How Obama and Clinton ask for money
22 January 2008
Obama’s contribute / donate button
Recurring Monthly Contribution
Hillary Clinton’s donate page asks for recurring credit card payments just above the ‘Amount’ boxes on the form.
Obama offers the facility low down on the page.
Is the position of the recurring credit card option important?
Where should payment options appear on a form? Subscription marketers have tested this for years, and don’t bother testing it much anymore because the results are usually the same. Options to do with the term of the subscription go just above the ‘Amount’ tick boxes. That is what Hillary Clinton has done with her contribution form.
Obama has placed the ‘Recurring monthly’ option at the lower left area of the form. This position will reduce the number of contributors who make recurring payments.
How long will the recurring payment money come in?
If Hillary keeps her campaign going, her recurring credit card income will officially come until November 2008. (That income could cover some of her previous over-spending.)
But payments may not end then. We will see. As any good subscriptions marketer can explain, there are various ways of extending the term of a subscription, or diverting payments for a different use.
Some donors may have difficulty canceling their recurring credit card payments. If that happens you will see complaints arriving on the Internet in blogs and chat rooms.
How to stop recurring credit card payments
To cancel a recurring credit card payment, the subscriber must contact the organisation that is debiting his account. And that is not the credit card company — Visa, Amex or Mastercard etc. – nor is it the person’s bank.
Payment collection and cancellation is administered by the departments organising and controlling Obama’s and Clinton’s fundraising. They are an integral part of the political machine, just as a publisher will have an Online marketing team.
Often, a subscriber will not know who or how to contact the people responsible for cancellations. They will make the mistake of writing to their bank or credit card company. So the payments will continue each month.
Even when the card expires, or the account is terminated, the credit card company may keep the account open to make payments that are due in future years. Each company has a policy on how long they will keep your expired or defunct account open.
Clinton’s contribute / donate button
Level of debt
Recent figures showed Clinton had significantly higher debts — at the time of writing she owed $8.7 million, not including the $5 million she herself loaned to her campaign.
Obama has about $625,000 in debt to be paid.
To see an up-to-date set of figures, see the link below.
How do donors find the website?
When a donor clicks through from a search engine, sometimes the donate page comes up, sometimes he is directed to the home page. This happens with either site.
Price points
Obama asks for $15 as the lowest price point
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Clinton asks for $5, but with a recurring credit card payment option close to it.
How much do donors give?
For Obama, in March 2008, more than $40 million came in from around 442,000 contributors, including 218,000 first-time donors. The average contribution level was $96.
How responsive are website donors?
When Hillary Clinton lent $5 million of family money to her own campaign, David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign manager sent an email to previous donors asking for further money.
Email appeal text
“The Clinton infusion of $5 million – and there are reports it could end up being as much as $20 million – will give them huge resources for the next set of primaries and caucuses. Thanks to you, we have raised more than $3 million since the polls closed on February 5. But we have no choice – we must match their $5 million right now.”
Obama more than matched Clinton’s $5 million loan in just 24 hours. He has the advantage of more individuals he can appeal to.
Clinton has more funds from big vested-interest political groups who face a ceiling on contributions and have either given the maximum, or have a proviso that the funds are hers if she is elected as the Democratic nominee.
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Fundraising by Obama and Clinton
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