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.

The One Thing You Must Understand About Doing Business Online

There’s a lot of talk about the internet and the “new” way of doing business or the changing face of business. What easily gets lost in all the excitement of building and running an online business is that the fundamentals of building and running a successful business remain the same.

Before starting an online business or taking your business online, you must understand:

There’s nothing new online, just a new and (usually) more efficient way of doing it.

So remember:

• Blogs are just a way to start a conversation with prospects and customers
• Social networking sites are just a way to meet people and expand your network of contacts (aka “sphere of influence”)
• Wikis are just a way of collaborating with customers
• Websites are just a way of presenting your sales message, company information, products, etc. to prospects and customers
• Google AdWords is just a form of direct mail (on steroids)
• Podcasts, emails, and web feeds are just a way of letting customers subscribe to your message (ie. giving you permission to share information with them)

All these tools provide a more efficient means to accomplish your goals. However, to build a successful online business:

You still have to provide a product or service that people want.
You still have to demonstrate the value of that product or service.
You still have focus on your customers’ needs, not yours.
You still have to provide excellent customer service.
You still have to work hard.
You still have to deliver the goods.
You still have to exceed expectations.
You still have to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time.
You still have to build a loyal following.
You still have to put in the time.

Henry Ford’s assembly line made building cars faster, easier and cheaper than every before. However, if his process had produced a pile of crap and he had given no thought to what his customers wanted, Ford would not have succeeded.

The internet makes it faster, easier, and cheaper to do business, and with a far greater reach, than ever before. But if you get caught up in the technology and forget about the underlying fundamentals, the internet also makes it faster and easier, though not necessarily cheaper, to go out of business than ever before.