How Email marketing will Elect a President

When it comes to how they’ll perform as president, it says a lot. We tend to look at email marketing like a candidate loyalty club. If candidate messages are the same over and over, and using the same approaches and content as in debates and interviews, why would you want to be on their lists, once you’ve donated? Both the technology and the creative choices candidates make says a lot about how they would run the country and how they deal with both identifying and solving problems.

KB: I’m not sure the average voter understands how much of a role email plays in raising money. This is a surprising data point: in 2008 and 2012, more than half of President Obama’s individual campaign contributions were attributable to email marketing. Hundreds of millions of dollars were driven directly by email, a method of campaign communication that really wasn’t a mass-market option until three presidential elections before Obama. But candidates seem to speak more candidly in email than they do in stump speeches or debates. And there’s a reason: their email subscribers are their base. To earn those donations, they have to amp up their base about their opponents. We see this play out between Clinton and Sanders especially. On stage at the debate, they are usually pretty tame and cordial, but the emails they send later that night and the next day are laced with barbs and poison arrows. If the more ardent supporters of the candidates don’t see a line of division, they won’t feel the need to reach into their pocketbooks and pony up another $20 or $50 to help their candidate win.

MK: Although every email sent is, in a sense, a new ask for money, some are better than others at making each appeal unique. Politics is about coalition and consensus building; it’s fascinating to see what the candidates and their teams are revealing in each email.