In this electronic age, email remains the killer app of campaign communications. It’s efficient, it’s targeted, it’s cheap, it’s designed to go viral, and it works. Email is the topic of discussion this week on RunSmart2Win. Today we will look at 10 Tips for Maximizing the Effectiveness of Email Campaigns:

1. Keep your messages short and focused. People have short attention spans. Emails must grab the reader’s attention early, make one point, and conclude with one action step. Not only does this mean keeping the email short, but breaking your message into short sentences with headings for easy skimming. If you say three things, you say nothing. One point. One action step. That’s it. Remember the Five B’s of campaign emails: Be Brief, Baby, Be Brief.
2. Don’t just ask for money. Email is a great campaign fundraising tool, but you shouldn’t overdue it. Even your most avid supporters will spam block you if all of your emails are contribution requests. Mix up the topics you cover: campaign announcements, volunteer mobilization efforts, special event invitations, letters from the candidate, and yes, the occasional fundraising email too.
3. Don’t flood inboxes. Just as you shouldn’t ask for money in every email you send, you also shouldn’t send emails everyday! If you do, you will quickly discover that people have tuned you out. One email per week should be the upper limit. The exception to this is the last week of the campaign when you are turning out supporters and voters.
4. There is a time for urgency. On the heels of point three, the reason you shouldn’t flood people’s inboxes is so you can grab their attention when you really need it (for example, the last week of the fundraising quarter, the 72 hours prior to Election Day, etc.). By not spending your email capital too early — and not crying wolf with too many urgent pleas — you retain your right to implore your supporters to act, contribute, or volunteer with emotional appeals, deadlines, and countdowns.
5. Use the candidate wisely. Obviously, you want some of your messages to come from the candidate. But not every email should be from the man or woman in charge. If every email is from the candidate, people may assume that he or she is not the person behind it. It’s true that the candidate is the standard bearer of the campaign message, but use him or her wisely. Have the candidate author some of the emails, but include the candidate’s spouse, campaign staffers, and endorsements from members of the community.
6. Ask supporters to tell their friends. The most powerful method for starting a word-of-mouth epidemic over the Internet is friends emailing friends emailing friends. Encourage activists to edit messages from the campaign, then send them on to friends and family members. Ask supporters to remove “FW:” from the email subject line and personalize the message.
7. Link to online videos. Take a screenshot from a campaign video, making sure it looks like a video player. Then provide the link to the actual video (and embed code for people to place the video on their own blogs or social networking pages). Use your organization’s stories to bring people in, and then connect it to an “ask” at the end of the email. Capture their attention with video, then take them to a next-step — like contributing, volunteering, calling a radio station, or sending in a letter to the editor.
8. Be interesting and relevant. Don’t live in a bubble. Piggyback on the most talked about issues affecting your race. Is there a local corruption scandal or hot button issue that everyone is talking about? Don’t ignore the elephant in the room. Talk about what the voters are talking about. Address their concerns. Capitalize on grassroots anger. Relate your message to the day’s headlines. Talk about why your issue matters now.
9. Test and improve. Measure the success of your email campaigns by tracking open-rates, click-throughs, and forwards. Is there is an issue, action, or layout that people respond to more than others? Use that information to improve on future emails.
10. Say “Please” and “Thank you.” Mama was right: you should always ask politely, saying “Please,” and show appreciation, with a “Thank you.” Acknowledge the effort your supporters are making on behalf of the candidate and the campaign. Never take their time, effort, money, or support for granted.

Tags: Campaign Tips, eCampaigning, email

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Campaign Tips, Polls & Surveys, eCampaigning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.