Back to normal email levels
| Emails | Campaigns | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 6 | 1 |
| Non-Donor | 3 | 1 |
| Donor | 3 | 1 |
For all new readers: Welcome! I am currently on the mailing lists of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, though I have previously been on the mailing lists of 28 Democratic candidates! This blog breaks down recent emails with charts and excerpts. If you already know all of this, feel free to skip to the next chart!
It took some time for the Trump emails to kick in, so I started officially tracking his list on July 7. I have been tracking Biden’s for longer, but I will start comparing them as of July 7. All of these emails are going to a new email, and I have not donated, filled out surveys, signed petitions, or otherwise interacted with either candidate’s emails.
The rules I try to follow for the various categories are laid out in The Framework.
Once again, Joe Biden has returned to just 3 emails a day. Nothing exciting here.
Two of his daily emails were asking me for money, while his third was reminding me that I still haven’t filled out his survey yet.
The more he asks, the less I actually want to do that survey.
One of Biden’s emails was talking about how much he hated asking for money, it was just the worst part of campaigning, blah blah blah…
He’s setting the tone for me to think about the interaction. When Biden uses words and phrases that involve a negative connotation, he is tying negative connotations to the act of giving him a donation.
It’s like when you take a young kid to Disney. When you’re standing in line to meet a character, if you ask the kid “are you scared? Don’t be scared, there’s nothing to be scared of…” you are putting the idea of “be scared of the character” in the kid’s head. If you instead approach it like “Aren’t you excited? What question are you going to ask Mickey? Are you going to give him a hug?” then you are putting the idea of excitement and anticipation into the kid’s head.
So oh no, he’s so sorry, ugh, he’s got to get through this horrible thing… why would I want to participate in something so ugly and demeaning?
Instead, his fundraising emails should be more like his second donation ask of the day, where Biden’s excited because he has a huge staff budget for the general that he needs to fund. It’s still not a great ask, but he’s looking at the great things he could do with money and asking me to participate in growing his team for the general. See the difference? Upbeat, excited, moving forward! Yeah, let’s be a part of that team!
I’d be interested to know if the actual donation amounts each email elicited matched my theory on “be more positive.” Too bad that’s not information I can get my hands on.
But their emails! 