Obama Embraces The Change We Need With Email
by Ryan Deutsch,
Jan 22, 2009, 9:45 AM
Like many of you across the country, I stepped away from the keyboard at lunch yesterday to witness the swearing in of our 44th President. I have to admit, I felt guilty. After all, here was our President calling on us to stand up, dust ourselves off and drive our economy forward -- and I was slacking off in front of the TV in the middle of the day!
All kidding aside, this was not the first time I had been engaged by the Obama-Biden administration. In fact, ever since the election's conclusion, their transition team has been reaching out to me for input, to educate me on the challenges ahead and to solicit my commitment to stand with the president to drive change, all via my inbox. Let's look at two of the email campaigns the transition team deployed and use them as examples for how all email marketers should be engaging their customers.
Subject: Give your ideas directly to the President. It looks as if the Obama transition team clearly understands the value of user-generated content. In this case, the team is contacting me regarding "The Citizen's Briefing Book." This is a collection of ideas on issues facing the country that have been submitted by "the people" that will eventually find their way into the President's hands. According to the change.gov website, over 125,000 users submitted ideas, and over 1.4 million votes were cast as to which ideas should be submitted for consideration to the President.
The email campaign also featured a prominent link to the Change.gov Web site, where a YouTube video explained the program and offered other video snippets from several key members of Obama's team to add credibility to the effort.
How serious is your company about soliciting input from your customers? Do you use email and other interactive channels to gain valuable insights that make customers feel more empowered and make your programs and products more relevant and effective? If not, get started!
Subject: The President-elect's plan. The situation with the U.S. economy is serious. As marketers, we understand the impact the recession is having on our companies and on our customers' spending habits. The Obama team has a plan to help with economic recovery and is working to implement it now. The communication challenge is that the plan is complicated and difficult for the electorate to understand.
This email campaign, like the one above, delivered a message with a link to a short video clip that explained the major elements of the President's plan. I think this is an excellent example of how email should be used to educate customers on complicated products, customer service changes, and a variety of other situations that arise as consumers interact with the products and services they purchase. Using email in this way can have a material impact on inbound call center volume and business support costs.
Consider my recent purchase of a new T-Mobile G1. The phone is loaded with features. I bought one for my wife about a month ago, and we have not received a single email on how to set up email, make the most of the Web browser, download applications, etc. My wife has made at least two calls to customer care that could have been avoided by proactively sending her information on what T-Mobile already knows are complicated yet critical components of her new phone and service.
Are there opportunities for your organization to use email to proactively educate your customers on your products and services? If so, you should consider the approach used by the Obama team as a way to reduce call center costs and enhance your customers' overall experience.
I ‘m looking forward to watching how the President's team uses email to drive change in the coming years. Hopefully, he will execute as well in other areas as he has in his use of email and interactive communication channels!
All kidding aside, this was not the first time I had been engaged by the Obama-Biden administration. In fact, ever since the election's conclusion, their transition team has been reaching out to me for input, to educate me on the challenges ahead and to solicit my commitment to stand with the president to drive change, all via my inbox. Let's look at two of the email campaigns the transition team deployed and use them as examples for how all email marketers should be engaging their customers.
Subject: Give your ideas directly to the President. It looks as if the Obama transition team clearly understands the value of user-generated content. In this case, the team is contacting me regarding "The Citizen's Briefing Book." This is a collection of ideas on issues facing the country that have been submitted by "the people" that will eventually find their way into the President's hands. According to the change.gov website, over 125,000 users submitted ideas, and over 1.4 million votes were cast as to which ideas should be submitted for consideration to the President.
The email campaign also featured a prominent link to the Change.gov Web site, where a YouTube video explained the program and offered other video snippets from several key members of Obama's team to add credibility to the effort.
How serious is your company about soliciting input from your customers? Do you use email and other interactive channels to gain valuable insights that make customers feel more empowered and make your programs and products more relevant and effective? If not, get started!
Subject: The President-elect's plan. The situation with the U.S. economy is serious. As marketers, we understand the impact the recession is having on our companies and on our customers' spending habits. The Obama team has a plan to help with economic recovery and is working to implement it now. The communication challenge is that the plan is complicated and difficult for the electorate to understand.
This email campaign, like the one above, delivered a message with a link to a short video clip that explained the major elements of the President's plan. I think this is an excellent example of how email should be used to educate customers on complicated products, customer service changes, and a variety of other situations that arise as consumers interact with the products and services they purchase. Using email in this way can have a material impact on inbound call center volume and business support costs.
Consider my recent purchase of a new T-Mobile G1. The phone is loaded with features. I bought one for my wife about a month ago, and we have not received a single email on how to set up email, make the most of the Web browser, download applications, etc. My wife has made at least two calls to customer care that could have been avoided by proactively sending her information on what T-Mobile already knows are complicated yet critical components of her new phone and service.
Are there opportunities for your organization to use email to proactively educate your customers on your products and services? If so, you should consider the approach used by the Obama team as a way to reduce call center costs and enhance your customers' overall experience.
I ‘m looking forward to watching how the President's team uses email to drive change in the coming years. Hopefully, he will execute as well in other areas as he has in his use of email and interactive communication channels!
0 comments on "Obama Embraces The Change We Need With Email ".
Leave a Comment
Sign in to leave a comment. Don't have an account? Join Now
RYAN DEUTSCH
Ryan Deutsch is vice president of strategic services at StrongMail, a leading provider of online marketing solutions for email and social media. Contact him here.
Recent Email Insider Articles
-
The Inattentive Consumer: How To Break Through To Mobile Subscribers May 14, 1 p.m.
As marketers, we have put a strong focus on building mobile programs over the past few ...
-
Mother's Day Hangover May 13, 1:15 p.m.
Post-Mother’s Day, and we made it through. While not quite the holiday retail rush that the ...
-
Parenting Advice For Email Marketers May 9, 3:04 p.m.
For decades, the evolution of email as a viable and proven marketing channel has been, in ...
-
Phishers' Kryptonite: Big Data May 8, 9:29 a.m.
Over the last few years, spam has become a “largely solved” problem. The average consumer sees ...
-
Go Ahead -- Send More Emails May 3, 12:04 a.m.
In fact, send a lot more emails. There, I said it. I feel better now. As ...
-
The Truths Your Email Metrics Don't Reveal May 1, 11:09 a.m.
When you read the latest email statistic as it comes through your news feed each day, ...
-
Email Before Breakfast -- And Other Trends April 29, 1:43 p.m.
I always say, I get more done before 9 a.m. than I do the rest of ...
-
Sending A Welcome Series Is The New Onboarding Differentiator April 23, 3:24 p.m.
The beginning of an email marketing relationship is the most important. Not only are subscribers more ...
-
Updating Email Acquisitions? Focus Further Down The Funnel April 18, 9:01 p.m.
For many companies, revenue or conversion activity mirrors something similar to the 80/20 rule, with 20% ...
-
How To Design Mobile Emails April 16, 4 p.m.
Mobile-enabled email has truly been the topic du jour for 2013 so far. A recent article ...
I agree and as we need change in America, President Obama is THE man for the job. As a marketer, my blog expresses how and why his leadership is perfectly suited for this role.
Please visit
http://airliftbrandstorytelling.blogspot.com
quit smoking that stuff and get ready for the influx of murderers into the U.S.
Engagement is a key factor in change. The President has proved that, and has made history in more ways than one. As organizations look to "engage" their constituency or customer base, a look at the success of Obama's campaign (engagement via social mediums and relevant information) will provide a platform upon which the design of a meaningful e-marketing plan can be developed.
There is a fine line in email marketing between engagement and SPAM.
What is engaging to one can be SPAM to another.
Knowing who is on your email list and what they want is critical in moving the needle.
Obama has done an incredible job of engaging his list but I'm sure to many it's SPAM.
It would be interested if we could identify the people who have SPAMMED Obama's email and marketing something more relevant to them based upon what they have SPAMMED in the past.
To Tim's point, SPAM is the issue here. At the end of the day, regardless of political beliefs, we all have and should retain the choice as to what content is relevant and welcome on an individual basis. Companies have to keep this in mind as well...being that CAN-SPAM is a Federal Regulation. I too have received copious emails during the campaign trail and although I personally am an Obama Supporter, all the emails were not necessarily welcome or easy to Unsubscribe from. So whether you are a Company, Affiliate, Network, Publisher, etc., you should implement "Best Practices" relative to CAN-SPAM compliance to maintain brand integrity.
www.unsubcentral.com
khristhayer@unsubcentral.com