A Final Post on Targeting Email Newsletters

I had been working on this in an effort to post it sometime last week when it would be a bit more timely with regards to our reading schedule (I generally think of things as resetting to the next week's topics on Saturday), but with the recent lightening of our blogging load it got pushed back to now. That said, I wanted to put together one final post on targeting email newsletters that summarizes some of the better ideas I've seen and/or thought of over the past week.

I was first drawn to the idea of targeting campaign emails to voters' interests by Peter's post on the issue from last week. Different voters have different interests, and while some may want to get every email on every topic that the campaign sends out, others may only want emails that cover the candidate's statements on jobs or schools. Even the smallest campaigns run on a platform that encompasses several issues, and all should provide a way for voters to choose what information they would like to receive.

One way the campaign could go about this would be to have a base newsletter that everyone would receive. This newsletter might take the form of a "Wednesday Update" (since we've seen that emails sent in the middle of the week have the greatest chance of being read) that gives a general news update on a regular schedule (which makes recipients feel less overwhelmed). This base newsletter list would also get the most critical news updates and fundraising appeals, but it would be important not to overuse it for these items lest the recipients grow weary of too much email.

In addition to this base list, additional lists could be created that allow voters to receive updates targeted to specific issues. It is important not to create too many specific lists unless you're a presidential-level campaign, if only for the practical reason that a smaller campaign probably wouldn't make enough news to provide content for a high number of micro-targeted lists. Instead, the campaign should stick with lists that cover the main message points that the candidate is running on (better schools, transportation improvements, improving access to health care, etc), and should always take care in the names chosen for the list: instead of an "Abortion Info" list, a pro-choice candidate could title such a list "Women's Health Issues."

In essence, providing targeted newsletters like this would be similar to un-bundling a newspaper. While there are certainly some individuals who read the entire newspaper and would similarly sign up for every update the campaign sends out (and there should be a check box to receive every newsletter for just these people), most read just one or two sections. While a lazy campaign could certainly assume that their newsletter recipients will just skip the items they are not interested in, the nature of email is such that if a recipient is feeling overwhelmed, he or she will just opt-out of the entire list. By providing just the info they want (in addition to the basic campaign updates through the base list), the recipients will be, in the words of Peter in his above linked post,

• More likely to read the email
• More likely to act upon the information in the email

That certainly seems like a state of affairs to strive for. And one more point about opting out: if a recipient clicks the link in the email to opt-out of the list, they could be given a final appeal to only receive the base email that comes at a scheduled time. This could be enough to keep the voter from removing her email from the system entirely.

Campaigns going the targeted newsletter route should take advantage of the different sections of their websites to enroll interested individuals to their email lists. On the "Issues" page, there could be an appeal to "Sign up for our Issues updates." Depending on how deeply the campaign breaks down the issues, there could be links to the "Jobs Updates" or "Health Care Updates" newsletters on the appropriate issues pages. The "Press" section could have a link to the "News Updates" newsletter, "Volunteer" section the "Activists Newsletter," and so on. People reading these pages probably have an interest in the topic, which makes it a great way to make a targeted appeal. Of course, anyone who signs up through such a link will also receive the base newsletter, growing the overall email list.

Finally, it is important to make clear in the "Subject" line of the emails which newsletter the recipient is receiving. A recent example for the Kaine campaign could be "TRANSPORTATION UPDATE: Kaine announces plan to protect funding." That way the recipient knows the general subject of the email, but also gets a taste of the specific issue that will be covered. Either part of the subject (the newsletter identifier or the specific description) could be what makes a recipient actually read the email.

Sorry this post went a little long, but I think it's important to think about how all these different aspects could work together to produce a more effective newsletter operation. There are obviously many different levels such a targeted strategy could go to; perhaps there will only be three different lists for a smaller campaign, and a presidential campaign could have an extremely well targeted newsletter operation that takes into account zip code, religion, etc. The bottom line though is that if recipients are primarily getting updates on topics they are interested in, they are more likely to read and retain the information and less likely to opt-out because the emails seem irrelevant. This is a very cheap way to get your message directly to voters on the issues they care about, so it makes sense to do all you can to get them the information they want and not overwhelm them.