ROI: Why the Internet strategy pays off in dividends
Posted by David on June 10th, 2007
My liberal friend Justin Hamilton blogs an interesting item worth sharing:
PBS News Hour had a great segment last night on how the internet is factoring into the ‘08 Presidential campaign.
According to the story, a cumulative $2.5 million and change has been directed by all the candidates towards online politicking (staff, technologies etc). For that meager investment the ‘08 candidates are getting 10x the return: $25-30 million raised online. So why don’t they dedicate more funds and staff towards it?
As Justin notes, you can listen to the PBS podcast here.
One of the biggest problems I’ve encountered as a pioneer in the tech + Republican politics sphere has been asking Republican candidates to value the service I provide. For some, the Internet as a viable campaign tool is still a fable. A fairytale that they read about in every newspaper and hear about in every political circle they’re chatting in.
It’s out there, they just don’t think it would make a difference in their campaign. At least not yet.
The solution, I believe, is more stories like this PBS story. True ROI. Facts, figures, and empirical data which support the resources that we ask them to part with which could go toward the media budget.
This will be the cycle which changes everything.
At the end of the day, the numbers add up. And that’s a good thing.
UPDATE June 11; 9:15 AM: Team Romney passes along their favorite portion of the PBS story for your review:
2 comments to “ROI: Why the Internet strategy pays off in dividends”
ROI is one good way to explain the benefits of technology to the political marketplace. I know many businesspeople who run for office would appreciate that angle of the sell. But I think an even more basic argument needs to be made on the effectiveness of interactive marketing overall. I still get asked “How many people are on the Internet? And how many are actually registered voters?” These are fair questions to ask.
Much of the media coverage of technology covers large campaigns, more questions need to be answered for how technology can positively impact even the most local campaign.
The biggest challenge continues to be the sell with everyone at different levels of understanding and use of technology and even worse- pols who have been doing it the same way for so long and can’t get out of the direct mail mentality.
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“For that meager investment the ‘08 candidates are getting 10x the return: $25-30 million raised online. So why don’t they dedicate more funds and staff towards it?”
Realize that there will come a point where pouring more money into online will reduce ROI. It’s called diminishing marginal return. That doesn’t mean doing so is bad. Just don’t expect to see eye-popping ROI.
It also means you jump on modern media while it’s hot. Those that do it in a smart way have a competitive advantage over their not-so-smart opponents.