Howard Dean Campaign Uses Lyris ListManager to Help Build Community

Nicco Mele must have one of the most interesting Internet-related jobs today. As webmaster for the Howard Dean for America campaign, his responsibilities include helping to grow an email list of a few hundred supporters at the beginning of 2003, to over 500,000 and counting — rapidly.

Goals and Challenges

The Dean campaign's ambitions are huge, but time, staff and budgets are limited, so Mele has become adept at creative strategies for maximizing his resources. For example, the campaign uses a variety of affordable software tools, including PostgreSQL, a full-featured relational database server that runs on Linux and is available at no cost.

The Solution

Mele had used Lyris ListManager in several previous jobs, so he knew that the software could meet his needs for managing everything from small private discussion groups (run internally within the campaign) to large-scale announcements mailed to a nationwide database.

Mele has so far avoided the fancy html or rich media content favored by some other political strategists. This is partly a resource issue, and partly a matter of style. Instead, the campaign follows some basic strategies that may be helpful for emailers outside the world of politics:

• Consistent "From" Address: The email "From:" name appearing in the Dean campaign's emails varies — sometimes it will come from candidate Dean himself, sometimes from campaign manager Joe Trippi, or other key figures in the campaign. However, the "From" email address is nearly always the same: info@deanforamerica.com. Mele hopes that this consistency helps recognition by supporters' email clients and avoid bulk mail folders.

• Clear Calls (and Progression) to Action: Dean emails are generally short, focused text-based messages, but always contain a few easy, low-commitment calls to action.

  For example, one mailing carried a subject line of "4 ways to help Dean win (.. and we're not asking for money.)." Readers who click on a link pledging to vote for Dean personally are then asked to help recruit other Dean supporters in their own states, to support caucus efforts in Iowa and New Hampshire, and finally to contribute financially to the campaign.

• Use of Technology (and a Backup!) to Build Community: The Dean campaign has attracted widespread notice for its innovative use of Internet technologies in community building, such as using the Web site www.meetup.com to help supporters find each other and organize local gatherings.

But voting was not limited to supporters with email addresses on record. Another 26,000 supporters were given the option of returning paper ballots or voting online, while 88,000 automated telephone calls went out to supporters with no listed email address.

The Results

The Dean campaign followed up on the votes according to its proven strategy, taking those who voted on the public funding issue through a progression of invitations to action, including getting involved locally. And naturally, those who voted to refuse public campaign funds were invited to back up their sentiments with financial contributions or pledges. More than 100,000 personal supporters voted, contributing and pledging a total of $5.3 million.

As the elections near, Mele expects to lean harder on ListManager to integrate more closely with other campaign tools, to deliver the speed and message volume required to get out the vote in each state, to provide highly focused segmentation based on supporters' interests and voting precincts, and to track key success metrics.

"We're delighted with ListManager's performance," says Mele. "We know there's a lot more we can be doing, and we are looking forward to taking full advantage of the ListManager platform."

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