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KEY HIGHLIGHTS

📥 Why Cassie joined Tech for Campaigns

💻 Tech expertise to effect electoral change

🧑🏿‍🤝‍🧑🏽 How teams are set up at Tech for Campaigns

📧 How email campaigns work for political campaigns

#️⃣ Even political email campaigns have KPIs

🎯 Super targeted campaigns drive impact

👍 Why endorsements are a valuable tool in the email marketing arsenal

⛏️ How to mine the campaign for insights and messages

🌱 Grassroots level campaigns have ripple effects

🙃 What are leading indicators that a state might flip?

KEY QUOTES

Why email campaigns for state-level elections are necessary

“We tend to forget and we tend to spend so much time focusing on the federal election, that we forget that the state-level elections are so important, and actually can often do more damage to our day-to-day lives than the president. Our state level officials in the US have so much power to impact our day-to-day.”

How federal elections can eclipse everything

“A lot of times, people running for federal positions got a lot more money. They are deemed a lot more important, and they’re in the limelight a lot more whereas the state elections have to fight a little bit more for money. And so, a lot of what we do is fundraising and trying to showcase why you should donate a little bit of money to our candidate, so that we can fight the good fight.”

Fundraising can change the course of a campaign

“So we have KPIs just like any other performance marketing campaign. So we have specific open rates, click through rates and fundraising goals that we set ourselves based on historical performance, and also what the candidate is looking to hit. $3,000 to $4,000 for a candidate could be a huge change in their trajectory to be able to run ads, and to get voters out. It could be the ability for them to rent a bus to go to the old folks’ home to get these people to the polls.”

Data analytics can unearth incredible insights

“It is that his opponent, Jeff Leach, who has raised a majority of their money through PACs, and only has 203 donations that are under $200. Meaning that individual local people are not donating to Jeff Leach. On the contrary, my candidate Lorenzo Sanchez has over 12,000 individual over $200 contributions. So this shows—I think that’s one way you can say: “Hey, looks like you’re appealing to the people. You’re doing a grassroots campaign. You are appealing to what the people are looking for.” And I think that’s a great indicator.”

FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW

Shamanth: I’m very excited to welcome Cassie Chernin to The Mobile User Acquisition Show. Cassie, welcome to the show.

Cassie: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be back. It was such a joy last time.

Shamanth: Absolutely. Certainly, it was very impactful the last time we had you on this show. And much like the last time, we’re not gonna talk about mobile user acquisition this time. 

Because prolific and such a superstar as you are with mobile user acquisition—as we were talking just before we hit record—there are two different fronts on which you’re fighting the good fight. Certainly, one with mobile user acquisition, but also around what we will be talking about today. You’re using your digital skills to drive political change, to drive social change. 

And I think that’s something that—speaking for myself—I know it’s possible in the abstract, but haven’t a lot of clarity as to what that looks like on a day-to-day basis. And that’s certainly for my own curiosity but also because these are decisions, these are strategies that impact us all, especially in America today. And I think it’s not just America-specific, even though that’s where you’re fighting the good fight. So I feel like this has far-reaching implications for everybody. For all of those reasons, I’m excited to have you back, Cassie.

Cassie: Yeah, I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to talk about this. I know I’m not talking mobile user acquisition again, but I think there’s just so much bigger shit going on. And I will be talking a little bit about using my skills and mobile user acquisition for good. But yeah, specifically not talking about that today. So excited.

Shamanth: Certainly, to be more specific around what we’re talking about, we are going to talk about your work for Tech for Campaigns. To set the lay of the land, tell us what’s Tech for Campaigns? And what inspired you to get involved?

Cassie: Yeah, absolutely. Starting from the beginning, I think this year has been incredibly frustrating in so many different ways. I really struggled with what actions I could do: I was protesting, I was donating. But I really didn’t feel like I was making a change.

And I love my day job. I really do. I love what I do on a regular basis; I’m super passionate about user acquisition. My team quite often doesn’t understand why I am so passionate about some stuff that is just our day-to-day. 

But, at the same time, I really wanted to feel like I was making a difference in the upcoming election in the US, which is probably the most important election we’ve ever had. I think we can say with confidence that this election will shape who the US becomes and what we represent. And also who is elected in office for the US tremendously impacts everywhere else in the rest of the world, which is just a really, really sad fact that Americans just do not like to keep their opinions to themselves and get involved where they probably shouldn’t get involved. 

Regardless of all that, I found this company, Tech for Campaigns and I was so excited about it. Tech for Campaigns was founded in 2017 by three entrepreneurs who thought, instead of volunteering money or their time by being a poll worker—which I did sign up for and some of that other stuff still is super, super relevant, what was more valuable for people in tech was that they could volunteer their expertise in web development, social media, data analysis, paid marketing, email marketing, and now Tech for Campaigns is the largest digital political volunteer network in the US, which is amazing. And I had never heard of them before this, and this is why I’m talking about them today: educating people in tech about what they can be doing to really feel like you’re making a difference. 

I talk to a lot of people in the US right now, and they’re struggling with the fact that they’re not making a difference. And so when I found Tech for Campaigns, I loved that it was on the state level, as well.

We tend to forget and we tend to spend so much time focusing on the federal election, that we forget that the state-level elections are so important, and actually can often do more damage to our day-to-day lives than the president. Our state level officials in the US have so much power to impact our day-to-day. 

Over the last decade, Democrats lost over 900 individual seats and control of 39 state government bodies; over the last four elections. So while we’ve regained some in the last two years with some seats in some scenarios, in the last two years on a federal level, we’re still really struggling on a state-level perspective. 

And that’s why I got involved: to feel like I was making a difference. And like I said to you when we first sat down, I’m super busy right now, because I do feel like I’m making a difference, which is really exciting.

Shamanth: Certainly, certainly. And that can be very fulfilling to know you’re fighting the good fight. And tell us a bit more about what the day-to-day is like? What projects, so to speak, that you’re working on? What does your day look like?

Cassie: Yeah, absolutely. So I want to head off with: I’m a volunteer. There are full-time employees of Tech for Campaigns. And so I’m only also recently involved in this election cycle, and they’ve been around for more than a couple because they’ve been founded in 2017. 

So let’s talk about how the team is structured. I run email marketing campaigns. I run ads all day, I run paid UA all day, and I have an email background as well. So I thought it could be fun to differentiate a little bit from what my day-to-day looks like. I’m running Facebook all day or Google all day. 

And so the teams are set up on Tech for Campaigns; you have a team of three people. You have a team lead, you have an email marketer, and then you have an analyst; each coming from an incredibly strong background. The last team I worked with? Everyone but me was from Google. So we’re getting incredibly top tier talent to help work on these campaigns. 

It is about a 5-7 hour commitment. But the commitment is not just a normal freelance contract, or commitment where you would work on the weekends or after work. It is during the day, which also we’re very lucky right now with work from home. I have more flexibility to take 10 minutes to write an email and stuff like that, which is really nice. 

So normally, my week consists of planning out what email content we want to send for the campaign. But right now, when we’re so close to the election, I’m working on Lorenzo Sanchez, running in Texas, and I’m working on Chokwe Pitchford, running in Michigan. Obviously 2 super important seats, especially in the state election. We’re really looking to flip their current incumbents from Republican to Democrat and turn it blue, which is really exciting. And hopefully we win. 

So then, I’m getting emails like: “Hey, we just got the Biden endorsement. We need to send an email out right now.” And so it’s in between meetings, working with my email marketer, or if they’re not available, writing the email myself. Working with their campaign manager to get that email approved, and then send it. 

Then we’re generally focused on two different things: we’re focused on ‘Get out the vote’ or fundraising.

A lot of times, people running for federal positions got a lot more money. They are deemed a lot more important, and they’re in the limelight a lot more whereas the state elections have to fight a little bit more for money. And so, a lot of what we do is fundraising and trying to showcase why you should donate a little bit of money to our candidate, so that we can fight the good fight.

Shamanth: Yeah. And there’s so many questions I want to ask because I’m ignorant about how a lot of this works. You did say the goal is to flip the seat, so to speak, and you said: “Hey, if it’s Republican, you want to turn them Democrat.” How do you connect your goals as an email marketer to what’s going to eventually happen as an electoral result?

Cassie: Absolutely.

So we have KPIs just like any other performance marketing campaign. So we have specific open rates, click through rates and fundraising goals that we set ourselves based on historical performance, and also what the candidate is looking to hit. $3,000 to $4,000 for a candidate could be a huge change in their trajectory to be able to run ads, and to get voters out. It could be the ability for them to rent a bus to go to the old folks’ home to get these people to the polls.

It’s operated very similarly to a performance marketing campaign, in which we have KPIs that we work with Tech for Campaigns to hit. 

We analyse our list. So we say: “Hey, we have this X number of emails signed up, what does this list look like?” That’s where the data analyst comes in. So they come in and they say: “This is the data we have on the list. I can actually supplement this with some third party data to get us more information.” 

So, for example, our analysts just went through a list and said: “Okay, 400 of these people are doctors. 700 people are teachers. 800 people are saying not employed.” So then we can start to hopefully create really targeted emails that speak to them about the issues that get them more inclined to donate. 

So for instance, one of my candidates is running in Michigan, where Betsy DeVos is a huge supporter of Republican candidates and gives a lot of money to Republican candidates. And teachers tend to not love her because she is not a great person. And so we would do a targeted Betsy DeVos email to teachers to get them to donate. 

And that’s the way we look at it, similar to: I’m setting up a Facebook campaign and I want to acquire the best users for Scrabble GO, or over whatever company I’m working at. I’m going to do this lookalike based on our top consumers. It’s a similar approach. It’s just a little bit smaller of an effort.

Shamanth: Certainly. I know you said you are tailoring the messages to the kinds of people you’re targeting. What have you found as messaging that inspires people to either donate or flip or change their political inclinations or willingness to vote?

Cassie: I haven’t really been on the ground, so I don’t really know what is changing people in Michigan or Texas to flip. But I can say that the emails that worked the best for us are definitely seemingly endorsements. When we get endorsements from higher, incredibly important people, people realise that that means that this person is incredibly valid in their run for office. 

Stacey Abrams recently endorsed one of my candidates, or Obama as well. Those emails do particularly well, because it’s basically similar to the way we would think of UA. It’s proving validity, and it’s like a review in the App Store that says: “Yep, this is a good app; you want to play this.” And that’s what the endorsements do. And I think that really helps drive that validity for the people who are looking to donate. 

You know, the lists can be very, very diverse. You could have a lot of people who are often donators; they’re actively donating to a lot of campaigns. And so these people are a little bit more looking for validity. They’re looking for: “Hey, who did Biden endorse? Okay, I’m gonna go after those people.” 

And then from a local subscriber perspective, they’re looking for the issues: “Hey, what are you fighting for for us? What are you looking for?” One of the emails I have going out next week is the top four issues that we’re fighting for. So that’s the kind of stuff that we’re looking at. 

And we’re now shifting; it’s like three weeks till the election. We’re also now shifting from a local perspective to: “Hey, get a plan to vote.” Early voting kicks off in Texas on the 13th. And early voting already began in Michigan. So find your polling places, make a plan to vote. That’s a big topic that’s really big right now.

Shamanth: Gotcha. Yeah. And you did speak about the issues you’re focusing on at the local level, is there a way you figure out: “Hey, we need to speak to maybe teachers’ rights.”—what you talked about briefly. How do you figure out what gets spoken about in terms of local issues; if there are five of them or ten of them?

Cassie: Yeah, so we talk a lot with the campaign. So we talk with the campaign manager, or we talk with the candidate. This is a state level election, so we talk with the candidate. 

We meet with the candidate to kick off a campaign, really get to know them, understand who they are, what their issues are. We have them fill out a survey from Tech for Campaigns, so that we have a plethora of information about what they’re passionate about, and what they’re fighting for. 

We use resources such as their website; we use resources such as what they are posting on Twitter and Facebook to help us fill out their emails. I’m emailing with one of our candidates on a regular basis, just to get an idea of what he’s fighting for. So I think it’s a little bit different, say, if I was working on Biden’s campaign. I probably wouldn’t be talking to him on a regular basis. But because it’s a state election, we’re able to just say: “Hey, what are you passionate about?” which is really nice. 

Shamanth: Yeah. Out of curiosity, why are you guys working at the state level, as opposed to, let’s just say, the federal elections? Again, I’m not super knowledgeable about the nuances. So tell us.

Cassie: I don’t think a lot of people are, and I transparently was not as well, before working for Tech for Campaigns. So this is why we’re talking about it, and this is why we’re here, right? 

So why state? First of all, there’s a lot of resources already being dedicated to the federal level. State is where you don’t have a budget or experts in a lot of different fields. Joe Biden probably has 15 digital marketing experts buying his Facebook and Google campaigns; he’s not wanting for resources. 

But on the state level, you’re hiring your friends and family, or you’re hiring a campaign manager that’s slightly less of an expert. A campaign manager that’s super great, but maybe not at the level of a Joe Biden campaign manager. Or you are so stretched thin doing a million different things that you can’t possibly also run an email campaign. And so that’s part of it. 

And additionally, state legislatures decide how federal and state districts are drawn. So it’s the buzzword that’s called redistricting. Essentially, they control the legislation on major topics from healthcare to education to equal rights. State races also raise little money and struggle to get attention. In order to reverse gerrymandering—it’s a little bit complicated. I encourage people to look up gerrymandering. I don’t want to try to just define it because I might mess it up. 

In order to implement progressive policies, we must start with winning back the control of the states. If we start winning back the control of the states, people will start to understand that the policies that are done on a blue level are better for you. And then hypothetically, hopefully, they start voting blue on a federal level as well. In order to flip the state, you have to have a majority of the house or state Senate that are blue, or Democrats.

Shamanth: Gotcha.

Cassie: I don’t know how many years Texas has been red, but it’s a long time. And so we are hopefully trying to flip Texas blue this year. And it’s a big project for Tech for Campaigns and a lot of pressure on it. 

Shamanth: Yeah. What are the leading indicators in terms of the KPIs you see that say: “Hey, this state could flip this time around?”

Cassie: We look at polls, but as we know from the last election, Hillary was up at this time versus Trump four years ago. So our polls? Great, and it’s a leading indicator, potentially. 

We look at donations. So for instance, a great indicator that we just recently had with a campaign that I’m on for Lorenzo Sanchez, just publicly came out. So I think I can talk about this.

It is that his opponent, Jeff Leach, who has raised a majority of their money through PACs, and only has 203 donations that are under $200. Meaning that individual local people are not donating to Jeff Leach. On the contrary, my candidate Lorenzo Sanchez has over 12,000 individual over $200 contributions. So this shows—I think that’s one way you can say: “Hey, looks like you’re appealing to the people. You’re doing a grassroots campaign. You are appealing to what the people are looking for.” And I think that’s a great indicator. 

So I think polls and understanding the grassroots and local interaction that the campaigns or the candidates are getting, but that’s honestly not something that I track on a regular basis. That’s more for high level, state level Tech for Campaigns people. I’m just really focused on getting my candidate to win, which will be part of the puzzle piece to flip.

Shamanth: Excellent. Yeah. And it’s only by fighting at the grassroots level, at the state level, for your candidates that aggregates into the national level policies, even the state level and national level policy changes. Which is why I think a lot of what you do I find inspiring, because you’re donating your time, and you’re making a difference. 

Cassie, this is certainly something I learned a lot from, as I expressed earlier on, certainly something I have a great deal of curiosity for because this is a very defining time, certainly in America. 

All of this has implications everywhere in the world. Because people want to know how to make a difference, how to make a change, and they aren’t entirely clear how to do it, and what you’ve expressed just now I think illuminates what things look like at the grassroots level that can enable people to actually make a difference. 

This is perhaps a good place for us to start to wrap, Cassie. But before we do wrap, can you tell us more about how people can find out more about you, about Tech for Campaigns?

Cassie: Yeah, absolutely. The best way to find me is on LinkedIn; I’m not super active, but I will answer your message. I love talking about this stuff. 

And also just look up Tech for Campaigns. And I think right now, we’re pretty much full on volunteers for this election season. But absolutely keep in touch with Tech for Campaigns. They’re always looking for more help. Except for a few individuals who are full time hires, there are hundreds of people volunteering to make this happen. So next year, contribute your time and in two years, contribute your time. It’s incredibly rewarding. And truly does feel like I’m making a difference, which is, you know, selfishly really nice.

Shamanth: Certainly. Excellent, Cassie. We will link to all of that in the show notes. And, as before, thank you so much for being a guest on The Mobile User Acquisition Show.

Cassie: Of course. Thank you so much for having me.

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