The Subject Line That Raised Obama Millions

In 2012, Barack Obama employed 20 full-time email copywriters on his re-election campaign. 

 

Together, they raised MILLIONS of dollars through emails. 

 

But there was one subject line that outperformed the rest. 

  • Highest open rate

  • Highest click-through-rate and

  • Most money raised

Want to know what the subject line was?

 

It was “Hey”. 

 

That 👏 is 👏 it 👏. 

 

Short, relatable and familiar - an email you'd receive from a friend.

 

Want to find out three more ways Barack Obama's team out raised and out performed his political opponent to go on to win his 2nd term? Keep reading. 

Here are 3 ways you can send more effective fundraising emails like the Obama team:

 

FIRST, YOU HAVE TO TEST.

 

The 20-person copywriting team would often test subject lines and email addresses to smaller segments to see what worked. Once they had a winner - they'd then send the message out to their email list of 13 million subscribers.

 

➡️ How to put this into practice at your nonprofit:

 

If your email service provider has the ability to do A/B testing - try using that feature to test subject lines that are long vs. short, emoji vs. no emoji, a question vs. a statement etc.

 

If you don't have A/B testing abilities, pull a list of your most engagement subscribers and send them the email first to see how it performs. If it's a winner - you can share it with your entire list. If not - make some tweaks to the subject line and send-time. 

 

SECOND, MAKE SURE THE EMAILS YOU ARE SENDING ARE GETTING DELIVERED.

 

In 2012, Barack Obama understood the power of email over his rival Mitt Romney. Obama had an email list size of 13 million subscribers - 5X that of the Romney campaign. Obama also had a 68% inbox placement compared to only 50% of the Romney team.

 

To break that down in math terms - that is roughly 8.8 million people receiving the Obama emails compared to only 1.3 million people receiving the Romney emails. 

 

➡️ How to put this into practice at your nonprofit:

 

Gmail and Yahoo specifically are having a glow up in 2024 which means if you don't go through their required authentication processes - your emails will stop being delivered. 

 

You'll also want to make sure your list is squeaky clean. After the July authentication deadline - if you have a lot of bounce addresses (more than 0.03%) - your deliverability will suffer. 

 

LASTLY, YOU'RE GONNA WANNA SEND MORE EMAILS (ESPECIALLY BEFORE YOU START ASKING).

 

In 2012, Barack Obama and his inner circle sent the following amount of fundraising emails to his listserve:

  • 65 fundraising emails under Barack Obama's name

  • 35 under MIchelle Obama's name

  • 34 under Jim Messina, Obama's campaign manager's name

  • 45 under Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager's name

  • 21 under Jeremy Bird, Obama's national field director's name and

  • 9 under former President Bill Clinton's name

 

That is 209 fundraising emails in one year. TWO-HUNDRED AND NINE. 

 

Makes that one fundraising email you sent one time look cute right 😉?

 

➡️ How to put this into practice at your nonprofit:

 

Send more emails. Period

 

Especially if it's been a minute since you've sent valuable content to your email subscribers - there is no time like the present. 

 

Summer is the perfect time to warm-up your email community. Need ideas of what to send? Join my Fundraising Template Membership for access to my 7 favorite warm-up email templates + a campaign roadmap.

 

These fill-in-the-blank templates make it easy to draft and send a compelling email to your list in less than 30 minutes.  

 

My recommended cadence? One email per week leading up to Giving Tuesday.