(marketing) manifesto

A letter to the messaging machine of the Democratic Party, their causes and their candidates.

When I joined a startup for the first time I expected fountains of kombucha trickling next to me as I got my weekly essential oil chair massage while the Chief Sound Officer played therapeutic singing bowls to the tune of Kelly Clarkson power ballads.

After being in the startup ecosystem for awhile now, and hearing cautionary tales told across the startup world, I realize that massages are much less common than the friction created by venture capital dollars — and venture capital expectations — not aligning with the reality of the organization.

In a venture backed startup, you mean it when you say you can do it, the investors mean it when they say they believe you, everyone thinks that dollars poured onto the idea will get you growth…sometimes it works out that way, lots of times it doesn’t.

For me this was put in stark relief when several years ago I was fired as a new CEO came on board and restructured our team.

I realize this is seen as a startup rite of passage, but as an overachiever being fired was devastating. However, as I’ve gained distance I look at it more like a scar with a cool story, or a tattoo you should probably regret but don’t. I don’t have either one of those things in real life, so I’ll wear my firing like a career version of a tasteful lizard ankle tat.

In addition to making me objectively cooler — it also gave me a crystal clear window to view my first startup autopsy. Like a Marketing Scrooge floating above his best laid plans and understanding where funding, and the expectations that come with those dollars, played into his untimely demise.

Now that I have emerged from a night with the VC Ghosts of Series A, B and C I feel like I can’t stop seeing the pattern where being driven by funding expectations sometimes clouds your ability to see the efficiency of a nuanced approach.

Self-funded companies are forced to reinvest as they go. Venture funded companies often get a windfall of capital and then have to put those dollars to work - fast - which can often lead to the unintentional, but spectacularly predictable, lighting marketing dollars on fire and watching them burn.

Lean teams have to be nuanced and creative. Funded teams have to choose to.

So why do I start with this anecdote?

Like for so many, the pandemic was a cyclone of everything that brought me joy just swirling down my social life sink and out my extrovert drain.

How did I fill this void the giant-drained-sink-of-my-life created?

I mainlined politics.

Hard.

And I swear to God, the more I looked at politics the more I saw this pattern play out over and over again.

• You have to fundraise ungodly amounts to compete.

• Those dollars come with strings.

• Those dollars come with expectations.

• And while a startup founder may think the success of their company is life or death, in this case and in this election, it literally was.

So the stakes are high, you are chugging your party’s kool-aid, and you are sitting on a metric shit-ton of cash that you need to convert into voters — fast.

Guys, it’s time to come to terms with the fact you are an overfunded startup with a customer acquisition problem.

Before I launch into what I’d like to call my ‘Unsolicited Commentary from a Marketer that Categorically Cares Too Much About Politics (but has a banging metaphorical lizard tat) — I absolutely know that there are constraints in this world I know nothing about. I also know there are some insanely smart people working to advance the ideals of the Democratic Party, and I am also 100% sure that there are existing strategies that work.

I mean, we won didn’t we?

I just think there are sometimes helpful nuggets when a person in another industry shares how they would approach the same problem. And in my experience almost all nuggets (especially the gold and chicken variety) are worth exploring.

So if I was CMO of the Democratic Party where would I start?

Section 1: Address the Mother. Fucking. Email. Mother. Fucking. Overload.

Okay, so I donated more money than I have ever donated in my life this election season. Do you know what prompted me to give and give as generously as I could?

Stacey Abrams.

I am to Stacey Abrams as Stacey Abrams is to Star Trek.

Do you know what did not?

Mother. Fucking. Email. Mother. Fucking. Overload.

Do you know what else did not?

See the above but replace “email” with “text”.

I received zero emails before the primaries. Anyone who has ever hovered their finger over the donate button knows you must prep yourself and your inbox for what is about to happen to both of you (get ready little buddy).

I gave an amount that was painful.

The next email I got was asking me for more.

Campaigns (and the DNC generally) have to step up their personalization game. Yes it costs money and takes time, but we have two years to get shit done. And guys, after giving polling a second chance after 2016, I think 2020 proved our relationship with polling is “it’s complicated” at fucking best, and so we have to diversify how we inform our approach.

I initially gave $1500 — and to me that warrants an acknowledgement of some sort — and a more nuanced approach for asking me for more. Maybe $1500 isn’t painful for everyone but I bet if you sliced the size of the donation by age you would find that most 37 year old’s wallets cried a little with that donation.

If I felt heard/seen and was put on a “this person likely maxed out for a minute — let’s butter them up only for awhile and circle back in 3 months with a specific ask” would have definitely been more effective for me than subject lines that read “JOE IS ON THE BRINK TARA — HE NEEDS YOU NOW TARA — IT’S ALL ON THE LINE TARA!” five minutes after I hit donate.

We do cohort analysis to find out who our champion customers are and make our data tell us what behaviors/attributes makes them champions. Then we design marketing and messaging to keep champions happy, make more people on our lists act like champions and find new people like them.

In the grand scheme of political fundraising my initial $1500 donation was probably not enough to get on anyone’s radar, but if we thought of a donor as a customer and emailing through the lens of life cycle messaging, I think you could nurture grassroots donors, make them feel seen and heard and likely get more donations and engagement from them.

I was probably in the “37 year old who’s wallet cried a little when they donated — but they care a lot — and prob have a questionable lizard tat” segment. My emails should look totally different than the $20 from the “22 year old who’s wallet cried a little when they donated — but they care a lot — and likely have 10,325 followers on TikTok so be nice to them” segment.

If I were you I would find some sort of smart data person, ask them (by state or by city) age of donor sliced with size of donation as a percentage of average annual income by age in the area. If someone is on the high side of that, whether it was $1500 or $20, they are probably your champions. 

Be nice to them. They have friends.

Email can be a low cost, automated work horse for you. You probably already know that. Your list is so big that you can send out “JOE IS DYING AND HIS DOGS WILL DIE TOO IF YOU DON’T GIVE $5 — DO IT FOR DEMOCRACY AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, FOR CHAMP AND MAJOR” emails and they probably shake money loose, so you keep doing them.

I’m telling you, if you segment, personalize, and write emails that are timely and nuanced — there is more money here. 

I repeat. 

There is more money here.

And I don’t have to tell you that money isn’t all that mattered. What if you rinsed and repeated said strategy for grassroots volunteers, for poll workers, for canvassers, etc.

Think about the emails you open. Think about why. I promise an email from “Jon Ossoff’s iphone” got the same speed-to-delete as “Jon Ossoff’s desperate midnight plea”.

If the first line of any email you send is “I know we send you a lot of emails…” I think it is time to rethink.

Unsolicited Suggestions:

• Create two funnels - an acquisition funnel and a retention funnel - “never donated” vs “looking for a repeat contribution”.

  • For the love of Christ, talk to these people differently.

• Use your data to look for your best donors/activists/volunteers and then craft messaging around what you learned.

  • If a demographic is a better fit for volunteering STOP ASKING THESE POOR YOUNG PEOPLE FOR MONEY THEY DON’T HAVE.

  • If a demographic is a better fit for donating, be specific on what you need and for the love of everything holy, change their email flow once they do what you asked.

• Give people a sense of control over the emails they get from you. I would have absolutely opened a weekly “round up” of what was going on in the campaign and how I could help if given the option.

• Decide who the voice is - build it - and stick with it.

  • This is your brand voice. When you send emails from the candidate, then Oprah, then Carole King it is all a mushed up mess. Side note, I am absolutely sure Carole is a lovely woman and clearly on our side, but she is not the celeb that is going to really fire up our Gen Z friends. No offense, Carole. 

  • Also let’s get on the same page. I donated to the Democratic Party, Joe Biden’s campaign directly and the GA runoff campaign - we are all on the same team but holy fuck this email messaging competes with each other and nothing breaks through.

• We should have literally hundreds of messaging tracks, architected and automated, based on behavior. These should be relentlessly tested and anchored in data.

I’ll end with this…consumer brands know that inbox real estate is a precious thing. You need to be there enough that you are top of mind, but not so much that you get kicked out forever. This is a lesson our party could learn, and if we can learn it before 2022 - like Olympic medal in it - we will have a compelling advantage over the Republicans.

I freaking promise.

Section 2: Yes, Dan Wagner — with the intensity of ten thousands suns — yes.

Okay, so I listened to this amazing interview with Dan Wagner on Pod Save America. He did a ton of the analysis on the Dem’s paid ad strategy and articulated something that had been rolling around in my head too but articulated it far better than I could.

He said (and I’m paraphrasing) the fact that Dem’s didn’t win down ballot (immediately take back the Senate, win in state and local elections - even though Joe won), but progressive policies won all across the country — even in red states — means we have a brand problem.

Said another way, folks don’t like Democratic politicians or identify with the Democratic party, but they can separate that from the policies these same politicians run on.

Yes, Dan Wagner — with the intensity of ten thousands suns — yes.

We definitely have a brand problem.

If you look at our current move, we build a war chest, we choose our candidate and then we scream at the top of our lungs at the entire population of America for nine months until it’s over. Then we disappear and everyone is happy — not sad — that we are gone.

As a consumer, think of a brand you love — that you buy from often — that gives you warm fuzzies when you spend money with them.

Have they ever screamed at you?

For multiple months?

On every screen you own?

And then disappear until they want to sell you something?

No! Of course they haven’t. The best brands know that the foundation of acquisition is a compelling brand story, building trust in that brand and equity in the marketplace.

Rothy’s has never once shouted at me but they have told me about their female led executive team, their sustainability practices and the fact you — and I can’t emphasize this enough — can wash their shoes in the fucking washing machine…and I love them for it.

I fully recognize the Democratic Party is not a DTC shoe company but if I were Queen of the World — right after I made people taking work calls on speaker phone while walking on the sidewalk punishable by death — here is how I would tackle it.

• We have to talk to people all year, every year. I know that takes away from the nine-months-of-screaming-money but we have to talk to them when we don’t need things from them. This needs to be as important as the screaming and will hopefully mean we don’t have to scream as much later. The American people will thank you for this.

• We get to learn when we are talking and not screaming. Asking people to vote or donate is what we marketers call “bottom of the funnel” — where you are asking someone to take action — but there is a whole rest of the funnel! Create content, see what works…what works and what doesn’t work tells you something! Try something on social media you would never do during election season! Measure. Every. Fucking. Thing. The talking money can inform the screaming money while also helping build brand equity — which makes the screaming go further.

• Tell stories and don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Dan Wagner in the same podcast (again paraphrasing) said that they put massive amounts of spend behind a bunch of different video ads. The highly produced, shiny, glossy ads did not do as well as the low production quality, more authentic, storytelling ads…which makes total sense. We are a people craving authenticity in a world of filters! Look at Ocean Spray guy! WE LOVE OCEAN SPRAY GUY! We need to be more like Ocean Spray guy and less like a filtered Kardashian.

• While of course our brand needs to be more cohesive, I do think a lot of it can live locally. I’ve had massive success with micro-influencers in local markets spreading locally based content — they are cheap and a targeted group of people listen to them. No one is watching CSPAN and the people who are already know who they are voting for. The average voter does not know the intricacies of governing, but we have an opportunity to make it accessible. We can build brand awareness not only for people but for the causes they stand for. Tell. Their. Story. Some great examples already exist like Bring Down the House, AOC’s Instagram feed, Kamala coming off that plane in CHUCKS. I’m telling you there is a big group of voters who live for this shit.

• Okay, here is an idea, what if you asked people to donate off cycle in exchange for being taken off your listserv. That’s hilarious! I would TOTALLY do it! You could do emails where they could see a summary of how many screaming emails they missed from you. Look at Defeat by Tweet — that was freaking genius! I signed up immediately and told every one of my friends. I am not advocating this type of thing as our singular strategy — I’m saying we need to diversify.

We need to make the party, politicians and policies inextricably linked, so when Florida votes to raise minimum wage that also means we take Senate seats and flip it blue.

That means the party’s brand has to be the foundation to the candidate’s brand and policies become the way we prove we mean what we say about ourselves and what we stand for.

And I don’t have to tell anyone how freaking far from that we are right now.

Unsolicited Suggestions:

• What if we used popular progressive policies as a Trojan Horse for rehabbing our brand. Approach policies through the lens of product marketing - how do we tell people about them, what action do we want them to take, how does this policy begin to tell a broader story about our party. Use these policies as brand touch points - like marketing tentacles - that could potentially creep past the “I fucking hate politics. Both sides are terrible.” cynicism and start to subtly nudge them somewhere in the middle.

• Honestly, I support the Democrats in spite of a lot of the bullshit. I believe enough in the principles of the party that I’m willing to forgive some of the nonsense. The brand needs to remind me why I do that so when true fuckery comes up (which we know it will) my emotional bank account is full and I don’t bounce to the land of independents or non-voters.

• While we are taking care of committed Democrats like me, we ALSO need to be thinking about how our brand resonates with the cynics. The same old shit is not going to cut it here, folks. These are increasingly young voters who consume information in a totally new way and honestly have a reason to be bummed out that this is the political environment they are inheriting. What if we found a way to not only be the party progressives are willing to hold their nose and suck it up for, but one they felt proud to be a part of. This is going to take creativity, authenticity and frankly throwing the rule book in the dumpster fire we created.

People identify with brands because it tells the world something about them. Logos on clothes, computers, food and drinks are as much about the quality of the product as they are the way someone feels when they consume it.

I want to create a nuanced brand that people can be proud to be a part of and inspires others to join. And guys, it isn’t 25 American Flags with a screaming bald eagle, followed by a candidates name. It just isn’t.

Section 3: A very intense — and what some would call impressive — veil of snot.

I think it’s clear I’m in my feelings on this.

I have a hundred times more ideas on how we can outperform Republicans — even as the gerrymandered underdog and even while following the rules while they break them — by making our constituents feel heard, seen and as proud of us as I am of myself when I buy Rothy’s.

But here is the crux.

Hate and anger work.

Fear works.

Yes of course it was exacerbated by our out of control ad and algorithm environment, but it has always worked.

Outrage elicits a stronger response than happiness. Just basic behavioral facts.

And I think it’s also important to acknowledge here that we are not perfect altruistic angels. Our side does our fair share of this as well. We all need to do better - and I think these recommendations  are a step in the right direction - but let’s be honest...

We know they will lean as hard on fear and divisiveness as they can to stay in power. 

I’m not saying it should be wholly absent from our strategy, or that it is absent from our strategy now (love to see less of it, honestly)…but I don’t want to fall into the trap of “out fearing them” or “out hating them” because they will out race us to the bottom, and we will lose.

We have to be smarter and more disciplined than them. We have to make people feel seen and heard by us. We have to snatch our story back from the media who will forever tell it in the way that best serves them, not in the way that best advances our cause. We have to find our champions, learn about them and figure out how to turn people into them.

We have to get nuanced and personalized and spend (big) marketing dollars when they aren’t.

I’ll end with this…

I sobbed when RBG died. 

Sobbed. 

I do not cry and I have never cried at the death of someone I did not know personally, but I was crying so hard I couldn’t catch my breath.

She represented so much to me. 

She opened so many doors for me. 

The world was terrifying without her.

We had not been in an Uber since the start of the pandemic but through tears I told my husband I had to go to the Supreme Court immediately. After deciphering what I had said through a — very intense and what some would call impressive — veil of snot, we made the 2 mile trip across town.

We were some of the first there as people started to gather as news spread. And we stayed there until the crowd was too big to be there safely in a pandemic because so many other people said “I have to go there right now” too.

She was an icon and a personal hero and I also know I wouldn’t know her story if someone (many people) hadn’t told it to me.

I know RBG was one of a kind, but I promise the men and women fighting for us as civil servants have stories too. The kind that inspire action, affinity and loyalty.

Guys, the NFL and NBA have this down to an effing science. They know telling their players/coaches/teams stories make their audiences more engaged. 

Ever seen Hard Knocks? Wilfork in overalls may be the singular reason I watch football.

We need to get (clap hands emoji) on (clap hands emoji) their (clap hands emoji) level (clap hands emoji).

I also know the policies we are fighting for deserve time in the spotlight too. Not just the ones that come up during the General, or the ones that poll well…all the small but meaningful decisions at the local, state and federal level that weave the fabric of our American experience.

We don’t want to lean exclusively on fear. We can tell a much more powerful story…and then we can walk people (gently, gently, no screaming) to the ways they can support those who are doing the work. Yes during the election cycle, but also on every other day in between. 

I don’t buy Rothy’s everyday (my husband may disagree with this statement) but I listen when they talk, I read their emails, and when they give me a reason to act I typically do.

I think high growth startups may have some things to teach us about how to bring people to our brand, help us build it in a way they feel proud of and inspire them to bring friends.

But we are already running late, friends.

Tag me in. Tell me how I can help.