Bloomberg Businessweek’s Joshua Green delves deep into the Obama campaign’s emails, and reports a number of eye-opening conclusions:
★ The campaign would test multiple drafts and subject lines — often as many as 18 variations — before picking a winner.
★ The subject lines that worked best were things you might see in your inbox from other people. “Hey” was probably the best one we had over the duration.” Another blockbuster in June simply read, “I will be outspent.”
★ Ugly emails — with giant-size fonts for links, plain-text links instead of pretty “Donate” buttons — work.
★ Profanity in the service of passion works. Dropping in mild curse words such as “Hell yeah, I like Obamacare” got big clicks.
★ Most people have a nearly limitless capacity for email and won’t unsubscribe no matter how many they’re sent.
