February 17, 2007

While some folks are eager to compare John McCain's website to Leni Riefenstahl films, I'd rather evaluate the site (and other candidate's websites) as a marketing vehicle.

As an internet marketing professional, I've shared my thoughts on online political marketing. Sadly, few candidates have taken my Dos and Don'ts to heart, so I don't they'll care what I think about their websites. But they should!

John McCain

JohnMcCain.com is an attractive site with a nice clean layout. The designer wasn't afraid of white space and the prominent "Donate Online Today!" button isn't at all obnoxious. My favorite thing about the site is the "Undecided?" dropdown menu item. McCain isn't just using the web to get money or rally the troops. He seems to understand that people use the internet to get more information. Customer already go online to research purchases big and small. Why wouldn't they go online to research Presidential candidates.

To be fair, I have a couple of criticisms of the site too. First, audio loads automatically. NO! Please don't slow my computer to give me some inane "welcome" message. If I want to hear anything on your site, I'll click something. Second, I'd be surprised if the site was designed to make it very crawlable to search engines. If I was on John McCain's staff I'd make damn sure that my site would come up on google searches for the candidate. It doesn't They purchased keywords at Google, but a better design might have saved them some money.

Final Grade: B+

John Edwards

JohnEdwards.com, on the other hand, is the first result from a Google search for the candidate. The site, however, makes a terrible first impression. Whose bright idea was it to have a landing page with nothing but a picture of the Edwards family and a blank for my email address. Hey Edwards campaign, I'm not going to give you my email address right off the bat. Don't start our relationship by asking me for things. You're the candidate. You need to give me information, not vice versa.

It doesn't get any better once you get to his actual website. The dropdown menu items aren't immediately understandable. "One Corps"? What's that? I don't know why you would make something that obscure into a menu item. I also think it's a huge error to give most of the site's real estate to a universal health care message. Is this John Edward's site or is it a health care site? People vote for the person, not a single issue - at least for President.

Final Grade: D

Hillary Clinton

As with Edwards, a search for "Hillary Clinton" sends you straight to her website. For the most part, I like the look of this site. It's not as attractive and artistic as McCain's site, but it's clean and easy to navigate. However, it lacks a simple "here's what I believe in" message. That's because this site is for people who are already going to vote for Hillary. Supporters might think calling themselves "HillRaisers" is cute, but I think the undecideds out there are going to find that obnoxious and it will simply reinforce the negative perceptions of Clinton (she's shrill). Clinton should have used the site to appeal to people who might agree with her on the issues but not like her. She doesn't. It's a fatal flaw, in my opinion.

Final Grade: C-

Barack Obama

I mispelled a search for "Obama Barak" and still got to the right site, so good job, Obama web team! From a design perspective, Obama's website is a disaster. It's way too busy and has far too many cutesy icons all over it. On the other hand, I think the Obama campaign is using their website to address their candidate's perceived shortcomings. People think Obama is an empty suit. So, to address that, the "issues" tab at the top of the page is comprehensive. Other than the ugly overall design, my main criticism is that once you're in the "issues" area you can't easily navigate from issue to issue. You have to choose each issue individually from the top menu.

Final Grade: a solid B.

Rudy Giuliani

A search of "Rudy Giuliani" gets me a sponsored link to the campaign website. It's also worth nothing that both the McCain and Romney campaigns are also buying that term. That seems like a waste of money. Are people looking for information on Rudy really going to just give up and go over to the Romney site instead? I doubt it.

Although, given how crappy Giuliani's site is, maybe his campaign should hope not many people visit it. Like Edwards, Rudy seems to think that the internet is about getting something from visitors to the site. Most of the space on the homepage is taken up with requests for information and money. It's a huge turnoff. The candidates need to give us something, not the other way around.

Rudy's site does have some issue information, but honestly, I think many people will be so annoyed by the tone of the site that they won't get past the HUGE "gimme gimme" section to read more about the candidate.

Final Grade: D

Gah, after looking at Guiliani's site, I'm just depressed. Why don't campaigns get it?

Posted by kris at February 17, 2007 09:17 AM

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