What Can Barack Obama Teach Us About HTML Email?

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Posted by Justin Premick

As an individual? Probably not much. But as a marketing example, possibly quite a bit.

A couple months ago, we posted about a possible compromise in the Text vs. HTML debate.

Inspired by a MarketingExperiments study on formatting, we discussed the idea that not all HTML was created equal, and that you might improve response by using a “Lite” (or if you prefer, “Text-y”) HTML — taking some advantage of HTML’s formatting flexibility while preserving much of the overall simplicity of Text.

Obama’s Email: “Text-y” HTML In Action

A great example of this just popped up on my radar, courtesy of Anna Billstrom and Mark Brownlow.

The example? A recent Obama email fundraising campaign (click through to see the email).

What’s interesting is, it’s an HTML email, but reads very much like a text one:

Minimal text formatting

No imagery (except maybe an open tracker)

No use of color (other than links being blue)

As Anna points out, this formatting suits the purpose particularly well, since:

it’s easy to forward while retaining the original format

for fundraising programs sometimes too fancy means a misdirection of funds

Check Out The Full Post

Head over to Adventures in Email Marketing for the full write-up, including a discussion of how SEO tactics might be applied to email.

3 Responses

Matt
November 7th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

Another good example of what a TEXT email can accomplish:

Ron Paul’s team collected $4,200,000 yesterday (in 24 hrs!!) by sending
simple text email out to past donors and web site visitors.
john cavenaugh
November 11th, 2007 at 4:18 pm

Great example of text email. What are some possible applications outside of the political fundraising arena…charity and nonprofits?
Justin Premick
November 12th, 2007 at 9:30 am

John,

I think those are good examples of places where a text approach could work, yes. I’d say it’s worth testing using text in any area where the same attitudes may apply toward how funds are used — nonprofits, charities, perhaps churches/religious groups, school groups that rely on/receive funding, and so on.

Not to say that text would always be a better approach for those types of group, but it’s certainly worth a look.