eROI Days Email Agency

by Bryan Boyd, eROI, Inc.

MoveOn.org the politically progressive group based in Berkeley, CA organizes and informs a rapidly growing online community currently estimated at more than 2 million people. The group aims to promote grassroots advocacy by its members through various political activities including running a PAC (Political Action Committee), voter registration drives, political advertising (especially in swing states).

MoveOn.org has easily become one of the most influential and powerful grassroots organizations. They have been a fierce force in shaping in the way that politics utilize online based campaigning. I have always been impressed at how they capture ‘leads’ so smoothly. Here is MoveOn.org’s insight regarding their online success:

#1: Web supports building a constituency through “word-of-mouse”.
MoveOn.org was the first web petition to support word-of-mouth emailing. The simplicity of this “viral marketing” allowed the interest group to grow dramatically in just days, with stark simplicity on the webpage — no graphics, no content, no links to other sites. By design, we decided to focus on the simple action of signing up and sending on. Links divert attention. Graphics are slow to download. And highly designed sites are tedious to change to fit the needs of a “flash campaign.”

The technique was soon replicated by others on the same issue (www.impeach.org, etc.), and continues in broad use.

#2: Sophisticated use of the web for command and control of volunteer operations.
Once they had gathered a constituency, the responsibility and challenge of mobilizing these supporters and volunteers was daunting. MoveOn.org used narrowcasted emailing to give the entire group of petitions specific, localized information for actions. For example, when petitioners were asked to make a call, their representative’s contact information, in the district and in Washington, was merged into the email.

However organizing volunteers in the field was even more challenging, because one way communication was not sufficient. Effective command and control required two-way communication with central organizers and open communication between volunteers at the district level. To address communication between volunteers, they created email groups for volunteers in each district and published a volunteer directory. However, two way communication with central organizers was not so easy.

At first MoveOn tried two way use of email, but the administrative overhead was overwhelming. Their biggest innovation was the use of the web itself to communicate with and monitor volunteers in the field. View the district worksheet used for volunteer coordination and feedback of our key fieldwork, just before election day. The volunteers worked from a step-by-step instruction sheet and gave continuous feedback to central organizers through the worksheet, including final reports.

With just four days of organizing time, using their web model for command and control of field operations, they were able to organize thousands of volunteers and hundreds of volunteer leaders to visit members of congress in district. Many Representatives and Chiefs of Staff were shocked that these groups appearing in their offices had never physically met before. The meetings were carried off with grace and aplomb. The efficiency of this operation highlights the potential of the web in bringing field operations back to the mainstream of political campaigns.

Innovation 3: Web allows organization to be cost effective bundler of campaign donations.
After impeachment, MoveOn.org turned to electoral action. An email to all petitioners went out one minute after the vote to impeach, and by the end of the next day more than $5 million was pledge to year 2000 campaigns. Later, during the Senate trial, a similar appeal went out for volunteer time.

Converting these pledge commitments to real action has become a major focus for MoveOn. They are committed to helping supporters remember and have helped make it easy for them to follow through. On June 25, 1999 their first “reminder” went out to supporters, highlighting the importance of early money. The result: more than $1,500,000 had been transmitted to candidates through MoveOn’s Donation webpage to date. Serving as a conduit for these bundled contributions, they allow the donor to make multiple contributions on-line with one simple transaction. MoveOn developed a complete online solution to the processing, transmission, and reporting of these donations, to meet FEC requirements. Administrative costs are nominal. This is the first ever case of online bundling. And more than 92% of these donations were for $50 and less.

Because the web is such an efficient medium for the aggregation of smaller contributions, this innovation has the potential to dramatically shift the dynamics of political donations, effectively matching the small donor with the candidate. Direct mail is no longer the only way to reach the small donor.

As a subscriber to MoveOn’s list now for about a year, the frequency of their emails may annoy some people. In a typical week they will send an average of 3-4 emails prompting you to take action. When I say action I mean calling your Senator, Congressman or simply signing an online petition – oh and of course encouraging you to send the email to friends and donate money to MoveOn PAC.

One specific email was a call-to-action for receive a ‘free Kerry Kit’, a DVD along with other printed materials. Once you clicked on the email and you were taken to the landing page and you entered your mailing address. Once completed with that, the next page was a plea for you to donate money to keep these �Kerry Kits’ free for other people. Oh the guilt. So I gave money again – thinking to myself damn they’re good.

In conclusion, MoveOn.org will continue to be a pioneer in the realm of using e-marketing as a very successful means of communicating with their ever-growing base. Go Kerry!