British politics is hooked on Trump-style begging emails

7 months ago 8

ARTICLE AD BOX

LONDON — “We’ve been stitched up, John.”

So reads the subject line of the latest pleading, personalized e-mail to your POLITICO correspondent from a Westminster political party — complete with a handy link to donate cash to the cause.

With an election looming, British politics — which has long looked to the United States for strategy tips — is awash with begging emails aiming to drum up small donations and mobilize supporters.

It’s a technique pioneered by Barack Obama, and then aggressively deployed by Donald Trump during presidential campaigns in the United States. And the techniques used are strikingly similar, regardless of where the party asking for help sits on the ideological spectrum.

“They’re watching,” warns one provocative subject line in our inbox from the center-left opposition Labour Party.

“I need your full attention, John,” demands the fringe, ultra-nationalist Britain First.

There’s “a personal ask” from Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

“DO NOT IGNORE,” thunders Conservative Party London mayoral hopeful Susan Hall in a message which includes a big red “DONATE” button at the end.

The strikingly similar missives show how the science of extracting cash is a distinctly non-partisan affair.

While fundraising emails have been around for almost as long as the tech has existed, much of the current playbook derives from innovations made by the Obama campaign in 2012, when a team of dedicated writers and data analysts perfected a cocktail of conversation, guilt and clickbait that drove donations and engagement through the roof.

More than a decade later, British strategists are still taking lessons from across the Atlantic — and with good reason, experts say.

“Take the Tories, I’d imagine they probably have a small team doing emails,” says one former strategist for the centrist Liberal Democrats, granted anonymity to freely discuss the tricks of the trade.

“A single U.S. Senate campaign alone would have substantially more staff than that. They tend to be able to test things a lot more … If you’re thinking about what works best, following their example is probably a pretty good idea.”

Crucially, emails aimed at drumming up support for a political party benefit from fine tuning — and that’s largely down to a technique called “A/B” testing, which allows varying subject lines and content to be sent to different subscribers to see what works.

It’s common for as many as four versions of the same email — all with slight tweaks to the language or images — to be sent at one time, said India Thorogood, who led the Labour Party’s membership mobilization efforts during the 2019 election campaign.

The data that flows back about each version, including the open rate, number and size of donations, length of time spent reading and how many unsubscribed, is tracked and analyzed by strategists to further hone their tactics.

‘You’ve let us down‘

If the 2012 Obama campaign left Westminster’s digital gurus starry-eyed, Trump took things to another level.

One of the strategies his team mastered was the suggestion a failure to donate could land you, the supporter, in the bad books of senior party figures — or even personally Trump himself.

Britain’s governing Tories have already tried similar tactics.

In October, after a spate of by-election defeats. the Conservatives sent an email in the name of one of their campaign managers calling for cash and canvassing support.

“The team will report back to the Conservative Party Chairman to show him the list of people helping to lead the fightback,” the email claimed. “Will your name be on the list, John?” A second email landed the next day from then-Deputy Chair Lee Anderson “following up to make sure you’ve seen this.”

Such guilt trips are par for the course when it comes to political e-begging.

But ex-Labour strategist Thorogood, now a messaging and campaigns consultant, warns that parties need to be careful not to turn off already-committed supporters. “I caution against that kind of stuff, because the tests might show you it’s getting the most clicks, but actually is that going to lead to long term disillusionment?”

“The problem is if you hammer your list with harsh-sounding emails … and then say you want them to come down and campaign on a rainy day in Lambeth, it makes it a lot more difficult,” said the former Lib Dem strategist quoted above.

Weak spot

Campaigns are increasingly looking for creative ways to smash open supporters’ piggy banks.

Parties routinely spend tens of thousands of pounds on Facebook and Instagram ads purporting to show voters how the latest government Budget will save/ruin their household finances.

Others might focus on a hot-button topic like animal welfare or bin collections — all with a request to provide a name, email and post code to “show your support.”

The real aim is to hoover up as much data about a potential supporter as possible — then use this to work out the smartest opening salvo for an email.

“Obviously, the huge thing for us was Brexit,” the former Lib Dem digital guru recalls of the party’s pro-Remain stance. “If people were interested in us because of that then that’s initially what we’d speak to them about, but then we’d start to introduce them to other aspects of the party.”

Even distinctly analogue forms of campaigning help when it comes to honing the emails.

“If I’m in a Conservative/Labour marginal and I tell a Tory canvasser I voted Lib Dem then that goes in their system,” the same Lib Dem strategist quoted above said. “Then I’ll get something saying: ‘Look at the result last time, you want to keep Labour out, right?'”

“All of this stuff can be used to change your vote, but it can also be used to raise money,” they added.

Snakes and ladders

But in a world of millionaire donors, corporate cash and trade union support, is chasing piecemeal pledges really worth the effort?

For smaller parties on the fringes of politics, the sums raised may help keep the lights on — but for the bigger parties, there are PR and mobilization benefits beyond the balance sheet.

Swathes of small donations from supporters can be spun to show popular support for a candidate. Jeremy Corbyn raised millions in small donations during his time as Labour leader — feeding into his team’s narrative he represented the many, not the few.

Emails are also seen as key to getting potential supporters on the so-called “ladder of engagement” — campaign-speak for turning passing interest into enthusiastic support.

Getting even a £1 pledge is a significant step, says Josh Harvey, who has worked on Conservative leadership campaigns.

Harvey, now a consultant at Crestview Strategy, said while emails sent during a leadership contest tend to be less confrontational, the journey for potential supporters is exactly the same.

“It is making that cognitive link … The key is even though you’re looking at a very small amount of money, once someone’s spent money on something they feel automatically, literally, bought into the process,” he said.

To cement that, new joiners are added to email lists with content reflective of their role as “part of the team.” More behind the scenes updates, and ultimately more requests to share content on social media, recruit other supporters and increase their contributions will follow.

During the last Tory leadership campaign, that included getting supporters to lobby local Conservative MPs to back a specific candidate — something Harvey says led to concrete changes in support for those hopefuls.

With parties showing no sign of putting away the email begging bowl, Thorogood warned such tricks can only go so far, however. “The risk is in coming across as a bit American, a bit corporate,” she said. “We still have to have that personal relationship with supporters.”

Read Entire Article