wiener dogs and wrinkles
Let’s talk a second about wiener dogs.
I am obsessed with all dogs but these Sausage Shaped Wienie Waddlers are my favorite.
My first nephew is a Tiny Legged Floppy Eared Frankfurter and I have been in love with him from the moment my sister adopt-birthed him into my life.
Banksy.
Social media algorithms have learned this about me and now serve me a steady diet of dog videos with a definite lean toward Long Little Low Bois.
And here is the thing.
If a rescue organization - of which many find their way to my eyeballs - post an “emergent fundraising need” for a Wiggly Low Rider, I am helpless.
They immediately get all of my money.
My rational brain knows I am not giving to this particular Oscar Meyer Weiner Whistle in need, I am giving to the organization that saves all shapes of dogs, but the thing guaranteed to get me to click that donate button is a distressed Sausage Link.
There is all sorts of research and behavioral science around how absolutely irrational we are in general, but particularly when it comes to donations. We generally are driven by emotion and very rarely objectively assess things based on dollar-to-impact the way you would buy a refrigerator or shoes.
Somewhere along the way we learned this little trick as a political party and since then we are unable to send an email with fewer than seven exclamation points and without the words “dire”, “urgent” and “it’s all up to you - right now - act or democracy will end and we will all live in yurts (and not the glamping kind)” in a subject line.
I get it, you are looking for Dachshund Donations.
But at this point we have a very serious case of cry-wolf-spam-itis and creating a revenue engine based on only success at getting people to panic via email is about as far from predictable revenue as it gets.
In Dan Pfieffer’s recent Message Box newsletter (highly recommend btw) he says this:
“We win elections by breaking the boom and bust campaign funding cycle and building sustainable political infrastructure. Democrats raised a metric shit ton of money in 2020. Much of the money came very late in the campaign, after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In some cases, it was more money than the campaigns could reasonably (or responsibly) spend. Sara Gideon ended her campaign against Senator Susan Collins with $15 million in the bank.”
The value of predictable, reliable and recurring revenue is obvious. Think of how much freer we could be to spend on messaging off-cycle, build meaningful content and seriously think about who we are as a party - and not just focus exclusively on why the other side is scarier.
And yet, as far as I can tell, best practices in building a recurring or subscription based revenue stream are wholly absent from any communication I receive from Democrats or their candidates.
And to be clear, slapping a “make it monthly” button on an email threatening life in above average tents does not a subscription strategy make.
As a thought exercise let’s follow my journey with Ipsy - a company that sends me wrinkle cream in teeny, tiny bottles once a month. Many companies have peddled tiny bottles of lotion by mail before, but Ipsy has really mastered the science of making a subscription sticky.
Basically me.
IPSY - They ask you to take a simple quiz to kick it off. You are excited because it is a quiz! And they are excited because they immediately learn what your pain points are so they can do a better job of connecting me with brands I might actually buy, and in turn my marketing becomes more personalized. I don’t wear lipstick, but I have hit the age where my skin is paying the price for the YOLO sunbathing I did as a teenager. Lip stick is never in any of my messaging, but war on wrinkles is a central theme. I start to read what they send because it feels like they understand me.
And also never underestimate the power of a quiz to tell you things you already knew about yourself.
Me: Answers 10 questions about how I feel about my skin.
Them: “It sounds like you might be starting to wither like a raisin and might like the skin of your twenties back!”
Me: “How did you KNOW!?”
DEMS - What if before we asked for a donation or to opt into a recurring donation we created a quick quiz to find out what causes were most important to folks? What are their Political Weiner Dogs? If they tell us that climate is their most important issue that is a SERIOUSLY important piece of information. We can tie these issues to their communication and make sure that they are hearing about the things they care most about and don’t force you to tune out yurt threats. Right now we scream vague alarmist messages over email and hope they resonate.
If we could get to scale, think about what they could do to help us understand political sentiment - by age, by geography, by issue. Not only would we be building a much more efficient way to raise money but we would be learning and informing our positioning more broadly.
IPSY - Each month they give me a choice of one sample I’m guaranteed to get in my shipment, and then they choose 4 or 5 for me based on my quiz. Guys, even as an increasingly crinkly, cynical-ass marketer, this is objectively fun. I know it is a lotion bottle built for ants, but the element of choice is huge. I get the thing I know I want and then I get a few things that maybe I didn’t know I wanted.
I open this email immediately, read every word and always take action.
And my guess is that they are measuring everything to make their communication with me more targeted and effective. What I clicked on. What emails I opened. What products tend to get my attention (facial oil - the answer is always facial oil). This obviously has utility to send this data back to the brands selling the samples, but it also makes for a more powerful experience as a consumer.
DEMS - What if each month we let you choose where a portion of your recurring donation was going. If you said climate change was most important to you, how cool would it be to see a selection of vetted non-profits or organizers you could support. We could show them which candidates support their views and have an easy way to contribute to their campaign. Maybe you could contribute to spreading the word on a specific piece of climate policy. Yes you’ve signed up to give $50/month, and a piece of that goes to the DNC (or wherever) but now it feels like you have a choice. It keeps it variable which is key to getting people to engage with your emails.
IPSY - A couple of weeks after I get my samples I get an email with personalized, full size product options at a discount. That facial oil I loved? Now I can get a human sized bottle of it for cheaper than I could at Sephora. I’m thrilled as a customer because I got to try before I buy, brands are thrilled because they are getting their product targeted at folks most likely to buy it and I become an increasingly loyal subscriber because you’ve brought real value to me.
At its core, this is an up-sell. I am aware it is an up-sell. I watch myself get up-sold. And I walk away feeling like getting up-sold provides a VALUABLE SERVICE because I didn’t have to avoid enthusiastic cosmetic employees who desperately want me to have a basket while I shop.
This is wrinkle-based wizardry.
DEMS - Based on what we learn about these people - not only through the quiz but what they choose, what they click, what they read and what they react to in our content - we gave them targeted ways to give a little more each month. Maybe halfway through the month we feature an early stage organization, connected to the cause you care about, and give you a way to support their start. Yes this is a Dachshund Donation - but it is a Dachshund Donation on top of a subscription which is way better than just hoping we strike just the right chord, with just the right frantic, exclamation point laden message at just the right time to make someone act.
IPSY: They show me things I didn’t know I needed and the anticipation of something new that could be an eye-wrinkle-game-changer keeps me coming back. I do not want to shop for eye cream. I definitely do not want to spend money on something I hate. This service makes the experience of trying out new products joyful and easy. Not only is the experience satisfying, but they provide enough standalone value that if they want to show me a new thing they think I should put on my face, I read it. I click on it. And a lot of times I buy it.
DEMS: I really believe people want to give and give generously for causes they care about. When my husband and I were donating this election cycle we spent a TON of time researching where our dollars would go the farthest (Stacey Abrams - the answer is always Stacey Abrams). We knew it was important but it was also a pain in the ass. I believe there could be really substantial value to offering people a way to be connected with organizations doing the work and connected to causes people are passionate about - and make it delightful and fun. Don’t make people research, bring them options! Tell them how to help! Make it feel like the easiest thing in the world to give $50/month and make them feel really good about it when they see it on their statement.
I have really only scratched the surface here. There are countless other lessons from a subscription based world that we should absolutely learn.
Bottom line, building this infrastructure is a huge opportunity - it could reduce our dependence on highly variable and cyclical donations, give us troves of impactful data on the electorate and help give visibility to up-and-coming organizations doing important work.
There are so many ways we could make this awesome by leaning on the best practices forged by companies like Ipsy or the freaking genius behind Defeat by Tweet.
Last thought, and I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the sheer scale built into any effort like this is the most exciting part. We don’t have to build the lists, we have the lists! This would categorically make our lists work so much harder for us!
Our goal - retire exclamation points and doomsday yurts in exchange for recurring revenue driven by choice, personalization and purpose.
