Email Messaging
The average user spends 15 to 20 seconds on each email they open. In this short amount of time, the email content must provide recipients with a relevant message and then prompt them to react.
Three key elements of email messaging:
1. Copy -- Keep it short and relevant. Communicating in condense and succinct language through bulleted text and quick links is key to allowing the recipient to read and react in the little time an email has to produce additional interaction. Most of the email messages that were received from each campaign were in the form of a letter, with few calls to action buried in paragraphs of text. Without bulleted text and scanable links or calls to action, the campaigns are not maximizing the time they have with the email contacts. By tracking which links (topics) receive the most clicks, a campaign can also use email messaging as an informal poll of what topics are important to their constituents.
In addition to using shorter and more concise text, all the candidates take an "all or nothing" approach to the primary goal of each deployment and forget that the email content must remain relevant to keep the user engaged.
Below is an example of an email from Sen. Obama's campaign. There is only one call to action: donate now. If the recipient has already given to the campaign or is not prepared to donate at this time, the candidate has wasted a valuable touchpoint with these voters by sending them irrelevant content. By offering additional links, through added quick link boxes or tool bars, to news and other content on the site in the email, the non-givers are given additional opportunities to read and explore more about the candidate's campaign, and the email has strengthened the relationship with the constituent.
2. Creative -- Email design has become very important to an optimized email program as the inbox environment has changed drastically. Thirty-four percent of marketers said that creative optimization had the most impact on their emails. Due to image suppression and the use of preview panes in most email inboxes, the layout and design of the HTML email has become critical for all email marketers in communicating their messages. According to the Email Experience Council, one in five emails is invisible and ineffective due to blocked images. Take the email example below from Hillary Clinton's campaign, with images suppressed:
Without the image, all the user sees is the "Click here to RSVP" without any other information on the event. The next email example, from Gov. Huckabee's campaign, is a perfect example of how not to bury the key calls to action of the email in paragraph text. If the email recipient only spends 15 to 20 seconds on this email preview, the desired action is not clearly positioned near the top email and the desired action goes unnoticed.
3. Viral Functionality -- Empower recipients to extend their endorsement of a candidate to their friends and family. Eighty-nine percent of respondents to a survey conducted by Sharpe Partners said they actively share content with others via email. Grassroots endorsements by family and friends often have more power than any other tactic in a political campaign. Through email, the campaigns have the unique opportunity to promote this viral functionality via the "Forward to a Friend" feature. Only two of the candidates' campaigns, Sen. McCain and John Edwards, used this feature. The McCain emails all have a standard header banner (image), part of which promotes the forwarding feature. While effectively placed at the top of every email, only those with the ability to view images will be able to see this call-out. Edwards' former campaign used a "Spread the Word" image button at the bottom of every email, buried under the long, direct mail-style letter.
