Sending an email is very simple. People send them all day long, without much thought or effort. Just because you can easily send emails does not mean that you should send them haphazardly. Emails serve many different purposes. When they are used strategically they can generate a huge response.

Many people believe that we will use Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as a model for a long time. This campaign effectively used emails, among other online tools to recruit volunteers, solicit donations or counter Republican attacks, according to the ebook, Learning from Obama. Obama’s campaign hired individuals whose sole responsibility was to send out emails. Many of these individuals were experienced speech writers. The writers were able to generate enough donations that they quickly paid for their own salaries.

Obama’s campaign sent out one billion individual emails. They used the following qualities to succeed in becoming, arguably, the most effective email marketing campaign to date.

•Emails should perpetuate the core messages.
•Emails must do no harm; therefore list managers must take great care not to alienate people on the list.
•Email activism is really relationship-management, since people’s propensity to vote, volunteer and donate is based on the feelings they have toward a cause.
•Most of the time, more personal, informal and direct a message is, the better.
•Targeting helps get the most out of a list.
•Develop relationships between the people sending the email and the people opening the email.
•Scale the ask: Start emailing and individual and do not asking for anything. Then increase your ask with each subsequent email.
•Tailor your ask: Solicit different amounts based on a person’s donation history.
•Vary the ask: Send out emails that do not ask for money. Sometimes it’s important to send other forms of communication so people do not feel like they are ATMs.
•Seize an emotion in the moment.
•No one message has to connect with everyone. If someone does not like this message, maybe they will like the next one.

These guidelines are very helpful. However, once you have adopted them you need to see how your audience responds to each of your emails. Emails allow you to track open rates, click through rates, bounce back rates and unsubscribe rates, just to name a few. When a member unsubscribe from your emails they are trying to tell you something. Keep track of these statistics so that you can continue to improve your emails over time.