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NGP VAN integration with CallHub is a ‘must-do’ for any CallHub customer using NGP VAN as a CRM. Here’s why:
Using CallHub for your phone calls, texts, surveys, and automated broadcasts helps you collect vast amounts of data about your contacts. You collect data like:
- Responses to survey questions.
- Tags added by calling agents to indicate the contact’s tone or support.
- RSVPs for events you are planning.
- Whether a contact can be deemed a ‘supporter’ or should be removed from your list as a hater.
This highly relevant and up-to-date data can dramatically increase your understanding of potential voters, donors, or customers – ONLY if the data you have collected during each outreach campaign is added to data collected from all the others.
Integrating your NGP VAN with CallHub makes a constantly updated, highly relevant, and active database possible, giving you the edge – from swinging votes to collecting donations to organizing events.
| Before we get started |
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NGP VAN integration with CallHub
An NGP VAN integration with CallHub has four steps. Here’s what each step achieves:
- API Key connection: This technical step ensures the CallHub software connects to the NGP VAN database.
- Choose your voter database: NGP VAN offers two options to clients. They can use voter databases already collected by the Democratic Party, or they can use a voter database they have crafted themselves.
- Choose lists: Each voter database contains many lists within it for different kinds of outreach – each of which comes with its own history of surveys, questions answered, etc. So, choose the list you want to use for your CallHub campaign.
- Match fields: Since data from CallHub will be synced with the lists on NGP VAN, it is critical to make sure CallHub is updating the correct data in the right corresponding slots for that data.
And that’s it. Once you finish these steps, you will be ready to use your NGP VAN list on CallHub and sync the data you collect during CallHub outreach campaigns with your lists on NGP VAN.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to set up the integration:
Obtain your NGP VAN API key:
You can request an NGP VAN API key by logging into your VAN account and navigating to the ‘API integrations section.’
When you ‘Request an API Key,’ you can choose an integration from a dropdown menu. But for CallHub, you must request a unique key from NGP VAN support.
Just click the ‘Submit a Support Request’ and ask for an API key for CallHub.
Remember: If you don’t have the application name, NGP VAN API key, or NGP VAN API permission, you must raise a support request with the NGP VAN developer support at [email protected].
| PS: The CallHub support team is always on their toes to help! You can access our extensive support documentation here. |
Connect NGP VAN to CallHub:
Now that you have your API key and application name, you can connect the two software – CallHub and NGP VAN. Which is as simple as clicking a button. Here’s how.
- Log in to your CallHub account.
- Navigate to the ‘Integrations’ section and select ‘NGP VAN.’
- Enter your API key and application name to establish the connection.
Choose the appropriate connection mode:
Now that the software is connected pick the database you want to work with when you conduct your outreach campaigns in CallHub.
- My Voter: This option imports a database of contacts collected by the Democratic Party state units for the use of Democratic candidacies.
- My Campaign: This option imports a database of contacts you have collected yourself.
Both options contain multiple lists within them. And you can choose which specific list to use for your campaigns with CallHub at the next step.
Read More: How To Conduct A Community Survey Successfully? (With Best Practices)
Import data from NGP VAN:
Once you have chosen which contact database to import (from My Voter or My Campaign), you can now pick which specific lists you wish to import for your CallHub campaigns.
- In CallHub, go to the ‘Integrations’ page and click ‘Import VAN Items.’
- Select and import desired lists. These lists also come with survey questions, events, and activist codes that these lists have already been updated with during earlier campaigns.
Map contact fields:
Once you have chosen which specific list you wish to import into CallHub, you will be asked to double-check that the imported data is ‘mapped’ correctly to fields that CallHub is checking.
For example, we want to make sure what is listed as an ‘email’ in NGP VAN is being recorded as email IDs on CallHub.
- Ensure fields like VAN ID (the unique ID given to each contact by NGP VAN), Email, and Phone are correctly mapped to facilitate two-way sync.
Read More: How To Clean Contact Lists For Precise Targeting
All collected data, such as event RSVPs, canvass responses, and tagged contacts, will automatically sync back to NGP VAN, keeping both platforms updated.
The sync details will be under the ‘Activity’ tab of the contact in NGP VAN.
Following these steps, you can effectively integrate NGP VAN with CallHub, ensuring a cohesive workflow between the two systems.
| NGP VAN terms to know |
| Activist Codes track groups of individuals or organizations that share interests or specific relationships. Once an Activist Code is applied to a contact record, a person can easily find information related to the code – such as group affiliations, subscriptions, licensures, or memberships. |
How to use your NGP VAN integration
When setting up campaigns in CallHub, you can use your NGP VAN data in multiple ways for different campaigns. Such as:
Call center campaigns
You can add VAN survey questions and assign activist codes to contacts during calls, helping you track their affiliations and interests across several outreach campaigns.
While creating a calling campaign, you can apply NGP VAN activist codes under the ‘Script’ tab.
You can also add survey questions you had earlier stored on NGP VAN to the script of a survey or calling campaign you are conducting through CallHub.
If your calling campaign or survey requires the contact to confirm their participation in an event, you also verify their RSVP during the call and have that detail updated in your NGP VAN database.
This helps you track the events the contacts have attended over the years.
SMS campaigns
When conducting a text broadcast campaign on CallHub, you can apply activist codes to contacts who receive your text messages or those who respond to these messages.
This helps you track how different groups of people (sorted by activist codes on NGP VAN) react or respond to your texts.
When setting up your text broadcast campaigns, you can select NGP VAN activist codes under the ‘Targeting’ tab.
Voice broadcast campaigns
If you are sending out a voice broadcast, you can use your NGP VAN activist codes to find out how different groups react to your message.
When setting up a voice broadcast campaign, you can choose which NGP VAN activist codes to apply to those contacted under the ‘Setting’ tab.
| NGP VAN terms to know |
| Canvass Responses is the label used to track the responses by contacts to surveys or door-to-door campaigns. By maintaining a record of all such responses, users can easily track how a specific contact or group of contacts has responded to questions over the years. |
NGP VAN integration with CallHub: A simple use case
From a technical perspective, the NGP VAN integration has many in-depth advantages. But here’s a look at one way this integration is used.
Collect canvass responses and update activist codes:
When you create a Call Center campaign on CallHub, you can add one or more ‘Survey Questions’ from NGP VAN when setting up your script and decide what activist code to tag a contact depending on their response.
Why? For example, you may want to know how many people say ‘yes’ to introducing a new law to one activist code while adding all those who say ‘no’ to another specific activist code – so that you can contact them again later for another round of outreach.
For example, in the image below, if a contact responds as ‘Yes’ to the question, that contact will automatically be tagged as ‘Member’ in the contact list.
Once the campaign begins, volunteers also input the ‘Canvass Responses’ – the answers given by contacts to the questions asked in the survey- during calls.
This ‘double count’ helps you know what specific answer a contact has given to a question while also automatically adding them to a list based on the answer.
At the backend:
- Responses to survey questions will flow back to NGP VAN, and you can view them in the contact’s ‘Survey Responses’ section.
- Each contact can also be marked with an ‘Activist code’ automatically based on their survey response.
The benefits of NGP VAN integration with CallHub
Integrating NGP VAN with CallHub provides several benefits, especially for political campaigns, advocacy groups, and nonprofit organizations.
Here’s how this integration enhances operations:
Seamless data synchronization
- Automatically sync contacts, survey responses, activist codes, and events between NGP VAN and CallHub.
- Eliminates manual data entry, reducing errors and saving time.
Better voter engagement
- Access voter lists and campaign data from NGP VAN to run targeted outreach campaigns without having to duplicate (or copy) them every time.
- With CallHub’s integrated phone banking, peer-to-peer texting, and voice broadcast tools, volunteers easily access voter data and update records while making calls or sending texts.
- Assign activist codes or collect survey responses directly from conversations, ensuring messages are personalized based on voter history, preferences, and survey responses. This includes RSVPs and event participation tracking.
Improved campaign insights and decision-making
- Track engagement metrics such as call outcomes, text replies, and survey responses within NGP VAN, helping campaigns adjust their strategies based on real-time data.
With better contact management and follow-ups, campaigns can improve voter mobilization and reduce the turnaround time for outreach efforts, making campaigns more effective.
Ultimately, this integration empowers campaigns with better data management, outreach tools, and engagement strategies, ultimately leading to stronger voter connections.
