Political Campaign Mailers: Your Hidden Ace Cards

Randy Lisciarelli
May 21, 2018

How Political Campaign Mailers Work

With political campaign mailers, you can continue to build support up until election day. You’ve already campaigned and spread the word, but now you need to close the deal. To do this, you can use direct mail, which is a fast and cost-effective way to get your name, face, and message in front of voters. If you’re looking to reach voters in a way digital marketing can’t alone, political mail is a must-have for your campaign.

Whatever your goal is – reminding people to vote, announcing an endorsement, or sharing why you’re the right choice – Political Mail can help. As part of a multi-channel marketing strategy, political mail enables you to reach the audience you want. You can control the timing of the mail, allowing you to send a reminder postcard the day before the election. You also can integrate political mail with digital marketing efforts to reach voters whether they prefer print or digital mail.

We encourage you to read this article to familiarize yourself with the ABCs of Political Mail Campaigns.

Reading this article you’ll:

Learn more about creating effective political mail
Learn how political mail can help your campaign
Discover the difference between saturated and targeted mail

How to create effective political campaign mailers

If you want to get your face and message in the hand of voters, consider political mail.

You’ve probably seen your fair share of political mail during the last election cycle. The goal of the design is to draw the reader’s eye to the important things and then to reel them in to read the details.

The 5 main elements of political mail are:

Picture(s) of the Candidate
Name of Candidate
Slogan
Contact Information
Call to Action

Political mail will often contain pictures of the candidate as the focal point, with the name close by and clearly visible. Emphasizing the name and picture allows you to familiarize the reader with the candidate, even if they just scan it really quickly and then move on. They will also include the tagline or slogan, giving the voter something to remember the mail by. Remember, the goal is to leave an impression!

Unfortunately, just sharing some information isn’t always enough to get them to vote. Calls to action on political mail need to elicit action. That’s why you want them to incentivize with a strong Call to Action: “Visit Our Website”, “Don’t Forget to Vote” or “Donate to the Campaign”.

You can also do this by providing a website on your mail and asking them to visit your website. When they visit their personalized URL, they will be greeted by a message tailored to them. From here you can offer more information about your campaign, contact information, polling locations, and more.

What can political campaign mailers do for you?

Here are four reasons to choose political mail:

Introduce yourself to voters. As a political candidate, you have to introduce yourself to voters. In a political campaign, you want your name, face, and message remembered. A well-written and designed piece of political mail can do that. It will draw the reader’s eye with a picture of the candidate and their name, attaching an image to the name and vice versa to make it more memorable. If the message is well-written and engaging, they are more likely to remember it.

Target specific people. Direct mail is cost-effective because you can target specific people or groups to receive your ads. With exceptional interaction rates, you can also be sure that you’re maximizing your budget by only targeting high-potential voters.

Integrate digital and direct mail. Digital and physical advertising complement each other well. You can integrate digital marketing and direct mail to expand your reach. Link personalized website URLs on your mail, include social media pages on your mail, and more. This invites voters to learn more about you, find information and makes it easy to track results from direct mail.

Red tag special treatment. Like Email, political mail can be scheduled for delivery on the date that you want when it is processed as “red tag” mail. Red tag political mail is mail that receives special expedited handling by the USPS. The bulks of mail receive a red tag on the container, tray, or another form of storage, causing it to be treated as First Class mail. This cuts down processing time, allowing you to get mail delivered on your schedule.

How can Accurate Mailing Services help you with political mail?

We can help you create and distribute effective political mail without blowing your budget or alerting your competition.

With our many years of experience printing direct mail, we’re able to cut down expenses and pass the savings onto you. An example of this is gang printing, which involves using as much of a paper sheet as possible for larger or different projects, lowering the cost of production. We can implement this gang printing so that fewer materials are required to create your mail, and we’ll ensure you receive the bulk postage rate when it comes time to mail.

Our design services will make your mail stick out and catch the reader’s eye so that you can effectively share your message. We can help you choose graphics, implement proven design styles, and integrate any calls to action you desire.

We will also make sure that your mail receives the “red tag 57” treatment and is delivered on the day that you choose. Planning to send a last-minute mail to take down your competition? Deliver it the day before the election so that they don’t have a chance to respond.

Whether you’re planning to send 1000 or 20,000 pieces of mail, we can help you effectively reach your audience on your schedule.

Targeted or saturation political mail?

When it comes to your approach to direct mail, you have two options. You can choose to send out mail to as many people as possible, or only those that you choose. If you are starting a campaign, you would likely benefit more from saturation mailing. If you’ve got a decent voter base but want to convert undecided voters, it may be better to use targeted political mail.

Every Door Direct Mail is a form of saturation mailing. It involves sending mail to every person in a specific area or mail group. The pieces of mail are not addressed to anyone, in particular, making it harder to form a connection with the voter. However, they are cheaper than targeted mail, require no mailing list, and are great for increasing awareness.
Targeted mail targets specific groups or individuals rather than just mailing everyone. The people are usually gathered in a mailing list based on information like previous voting records. This allows you to choose people who are more likely to vote or who are on the fence. By choosing who you message, you increase the response rate and save money because less mail is ignored. You can also personalize the mail, taking advantage of digital integrations to leave a better impression. Targeted mail is more expensive but more efficient, and is great for convincing voters.

How can we help you with your targeted or EDDM political campaign mailers?

Using our resources, we can compile a list of potential voters to send your mail to. You can specify who you want to reach – frequent voters, specific income or age ranges, and more – and send mail just to them. This way you aren’t targeting those who don’t vote and wasting money. For example, you may want to target supporters of your competition with your discrediting piece rather than voters that support you.

If you want to go wider with your approach, we can help you find the right places to use EDDM. However, rather than creating a list of targets, we would instead target a specific mail route, neighborhood, or district. For example, you may have focused on digital ads previously, but are struggling to gain support from seniors. Using EDDM in areas that have an older population is a great way to reach them and rally support.

Once we know who to send the mail to, we can begin printing and mailing the ads for you. You don’t have to worry about filing or mailing anything yourself, and we’ll help you qualify for bulk mailing discounts.

How effective is political campaign mailers?

A successful political mail campaign can be measured in responses and interaction. Sure, the end goal is to get votes, but the most your direct mail can do is relay information. You will have to earn the vote from your content and message:

Political mail is effective for reaching voters because it forms a connection with the reader.
Political mail is seen as more important than digital forms of mail by 69% of people according to USPS.
USPS has also found that 55% of people look forward to receiving mail, making it less likely that they discard it right away.
If you use targeted and personalized mail, seeing the person’s name on the mail can make it more personal and important.
Holding a piece of mail makes it easier to remember the contents.
Mail increases the emotional response, allowing you a better chance to relay your message.

Political mail is also effective because you are nearly guaranteed to have your mail seen.

According to USPS, 98% of people check the mail daily.
If you combine that with the 77% of people who sort through mail right away, your mail is likely to be in front of your audience and in their hands.
Once they scan it and discover the political ad, 60% of voters will read it right away.

Let Us Help You Elevate Your Election Campaign, get a Free List Report and Quote for your Political Mail.