You've got campaign contributions!
The hottest thing for political campaigns this year isn't a catchy campaign song or even a stylish hat. It's your grandmother's @aol.com email address.
Data show that AOL emails are, perhaps unintuitively, worth a lot more money to political campaigns than addresses from other domains.
President Barack Obama proved the power of email marketing and fundraising in his two election wins. And in 2016, AOL emails are proving to be pure gold to campaign managers.
That's because people who still use AOL addresses tend to be older and more inclined to donate to political campaigns, according to data from Fluent, a consumer marketing and advertising technology firm. Fluent provides services to many political campaigns, including some of the 2016 president candidates.
AOL email addresses represent just a tiny fraction of overall addresses, only about 4 percent. But they represent 22 percent of all the money brought in, with an average donation of $159.
That blows away Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AT&T email accounts, which make up the vast majority of emails out there.
Just look at Gmail, which is used by half the population. It barely brings in 13 percent of overall donations, and has an average of just $31 each.
Age is the main factor here. Younger voters tend to get on a lot of campaign email lists, but they don't give much money. Older voters — those above 60 — make up a tiny part of email lists, but they give over half of all contributions.
Computer-based algorithms can tailor email solicitations for different contribution amounts depending on how much they know about you. That's why this kind of data is so valuable to campaigns.
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