6 Ways To Use Emails Effectively
Emails are the best tool for driving people to a political website, but they must be utilized the right way or they can actually drive people away. Here are my 6 rules for using emails effectively:
1. Build an organic email list.
Most big political campaigns are purchasing/renting voter matched email lists, but those lists should be used for the sole purpose of building an organic list – a list people sign up for. On my personal blog I jokingly said “I’m a lot more likely to eat a corn dog if I bought it.†Well, the same is true for emails. People will open emails a lot more if they signed up for them.
2. Don’t over do it.
People are getting sick of SPAM. You will lose readers if you bombard them with emails. Email them important issue pieces and forgo the nonsense. Don’t send them an email every time you receive a positive news story.
3. Don’t make it all about you.
Politicians fall in the “me, me, me†trap and quite frankly, voters just don’t care about that. They want to know about the issues important to them and that doesn’t mean some blanket political promise. Send emails about issues that are imminent, important, and meaningful.
4. Grab their interests and then make The Ask.
The worst thing you can do is to keep asking voters for something in every email. Whether it’s volunteering or donating, politicians just need to lay off. Talk about important issues and grab their interest first. Then make The Ask. Send four or five issues pieces before sending a request email.
Don’t get me wrong; you should always include donation and volunteer links on an email. Just don’t make donating and volunteering the purpose of every email.
5. Keep it short.
With the growth of the Internet, people are being bombarded with information overload. They don’t have time to read a three-page treatise on your tax plan. Give them a very brief summary with links to “read more.†I try to keep my emails under three paragraphs.
6. KISS.
Keep It Simple Stupid. Too many political campaigns try to prove how smart they are with complex emails and blog posts. Connect with voters by keeping your emails as simple as possible. I do it by using lists. Seth Godin recently wrote “the web loves lists almost as much as it loves video.†He’s right and voters love lists too. It’s a great way to KISS.