What’s Wrong with This Email?

The Republican Party sent out its first email last night after a two-month hiatus: an e-newsletter that landed in my spam filter called the "RNC Weekly Trunk."

For those wondering whether the GOP is headed in a new direction and making the most of new media, this email landed with a thud. Indeed, the RNC isn't following basic, publically available best practices. For instance, it doesn't look like the GOP read any of our ten easy suggestions for better email campaigns during their vacation:

• Keep it conversational. Supporters don't want to read emails from cold, lifeless organizations - they want to open emails from real people. We suggest organizations use voices and personalities in emails to start a dialogue with supporters.
  How they blew it: The GOP chose not to send a personal email from Michael Steele, but a newsletter/press clips compilation from the "RNC Weekly Trunk." Bad idea.
• Never send an email without an action. Supporters subscribe to email lists because they want to get involved and become part of an organization. They're looking for a two-way conversation, and they want to feel like their hard work and support is valuable to the group's mission. If you don't provide them something to do, all they'll do is unsubscribe.
  How they blew it: The GOP email has tons of links - but none of them are actions. Rather than giving people something to do, or focusing their supporters' attention on one particular story, the email directs people to a number of news stories on external websites (not their own). The GOP email list should not be a press clips list. Bad idea.
• Think about your subject line -- it's the most important part of your email. It doesn't matter how interesting your email is if people don't feel compelled to open it in their inbox. Boring, uncreative subject lines that people write as an afterthought can be the kiss of death to an email.
  How they blew it: The subject line of the GOP email, "RNC Weekly Trunk," is about as dull as it gets. Consider if the subject line was the title of the first article in the email: "President Obama's Great Wealth Grab." Which do you think would excite a Republican more? The worst part is that the GOP will probably send the exact same subject line every week. Bad idea.
• Keep it short. Think about the long emails you receive. Do you read every word they say - or do you skim them?  There's no reason to send a long email that most people won't care enough to read.
  How they blew it: Copied and pasted into a Word document, the GOP email is about twice as long as an email we'd typically write. Bad idea.

There is also an issue of timing. They blew that too: the GOP sent this non-urgent email to the GOP list at 10:45 PM and to Senator McCain's list at 4 AM - when a good portion of the email list is sleeping, and won't get the email until they show up to work in the morning. By that time this email will be buried at the bottom of the inbox.

We agree that late-night sends are good when a topic is breaking news, but there's no emergency in this email. The laundry list approach makes that clear.

It'll be interesting to see how "The Weekly Trunk" proceeds, particularly inside an organization whose new media strategy has littered the landscape with failed "weekly" initiatives (remember Mindy and Katie?).

That's all the free advice we have for the Republican Party today. Next time, you're on your own.