3 Overlooked Lessons From Obama’s Online Marketing Success

There’s a huge buzz in internet marketing circles and the popular press these days about the role President-elect Barack Obama’s online efforts played in him wining the election.

And rightly so. From Pay Per Click ads to email marketing to social networking, the Obama campaign put together an internet marketing juggernaut the likes of which has never been seen in politics. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say the likes of their effort has never been seen on the internet – period.

However, the coverage in the media and blogosphere focuses on the methods – Facebook, Twitter, email marketing, Google AdWords, website design, etc. – while overlooking what made this all so effective.

Here are the three main things I think have been overlooked and what you can learn from them. . .

1. Strong Message and Content First

Tens of millions of Americans felt a strong emotional and psychological connection to Barack Obama and his message. I’ll leave it for the political commentators to cover the details of the reasons why this is so – I’m not trying to make a political statement here, I’m just stating the facts.

But it was this strong connection and how it moved people that was at the heart of the success of the campaign – both online and off. Armed with a powerful message, it was then up to the campaign’s marketing team to develop content that reflected that message and then figure out the most effective ways to deliver that content online.

LESSON: Online, content is king. You can emulate everything that Obama’s campaign did online and still fall flat on your face if you don’t provide quality content that strongly resonates with your target market.

Your job as a marketer is to find out what your market wants and desires, then develop quality content that satisfies those wants and desires.

This comes FIRST.

Figuring out how to use Facebook, Twitter, blogs, email, etc. to effectively reinforce and deliver that message comes later.

2. He Made it About You

On a number of occasions throughout the campaign, Obama made a point of saying that the campaign is not about him, it’s about you – the people of the United States. (Of course this ‘about you’ talk resonated with me!)

And Obama’s social networking strategy reinforced this message. The campaign built a social networking infrastructure that made people feel more involved and connected to the candidate. They felt like they were being listened to and what they said and did mattered.

LESSON: It’s arguably the biggest mistake marketers make – talking about themselves.

No one cares. They want to know how you, your products and your services are going to make their lives better. How you can help them do or become something they want to be.

The best way to do this is listen to people. Get them involved. Engage them. Make them feel important.

Social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, YouTube – are a great way to do this. Use these tools to build a community of followers (or Tribe, as Seth Godin calls it) that believes in you and your message. Lead them. And be sure to make it about them and not yourself.

3. Go Where Your Prospects Hang Out

Obama got a lot of support from younger voters. And a lot of these younger voters hang out online on places like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. If Obama’s support came from the nursing home set this strategy would have been ineffective.

LESSON: It’s easier for you to go where your prospects hang out then to get them to come to you. Do your research. Find out where they are and then get there too.

The Bottom Line

I’ve seen some articles crediting Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. with delivering the election to Obama. While there’s no denying the campaign did a masterful job in utilizing these tools to help Obama to victory, there’s more to the story.

I’ve said before that the key to online marketing is offline. And it’s precisely because the Obama online marketing team understood that, they were so successful.

As evidence, I include this excerpt from Newsweek (emphasis mine):

“I don’t care about online energy and enthusiasm just for the sake of online energy and enthusiasm,” said Chris Hughes, head of New Media’s social networking. “It’s about making money, making phone calls, embedding video or having video forwarded to friends.” There was nothing starry-eyed about Hughes, who had been the Harvard roommate and later partner of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and made his first millions before he was 24. His goal was to make old techniques – like call centers and getting polling information to voters more efficient. “When computer applications really take off, they take something people have always done and just make it easier for them to do it,” he said. “And maybe bigger.”

And that’s the big overall lesson (and bonus Lesson #4) here for online marketers. Take timeless marketing fundamentals and strategies that have worked offline for years and then find the tools available online that will help you execute them faster, easier and more effectively than has ever been possible.

Doing that may not win you the presidency, but it may just help you build your own little internet empire to rule over.

Your Online Business’ Most Valuable Asset

The List.

More specifically, the email list you keep of your prospects and customers is your online business’ most valuable asset. These email addresses are from people who have expressed an interest in what you do or, even better, have already given you money for doing it.

Why is the List so important?

Because it allows you to keep in touch with these VIPs on a regular basis.

This is how you keep yourself on people’s minds.
This is how you build relationships.
This is how you earn their trust.
This is how you make it easier for them to buy from you.

Another reason the list is so powerful is that email will likely be the most effective tool you have to drive traffic to your site and sales to your business. This is because email is very personal form of communication and the traffic you drive from email will generally be much more targeted and productive than traffic from other sources.

Be sure to pay special attention to your customer email list. Many marketers ignore customers, past and present, when marketing. This is a huge mistake. It is FAR easier (and cheaper) to get money from people who have already shown a willingness to do so than going out and try to convince new prospects to spend their money with you.

So how do you build your list?

Simple – use bribes. No, not an unethical kind of bribe. Use a bribe like a newsletter, whitepaper, special report, or some other piece of useful content.

Have a sign up form on your website and/or blog and let people know that you’ll be happy to send them some free awesome content in exchange for their email address. (FYI – I’ve heard the statistic that if your sign up form asks for more than a name and email address your response rate will fall by 50%. So don’t ask for more than those two pieces of information unless you absolutely need it!).

Once you have their email address, send them the content and then keep in touch. The easiest way to do this is to use an auto responder.  An auto responder is a program that will automatically send an email, or a series of emails to people on your list. If you’re not familiar with auto responders, you can learn more about them here.

One last note about your email list. DO NOT SPAM YOUR LIST. If you send spammy, hard-salesy type emails, you will lose the trust of the people on your list and they’ll unsubscribe in droves. It’s okay to mention new products, services, special offers, etc. – just don’t overdo it.

So as you set out marketing online, try to get people to opt-in to your email list. Build your list, respect those on your list, and provide them with quality content and your list will definitely become your business’ most valuable asset.