Welcome to the World of Stripped-Down Email
By Joshua Levy, 09/28/2007 - 3:38pm

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Today I received an informal email from Barack Obama — written to me personally! — telling me he’s “fired up” about last night’s rally in New York City and linking to a video about it.

Obamaemail

He’s also asking for an end-of-quarter donation. I realized that the informal, plain-folks language, the non-design, and the simple ask was familiar…

Chris Dodd sent an almost identical email two days ago:

Dodd email

Welcome to the world of the stripped-down email appeal from your good friends, the Democratic candidates for president.

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more from Joshua Levy's blog | login or register to post comments

a little too similar methinks

'

By Fred Gooltz at Fri, 09/28/2007 - 3:50pm | login or register to post comments

About time

Look how these stand out as compared to the 1000-word, heavily design ads that litter my inbox every day. If Barack or John or Chris approached me a few times a quarter like a human, sort of lke these emails, I might actually give via email again. Instead they just abuse my inbox. This makes me somewhat hopeful.

By Fred Stutzman at Fri, 09/28/2007 - 3:56pm | login or register to post comments

Text email vs. HTML email

You'll notice that MoveOn, the one organization that pioneered and has come closest to perfecting the medium, almost never use graphics in their emails (except for a single "Click here" button). Campaigns and organizations put in pretty graphics for themselves, not their readers.

Like Josh, I too went Gmail-screenshot-grab-happy today, only I was analyzing why Romney and Thompson emails aren't triggering any Google Ads.

By Luigi Montanez at Fri, 09/28/2007 - 5:48pm | login or register to post comments

This isn't entirely new...

By Patrick Ruffini at Sat, 09/29/2007 - 9:08pm | login or register to post comments

Top Five Tips

Friendly reminder about the essay I wrote a few months ago at TechPresident on this issue.

David

________________________________________
David All
http://davidallgroup.com
http://techRepublican.com
http://slatecard.com
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By David All at Sun, 09/30/2007 - 4:15pm | login or register to post comments

Yeah really

Dodd's was acceptable, Obama's wasn't. You don't fire off an embedded video through your Blackberry in a 2-minute airport stop.
--Hal Levy / studentsforkucinich.com

By thegreathal at Mon, 10/01/2007 - 1:22pm | login or register to post comments

That's So 2nd Quarter...

I thought these personal emails were interesting too. But for me, it was because Mitt Romney sent one way back at the end of the 2nd quarter. He sent one again this quarter too. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in the post above.

By Mindy Finn at Tue, 10/02/2007 - 4:06pm | login or register to post comments

A difference

One big difference between the Dodd email and those from Mehlman and Romney is that "Dodd" had a more informal tone, beginning the email with "Hey." Obama didn't even use a greeting. Both messages were short and to the point, which I think greatly increased their effectiveness.

By Joshua Levy at Tue, 10/02/2007 - 5:31pm | login or register to post comments

Small email style

It appears there are 3 formats in play here; the minimalist, the stripped/personal vanilla, and the faux-vanilla emails.

Vanilla stuff like Dodd's or minimalist pieces like Clinton's letter are great. What irks me about Obama's email is that instead of setting up a precise quick piece, there's effort put into it before it's dumbed down.

--Hal Levy / studentsforkucinich.com

By thegreathal at Wed, 10/03/2007 - 3:21pm | login or register to post comments



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