Learning from presidential hopefuls’ email marketing efforts

Back when all the craziness began in the marathon run for this presidency, I signed up for a number of candidates' email lists. I wanted to see how they were using email marketing for their campaigns. Needless to say, I've been getting a lot of emails, now more than ever. (I'll note that this activity was not a political exercise for me; it is all about the email marketing. The same goes for this blog entry.)

What you can learn from the candidates' email campaigns

This morning I got an article from ClickZ that does a bit of analysis of the approach that candidates (or should I say the candidates' people) are taking with email marketing. In the article, author Karen Gedney writes about what B2B marketers can learn from the candidates' email campaigns. A few of her observations are:

You can read the article here.

Evaluating candidates' website sign-up experiences

My original plan was to do something similar, but now that Karen's covered it, I decided to do something different. I revisited the candidates' websites (I chose the six front-runners thus far), checked out their email sign up boxes, and asked these questions: Is the chance to sign up obvious? Is it easy to sign up?

I'm awarding first, second, and third place titles based solely on the sign-up experience.

In first place - McCain, Obama, and Edwards

These guys went with a very simplistic approach. The entry page of their website is just an image of the candidate alone or with his family, a slogan, and an invitation to sign up. The field for an email address is right on the homepage. Clearly, capturing the email address and zip code (very important for these folks) of the visitor is the number one priority in this case. The people behind these websites know that once they have an email address, they have control over communication. Very nicely done!

In second place - Clinton and Huckabee

These two have a similar sign-up experience. The sign-up boxes are prominent when you reach the websites, but they both have a "busier" homepage than the "first-place" candidates, so it's not all you see, but you can find where to sign up easily and you can type your email address in right on that page. Good job!

In third place - Romney

Romney's site is on its own for third place. I have to admit, when I first took a quick look around, I didn't see where I could sign up. When I did see it (it's in the same spot as the second place winners), I had to think about what kind of emails I wanted to sign up for and then click on that choice. There are six choices. Once I clicked, I went to a page to sign up.

I find this approach problematic. While I appreciate that Romney's group is trying to segment their list (great idea) the experience requires too much thought on the part of the subscriber. I believed if I chose the Dashboard option then I would get a little of everything, but what if I wanted to join both the Friends and Groups lists. I would have to sign up for one and then come back to the home page and sign up for the other. This approach is just too complicated and unnecessary when considering the other options available.

What I would suggest here is to provide check boxes next to each option and a field for email address right on the homepage. The less work for the subscriber, the better! ‘Keep it simple' is always a great motto.

How's your website sign-up experience?

Is your sign-up box in a obvious place? Is it easy to find? Can your visitors type their address in without clicking first?

The best way to answer these questions is to ask a few people unfamiliar with your website to visit, sign up, and let you know what they experienced. Making a few small changes can help you capture more of the precious email addresses you are looking for.