Objective

The Michigan GOP partnered with Campaign Inbox to increase its fundraising right as they entered the heat of the 2020 election cycle.

Challenge

With just six months left until the election, the Michigan GOP put its trust in Campaign Inbox by turning over its housefile to us to make it more profitable and engaged.

After not having had success with peer-to-peer texting on their own, the Michigan GOP also wanted Campaign Inbox to explore new avenues for revenue like SMS given Michigan’s critical importance in both the presidential and Senate elections of 2020.

Approach

To begin the transition process of the housefile, we first sent a series of engagement emails and immediately saw massive success. Our first engagement email turned out to be the party’s highest grossing email without a direct fundraising appeal.

We utilized both John James’ rising star appeal and intense opposition to Gretchen Whitmer to engage the email housefile and set it on track for record-breaking fundraising. Topics that performed especially well as emails were then repurposed into text messages.

Knowing that members of a state party’s donor list tend to be more deeply invested in the intricacies of their state’s local politics and issues, we relied heavily on the local Michigan news cycle which involved Gretchen Whitmer’s orders, legal battles to stop voter fraud, and polls showing how close John James’ Senate race was.

Results

Conclusion

Our approach successfully accomplished Michigan GOP’s goal of increasing their housefile’s revenue potential and engagement. We were also able to crack the code on how to make SMS work for their party despite their previously unsuccessful attempts. Finally, following their agreement to prospect for new donors, Campaign Inbox increased their revenue by 168%.