The fact that the email was sent before the historic moment is symbolic of the power of the media outlet and what it meant to the Obama campaign. This observation serves as a warning to businesses: emails are more than just a means of communication.

The use of email in the campaign to garner strong support also provides companies with an excellent example of how those who rise to positions of authority recognize, reason and decide on the choices they must make. Exploiting the full understanding of this can translate into a huge competitive advantage. Yes, many people use electronic media to communicate nowadays. But how many CEOs use electronic messaging to connect directly with their customers and partners to drive their product and service messaging?

Companies now have a success story and a plan to transition their use of email from a “one of” fringe ways to push products and services, to “the” way to anchor a marketing campaign. This is a culture change, not a technology change. Clear and constant communication between the recognized leaders in the company and their customers by electronic means is the new way to reach “buyers” and win.

So how do companies make this transformation? Here are two suggestions:

1. Review the development process of the product or service. Most of the way companies bring an idea to a product or service is based on methods stemming from the industrial age. That no longer works in the digital age. Market dynamics have changed and traditional methods are no longer efficient. Constant interaction with customers is necessary to ensure that the product or service hits the mark when it is launched.

2. Design launch campaigns that allow executives to use electronic messaging and connect directly with customers and partners. Then build a fuller campaign using the other media. This is a cheaper, faster and, as we just witnessed, more effective way to scale and boost your messaging.

If this transformation seems hard to fathom, just take a walk around a high school or college campus and watch students use their cell phones to send text messages. Then imagine if they are at the workplace and the text message they are reading is about your product or service. The genius of the Obama campaign was to visualize this, make the personal connection through the electronic medium and push a message of change. Now this change includes companies.