Hillary Clinton may be getting run over in the press as regards her own emailing habits, but it’s the embattled former Secretary of State who’s running over the presidential field when it comes to campaign emails. That’s the final tally of a head-to-head comparison of the August email campaigns of Clinton and Jeb Bush conducted by eDataSource.
Hillary whupped W’s little brother in every regard. Her list numbered 3.2 million to Jeb’s 2.1 million—50% bigger. Hillary For America emailed 206 campaigns during the month to Team Jeb’s 32, and Jeb’s spam rate was an amateurish 44% compared to Hill’s respectable 4%. Jeb actually beat Hillary in read rate (23 to 19%), but the Democrat’s lower score is indicative of her campaign’s more finely attuned personalization skills. Hillary for America sends so many campaigns because, like Obama For America in 2012, many emails are focused on specific issues to ferret out subscribers’ key issues.
Subject lines for Jeb Bush take on general, somewhat jingoistic, themes: “We’re going to win this,” “Shifting into high gear,” and “Stand with Jeb” are common examples. Clinton campaign emails shine the spotlight on the subscriber, not the candidate: “Here’s how the New College Compact affects you,” “You’re invited: Join Hillary in New York?” and “Can you help before Tuesday?”
“The Democrats continue to demonstrate they are farther along in email marketing,” says eDataSource CMO Arthur Sweetser. “Hillary’s people learned from the Obama playbook. They’re being casual. They’ve tested it and have found that’s the way to play the game.”
Analysis of how the candidates’ lists overlapped with other lists expose Jeb as towing the same train as other Republican candidates while Hillary seeks kindred spirits from liberal Web destinations. Ninety percent of Bush’s list overlaps with Scott Walker’s and 63% of it with Ted Cruz’s. Among Clinton’s biggest overlaps are 40% with change.org and 31% with democrats.org.
“It’s new school versus old school. Hillary for America displays a level of sophistication, while Jeb’s campaign is sharing names and IP addresses with other candidates,” Sweetser says. “If Cruz or Walker do something to pee people off, then the spam rate goes up for Jeb, too.”
