"Time to wait is up. We have a plan!"
That's what it said in the last e-mail that citizens received from the students in the rebellion and where "general mobilization" is announced. With one click, the letter was sent to hundreds of thousands of e-mail addresses.
As an editor newsletter Međuvre, and now a veteran of this method of communication, I will try to explain why the mailing list will be the greatest strength of students in the campaign and preparation for election control.
What is a newsletter and how is it sent?
A newsletter is, in general, a newsletter delivered by electronic mail. It can be regular, like In between he arrives on Wednesdays at noon, and can also do so as needed, as students do.
Newsletters are used for promotions, marketing, practical notices or as journalistic products in their own right.
If you tried to send a letter from your email to thousands of other addresses at once, you probably wouldn't have a good time and would be suspected of fraudulent activities.
That's why platforms such as Mailchimp, MailerLite or short. In them, newsletters are arranged - text, images, surveys... - and sent to as many addresses as you want at the same time.
How many people do students reach by email?
In December, the students announced that, in just one day, they had collected over four hundred thousand "signatures" from citizens. Actually, it was contact information that people voluntarily left.
This fascinating figure was confirmed to "Vremen" from several sources. With it, the rebellious students immediately jumped over practically all parties, movements and initiatives like ProGlas, which also have large bases. Everything except the Serbian Progressive Party, which practically has everything about all citizens, and it's not difficult for them.
Until today, the number of "signatures" collected by students could only grow, but that does not mean that there will be as many of them in the e-mail database in the end.
Namely, some citizens do not have e-mail. Others have inactive. Or they wrote the address wrong, say with gail instead gmail. Or their "inbox" is full and does not receive new emails. This journalist could write something about that in the top ten.
Furthermore, if the email is sent, it does not mean that it will be opened, let alone read. The rule is - the larger the audience, the lower the email opening rate. However, it is possible that here the importance of things influences people to read more.
How to get to the action
In the last newsletter, the students refer people to a questionnaire where they can enter their data and report whether they want and can be controllers, members of the mobile team, help in the campaign or help with donations.
A mass newsletter, therefore, functions according to the principle of a funnel. A huge number of addresses, a slightly smaller number of correct addresses, a far smaller number of people who read what is sent to them, an even smaller number of those who fill out the survey and an even smaller number of those who want to engage. And, in the end, only a part of those who will actually engage.
In other words, the newsletter lives on the initial mass. If we assume that the students have about 400.000 emails in the database, even if only 2,5 percent of people - and that's one in forty - would be engaged, that would be ten thousand people!
It's already a serious campaign and election day army, especially since the newsletter isn't the only way to mobilize.
Organization is the mother of success.
Newsletter platforms offer to divide subscribers (those signed up to a mailing list) into countless intersecting groups.
In this way, students will be able to separate those who signed up for the door-to-door campaign from those who would like to donate food. They will be able to separate those from Belgrade, Požarevac and Leskovac into separate city groups and so on.
It can all be programmed, so that you don't have to do it on foot. Furthermore, special emails can be sent to people - one to controllers, another to those who offer donations, and a third to those who haven't opened emails so far.
In the end (this is only a logical assumption of the author of the text) quite small operational teams can be reached. Let's say, all controllers in Uzice, and then even more narrowly, controllers at this and that polling station in Uzice.
They can connect by phone (since the survey in the newsletter also leaves a phone number), for example in groups on Viber or, even better, Signal.
Progressives read
The newsletter, of course, is not a super-secret communication channel, nor is it intended for such a purpose. There is every chance that a good number of people from the government, police and services are signed up to the student mailing list and will infiltrate various supporter groups (if they haven't already).
You just have to be aware of that. Confidential matters remain private. Everything that is sent by newsletter, even to a few dozen addresses, can be broadcast to the whole world in the same second.
How much is that?
Newsletter platforms are paid either by the number of subscribers or by the number of emails sent during the month. For such a large base, such as a student base, it costs around 1.500 euros per month.
There is no cheaper and more efficient way to reach so many people - directly to the inbox, and with consent!
Even if only a minority regularly reads emails, there is no news portal that can guarantee that a text will be read by a hundred or two hundred thousand people. Actually, such texts are rare. Let's not talk about newspaper circulations.
There is almost no television show that will be watched regularly by so many people, nor are there any such shows on YouTube.
After all, imagine that you want to contact 400.000 people from a call center. Just so that no one answers the phone and you only spend 15 seconds on the call, you would need 200 volunteers to answer the phones for eight hours! And if we count on people answering the phone, then those 200 volunteers would be busy for days or weeks.
The newsletter cannot be censored
Finally, mass media in Serbia are mostly under the control of the government. The rest of the critical media is under the crusher - they are suffocating primarily financially and through intimidation, and there have also been hacker attacks. By the way, "Time" is not given, and that fight you can support here.
It is not unthinkable - because it has already happened elsewhere - that social networks are also "twisted". Although, even now they are a chaotic way of communication, good for viral videos, bad when you have to organize. Especially since you have to constantly obey the algorithm.
The newsletter is immune to that. It takes place far from algorithms and everyone chooses whether or not they want to receive an email. There is still a direct connection between the sender and receiver of the message.
That's why the newsletter will be the golden cock of the rebellious students in the campaign.
Real journalism costs money, and we will not be bought by tycoons and corporations. Support us with a one-time or monthly donation. The time for it is now!
