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Why You Should Be On Obama & Romney's Email List

by Paul Gram
13 replies
For those of us in the United States, this is big time political season right now as we will be electing a President in about a month. Now, I absolutely hate politics but one of the great things that I did was to sign up for the email list of BOTH candidates about 6 months ago.

These guys have tens of millions of marketing dollars and it's really interesting seeing how they use it. Both campaigns have had landing pages where you need to put your email before getting in and both campaigns have sent quite a few emails.

There is one candidate who is doing MUCH better in regards to email communication. (I won't say which!) He mails more regularly and while I am sure it's not him writing the emails, they are much more compelling just looking at it from a marketing/sales standpoint.

In regards to the swipe file, one of the things I like the most about the email marketing that both campaigns are doing is the email subject lines that get you to open the email. There is lots of GOLD in there!

There is still plenty of time left so I'd recommend getting on both of their lists and building your own swipe file. They have millions to spend and the best consultants/analytics to tell them what works and what doesn't so it's very interesting to watch and learn from. Here is the home page of each campaign, in alphabetical order:


We Have a Choice — Barack Obama


Welcome | Mitt Romney for President


P.S. Another interesting test I did was to sign up for both lists about 12 days ago (with a different email address) and 1 candidate has emailed me 4 times and the other has not emailed me at all.
#file #free #great #obama #romney #swipe
  • Profile picture of the author eve2
    I've been subscribed to both email lists for the last few months and you're right, there is much to be learned from their email campaigns.

    The one thing that I highly don't appreciate is the sheer number of emails from one campaign I keep getting. It's great to study but if it weren't for that, I would've unsubscribed a long time ago.
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  • Profile picture of the author Quoia
    I agree with you both. It's interesting to see how messages have been crafted by the parties to appeal to their base, but I do feel like the campaigns basically spam people. I feel exhausted by the sheer amount of email I've received during this campaign season. One huge lesson I've learned is that I would never do this to my customers, lol. I also think there is a tipping point where people become numb to your message and stop opening up their wallets.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve The Copywriter
    ...I'm on both lists, and I'm in the UK, so obviously I can't vote or donate. But the email subject lines are magic and the content is wonderfully written. Top notch stuff.

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author Jon Sullivan
      Thanks for the suggestion.

      This is where the comment about the state of politics in America would go...

      I just signed up today, but am interested in seeing how you write a targeted e-mail to the entire country.

      Do they use the e-mails to try and persuade those on the fence? or is it just e-mails targeted at garnering more donations and not necessarily more votes.
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      • Profile picture of the author eve2
        Originally Posted by Sully4071 View Post

        Thanks for the suggestion.

        Do they use the e-mails to try and persuade those on the fence? or is it just e-mails targeted at garnering more donations and not necessarily more votes.
        Both.

        And more often than not, many times a day with different agendas, sent by key people from the campaign.
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        • Profile picture of the author Jon Sullivan
          Originally Posted by eve2 View Post

          Both.

          And more often than not, many times a day with different agendas, sent by key people from the campaign.
          That seems sloppy to me.

          Maybe it works. My knowledge of how political campaigns are run is minimal, but its fun to think I'd know how to run it better. Most people are like that I think. Of course, many innovations in various fields of science came from people who were not experts in the field.

          My point is that if you could tie in amount of donation to the e-mail address, then you could build different lists for different donation levels.

          For people who have given the maximum($2,500), you could stop sending them e-mails asking for more money to be given for the general election and ask for money donated to the other charity; which seems like a crazy loophole to me, but again, not a lawyer, or political strategist.
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  • Profile picture of the author zapseo
    A few months' back I it crossed my mind to apply to one of the campaigns -- with all that PAC money floating around ... no doubt a sweet gig.

    Thanks very much for the addresses to sign up -- that was one I missed!

    Live JoyFully!

    Judy

    P.S. I would also consider signing up with a variety of email addresses with different zip codes -- to represent different areas. Signing up with a zip code that is in one of the swing states, in particular, would be interesting. I'm not sure how much either campaign will expend on me in California. I don't remember the last time California went for a republican -- maybe Reagan.

    P.P.S. I find the "Romney Economics" an interesting take ... I do not know if "Reagan Economics" would elicit a positive response ... and, starting with the same letter, people's memory banks could easily slide to whatever emotional attachments are made to Reagan economics.

    P.P.P.S. I really like the fact that Romney's website identified me as a Californian, just by landing on the page .. .SMART, and not that hard to do. Obama is missing the boat on this one.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marvin Johnston
    I signed up and it is a fascinating look at the different points of view as expressed by their copywriters..

    For me, four emails from one party, and one from the other. One trying to garner support through fear, and the other through philosophy. And both are asking for money (no, I didn't donate to either.)

    I'm looking forward to see how this war of words progresses!

    Marvin
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Cohen
      I've been on both lists since January.

      Each group panders to its own true believers, and the emails have done a pretty good job of reinforcing their beliefs.

      But if you're an experienced copywriter, you won't see any persuasion techniques in the emails that you don't already know.

      Alex
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  • Profile picture of the author vrkiro
    I've been subscribed to both email lists for the last few months and you're right, there is much to be learned from their email campaigns.
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  • Profile picture of the author rdavisconsulting
    Yeah, the both email me way too much so I unsubscribed from both of them lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Al
    They're both pretty aggressive when it comes to collecting your email.

    Wonder if they'd be interested in buying a solo ad with their 100 million dollar budgets?
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    • Profile picture of the author rkk33
      I've been on Obama's for quite some time, and you're completely right. There's a lot to be learned. I took some pointers form his site to write some thank you pages. They direct you just enough towards subscribing, registering to vote, or going back into the site. It really is well done. The design is clean and the navigation on the page is laid out well.
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