I spent the last two weekends before the 2008 Presidential election in Florida, the state made famous by the 2000 “hanging chad” debacle.

While there, I had the opportunity to witness first-hand the grassroots organization built by the Obama campaign. I realized then that Obama was a master at relationship marketing.

Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on customer retention and satisfaction, rather than the “make a sale” transactional marketing. Relationship marketing recognizes the value of keeping current customers, versus the cost of constantly trolling the waters for new customers.

In Obama’s case, relationship marketing took the form of getting out the vote; specifically voters who fell within the target demographic, but who hadn’t voted for years. In effect, these voters were “current customers” in that they were registered Democrats, but in past years hadn’t made the relationship connection enough to cast a vote.

In 2008, the Obama team (at least the one I witnessed in Florida) used every campaign minute left to get out the vote; to encourage voters to take advantage of early voting, to give rides, to station attorneys in poor, rural areas where intimidation might be a factor. In most instances, the campaign was about reaching out person-to-person, not group-to-group.

So what’s the lesson here? As consumers, we want to be treated as individuals, not numbers. The big wave of e-mail list marketing that took over the Internet the last few years is on its way out the door in favor of relationship marketing.

All an Internet marketer has to do is look at Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, et al, to realize that the holy grail of word-of-mouth buzz is being fed through one-on-one relationships.

What Next, Marketer?
Pick the social network where your target audience lives. Then begin building relationships, not marketing messages. Build your fan base, be a resource, have a personality (brand), and make friends. Too easy?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the election returns yesterday – and why Barack Obama was so successful. The reasons, of course, are many. Economy, war, hopelessness, being mired in a broken political system–all messages and issues that will get out votes in just about every election.

But beyond that, I attribute at least part of the success to the Obama campaign’s brilliant use of relationship marketing. Yes, they did the big TV ad blitz . . . but they added a strategy (and philosophy) not seen in campaigns in my lifetime. Building a voting base one person at a time.

Through word of mouth marketing, massive person-to-person canvassing, and crafting messages that spoke directly to “we the people” this campaign was wildly successful. Plus, the strategists realized that part of the relationship we want to build with a new administration was one devoid of negativity, divisiveness, exclusion, and dirty tricks.

Congratulations to President-elect Obama, and best hopes for a new era of how we do business with one another.