Posts for August 6th, 2006

After going through my candiate emails (and trust me, there are a lot of them), I began to evaluate the rationale of the content (similar to what I did for the English eCampaigning in 2005). In going through the emails, I began to notice a trend that should be noted such that the other candidates are better equipped for the upcoming online battle ahead. To this end, take a look at this quick and dirty assessment of emails I have been keeping track of:

HillaryClinton.com
One of the interesting things about the frequency of the emails coming out, is that their specficity of action has become more targeted. In the last three months, Hillary (and her staff have) discussed:

• Sign a petition to fire Don Rumsfeld - which is code for “Iraq”
• Sign a petition for Plan B Emergency Contraception - which is code for “abortion”
• Sign a petition for Stem Cell Research - which is, well actually, about stem cell research (and “abortion”) and sent twice to confirm
• Sign a petition to support Minimum Wage
• Contribute to NY Dem Mike Arcuri - which connects back to her Contrinution server and helps identify NY voters and others that would support candidates other than herself
• Sign a petition to support Net Neutrality
• Sign a petition in support Homeland Security - which is code for “defense”
• Have a House Party for Hillary - which is code for “super supporter”/influencer
• Sign a petition supporting Family Planning

All in the past three months. And note, almost no request for money for her - only for Mike Arcuri.

JohnKerry.com? In comparison, in the past three months, Kerry has sent:

• Requests to contribute to races he supports - which goes back to his contribution server
• Sign a petition for the Kerry-Feingold amendment
• Cheerleading emails ending with “Make a Contribution”
• Call your Senator on Iraq - with a “report back feature” on the page
• Support Enviromental Candidates fundraiser - back to his contribution server

And what about the other candidates? Well, Joe Biden’s “Unite Our States” has:

• Asked for contributions
• Wished the list a Happy July 4th
• Talked about his recent trip to Iraq
• Told me when he would be on “Meet the Press”
• and asked me to read his speech, download a plan and then sign his petition on Energy Security

Why do you act?
Why the analysis? Consider the trends above - note that for every issue discussed, if you were to “sign the petition” or do the action requests, do you think your action results in an action within the campaign? Or are you saving the staff time and energy by keying in your details and signalling the campaign your interest “hot buttons”?

One of the greatest challenges we faced during the primaries of Kerry Campaign was how to inspire people to donate via online donations. In a crowded field of ten candidates and a front-runner found in the wintery hills of Vermont, we were frustrated with equal parts of growing our list and successfully burning it out with continued fundraising emails that were not very effective. With our limited budget and dwindling timeframe, we discovered that we had to optimize our email performance with the limited services and tools we had. So what is happening now?

Read the rest of this entry »