Lessons from Email Marketing: How Email Could Work to Get Campaigners Elected

-- Just another email to skip over. That's what Presidential campaign emails invoke in the minds of consumers and potential voters. And as the most recent emails will likely not be read, they can't be doing any good for campaigners or voters

While their efforts have succeeded in improving the efficiency of the sign-up process and email wording, campaigners have not fully addressed the motivational factor that is crucial in successfully optimizing email marketing software - a difficulty easily solved by applying techniques from the business community when formatting emails.

What is the bottom line? Obama and Hillary's most recent campaigns are ambiguous about this issue. The latest email campaign from Bill Clinton includes subject line: "Not big on quitting." No subject is apparent in the line. Who is not big on quitting? Hillary? Bill? The email team? The supporters? Next, take the latest message from the Obama team: "What's next." Again, no subject, or even action, can be detected. Open the email and find the first appeals to action; "contribute by our midnight Monday deadline" and "check out these resources" by Bill Clinton and Obama, respectively.

Compare Obama's and Clinton's email practices to an email marketing campaign of a well-known fashion retailer. Subject lines like "Tee Time: Buy 2 Save 20%" and "All The Dresses You Need For Spring" clearly affirm the advantage of clicking and reading the email before email readers have seen any content. The first line uses two key verbs, "buy" and "save," while the second line directly addresses the consumer

A simple revision of the subject lines with a seller-buyer framework could deliver: "Deadline Ahead: Don't Quit, Act Now" and "Everything You Should Know about Obama." These subject lines create a sense of urgency and shift the locus of power from the sender to the recipients of the emails.

Far from victorious on the subject lines front, Hillary's camp has made significant changes in the body of their messages. In an attempt to generate easy-to-read, visually stimulating messages, they utilize bold font every few lines to highlight main ideas in the paragraphs. They also feature a bold-colored countdown clock with a yellow "Contribute Now" button link. Similarly, Obama's email emphasizes information by categorizing it under 3 headings (The Basics, Organizing, and Fundraising).

Lamentably, emails from both sides lack images. Obama and Hillary rarely include photos in their emails, and McCain includes just a few small photos in his email banner. In contrast, retailers, internet providers and pizza joints alike have been utilizing large picture links to attract consumers. The picture link is standard practice today.

Democratic nominees recognize that they need to re-think their marketing strategy, however, and have begun using email marketing software to offer campaign contributors sweepstakes prizes, such as a private meeting with Obama or Clinton. Unfortunately, these offers can be hard to locate. For example, Obama sent an email with the subject "Deadline," but the email included a drawing to win a dinner with Barack Obama himself, which was listed towards the bottom of the email.

Obama's use of contribution incentives in his email marketing campaigns could explain why his email program ranks third on Email Data Source's 2008 Email Brand Equity Ranking while McCain, who does not use similar incentives, is not among the top 5 of that list. Other reasons may include the perceived lack of imperativeness in the emails or the news-like wording in McCain's subject lines.

Four years ago, pundits, bloggers and the general public declared that the Presidential campaigns lagged far behind the business, technology, and entertainment sectors in internet marketing practices. This year, the Presidential hopefuls got with the program; they just weren't entirely sure how to use it.

For more information about email marketing software or for a sample copy of this article, contact Jen Udan or visit www.email-marketing-options.com. ---------- About Zilker Ventures:

Zilker Ventures is a web publisher specializing in reviewing and consolidating information about business to business and financial products.

Jennifer Silva

Zilker Ventures, LLC

(512) 448-9031

pr@zilkerventures.com

www.zilkerventures.com