Obama “Links” His Way to History

11/06/2008

The online marketing strategy for President-Elect Barack Obama’s seems to be link baby link,” if numbers are anything to go by.

President-Elect Barack Obama’s online marketing strategy seems to be “link baby link,” if numbers are anything to go by. According to Yahoo Site Explorer, Obama outlinked John McCain by more than two to one. Specifically, there were 2 million links to BarackObama.com, and a bit more than 900,000 to JohnMcCain.com. According to Yahoo Site Explorer, Obama outlinked John McCain by more than two to one. Specifically, there were 2 million links to BarackObama.com, and a bit more than 900,000 to JohnMcCain.com.

So, what lessons can Internet marketers learn from this?

Know your target market: This is an obvious point, but one that’s worth mentioning. Obviously, then Senator Barack Obama’s target market was Democrats and liberals. He added to his base by pulling in younger voters, for example, as well as more minorities (African Americans and Latinos primarily).

Know your target market’s preferred mode of communication: Piggybacking on the first point, President Elect Obama’s constituency of Democrats and liberals favor the Internet. They are more active online, participating in online communities, sharing stories with friends, etc.

Hire Smart People: Perhaps one of the key decisions Team Obama did early on was to hire Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook. This gave Obama’s campaign a huge advantage in getting organized online and taking the ultimate advantage of social marketing and networking.

Build Your Site for Interactivity: Early on in the campaign, Obama’s team made a choice to build the site for interaction and communication. It had a bigger Internet presence than Senator McCain’s, and an energized constituency, which leads to the final lesson Internet marketers can learn from this campaign.

Cater to Interests Your Target Market Cares About: Once Obama’s team had properly identified its base and hired some of the best in the business to oversee its online strategy, they made sure to keep interest strong by catering to issues that Democrats care about – e.g., the environment.

The Final Lesson

Although Senator Obama linked his way to a new title – President-Elect Obama – the underlying message for all Internet marketers is to build a strategy for attracting a “loyal constituency” to your site. Links, buzz, and traffic will follow.

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