support your volunteers while reaching out to their friends, family, and acquaintances - such as a link to your organization’s website, or your organization’s social media pages.
   

1. Under the Prompt(s) for Volunteers to talk about during their outreach, you can add questions for volunteers to ask contacts. We recommend making sure that you have at least 2 or 3 prompts as a part of your CTA to help facilitate a conversation! For example, if you ask someone if they care about an issue, maybe the follow up question is an ask for them to attend a community meeting about that issue.
   

1. To add a question, click on the Add Prompt button.
   
2. You can either write your own question by selecting Create new prompt. Or, you can also Use a VAN Survey Question.
   
1. It is important to note that Empower Prompts will not automatically sync to VAN through the API - however, you can export your CTA responses and bulk upload them into VAN to store that data outside of Empower.
   

1. For creating your own prompt, add the question that you would like volunteers to ask new contacts in the Prompt box.
   
2. For the answer type, you can choose either a Single answer or Multiple answers. Select Single answer when you are only looking for one answer to the question. Select Multiple answers when there can be more than one answer to the question that your volunteers are posing.
   
3. Add your answer options in the Answer boxes.
   
4. Click Add Prompt. You will have to repeat this process for each question.
   

1. Under Recruitment Prompt, you can add specific prompts that volunteers will see in the Empower app. These specific prompts include: invite to a training, invite to the app, and ‘vote-tripling’ style. You can preview what the volunteers will see by clicking on the See these slides link.
   

1. Under Scheduling and Targeting:
   
1. You can select either a Standard Call to Action or Advanced Additional Call to Action.
   
1. For a Standard Call to Action, you can select specific regions where you would like to assign this Call to Action. You can also choose whether the Call to Action will go live when you submit the form (immediately) or you can pick a specific time for the Call to Action to go live. Although Standard CTA’s have a start date, they do not have an end date! You can only have one Standard CTA live at a time per region.
   

1. For an Advanced Additional Call to Action, you can apply filters to create a more targeted group to assign your Call to Action. You can choose whether to have the Call to Action go live immediately, or set a specific time and date for the Call to Action to go live. Additionally, you can set a date and time for when the Call to Action will expire.
   

1. Under Conversation Starter, you can write a pre-filled text message that volunteers can send to their contacts. Volunteers will have their text box prefilled with the conversation starter that you create. Before sending the message, volunteers can edit or delete the message in the prefilled text box. Volunteers don’t have to use the pre-filled message - they can click on other to copy or edit that message. You can embed the recipient or sender's name or EID in the message using {recipientname} {sendername} {recipienteid} or {sendereid} in the message and that placeholder will be filled with the correct information when the text message is generated.
   

1. Under Automatic Mass Messages:
   
1. You can announce the Call to Action by checking the box next to Announce the call to action. In the message box, you can add a message that your volunteers will receive in the Empower App when you launch a new Call to Action. You can also select the time for the message to go out to volunteers about this new Call to Action. Select the time in the Time to send box.
   
2. You can add reminders for the calls to action. Check the Remind people that the call to action is in progress box. You can add messages for volunteers who have taken the action (in the box next to Message to people who have taken action) and volunteers who haven’t taken the action (Message to people who haven’t taken action yet). These can be important nudges to either thank someone for taking action or to encourage your volunteers who are still waiting to take action. You can select a time for these reminders to go out in the Time to send box.
   

1. Under How should messages be sent?, you can select how you would like your messages to go out. You can select Mobile App Notifications, Text Messages, and Email, or use all of them. While these mass-message nudges are important and automatic, they aren’t a replacement for person to person reminders and contact!
   

1. Under the question Which of their contacts should Volunteers prioritize talking to?, you can either let the volunteer decide who they should talk to, or you can prioritize the contacts they will reach out to based off of the contact’s tag or if they are on a VAN saved list. Tagging contacts is a very important way to give your volunteers more information they may or may not know about a contact and to prioritize outreach. You can prioritize your contacts with tags such as “Do Not Contact” and “High Priority”. To read more about Prioritizing Saved Lists in VAN, check out this article.
   
1. For VAN saved lists, you can refresh your lists by editing your CTA after it is launched.
   

1. Click Publish Now to launch the Relational Canvassing Call to Action.
   

Responding to the Relational Call to Action from the Mobile App

1. Once the Relational Call to Action is Published, Organizers and Volunteers should see the Call to Action on their Empower Mobile App.
   
2. To engage with the Call to Action on the Empower Mobile app as an Organizer, click Actions
   

     

1. If you have both a Volunteers and Personal List tab, click on Personal List. Then click on the Reach Out button
   

1. Once you click reach out, you will be able to read more about the Call to Action. Click the Next button. You will be taken to the page titled How to Have an Effective Conversation. Here you can gain some tips for having a relational organizing conversation with a friend, family member, or acquaintance. Click next to proceed.
   
2. You will next see your contacts. Click on the contact that you would like to engage with first.
   

1. You can call or text directly from the Empower app by clicking on the call or text button. Additionally, you can reach out using other communication methods such as WhatsApp by clicking the other button.
   

1. After you’ve reached out, you can record whether you have made successful contact with the person under the question Did you reach out?. You can select either Yes, we chatted or Waiting on response.
   
2. Next you should be able to track responses to prompts.
   
3. You can also add notes about this contact under the Notes box.
   

1. Click on Go to the next person to submit the information that you recorded from this interaction.