The other day I was giving Simon Heseltine, our Search Director/Guru a ride to Union Station in DC. Simon had parked his car at my house which is near Union Station, and coincidentally only three blocks from the home of Barack Obama. While we were driving, we saw the tell-tale signs of the politically important: large black SUVs and guys in suits talking to their wrists. And, Barack Obama. That’s life in DC.

20 minutes or so later I got an email from Simon saying “We just passed Barack Obama on the street and already he’s emailing me!” I kind of chuckled at this and didn’t think much else of it. Until I read an article from ClickZ titled “Top Presidential Campaigns Took Few E-Mail Breaks in August”

Over the years I have worked on many political campaign sites and for various politically affiliated organizations. RedBoots is currently working with a candidate endorsement site, so I’ve always been interested in the changes over the past few elections on how candidates reach voters and embrace technology. And, how frequently they reach voters. And, how it’s nearly impossible to avoid them. The young, the old, online and offline.

So, this article at ClickZ said that both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards each sent 15 emails in August. FIFTEEN! That’s one email every other day. Obama sent 11. Fred Thompson sent 8 emails and he had only barely announced his candidacy (but he has shown some early adoption to social media sites – exploratory activity perhaps)

I think these campaigns all need to stop and rethink their online email communication strategies, as they will all begin to see serious list burn/churn, and a nosedive in email responses. However, many of these emails are not entirely action driven but offer other information, lots and lots of calls-to-action. Another interesting thing to point out is that each of these emails come from a different sender at the campaign – a tactic to avoid email spam filters and send frequency perhaps?

Many of these emails from all candidates are sent on the same days, so it is possible that undecided voters may have signed up for emails from multiple candidates – and have inboxes overflowing with politi-speak.

I’m also glad that the ClickZ article lists the subject lines of these emails (or many of them…) I’ve always kept a spreadsheet and folder of organizational emails and subject lines to see how language changes over time (Which you should be doing as well). Some of my favorites in the list – in this order:

• “Help Stop a Naked Power Grab” – Uh…what does THAT mean? I wouldn’t have opened this because of the spammy sounding language.
• “You Need to See This” – No I don’t. I got an email like this a long time ago and it was a virus.
• “She’s Going to Give You a Hug“- How? Why? And WHO is going to hug me?
• “Team Rudy Weekly Wrap” – Say five times fast!
• “A Special Message from Johnny’s Mother” – Why is John McCain’s Mom emailing me?

There are many things to learn from the ClickZ article, mostly – think before you have 15 emails planned in one month (most of which asked for money in some way or another I’m sure…) And really and truly vet those subject lines. Your subject line SHOULD set the expectation of the contents of the email. It’s ok to pique interest, but don’t set yourself up for failure by having an overly mysterious or cutesy subject line.

I kinda miss political candidates kissing babies. Not stalking me on email or scaring me with strange subject lines.

Filed under: Email Marketing, Reputation Management on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 by Serengeti Communications | 2 Comments
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