So, you want to acquire donors.
Building a list of supporters, retargeting active donors, and re-energizing dormant donors are all things that could mean victory on Election Day.
In our interconnected world, one thing is certain: your constituents are online. But do you know where they are spending their web-viewing time?
The answer isn’t quite so cryptic. The 2012 presidential election proved the best place to find and acquire donors online is in their inbox.
How’s that?
65% of all donations to President Obama’s campaign came from email marketing. In fact, Obama and Romney’s weekly email send volume directly correlated with the results of Nate Silver’s election prediction algorithm, which correctly predicted the winner of last two presidential elections.
Basically, more emails = more votes.
But, unfortunately, sometimes sending “more” can mean more problems. Obama’s campaign saw open rates plummet as volume increased. While casting a wide net proved beneficial to fundraising, it still missed a lot of valuable would-be donors. After all, if you never open the email, you can’t engage and donate.
What’s a campaign to do?
Acknowledge the power of your supporter list.
Your list is a treasure trove of information: contribution sums, dates, frequency and more. The best part here is that all of that information is tied to an individual email address. An email address is your virtual identity. It is your username and login across the web. And, with the power of the hash, it is possible to track and match that online identity securely and anonymously.
Change your email philosophy.
Email is no longer about sending email. It’s about being inside the newsletters your constituents are actually opening, next to the content they are reading. That’s where your campaign’s message will receive the longest view times and highest click-through rates.
Using your list and your new outlook
Once you’re able to acknowledge the power of your supporter list and rethink your email philosophy, you’re ready to start:
Build a list of active, passionate donors
Over the course of the next 2 weeks, I’ll take you through how each step works, so that you can lay the groundwork for a campaign strategy that will continue to drive donations and inspire voters all the way to election day.
