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Direct Mail

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63%

of voters in a 2022 Post-Election survey say

DIRECT MAIL

was the most credible source of

political advertising

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62% �of Gen Z �voter’s �TRUST DIRECT MAIL �more than online political advertising

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��Direct Mail is Informative and Educational, Persuasive for Minority Voters:�With More Action Taken After Receiving Direct Mail ��

Read the piece upon receiving it:

79% of Black Voters
69% of Asian Voters
76% of Hispanic Voters
66% of White Voters

Follow news about that race more closely:

72% of Black Voters
64% of Asian Voters
64% of Hispanic Voters
56% of White Voters

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Advantages and Drawbacks to Direct Mail

Advantages:

You can provide the most detailed information to a voter
Most directly targets voters
Political mail legally has to have priority delivery by the USPS
The mailperson “knocks” on all the doors-EVEN apartments

Drawbacks:

Mail takes planning
Costs can add up quickly
Reach fewer voters depending on the budget
A voter usually only looks at a piece for 5-10 seconds, so you gotta make it stand out

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How to Create a Strong Direct Mail Piece

Understand your audience-YOUR VOTER

Cite your references and don’t make them up
Make an emotional connection with the voter
Make it easy to understand in 5 seconds
Your mail should show that the candidate is motivated by something other than political ambitions.

Pieces are from Superior Blue Strategies

Knowing who you are sending mail to is key to understanding what content to put on your mail. You will not send the same mail to voters who on average are young, do not have children, do not care about school systems and work out of district as you would a middle age families who are invested In school systems and work in the community.
For any political or statistical claim, put a footnote sourcing it! By nature, people are skeptical of political campaigns and will not accept claims as facts without a proper source. This will boost your credibility and trustworthiness to voters

Do not put too many words on your direct mail. Most voters only skim read your mailer, so your headlines need to be bold, and give the information you are trying to get across. Focus on having 1 main message per mailer, and include an image/images that really push the message home.
40-60% of mailer should be image(s)

Connect with the voters. Make them feel as though you understand all of them, and you hear their claims. You are just like them and they should know it.
Postcards: most cost effective. Showcases branding.
Foldouts: good for if you are a new candidate. Easy way to get a lot of information out in one with images
Letters: Can be generated quickly but not the most effective. Very few people will read a whole letter with few images.

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How to Create a Strong Direct Mail Piece

Make sure that you have whatever legal disclaimer you need to have on the piece�
Google Translate is NOT the way to do it in language mail pieces. Find someone who can do it for you, or hire a reputable translation service�
Make sure you are using the correct dialect

Pieces are from Superior Blue Strategies

Knowing who you are sending mail to is key to understanding what content to put on your mail. You will not send the same mail to voters who on average are young, do not have children, do not care about school systems and work out of district as you would a middle age families who are invested In school systems and work in the community.
For any political or statistical claim, put a footnote sourcing it! By nature, people are skeptical of political campaigns and will not accept claims as facts without a proper source. This will boost your credibility and trustworthiness to voters

Do not put too many words on your direct mail. Most voters only skim read your mailer, so your headlines need to be bold, and give the information you are trying to get across. Focus on having 1 main message per mailer, and include an image/images that really push the message home.
40-60% of mailer should be image(s)

Connect with the voters. Make them feel as though you understand all of them, and you hear their claims. You are just like them and they should know it.
Postcards: most cost effective. Showcases branding.
Foldouts: good for if you are a new candidate. Easy way to get a lot of information out in one with images
Letters: Can be generated quickly but not the most effective. Very few people will read a whole letter with few images.

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Direct Mail Design

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!
Good photos can make a mail piece
Plan a photo shoot
Should be 40-60%
Branding > Headlines >Text
Large, consistent font
Make it so that a voter's eyes move over the whole piece
You can use QR Code on your mail to drive people to your website for more information or to a voter registration form
Put election dates on all of the pieces, and if it makes sense, add in the �voting times (the GOTV pieces you send, especially)

Pieces are from Superior Blue Strategies

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Some Direct Mail Strategy

Target voters-use whatever system is available �
Repetition Matters-in both language and images�
Plan it early - but be flexible�
Start the “drop” timeline around when the last piece

of mail will arrive, and work backwards�

Base arrival times on the content of a piece

Photo from shutterstock.com

Photo from shutterstock

Make sure you have a specific target universe in mind when sending out your mail. Sending it to all young voters will likely not yield high response or attention. Older voters may respond better.
Use a voter database, field data and/or a mail consultant! There are professionals that
Repeat, repeat, repeat! Find your message (s) and stick to them! Hammer them home! Make your name and your message known and remembered!
Having a mail plan at the start of your campaign is a good idea, but everything is fundraising based. You can plan out all the mailers you want, but if the miney is not there you may have to drop them. If you have the money and need to push back against your opponent, add a mailer. A mailing consultant/strategist is the expert and can help you plan this out- but the general plan should be there for the beginning that you can add to. 1-2 pieces of mail will not stick in someone’s mind. 4-12 is a good planning average.
Your timeline will depend on how many mailers you plan on sending out.
Make a timeline around when you want your last piece of mail to ARRIVE. You will need to account for multiple weeks of editing, printing times, and actual mailing time. On average, plan for about 7-10 days for sending, printing, editing and a month prior to all of that for a first draft. Plan your last piece of mail first, and repeat the timeline for all other pieces of mail back from that.
If you are planning on branding your opponent, or pushing a specific message about them, that should be donwe at the beginning of the campaign, not the end. So that you can repeat the phrase often to voters and have them recognize it
Always plan on having a piece of mail right before the election to get your name in people’s heads one last time

Other timeline notes: Have a drop box set up so you (and your team) can continuously add photos to it that you can use later at a moments notice in mail.
Do not get psyched out if your opponent sends out lots of early mail. A later mail blast of multiple pieces will stick in peoples minds more than ones months and months before

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Some Direct Mail Strategy

Think about the district layout-it takes an extra day or so for rural mail�
Seed your mail-have a few people in different areas let you know when the mail arrives for them�
Do a big push towards the end of the campaign�
Do NOT forget about federal holidays when planning, since mail is not delivered.�
Plan for how your state votes (i.e., mail-in-ballots)

Photo from shutterstock.com

Photo from shutterstock

Make sure you have a specific target universe in mind when sending out your mail. Sending it to all young voters will likely not yield high response or attention. Older voters may respond better.
Use a voter database, field data and/or a mail consultant! There are professionals that
Repeat, repeat, repeat! Find your message (s) and stick to them! Hammer them home! Make your name and your message known and remembered!
Having a mail plan at the start of your campaign is a good idea, but everything is fundraising based. You can plan out all the mailers you want, but if the miney is not there you may have to drop them. If you have the money and need to push back against your opponent, add a mailer. A mailing consultant/strategist is the expert and can help you plan this out- but the general plan should be there for the beginning that you can add to. 1-2 pieces of mail will not stick in someone’s mind. 4-12 is a good planning average.
Your timeline will depend on how many mailers you plan on sending out.
Make a timeline around when you want your last piece of mail to ARRIVE. You will need to account for multiple weeks of editing, printing times, and actual mailing time. On average, plan for about 7-10 days for sending, printing, editing and a month prior to all of that for a first draft. Plan your last piece of mail first, and repeat the timeline for all other pieces of mail back from that.
If you are planning on branding your opponent, or pushing a specific message about them, that should be donwe at the beginning of the campaign, not the end. So that you can repeat the phrase often to voters and have them recognize it
Always plan on having a piece of mail right before the election to get your name in people’s heads one last time

Other timeline notes: Have a drop box set up so you (and your team) can continuously add photos to it that you can use later at a moments notice in mail.
Do not get psyched out if your opponent sends out lots of early mail. A later mail blast of multiple pieces will stick in peoples minds more than ones months and months before

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Basic Budgeting for Direct Mail

Direct Mail is the best way to reach voters, and it should be a large portion of your budget, especially in down-ballot races, because name ID matters!

One simple way to guesstimate a budget:

# of households x average price per piece with postage x # of pieces=mail plan budget

A good mail consultant of any kind should give you a PLAN with costs outlined in it.

Ask them for it!

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Working with a Direct Mail Consultant

Use them as a “free” GC-Ask us anything. We’ve done this before!

Bring us in early-we can design your logo, walk cards, and yard signs.

They should create a mail plan for you that includes the timing of mail drops, piece descriptions, and costs. This plan may change, but they should give you one for budgeting/planning and update it if needed.

We want to be involved to help tell your story better, so if your campaign has weekly strategy calls, invite us to them.

We truly want you to WIN! We are not the enemy but are on your side.

You can fire us if we are not giving you what you need.

Your name is on the ballot, so you should ask us questions, feel free to question the messaging, and the mail drop timing.

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Q&A Direct Mail

Elizabeth Doyel

Elizabeth@superior.blue

415-722-6832