President Obama’s inauguration was yesterday.

He became President, in part, by being a good marketer (as they said on Mad Men, the President is a product, too). He has been a good marketer by being a transformational figure in the realm of communication (the first Blackberry President, some say).  The Obama campaign is now the case study on how to use social media or Web 2.0 marketing or whatever you want to call it.

This is not news, by any stretch, but it is so significant that it’s worth stating. And it’s something the savvy small business owner should be paying close attention to. The Obama story is one that any small business owner or entrepreneur can identify with: a come-out-of-nowhere, unknown-to-hero, overnight success theme runs throughout. If you are a small business owner, Obama has proven that this is how to communicate in the 21st century. Especially if you want to beat larger, more well known competitors.

Why was the Obama campaign so successful? Because their strategy was sound on the fundamentals of marketing and they had a secret weapon. What was the secret weapon of the Obama campaign? Email.

Through email, the campaign was able to build relationships with activists and sympathizers. I recently spoke with a client of mine who was (and is) an Obama supporter. She had never met him personally, but she received emails from him regularly. Through these emails, and the fact that he addressed her by name, she felt as though she was an important part of his campaign. Because of her growing relationship, she was motivated to do more. She wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

Think about that for a moment. Email, which we all take for granted, was potentially the most important marketing tool used by the Obama campaign. Sure the videos on YouTube get all the glory, but it was email that paved the way.

When messages were created, produced, and posted on places like YouTube, it was email (and to a lesser extent Twitter) that got the message out to supporters, who in turn got the message out to a larger audience. Obama supporters knew who the Vice President candidate would be at the same time as the press, because he kept supporters informed via email. When he needed to raise money, he asked via email.

Email is not new technology; it was invented in 1972. So many of us take it for granted. It’s so simple, it’s easy to overlook it and assume it couldn’t be a credible, viable marketing tool.  Obama may (or may not) be able to affect change on the economy or the war. But he is the best case study out there on how to use email marketing and to bring communication strategy to the 21st century.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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Here’s a few more bits about the inauguration and the direction the White House is headed with it’s communication strategy:

• Macon Philips, Director of New Media for the White House writes about communication, transparency, and participation.
• Change.gov has transformed into WhiteHouse.gov. Tim O’Reilly (of O’Reilly books) has a good take on this.
• Obama’s chief speech writer is the youngest such writer in recorded White House history. He wrote the inauguration speech (after much research) in a Washington, D.C. Starbucks.
• How well did our young speech writer do? Bert Decker, communication expert, evaluates the Obama Inauguration speech.