Maybe politicians are good for something...

It's no secret that I'm a Barack Obama fan. But I have to say, even before I pledged my vote to the man, I was always a fan of his e-mail marketing strategy. To me, the timeliness is most effective. There are many times when I'll get a news update from the campaign before I hear it on MSNBC. For example:

(click on any of the pictures to enlarge)

This was actually how I learned he won the South Carolina primary, welcomed news after the loss in New Hampshire. Another example:



This e-mail was sent the night of the State of the Union at 11:40pm. (Note: The video was not embedded in the email - it opened up in a web page).

And lest we forget the 12:30am update on Wednesday morning after Super Tuesday:



The campaign also enlists his wife, Michelle, on e-mails that have a less urgent tone:

And of course, the fund raising. Here's the one that inspired me to make my most recent donation to his campaign. From his campaign manager:

:-)

So what can higher ed take away from this:

1) Timeliness is key: These things have to be planned proactively to be their most effective. It's not like the Obama campaign suddenly thought "wouldn't it be cool if we sent a video out after the State of the Union" after the speech had already started!

2) Use your assets: Your email doesn't always have to be from the same person. Mix it up! Who is the most appropriate person for this message? It may be your VP....it may be your president....it may be a student....it may be an alum. Don't pigeonhole yourself because the sender can be a significant factor in the results that you get.

3) Competition is good for fundraising: We do this all the time - pit the classes against each other or "shame" the alums who haven't given into submission by not including their names in the online honor roll. Also, I think its important to note that regardless of the message of a specific e-mail, the overarching theme is "GIVE ME MONEY!!!" Links to donate are always prominent, sometimes being given multiple times in the same email.

4) First name basis: This may be more attractive to some people than to others. I'm a very informal person so it really annoys me when people get obsessed with title, position and power. It's that informality that really bonds me to the person writing the e-mail on a human level and makes me much more inclined to give them a donation.

Overall, I think the biggest piece of inspiration that higher ed can take from this is that it's OK to look outside our niche. Look at business. Look at politics. Look at other non-profits. Oftentimes, we're about five steps behind these areas in our e-marketing efforts so it's not only OK, but should be encouraged, to go to them when we're looking for some new ideas.