Barack Obama's Email Campaign

Published November 25, 2008 by Jeff Selin

Tuesday night, November 4th, in the USA was a stream of endless news broadcasts. CNN, MSNBC, NPR, CSPAN, Headline News, on- and offline, newsrooms, local events, stage productions—CNN used holograms, unbelievable!

Of course, here at Interspire we watched the candidates’ email campaigns. After receiving dozens of them in just as many days… In terms of email marketing, the McCain crew did more than other candidates in the past, but they didn't hold a candle to the daily Obama email onslaught.

Let’s see if Obama’s email marketing strategies foretold anything about the outcome of the election. In some cases, the Obama camp ignored all the tradition email marketing rules; at least the standard steps to follow to ensure results, ROI, conversion success. Yet we must pay attention to his tactics, because now we have our next US President elect who raised hundreds of millions of dollars.

This from Forbes Magazine about Obama: “The presidential campaign's fundraising champion has brought in more than $605 million. He is raising private money for his general election… He raised a record-shattering $150 million in September. “ As for McCain, Forbes reported: “He raised more than $160 million before having to stop to accept the $84 million in public money for the fall.”

How did Obama do it? According to some reports from his camp, upwards of 90 percent of the money they received was donated in $100 increments. How does one get six million people to pay $100 each? Among the most powerful and viral tools in their war chest: email.

That and a lot of donate buttons.

This was the donate button waiting in my inbox each day, direct from the Obama Camp.  Of course, the emails all contained their share of numerous “donate now” text links. In fact, none of the emails were HTML design heavy; just basic text with pictures attached. The “last chance to donate” button often helped reinforce other graphics. Most of them had a deadline attached, a chance to win something, or a gift offer like a car magnet. “You can also receive an Obama-Biden T-shirt with a donation of $30 or more,” read one headline.

Subscribing to the Obama email campaign unleashed a torrent of emails. I received one everyday from all different members of the Obama team. They assessed me as a loyal member of the Democratic Party. This community connection was apparently enough to break the success theories of standard email marketing, like frequency. But they sure made the content relevant. It was clear, concise, and each email could afford to concentrate on one powerful message—there would be another one tomorrow. It was obviously the power of an autoresponder at work, loaded with valuable content.

But who was sending these emails? As email marketers we’re taught that the “from” line should be consistent as an issue of trust, credibility and white lists from SPAM filters. It’s been proven, this consistency builds brand equity and increases open rates. And yet, here I received dozens of emails from seemingly everyone on the Obama team, often from names I never knew. Of course the email reply address was always the same: info@barackobama.com. Inconsistent names became part of the consistent messaging.

Luckily, Barack emailed me directly on occasion. His subject lines shared sentiments like: “It’s in your hands, Jeff”. Personalizing the subject line? Why not? I subscribed to the newsletter and so by this virtue, I’m supposed to be onboard as an agent of change for the Democratic Party. Barack also wrote to ask me poignant questions in subject lines like: “Will you join me on election night?” You, bet!

Vice president elect Joe Biden emailed with “My Wife” as one of his subject lines. The email began, “Jeff –“. All the emails always began with my first name (a level of personalization the McCain emails generally ignored.) Joe wrote: “My wife Jill is an extraordinary woman.” Thanks, Joe. I feel more connected to the community already. The funny thing is that I’m not being sarcastic. He included this image of his wife that obviously links to a video clip:

I'm a huge fan of this technique, of placing a graphic that appears like a video clip, to send you to the launch page. Can you see the arrow over Jill's nose? But don't take my word for it: test it! And who doesn’t want to click on Jill’s face to get started?

Of course, the new First Lady, Michelle Obama, emailed, too. Among her subject lines:  “What Barack needs.” Still other unknown names from the camp emailed with subject lines filled with news or important updates. They all relayed messages simply and directly, explaining the topic of the email or directing a call to action. “Obama campaign finances.” “Jeff, Washington needs you.” “FW: BREAKING: Latest numbers.”

Once I had been receiving emails for awhile and trusted the style and flow of them, I discovered more direct call to action emails with subject lines to match: “ Forward this email.” Normally, this is a subject line disaster. Instead, here, it reinforced community involvement. That is really the power driving this email campaign. There's a sense of community development.

Often these messages had video grabs like the one of Jill above.

Obviously a lot of money went into marketing and launching an extraordinary community effort. A peek at Barack's Web site suggests the powerful savvy team of marketing geniuses at work. And yet here they are, pumping out daily emails with basic text links and graphics. As one of the subheads reads: "See what this movement is all about, then make your first donation of $5 or more before it's too late to make a difference."

Whether you're into politics or not, you've got to commend him for such a well executed marketing campaign.

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