eBook Marketing: 9 Lessons From A Winning Presidential Campaign
Now that the presidential race is over, the pundits are analyzing the Obama campaign and how they pulled off a resounding win over McCain. Now this is not to say that McCain and a failed Bush presidency didn’t contribute to McCain’s loss but that does not take away from the Obama campaign’s performance.
So here’s what the pundits came up with and how you can implement these same lessons into your ebook/information product marketing for stellar results
The winning formula included: following your dream, the right message, focus, discipline, strategy, an inspiring candidacy, thinking outside the box, learning from your mistakes, and never giving up.
So let’s look at these elements.
Follow Your Dream: Hiliary Clinton was the odds-on favorite to win the nomination of the Democratic Party. But Barack Obama thought that he would be a better president and he could unite the country in a way that Clinton couldn’t. Never mind that we had never had an African-American president, and that is was just 40 years since people of color were literally dying trying to get equal rights! I know I never thought I would see an African-American president in my lifetime. But Obama followed his dream and as they say: the rest is history.
The Right Message: They had their finger on the national pulse and believed that people wanted change and that it could be achieved and they never changed that message. They also believed people were tired of the “divide and conquer” Karl-Rove politics so they stayed away from gratuitous name calling and they stayed true to their message in their advertising.
Lesson: When you put your finger on the pulse of your customers and what they want and stay true to your brand you make more sales and create more loyal customers.
Focus. They knew what they wanted to achieve, they stayed focus and kept their eye on the ball.
Lesson: When you know what you want as an ebook/information marketer and focus on it and don’t allow yourself to be swayed by get-rich quick offers and opportunites that are not in alignment with your goals, you can achieve great things.
Discipline and planning. They worked day in and day out and they didn’t let themselves be taken off message by outside forces. They also looked ahead and planned every move meticulously. And they responded quickly to anything and everything that was designed to divert their focus.
Lesson: When you know what you want, you keep the end in mind, you work backwards, and you plan how to get there; you don’t allow yourself to get distracted and work toward your goals on a steady basis and that’s when you will see positive results.
Strategy: They looked at the races in 2000 and 2004 and saw that they needed a different strategy if they were going to win. And they decided it would be a 50-state strategy instead of just going for traditionally blue states and then winning a few battleground states. They also decided that they could win by appealing to new voters; they could get more people involved in the process. And they used new technology (the Internet) to reach them.
They didn’t have to convince people who didn’t want what they were offering to want it, instead they found new voters who were excited about their message and in the process created a new paradigm for raising money and engaging “the people” in presidential campaigns!
Lesson: You need a strategy to get where you are going. And that strategy should include finding ways to reach people who will be excited about what you have to offer, not trying to convince people who don’t want what you have to want it! And if you can create a paradigm shift in the process even better because then you will be “THE” guy or gal who dominates your niche!
An inspiring candidacy: Obama didn’t just deliver his message, he did it with great enthusiasm, poise and steadiness.
Lesson: Passion and enthusiasm are infectious while steadiness is respected and gives people confidence in you and your products and services. They draw people to you and excite them about you and your products and services. In fact, there’s a book I always recommend to my clients called How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success in Selling by Frank Bettger- a very inspiring true story about a guy who couldn’t sell his way out of a paper bag until he learned how to cultivate these qualities and became a top
salesman.
Thinking Outside The Box: In devising their strategy, the campaign didn’t do what had always been done, they took a fresh approach.
Lesson: If you only do what other’s have done before you, it’s hard to break through all the noise. If you can come up with a new way of doing something or delivering it or a new strategy, it could just be the thing that puts you over the top!
That’s why I created the Quick-Start 3-Day eBook Authoring Workshop (www.quickstart3day.com/main.html) because I was frustrated trying to write an ebook and it was taking too long! I wanted a process that I could depend on that would create real results in a short amount of time. And I knew if I was a writer and I was having a hard time writing one, I couldn’t imagine what other’s were going through. Its a new and revolutionary delivery system and it works!
Learn From Your Mistakes: After Obama’s win in Iowa, he didn’t push as hard in New Hampshire and lost to Clinton. So when the polls said Obama was poised to take the presidency he warned his supporters and workers not to let up right to the end which turned out to be a winning move.
Lesson: The definition of insanty is doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results. When something doesn’t work learn from it and move on!
Never Give Up: When Clinton started winning all the big states Obama could have folded but he didn’t. He kept his focus, he used his discipline, he stayed true to his vision and kept on trucking!
Lesson: Follow your dream, create a winning message, focus, stay disciplined, come up with a smart strategy, strive to inspire people, think outside the box, learn from your mistakes, and NEVER GIVE UP! Continue to grow your list, create new relationships, products and services and just keep going for it!
If you’d like to share you thoughts about this post please feel free to comment below.
Enjoying this blog? You can subscribe in the upper right hand corner of this page. If you want to learn more about ebook writing and marketing from Ellen Violette, The eBook Coach go to www.theebookcoach.com and receive 9 Free Secret eBook Tips To Making Money On Line and The eBook Profit Secrets Newsletter. Or if you want to learn The 7 Biggest Mistakes People Make Authoring An eBook And How To Avoid Them go to: http://www.quickstart3day.com/7mistakespreview/
November 7th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Ellen,
Congrats on your new blog. This post is right on! I liked the way you took the Obama game plan and related it to succeeding in internet marketing. The lessons you’ve presented are often times hard to implement, but certainly required if one is to be successful in any worthy gaol.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:03 am
The reason Obama won and McCain failed could be seen from the very beginnings. Obama has the gift of what the Irish call Blarney. He can charm his audience as seen by the tearful almost worshipfulness as he gave his acceptance speech. However the Republican party could never come together and find their knight in shining armor. We “settled” as a whole for McCain- not that he’s not a great guy but he’s the old tired worn guy we’re used to and he just didn’t captivate.