Having subscribed to John Kerry's (and numerous other Democratic candidates') e-mail subscription lists, I was pleased to see Jakob Nielsen bring his usability mantra to the realm of the presidential e-mail newsletters.
Nielsen makes a great point in noting that a vague subject line is a surefire way to get ignored by the recipient. How many times do I want to venture into an e-mail entitled "Don't Stop Now"? I mean, other than when you're engaging in e-mail relations?
The most glaring thing I remember about Kerry's e-mails is that I never really wanted to open them, because they he always seemed to be asking for money. Kerry successfully made me feel like one of two million sugar daddies, but I never could tell of what other value I could be to him and the campaign. Here we see Nielsen make the assessment that, in the last week of campaigning, Kerry was soliciting funds and Bush was turning out the vote. Consequently, Kerry ended up with extra cash and Bush ended up with more votes. I'm not sure one can blame these phenomena directly on the e-mail campaigns, but they do represent a nugget of truth about the two strategies being waged.
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Yes!!! I posted on this recently as well. He was asking form money up till GOTV weekend. Every email i still get from John Kerry is a fundraising solicitation (i'm assuming) I opened them for about a month after the new year but now I just automatically hit the delete button for any emial from John Kerry.
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