Marketing Lessons from the 2016 Presidential Election

The 2016 election has certainly been filled with controversy. But, one thing we can all agree on is that Trump’s marketing was extremely effective. That’s why in today’s article I’m going to tell you about the marketing lessons we can learn from this historic campaign.

 

And in today's Check This Out, register for next week’s LIVE training and discover How to Create an Effective Marketing Plan for 2017...

If you haven’t already, then now is the time to create your marketing plan for 2017.

 

This can be a daunting task, even for savvy marketers.  That’s why in this article I’m going to answer one of the most frequently asked questions about marketing plans, “What makes a great marketing plan?”

 

And to help answer that question, let’s take a closer look at the marketing plan behind arguably the most shocking underdog win of the year… Trump’s presidential race.  Whether you like it or not, there’s no denying the fact that Trump put together (and then implemented) a magnificent marketing plan to defeat Clinton.

 

So rather than bicker about the results, let’s learn from this historic event!

 

We’ll start with the most important step in the planning process…

 

Clearly Define Who Is & Who Is Not Your Audience

Trump did an amazing job laser-focusing his marketing on his ideal audience.  In fact, he took it a step further and was completely OK with alienating anyone that was not his ideal audience.

 

That’s a key takeaway that is worth writing down.

 

Some of the most successful companies in the world use this same strategy.  Look at Apple with its closed system that forces customers to only use other Apple products.  Or look at IKEA, which only sells furniture neatly packed in flat boxes that customers ultimately have to assemble (and if you’ve ever assembled an IKEA product you know it’s not easy or fast).

 

In all of these examples, Trump, Apple, and IKEA focus all of their marketing exclusively on their ideal audience and they ignore “the haters.”   They know what their customers want and they don’t try to cater to everyone.  As I’m sure you know, the kiss of death is trying to please everyone in your market because you’ll end up making no one happy.

 

So take the time to think through who is, and equally important, who is not your ideal customer.  Only after completing this step, can you truly create a great marketing plan because everything else depends on your target audience.

 

Next, it’s time to get inside the shoes of your audience…

 

 

Create a Great Offer That Solves Their Problem

Once you know who you’re targeting, then put yourself in their shoes.  What are the problems they are dealing with that your product or service solves?

 

For Trump, this was pretty straight forward…

 

Trump offered change.  Trump’s ideal audience was not happy with Obama’s 2 terms in office.  Therefore, their problems were tied to Obama’s policies.  Since Clinton’s policies were almost perfectly aligned with Obama’s policies, you can see how “change” was the perfect solution, or offer, in Trump’s campaign.

 

Now it’s your turn.  What are the problems that your ideal customers are dealing with?  Remember, we’re only talking about the audience you defined earlier.  Trump wasn’t worried about people who liked Obama’s policies because those were not his audience.

 

Once you know the problems, then it’s usually not too hard to come up with a great offer that positions your product or service as the best solution.

 

Ah, but how do your customers know it’s the “best” solution?  That brings us to the next step…

 

Differentiation

What other products or services could your customers use to solve their problem?

 

Don’t forget that there are many options outside of your industry, including the option of doing nothing.  In many businesses, the biggest hurdle is not a competitor; it’s procrastination.

 

For Trump, it wasn’t too hard to differentiate since he wasn’t a full-time politician.   And since he wasn’t a politician, then logically he couldn’t be a corrupt politician.  Regardless of your stance on Clinton, there have been so many political scandals since the founding of our country that we’ve come to accept that most politicians are susceptible to a little corruption.

 

In the business world, differentiation is synonymous with your unique selling proposition, or USP.  Why should your ideal customer choose your product or service over all the other options?

 

Once you’ve answered that question, then marketing and sales will be a heck of lot easier.

 

Finally, your marketing plan is not complete until you address what happens after the sale.  That’s right, marketing doesn’t stop when the sale is complete!

 

Fulfillment & Retention

Apple customers don’t love Apple because of their marketing.  They love Apple because of their products and their customer service.  In other words, if Apple didn’t deliver with easy-to-use and functional products, then customers would immediately have buyer’s remorse.   That would lead to refunds, negative reviews, and loss of market share to competitors.

 

At this point Trump’s fulfillment and retention plan is unclear.  It’ll take another year to see how things unfold, but if he doesn’t deliver on the promises made during the election, then we can be certain there will be buyer’s remorse across the country!

 

In business we call this the “customer experience.”  What happens immediately after a customer makes a purchase?  How could you improve the purchase experience?  How could you improve the product or service delivery experience?  What could you do to improve customer retention and referrals?

 

Those are just a few questions to get the ideas flowing.  But don’t just write down those ideas… Make sure you put them into action!

 

3 SEO Lessons from the Presidential Election

As we approach the end of the presidential race, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned.  More specifically, what are the key takeaways that we can apply to our digital marketing?

 

That’s right, while you were watching the debates you were subconsciously learning about marketing. :)

 

In this article, I’ll walk through 3 of the SEO lessons you picked up along the way…

 

1. The Wisdom of the Crowd

We’re all familiar with how our presidents are elected in the United States.  On Election Day, we go to the polls and cast our vote.  Those votes are tallied up and the candidate with the most votes wins.

 

While this is not a perfect example, it does loosely follow the phenomenon known as the “wisdom of the crowd.”

 

Studies have shown that when you average the guesses, or votes, of a crowd you’ll end up very close to the correct answer.  The classic example is when a crowd of people try to guess the weight of a cow.  It turns out that the average of the weights guessed will be remarkably close to the actual weight.  You can learn more about this by reading The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.

 

This is important to understand because Google uses this phenomenon to rank websites in their search engine.  Every time you use Google and click on the search results you’re casting a vote.  You’re either telling Google you like what you see on the first page or you don’t like what you see.  Over time, Google uses that data to ensure the best webpages show up at the top of the results.

 

Think about that for a minute.  You have the power to influence Google’s search results just like you have the power to influence the election!

 

2. The Skeletons In Your Closet

In politics, your past will certainly haunt you.  We’ve seen this time and time again during this election.  Every other day there’s a new audio recording of a candidate flip flopping on a key topic or a video revealing unsavory behavior.  I don’t even have to mention a specific example because we can all quickly think of a handful on our own.

 

Depending on the size of the skeleton in the closet, candidates can easily lose elections because of something they did or said in the past.

 

The same is true with SEO.  Just because you’re ranking well now doesn’t mean Google won’t eventually find a skeleton in your website’s closet.  For example, Google may discover that you paid for other websites to link to you.  Or maybe you created several websites that are using nearly identical website copy.  These tactics may go unnoticed for a while, but once Google finds out, your SEO candidacy can come to an end.

 

3. Reputation By Association

In politics, you need to be extra careful about who you hang out with and who you do business with.  Trump received a lot of backlash when he praised Putin and gave an impression that he and Putin were friends.  Then Hilary found herself under fire for receiving money from Morocco.

 

Both examples hurt the respective candidate’s reputation, and in turn, hurt their campaign.

 

Guess what, this can also happen with your SEO.  Google reviews the websites that are linking to you (and that you’re linking to) because those are your “online friends.”  If a lot of low quality (aka spammy) websites are linking to you, then that can hurt your website’s reputation, which in turn, will hurt your Google rankings!

Email Marketing Lessons from Trump & Clinton

With this year’s election, there sure is a lot to talk about.  It seems like every day we have some new gossip on Trump or Clinton.

But if you sift through all the noise, there’s actually a lot you can learn from this election - specifically with email marketing.  

In this article I’m going to dissect one email from each candidate so you can see what they’re doing right and where they could improve by incorporating email marketing best practices.

Neither candidate is perfect, but one is head and shoulders above the other from an email marketing perspective.  For both candidates, we’ll review a few of the most critical elements of email marketing:

• From name
• Subject line
• Personalization
• Call to action

Let’s start by reviewing an email from Clinton…

The Clinton Email Example

The From name for the Clinton emails is “Hillary Clinton” so the emails appear to be sent from Hillary herself.  This follows email marketing best practices because the email looks personal, which helps increase the open rate (number of people that open the email versus ignore it).

The Subject line for this particular email is “Let me know when your birthday is.”  This is a missed opportunity, which likely hurt the open rate for this email campaign.  There’s no benefit in the Subject line and no compelling reason to open the email.

A much more compelling Subject would have been “I want to send you a gift” since that’s ultimately what the email was about.  Who wouldn’t open an email from Hillary Clinton that said she wants to send you a gift?  Nobody is the answer.

Now on to personalization…  This is again where Clinton’s email falls short. The email is addressed to “Friend” so right away it smells like a generic, mass email (aka “junk mail”).  

Finally, the Call to Action is a button that says “Get a note.”  Since when is a “note” exciting?  It’s not and that’s why this is a weak Call to Action that likely did not get a high click-through rate.

Now let’s review the Trump email example...

The Trump Email Example

Again, the From name is the candidate’s name, in this case Donald J. Trump so it looks like a personal email from Mr. Trump himself.  

The Subject line in this example email is “Hilllary - I’m coming for you.”  In no way is this boring like the Hillary example above.  When you read this Subject you feel like you’re in the middle of a debate fight and you almost can’t resist the urge to open the email to read more.

In other words, Trump’s email creates curiosity which is one of the best ways to get more of your emails opened.

Once you open this email you’re instantly addressed by your first name, which makes it feel like Trump is speaking directly to you.  Plus, midway in the email Trump addresses you by name a second time.  Everyone loves to hear (or read) their name and repeating it throughout an email is a proven way to increase response rates.

Finally, Trump’s Call to Action is a button that says “Contribute $$$ to win.”  It doesn’t just say “Contribute $$$” which is the most obvious Call to Action. Instead, Trump added a benefit to the Call to Action to emphasize why it’s important to take action.  It’s not about contributing, which benefits Trump; it’s about being a part of the winning team.

What Did We Learn?

By reviewing each candidate's email we learned that Trump’s marketing team has done a better job with email marketing compared to Clinton’s marketing team.  

However, with just a few tweaks Clinton’s team can dramatically improve their email performance.  They need to use compelling Subject lines that encourage more opens, include personalization throughout the emails, and highlight the benefit in the Call to Action.  

Remember these examples when you’re drafting your next email campaign. Small edits to each of the key elements highlighted above can make a huge difference in the success of your email marketing.