Obamafy Your Next Campaign

By Y.M. Ousley

Whether or not you agree with his policies or views, Barack Obama has unarguably run an exceptionally well marketed campaign. Using the internet to build support isn't new – Howard Dean, Ron Paul both built early support online. But Obama's campaign is a study in turning the online support into action that every marketer can take a page from.

A list of strategies to replicate in your next campaign

Establish a benefit early, emphasize it often

Change. For nearly all of his campaign, Obama has been the candidate for change. No matter if you think he would be a change for the better or worse, when most Americans hear the word “change,” they associate that message with one candidate.

There weren't always details of exactly what would change, how it would affect you or your family, and perhaps on purpose. Strange as it sounds, (good) branding sells products by not focusing on products. Economic policy, foreign relations policy, energy policy – all very important products that both candidates are trying to sell to voters, but most people aren't voting for the individual products, they're voting for the brand. Obama established himself as the brand of change very early on, and his campaign repeats it often. For many, this establishes consistency and reliability. That doesn't mean it will sway everyone – McCain supporters may view him as consistently and reliably wrong with respect to their view, but his brand benefit is easy to identify.

How do you use this as an online marketer?

The more products you sell, the greater the need to build your brand. Start establishing a message of your site as a whole entity, rather than one that's a sum of parts. For Amazon, it's been fulfillment – once exclusively for books, now for everything from electronics to web hosting. For Zappos, it's customer service – once exclusively for shoes, now for clothes. Whatever your benefit, drive it into everything you do internally or externally.

Call to action, make it easy to act

I'm registered to vote in Washington, DC, but won't be there on November 4^th. Months ago, I saw a (likely geo-targeted) banner reminding me of absentee voting deadlines and dates. I submitted my information online, received instructions for submitting the official documents, and later received my ballot. To receive subsequent information from Obama I simply had to check a box.

The branding will not make a difference if people aren't driven to action. By showing the absentee voting ads to people outside the US with deadlines, there was a clear call to action. In responding, the process clearly guided potential voters to the end result: registering to vote, or requesting absentee ballots.

If I visit the website now, the first page I see is a donation form. Any question what the Obama campaign wants from visitors? For a campaign that is one of the best funded in recent history, it appears the call to action is clear.

How do you use this as an online marketer?

Whether your traffic comes from organic search, paid search, affiliates, banners or branding, make it easy for people to act. I recently saw an ad encouraging me to “shop now” for Nanette Lepore clothing at Bergdorf Goodman. So I clicked the ad. Instead of going to a section featuring the top in the ad, or other clothing from Nanette Lepore, I ended up at a page of Wear to Work tops. Huh?

If I'm particularly dedicated, I could click through 12 pages of tops, or try to figure out where the Nanette Lepore page is in the general menu, or... try my search at ShopStyle, or even Google, or just close the window and go back to the website I was reading.

Very few will have the type of ongoing press or funding of a presidential campaign. As a marketer, you don't have unlimited time with your audience. For the moment that you manage to hold their attention, or distract them from the numerous other things they have to do, it's your responsibility to make doing business with you as easy as possible. If you want people to buy, don't send them to a page encouraging them to browse. If you want readers to return, encourage them at the start of the article to subscribe to your feed or sign up for a newsletter. If you want a link to a special section or report, give people a copy and paste code.

No matter how easy the process, not everyone will vote, not everyone will buy, subscribe or link. But you stand to get far more votes, sales, readers or links if you remove barriers that make it difficult.

Stay in touch

I signed up for the Barack Obama newsletter when I submitted my information for my absentee ballot, and boy did they keep in touch. Newsletters, alerts, blog feeds – most people get so many emails or messages everyday that the natural instinct is not to add to the noise. But going against the natural instinct can be an incredibly effective marketing strategy.

Since I signed up, I've received at least one email every day. The subjects are different – some encourage me to donate, others to make campaign calls to voters in swing states, and some inviting me to rallies. They've been from the same address, but are authored (according to the from line) by Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, campaign manager David Plouffe, and the list goes on. I don't always have time to read each email, but every week at least one subject line or sender usually stands out.

How do you use this as an online marketer?

Build your list. Email marketing is old and familiar. In getting to know the young(er) and sexy marketing methods of search, social media and mobile it's often overlooked, but is absolutely still relevant. Google, Facebook, MySpace are pervasive, but for near 100% penetration of people online, email is still the killer app of choice.

I don't have formal studies to support (if you know of any, please leave in the comments), but I'd gamble that for as much time as you spend on your 2.0 site of choice (twitter, friendfeed, facebook, etc), you spend as much or more time on email. So does your audience.

Staying in touch without being a pest can be difficult, but frequency works. Sure, you'll get people who unsubscribe, but even if you emailed once every blue moon, you'd still get people who leave. Anecdotally speaking, you'll have far more people who stay. Generally speaking, you have one chance to make your pitch to someone who clicks on one of your ads (text or otherwise) or search listings. Generally speaking, you have 365 chances to make your pitch to someone who joins your mailing list. You don't have to be a math whiz to like the odds of email. The Obama campaign has taken this a step further with mobile updates for important announcements and live events. The only discouragement against frequency here would come for countries where users are likely to pay a significant amount to receive text or mobile updates.

Even McCain supporters admit admiration for the success of Obama's campaign. From the amount of money raised, to the extent the internet's been used to build, maintain and grow support. There are many other parts which I give kudos to as a marketer – the 30 minute infomercial, product placement. Politics aside, it's been a phenomenal integrated marketing campaign with contributions from many mediums. While few of us will have the budget or level of press to replicate to the letter, it's certainly within reason to duplicate some of the results in your next online campaign.

Disclaimer: I became an Obama supporter shortly after the RNC. He also resides in the same Chicago neighborhood where my family lives, but hasn't palled around with me (Ylayn Meredith the Marketer).

Comments

[Maria Reyes-McDavis Internet Marketing]

Great tips, Obama definitely did everything right :-)

[Nick Stamoulis]

I agree, his approach with social marketing has been one for the history books. He took a strong approach online and I think he will get the young vote.

[David Temple]

Absolutely! Obama used the internet better than anyone ever has for a political campaign and if he wins it will most likely be due to his internet marketing savvy. Okay maybe it isn't his savvy but it sure is somebody he picked that has knew what they were doing.

[Y.M. Ousley]

@David, I have to admit a little bit of fangirl came out a while ago when I saw his campaign hiring for an organic search marketer. I've seen almost every marketing opportunity possible covered, and covered well.

If Obama becomes president elect, I'll be very interested to see how his administration uses the internet and social media to keep people updated on issues and encourage participation.

Regardless of how November 4th turns out, there's definitely a future in marketing/advertising for quite a few Obama campaign workers

[online marketer]

Online marketing has getting more clients as more people opt internet as a primary media avenue.