It’s safe to assume that since Joe Biden is running for President of the United States, he has recruited some of the best marketing brains on the planet to help him win this office.

Which is why I took a look at his website. The first thing I found is what you and I know of as a landing page or squeeze page.

On the right side of the page is a photo of Joe – no surprise there. And on the left side of the page they asked for my email address, without ever actually asking for my email address.

Here’s what was on the page:

Sign Now: Join our campaign!

Joe Biden is running for President. Sign your name to stand with him:

Followed by three fields to fill in.

Notice his marketing people are not saying, “Give us your email address.” They’re asking me to sign my name, which serves as a small token of commitment on my part, making it easier to ask for something bigger later.

(For the uninitiated: The Cialdini “commitment concept” is something like the old-school “foot-in-the-door” idea, where accepting a small idea or buying a small item changes a “prospect” into a “customer.” What’s more, reaffirming the earlier choice begins to build trust. The marketer can now begin asking for bigger and bigger commitments or sales.)

Smart.

But… the three fields they ask you to fill in are email, zip code and phone, with email being the only required field.

Notice there is no field for name.

And yet the headline is asking me to sign my name.

Wow.

So simple. So slight of hand. And so effective.

The visitor isn’t even thinking about the fact they are handing over their email address.

Clever.

And it gets better.

On the next page are 5 top issues – each with a check box – and they want to know which ones are most important to you. “Check all that apply.”

Why? The inference is they are taking a poll to see what matters most to the American people. They want the reader’s help in shaping policy.

The reality is they’re figuring out which buttons to push when they ask the reader (aka new subscriber) to donate.

Is climate your big issue? They’ll talk about climate when they email you. Is it health care? The Supreme Court? Whatever you choose is what they’ll use in their fundraising emails to you.

Testing their system, I used the sixth option which was fill-in-the-blank and I wrote in a popular issue that wasn’t even listed.

Guess what the very first email I received talked about?

The issue I’d written into the blank space. Oh yes, and would I donate to help Joe with that exact cause?

These guys are good.

They capture email addresses under the guise of asking you to ‘sign your name to stand with him.’

And they segment their list to optimize contributions.

Are you segmenting your lists?

Imagine if you knew the hot button of everyone who joins your list – how much more effective would your marketing be?

(Curious what happens when you go to Donald J Trump’s website? I was. On the day I visited the site, the first thing I encountered was some sort of loading error. There was a barely perceivable phantom pop up that severely dimmed the rest of page. Once I finally located it and clicked it away, I was offered the opportunity to sign a waiver that said I would not hold Donald J Trump liable for contracting Covid-19 when I attended at his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally. Ummm… no thanks.)

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