What can a presidential election teach you about marketing your company? Believe it or not, there are surprising marketing tips that’ll make a huge difference for your business.

Think about it… A presidential candidate is selling himself to a country, much like you’re selling your business and services to your target audience.

Presidential candidates all over the world use proven marketing tactics. If you want presidential-level success, start looking at successful modern campaigns.

Marketing Tip 1 – Leverage the Foot-in-the-Door Technique

The foot-in-the-door technique has been often used to great effect, including during presidential election campaigns. The effectiveness of this technique dates back to an experiment conducted in 1966…

The experiment showed that homeowners were more likely to trust a company after it had established a connection with them. Marketers gained trust by first asking a simple, unobtrusive question. Days later, a bigger request would follow. The trust established during the first conversation made the second request possible.

This is something that Hillary Clinton used during her campaign, and she did it through her squeeze page.

The idea? Promoting herself as the lesser of two evils. First, she asked voters to, “Stand with Hillary against Donald Trump’s dangerous, divisive language.” Once they’d agreed to that, a second form asked them to sign up to get texts from her.

And it worked.

After all, Hillary won the popular vote, despite losing the election.

You can also apply this marketing technique. It offers an easy and personal way of establishing trust with clients and customers.

Start with a small request or a simple question, then move to a bigger request or a more personal question. This lets you slowly get your foot in the door… Enough to eventually get an invitation to step inside.

Marketing Tip 2 – Use the Word “You” a Lot

During the 2016 presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump used a simple message to great effect: “I’m With You, and I will FIGHT for you, and I will WIN for YOU”.

The word “you” has a powerful connotation when speaking to an audience. It helps you speak directly to the reader or listener, or in Donald Trump’s case, the American voter. That simple phrase implied that he understood things from the voter’s perspective.

It showed interest and helped convince people that the candidate stood for them. This is nothing but a powerful presidential marketing technique. You can use the same tactic when dealing with clients and customers.

Using the word “you” a lot emphasizes how your services are suitable for your clients. It helps them better understand what you’re offering and why they should consider you over your competitors.

Marketing Tip 3 – Use Email Marketing Effectively

In 2012, Obama won 51.1% of the popular vote. He also won 332 Electoral College votes (out of 538), defeating Mitt Romney. 

The Obama reelection campaign focused heavily on email marketing and social media. But both candidates did that. Why was Obama’s approach more successful?

The first reason is very simple: properly designed landing pages. Landing pages are still one of the best ways to get an email list going.

An effective tactic involves steering the viewer’s gaze towards the sign-up form. For Obama’s campaign, that was simple to do. Showing a picture of the president looking in the direction of the form was enough.

The second reason Obama’s email campaign was so successful involves personalized subject lines, which viewers are more likely to click. You can use the same tactic in your own email marketing campaign. Address the reader personally. Spike their curiosity, perhaps by mentioning a solution to their problem.

Obviously, you can take a page from Obama’s playbook. Come up with better subject lines, redesign your landing pages, and steer readers toward the form… But don’t try to force it, and keep the form simple.

Marketing Tip 4 – Keep the Message Simple

Back in 2008, Obama had two catchy slogans: “Yes We Can” and “Change we can believe in.” It doesn’t get any simpler than that. The slogans were easy to understand and straight to the point.

“Yes We Can” quickly turned into a popular chant during rallies. It’s effective because it’s so simple. People like to get behind things they can understand without effort.

The same thing applies to marketing campaigns. Whether you’re marketing services or products, explain your business or brand with a few impactful words.

This works because consumers and clients are after a clear thing. They’re looking for instant gratification when they come across a new brand or business.

Your business can grow if you apply this simple marketing tip. Your message needs to be instantly recognizable and understandable. If you make people think too much about your offer, they probably won’t enlist your services.

Marketing Tip 5 – Reposition Your Competition

By now, everyone knows the “Crooked Hillary” nickname. It’s the name that helped Donald Trump reposition his opponent, Hillary Clinton. It may not seem like much, but it gave Donald an edge among voters in key demographics.

The result of that election is history.

…But what does repositioning your competition mean for you?

In simple terms, it means reframing public opinion (just like Apple did in their famous, “PC vs Apple” ads). In Hillary Clinton’s case, it generated enough distrust to change her standing among voters.

That’s one of the things Trump did to reposition his competition. The other was identifying problems that involved the whole country.

And of course, he just happened to have the solution every time.

Problem with immigration?

Promises to build a wall and have another country pay for it!

Issues with infrastructure?

Promises to spend billions on new infrastructure!

Trump showed that he understood the problems his key demographic has, and proposed solutions to them.

Show your clients why your competitors can’t help them like you can. Be the solution to all their problems, even if they don’t know they have a problem yet.

Are you tired of launching bad digital marketing campaigns that fall flat? Read more about creating an effective marketing campaign (and fixing any mistakes you might have).

Conclusion

Effective marketing tricks work in many situations. This includes getting people elected as leaders of powerful countries. So the question is…

If simple marketing strategies can win presidential races, why aren’t you using them to grow your business? In fact, the effectiveness of the tips listed in this article was first proven in a business environment.

Are you having a hard time applying these tips?

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