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Doomscroll 9.29.2024
Hello and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll! Happy Sunday, everyone. I’m still drying off from Hurricane Helene, but no matter. Let’s get to some scrolling!
This week’s Doomscroll is sponsored by X!
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about how you’re protecting your lists. I got some really good responses, which I combined into the following bullets:
Suppress donors from sends if they’ve given in the last 14-30 days depending on the time of year.
Segment by engagement.
Don’t scam voters into giving opinions for money (aka people shouldn’t be forced to donate if they want to answer a poll question).
Mix in non-ask emails like updates and newsletters.
Personalize texts and emails with donor and third-party data.
Cultivate new leads after modeling existing donors with voter files.
Good stuff! One of you also left a banger of a comment about GOP fundraising as a whole, which I’ve edited down for length, but thought was worth sharing:
GOP fundraising tactics are not only backwards from best-practices in every other fundraising industry (equity capital, philanthropy, etc.), the tactics are EXACTLY BACKWARDS. All hunting, no farming. All sizzle, no steak. Lots of FUD. Lots and lots of grift. No transparency. No use of funds. No (real) attempt at nurturing. No attempt to give donors anything of real value (e.g., updates on uses of funds, new scalps on wall, follow-ups on previous initiatives... I mean, I didn't win the dinner with Trump. Did anyone?!). … the only reason GOP is getting away with it is because Trump is the candidate. The gravity he brings gives air cover to agencies... it allows them to raise money DESPITE their horrid tactics. And while that's bad news for the current cycle, it bodes well long-term because it means we --as an industry-- are not even close to being maximized.
The problem is so widespread it can't be solved bottom-up. It has to be solved both top-down AND bottom-up. Politics is a big market but it's a small industry, and too many donors are shared on too many lists. The industry is incestuous and every agency likes to use the same brand voice. Donors are totally confused about who is messaging them - more than half think Winred is the villain because that's where we redirect to them. And when some agencies misbehave, it reflects on the entire industry because it all gets conflated into one giant knotted ball of string: GOP fundraising. The industry needs to find a Nash equilibrium where each agency is incentivized to do what's in its best interest AND what's in the party's best interest. The RNC probably has to play a leadership role. Get a handle on prospecting (Wild West), blacklist bad actors who won't adhere to best practices, etc. DC is run by 20-somethings, and it shows.
Ok, this week’s One Question is simple and decidedly non-digital: What are your predictions for the Vice Presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz? I, for one, am very much looking forward to it. Whatever you think of Vance, I do believe he has the potential to really deliver in a debate against Tim-freaking-Walz. We’ll see in next week’s newsletter whether our predictions were on point or totally off the wall.
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Who’s Doing What
—The Good and the…Not So Good
This section is going to look a tad different this week. Ya’ll are pulling out ALL the stops right now when it comes to email content. I’m not kidding. The sheer volume I’m getting is unreal (maddening?). Honestly though, I’m getting emails from people I’ve never even heard of. No wonder voters are so annoyed. I do this for a living and I’M ON THE VERGE of shutting down my gmail account. Ok though but for real: The creativity in some has been off the charts. Others…not so much. I’m seeing some awesome copy and some not-so-awesome copy. Some sloppy mistakes, and some really amazing attention to detail. So I thought this week I’d put together a smorgasbord of sorts to showcase - in my opinion - what we’re doing well. And not so well. Let’s dive in! P.S. If I critique anything YOU (yes, YOU) wrote, please don’t take it personally. xoxo
The Good:
Sen. John Kennedy always has great fundraising emails because of the copy (IYKYK), but I got one this week that really stood out! SL: It would make me happier than a penguin in an ice chest. What made it extra nice? The GIF! Huge props to Kennedy’s team!
Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers sent an email this week with the SL that I thought was extra creative.
I mean…of course I clicked on that. And I like how it tied into the email copy:
One thing I’ve noticed in a lot of the Trump campaign emails lately that I want to highlight is how they’re using the phrase “make a sacrifice” when asking people to donate I think that’s smart. Really smart.
Last but not least: Larry Hogan’s email program is one of the best I’ve seen this cycle. His sends are a good mix of engagement, campaign updates, soft and hard-fundraising asks, and the tone is never over the top. I got one this week about the FEC end-of-quarter deadline that I thought struck a really great balance between stressing the importance of donating before the deadline, without trying to light people’s hair on fire. SL: “My Story.” Copy weaves his life/political background with donation asks in a nice way. It’s long, but here’s a snippet:
The Not-As-Good
There’s nothing wrong per se about the copy in a Mike Lee fundraising email I got this week about the SAVE Act. But I’m going to call it out because of the ask itself. It begs people to specifically donate $1 to help him pass the SAVE Act, which…makes zero sense and is the kind of weird CTA I hate seeing these days. I understand trying to use a timely news hook, but lying to people by saving that giving a dollar is going to magically help Sen. Lee get a piece of legislation passed in Congress is…gross, IMO. My other issue is that the WinRed page doesn’t even have a $1 donate button. Maybe an oversight? Maybe not? Still, tsk tsk. P.S. I do kind of like how wide the form is, though. I don’t see that very often…
An email from “GOP Research HQ” (aka Ann Wagner for Congress) links to a survey that requires people to donate to submit their responses. Boo. What’s more, the donate button amounts are super random and get weirdly high: $35, $100, $1,776, $496, and $1,000. Like, wtf are we trying to do to our octogenarian donor pool? Don’t like that.
Ok, so I can appreciate a sense of urgency as much as the next digital fundraiser, but this email from “Disturbing News” with the subject like “NO NO NO” is over the top. What’s more, the copy never identifies who’s doing the asking. Neither does the WinRed page. You have to read the FINE PRINT to realize it’s coming from Team Morrisey. And even then - do most people know who or what that is? No. Come on, people. Let’s at least have the courtesy of identifying ourselves.
Who’s Spending Where
P2P
This week’s text I want to highlight comes from Nevada Senate candidate Sam Brown. Here’s why I like it: We don’t think enough about how texts appear in our Messages app. But that top line IS like an email subject line, and this one is great. It was intriguing enough to grab my attention right away. Nice.
P.S.
Since we’re doing some good and not-so-good shout-outs this week, let’s talk about THIS text from Royce White, who’s running for Senate in Minnesota.
The copy on the WinRed page isn’t any better. We can do better, folks. This isn’t a winning message. This isn’t how we should be talking to voters, and it especially isn’t how we should be convincing women to vote Republican. FFS.
Industry Watch
This week’s Industry Watch goes back to our fav topic lately: fundraising! AND we’ve got a new industry expert to weigh in this week. Mike Hahn of Frontline Strategies knows a thing or two about the online fundraising space, and I’m thrilled to include his two cents on the state of play at this point in the election cycle:
The digital fundraising space is highly competitive and costly this late in the game. Less than six weeks out, donors want to see their money translating into visible, tangible actions. They expect their contributions to drive real results, like voter outreach or volunteer support, and ultimately contribute to the campaign's success.
For Democrats, they have the advantage in raising more small-dollar donations, particularly from an energized grassroots base since Biden dropped out. The higher volume of donations is allowing the Harris campaign to out-spend Republicans 20:1 online and allowing them to invest heavily in operations that are voter-focused, such as GOTV efforts.
It is essential for the GOP to highlight these drastic approaches in pitches, especially as they focus more on housefile sends where they'll net the most. Donors want to feel like they are directly contributing to these outcomes to counteract the Democrats, and the transparency of how funds are used becomes key to ensuring continued support.
Thanks, Mike!
2024 Watch
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week.
Truth and Courage PAC has a GREAT ad hitting Colin Allred for not defending girls’ sports. Watch it here.
The RNC ad about Kamala supporting taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners is LIT. And I love the ending: “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Watch it here.
Right for America PAC made news for booking a $40 million ad buy…and $37.2 million of it is going on broadcast TV, cable TV, satellite TV, streaming TV, and regional sports networks. Cool, cool. Read more about it here.
Good thing we can rely on Super PAC spending, AMIRITE? Read more here.
Yolanda Robinson is standing by here man (for now). See her 2-minute ad defending her hubby here.
The Grapevine
So…Trump World cut ties with some GOP fundraising vendors this week, per the New York Times.
Much ado about nothing: The “controversy” around Derrick Anderson, the Republican running in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, using a “fake family” in some B-roll is ridiculous, if you ask me. Huge fail for the NYT, which first “reported” this nothing-burger of a story. Am I wrong?
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
Are you even a Democrat if you don’t have a celebrity schilling for your campaign? Looks like Lucas Kunce in Missouri, who’s challenging Sen. Josh Hawley, has secured the John Goodman vote.
From the other side of the tracks:
I love that Doritos is bringing back its “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. Can you imaging how this type of contest would translate in the political world? Ha. I’d pay big money to see a campaign offer the chance to let a support craft a campaign ad. Just saying!
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!