Some people are already tired of the presidential campaign season. The negative ads are already flowing like the sewage they sling. Horse race news coverage makes us long for American Pharoah's actual horse races. Presidential email blasts are gearing up, and we all know how fun those are to get multiple times a day.

Seth Godin, marketing expert and owner of one of my favorite email newsletters, recently announced his campaign for president. Six paragraphs later, he folded his operation, but in the mean time I learned a lot.

His premise is that politicians are way behind the curve (emphasis mine):

The brand of the future (the candidate of the future) is patient, consistent, connected, and trusted. The new brand is based on the truth that only comes from experiencing the product, not just yelling about it. Word of mouth is more important (by a factor of 20) than TV advertising, and the remarkability word of mouth demands comes from what we experience, not from spin or taglines or a campaign slogan.

Even Proctor & Gamble, Godin notes, has realized that building a relationship is better than buying an ad or spamming an email list. But politicians are back in the Mad Men era.

If you’re interested in joining Godin’s campaign for better campaigns, check out one of the guides below and add your email address to get more content like this.