July 20, 2011 ConnectedNonprofit© | www.connectednonprofit.com | 303.830.1723

How to Borrow from Obama’s Online Fundraising Playbook By: Mandy O’Neill, President, ConnectedNonprofit

The 2012 Obama Campaign juggernaut is on track to become the first billion dollar campaign in

history reporting last week a staggering $86M in fundraising success for the second quarter 2011:

$47M for the campaign and $38M for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to spend in support of the 2012

campaign. In 2008, Obama shattered records raising a campaign war chest of $750M and signing up 1.5 million

volunteers via www.mybarackobama.com.

Is your Board or CEO asking….”why can’t we do that? Or even a fraction of that?” You can easily borrow from

Obama’s playbook to lift your online fundraising results almost immediately. Whether you are “red state” or “blue

state,” you can benefit from analyzing how Obama’s campaign engages online during the rest of this 2012

campaign. There are sure to be plenty of tips you can use immediately to engage and inspire your supporters in the

coming months, but for the past 90 days, the gems from this campaign are:

Goals and Deadlines. The campaign reframed and measured success differently than the same old tired

measure. The campaign set a goal of 450,000 grassroots donors by June 30th

. They did not set monetary target, but

an engagement target, which gave them a distinct message from other political organizations. When the campaign

hit its stated goal a day early, they didn’t

stop. They upped the goal to 475,000 and

surpassed that new goal, with 493,000

donors, by midnight the next day, June

30th, which was the reporting cut-off.

July 20, 2011 ConnectedNonprofit© | www.connectednonprofit.com | 303.830.1723

Online Advertising. According to FEC reports, while the campaign isn’t yet running

television commercials, the campaign spent $700,000 in May for online advertising.

President Obama launched his reelection campaign in early April with a huge online ad

splash aimed at reenergizing his supporters. It seems to be working. The campaign is

using basic behavioral ad tracking technology that has grown in prevalence among

political advertisers…and is available to nonprofit organizations as well. Visitors to the

campaign site are receiving retargeting cookies from online ad networks including

AOL's Advertising.com, Yahoo's BlueLithium, and Google. In the future, they will most

likely receive Obama ads while visiting any of the countless sites in those networks,

because they visited the campaign site. Display ads and large ad takeovers appeared

on liberal sites like DailyKos, Democratic Underground, and Wonkette, as supporters of

Democrats and related causes were served Facebook ads asking "Are You In?" Paid

advertising is a proven way to acquire new donors and activists online. The best ads

encourage engagement such as signing a petition, answering a quiz, or some reason to

capture an email address.

Insider Information or

Exclusive Access. Obama’s

campaign finance numbers

were going to be big news.

Obama’s team knew that

making donors and

supporters the hero in this

story was the right message.

Supporters received a

personalized email from

Obama’s Campaign

Manager, Jim Messina, in

advance of releasing record

breaking numbers to the

press.

July 20, 2011 ConnectedNonprofit© | www.connectednonprofit.com | 303.830.1723

Video. The Obama campaign has always

used video effectively and this second

quarter campaign was no exception. The

campaign embedded video of “insider

information” in an email sent to

supporters in advance of public release of

the FEC reports. The video was also

embedded on a personalized supporter

page if you chose to view it online.

Obama’s Campaign Manager essentially

gave a five minute “investor” report.

There were some celebratory remarks, but

the campaign knew that media outlets

would carry the “monetary success”

message freeing Messina to treat

supporters as investors and the hero of

the success story. Video works because it

connects us.

Frequent Communication. The Obama campaign posts an

average of two (2) tweets per day and 2-3 Facebook posts

per day in addition to email. Leading up to the campaign deadline

of June 30th

, the campaign tweeted eleven (11) times on June 30th

alone. Eight (8) of the eleven (11) tweets were campaign goal

updates. They posted on Facebook six (6) times. They weren’t shy

about communicating, especially the closer to the deadline they got

because supporters are okay with more frequent communication

when a topic is salient or relevant to them.

July 20, 2011 ConnectedNonprofit© | www.connectednonprofit.com | 303.830.1723

Make Donating Easy. Just like the big

online retailers, Amazon, Zappos, and

Apple, the one-page donation form has

been streamlined and tested for maximum

conversion. Multivariate testing is easier

now than ever to test form attributes to get

the best response rates using Google

Optimizer. If you haven’t tested your

donation forms, start tomorrow. You can

increase your conversion rates by up to

30% with the right “trust” logos, like

VeriSign, and the right color and language

on your submit button, and the correct ask

string. Look at the red action buttons on

Obama’s advertising. That button has

clearly been tested.

You don’t have to be a billion dollar

business or political campaign to see real results from multivariate testing.

Celebrate. The Campaign tweeted 25 times on the FEC report release day of Jul 13. 70% of those tweets were

“celebration data points.” Sure, the campaign benefited from vast media coverage of the fundraising success so

they could simply say ‘Thank You’ via email, Twitter and Facebook, and let the major networks and news outlets

spend a 24 hour news cycle talking about the campaign’s monetary success. So what if your nonprofit won’t have

this much coverage. Send several celebration communications from your executive, from a celebrity spokesperson,

major donor, Board member(s), or beneficiary of your services. Any and all acknowledgements are absolutely

appropriate and set you up for success in your next campaign. Your mission doesn’t lend itself to a lot interim

celebration? Then create some milestones to celebrate on the way to your ultimate goal.

July 20, 2011 ConnectedNonprofit© | www.connectednonprofit.com | 303.830.1723

Most important: Social media was a fully integrated communication channel, not treated as a stand-

alone. All campaign messaging via email, Website, Facebook, and Twitter communicated the same message, only

adjusting length and call-to-action to fit the medium. There were nuanced differences between the ads on

Facebook versus banner advertising, but the message was consistent. David Plouffe, the 2008 Obama campaign

manager, reported that this consistent messaging strategy was key to 2008’s success. The campaign was diligent

about consistent messaging with direct mail, telemarketing, media relations, email, mobile, and social media and it

looks like they are again on track to keep the message consistent regardless of the communication channel. You

can do this today with every campaign. The consistent message, regardless of channel, infuses your

communications with authenticity and drives your campaign message home. Advertisers and political campaigns

have long known that too many messages will confuse. Stick to your campaign message “early and often.”

Repeat. It’s a limiting belief that just because you’re not a political campaign, you can’t achieve these same

results. Obama’s team had already started the next short-term

campaign to support a National Day of Action before the second

quarter fundraising campaign was over. You can too. Obama’s

next call-to-action wasn’t as high profiles as the FEC reports, but

as long as you’re doing great work, jump right into your next

campaign.

Looking ahead. Obama for America used mobile pervasively in the 2008

election to sign up volunteers, promote voter registration, and keep

supporters informed. FEC reports limited expenditures with OFA’s mobile

vendor, Mobile Commons, for mobile so far this year. Let’s keep an eye out in

the coming months to see how OFA uses mobile to engage and energize

supporters. Maybe there’s a mobile application on its way?

Sources and References:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-fundraising-report-signals-juggernaut-campaign/2011/07/15/gIQAVQ4gGI_story.html

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2094863/obama-dnc-spent-usd1-million-2012-web-ads

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2040788/obamas-2012-web-campaign-aims-energize-retarget