I was reading Jakob Nielsen’s article ‘Bush vs. Kerry: Email Newsletters Rated’ and it was interesting what little changes each side could have made to improve their contact with potential voters.

What stuck out to me were the three main goals of a political campaign’s website and how the newsletters could help achieve those goals. Simply put, the three goals were to energize party faithful, collect donations and answer undecided voters’ questions.

Coincidentally, this week I received a newsletter from the DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee). So I’ll use that newsletter as an example of how even today organizations still do some things right and some things wrong.

First, the newsletter definitely energizes the party faithful. The title of the newsletter is “Right-Wing Implosion.” It talks about the Downing Street Memo and how Ted Kennedy is very unhappy with it. It talks about GOP fundraising and Santorum’s rising unpopularity with his constituency. All in all, the party faithful are foaming at the mouth.

Second, throughout the newsletter there are repeated requests for cash to defeat the right-wingers. The newsletter closes with the infamous “P.S.,” which again asks for cash to match what the Republicans are bringing in.

Third, the newsletter walks through different areas where the “right-wing” is imploding. Even though it doesn’t give detailed information about the areas, there is a general sense of information an undecided voter could gather from it. Granted, this newsletter typically goes out with the party faithful in mind, not the undecided voter.

The main problem I see with this newsletter is that I see too many of them. There’s a limit to how many times a single person can donate. With telemarketing and other, more direct approaches to raising cash, the calls or the interruptions were far more infrequent. But now, with these newsletters, each contact with an inbox is contact with a potential dollar, and they don’t let that slip through their fingers.

Therefore, it’s less news and more fundraising. They should rename it a “fundraising letter.”

Check out the newsletter I got here: DSCC Newsletter from June!