Facing criticism, Presidential hopefuls practice better email marketing strategies, but their emails are still not what everyone wants to read.
- Just another message 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 effectiveness of the sign-up system and email wording, campaigners have not fully addressed the motivational element that is essential in effectively optimizing email marketing software a difficulty easily overcome by examining practices from the business community when formatting emails.
What's in it for me? Obama and Hillary's most recent campaigns are unclear on this issue. The latest email message from Bill Clinton offers 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 message and find the first calls 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 those of a well-known fashion retailer. Subject lines like "Tee Time: Buy 2 Save 20%" and "All The Dresses You Need For Spring" noticeably affirm the advantage of clicking and reading the message before email readers have seen any content. The first line uses two strategic verbs, "buy" and "save," while the second line directly accosts the reader.
A simple rewrite 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 importance 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 emails. In an attempt to generate easy-to-read, visually arresting messages, they use 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).
Unfortunately, emails from both camps 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 realize that they need to modify 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 find. 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 mentioned 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 factors 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.
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- Just another message 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 effectiveness of the sign-up system and email wording, campaigners have not fully addressed the motivational element that is essential in effectively optimizing email marketing software a difficulty easily overcome by examining practices from the business community when formatting emails.
What's in it for me? Obama and Hillary's most recent campaigns are unclear on this issue. The latest email message from Bill Clinton offers 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 message and find the first calls 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 those of a well-known fashion retailer. Subject lines like "Tee Time: Buy 2 Save 20%" and "All The Dresses You Need For Spring" noticeably affirm the advantage of clicking and reading the message before email readers have seen any content. The first line uses two strategic verbs, "buy" and "save," while the second line directly accosts the reader.
A simple rewrite 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 importance 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 emails. In an attempt to generate easy-to-read, visually arresting messages, they use 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).
Unfortunately, emails from both camps 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 realize that they need to modify 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 find. 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 mentioned 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 factors 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.
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