"In the two weeks leading up to the November 4th election, email messages came fast and furious from both campaigns," writes Morgan Stewart in an article at MarketingProfs. "I saw … commonly held best practices to be emulated, other [elements] that should be avoided … and a few new concepts that … [may] inspire email marketers to take their programs to the next level."  Based on what he learned from the campaigns, Stewart encourages marketers to: 

Leverage the power of streaming video. Many Obama emails contained links to the Illinois senator's inspirational speeches. "Perhaps of more interest," says Stewart, "was the fact that many of these videos were displayed on vanity landing pages with key messages contained in the URL." For instance, the address barackobama.com/keepfighting appeared in the body of one email.

Balance your objectives with value to the customer. In the last weeks of the campaign, he notes, the Obama team aggressively pursued donations. "[T]he fundraising tone became dominant to the point of minimizing other messages." The McCain camp, by contrast, presented what Morgan considers a more balanced mix, from a marketing standpoint, of updates and requests for participation.

Says Stewart, "[W]e need to applaud instances where established marketing channels are leveraged in innovative ways. I, for one, plan to incorporate these [tactics] into existing email programs to help drive them to the next level."

The Po!nt: Stay on top of the game. Observe how a wide range of fields are using email: it could help spur a new creative initiative.

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