Do not start with desperation, as John Lewis always does with his campaign mailers. Here’s what I got in my inbox today:
So today I got the same email and I went to Facebook and put this up on one of Lewis’s posts:
Fine, I’m more concerned with how they’ll like Ryan Zinke representing them for the next two years. Because if people keep getting shit emails from Lewis like this one then you know this man has no brains, his staff are imbeciles, and he’s going to lose.
That’s unfortunate, because I think he’s the best bet we have running in any of the federal races right now. Walsh is finished.
So I want Lewis to win, but I know he won’t with stupid email campaigns like he’s got going now. Honesty, is this the shit he tried to set Max Baucus up with?
I expect more from Lewis, but maybe I shouldn’t. After all, if this is the level of attention he puts into his internet marketing campaigns then I’ll have to question just about everything else he does. Not a great position to have voters in 3 months before the election.
I urge John Lewis to start coming up with better email headlines. Go to Copyblogger and look through some of their old articles on headlines. These guys know what they’re talking about:
- How to Write Headlines That Work
- 7 Headline Writing Links You Shouldn’t Ignore
- Writing Headlines That Get Results
- How to Write a Magnetic Headline (in Under 15 Minutes)
When I see headlines like that John Lewis is putting out I wonder as to the efficacy and effectiveness of the whole marketing campaign. I’m willing to bet right now that that’s not reaching half of the audience it could.
Oh well, what do I know? I just have 2,000 followers on Facebook and another 1,700 on Google+. I just get 1,500 to 2,000 people a day on this site…what could I know about writing stuff people want to read?
I guess not as much as Lewis or any other politicians – just look at their emails.
Or is this actually strategy? Hard to believe, but I got a tip on Twitter shortly after this article first went up. I think you might like this article on Democratic email strategies, and it just might make the people at Copyblogger think twice as well.
When you've got an email with a headline like "Hey" performing better than anything else, however, it causes me to question the intelligence of Americans. It also causes me to question my own marketing tactics and the direct emails I send to my own list.
I can certainly understand how malware and other serious computer viruses get into our most sensitive systems as well. After all, it only takes one click on a stupid email with the subject line of "Hey" or "please."
But we know that politicians running for office put their own short-term gains ahead of those of the country, and I think stupid email subject lines only continue to contribute to our problems as a nation.