I recently told a Republican County Commissioner that I'd never been asked to
join the local county Republican party. He said he'd take care of
it.
Soon, I received an envelope from said county party. Inside was a
"Dear Friend" letter. At that point I realized, 3 months earlier, I'd received
the same "Dear Friend" letter and threw it away. I did the same to this
"Dear Friend" letter.
The impact and the effectiveness of the most recent
mailing would have much greater had the person who sent it jotted a short note
such as;
"Michael, Jerry told me you were interested in joining. Glad to
have you among our ranks. Look forward to your membership. Sincerely,
Frank."
It's amazing how much time a Republican campaign or a business
will dedicate to non-personal, ineffective marketing tasks. It may seem like a
huge accomplishment to send out 300 solicitation letters in a day. But if
they are impersonal to the point that few respond … what is gained? Better
to spend 15 minutes preparing a personal plea - once, than to spend 10 minutes
multiple times sending out pleas to which no one responds.
First of all,
friends don't send friends "Dear Friend" letters. A "Dear Friend" letter is only
slightly better than, "Dear (Your Name Here)". Do you get all warm and fuzzy
about a Dear Friend letter?
Second of all, A "Dear Friend" letter isn't
being personally asked. There's nothing personal about it and many people like
me, aren't thrilled to spend their money to be treated like a
number.
Each Republican county party needs to assess if their "outreach
programs" are truly impersonal and uncaring ... then change them.
Whether
you represent a Republican county party or a campaign, write down all the
reasons (manpower, money, office space, database etc...) why you can't do
a better job of personal marketing. Write down why you can't send out
effective mailings that include personalized membership pleas.
At that
point, you will have a nice list of what you must overcome, fix or change in
order to be more effective marketers of your Republican party.
Sure,
personalized Republican marketing outreach efforts cost a little more in time,
and sometimes money, in the short run. But in the long run, the dividend
payout is HUGE.
Michael
Merrick Crooks is a 23 year advertising veteran with 17 year's experience in
Republican political marketing. Crooks runs http://www.GopLogo.com,
the Republican campaign support services arm of Crooks Advertising Alliance. He
publishes the free GopLogo Campaign Marketing Newsletter available at
http://www.CopLogo.com.
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