5 Secrets for Effective Political Mailers

Every election season voters get bombarded with candidates mailers. You might be questioning if political mailers are even relevant in 2022. Well, you might be surprised to find out that mailers were found to be the most credible source of political campaign outreach methods. In a survey done by the USPS they determined that 62% of millennials found mailers to be helpful. They also found that 47% of all voters said mailers had an impact on their voting decision.

 Now that we have answered your question on whether they’re relevant or not. I have a question for you: How long do you look at them before they end up in trash? You most likely fit into 1-of-3 categories:

• The Quick Scan Before the Can: This voter will look over the photos, and maybe a few headlines before the mailer meets its end. Spending about 4-10 seconds total
• The Bold Reader: This voter will read over all the large and bolded text you have on your mailer. They’ll read it long enough to fully understand the headers. All together spending about 10-30 seconds.
• The Full Reader (The coolest imo): They will take the time to carefully look over and read your whole mailer. Taking whatever time is necessary to finish.

Every time you send out mailers they will mostly be a mix of the three categories. We are going to share our 5 best practices of how to optimize your mailers to effectively reach voters no matter which category they fall into:

1.Target your voters & tailor your message: Talk with your potential voters about the issues that matter most to them. Using Vottiv’s political campaign platform you can target voters based on issues that are important to them and send mailers just to these voter segments. When any of the above types of readers see the message, it will be one they care about. Bringing engagement and likelihood to win their support way up.

2. Have a clear purpose for the mailer: There are many reasons to send a mailer. You could be communicating your position on issues. Educating voters about current issues/situations in their area. Could be promoting  a get out to vote push. Whatever the reason may be for the mailer. Make sure your intentions are clear, and it is communicated clearly. This will increase engagement with your mailers.

3. Optimize your message for the quick scanners: Your mailer should be designed to give all three groups the message they’ll respond to. You need to include the big pictures that show what you’re running for. Could be a photo of your family to demonstrate values. Could be a photo of city parks if that will be your focus. You need a big picture to show your main message/value.

4. Optimize your message for the bold readers: If a voter is only going to read the large bolded text, What message would you want to share? You have 1-3 headlines on a mailer that these voters will read. You better make it count. Beyond just mailers you want to keep these 1-3 headlines constant across all medians you reach out to voters. That will give you the best chance at getting your message across, and voters remembering you.

5. Optimize your message for the full reader: There are two ways to fully optimize the attention you get from this type of reader. First, you can send a larger mailer and have a full paragraph of two written on it. Maybe it’s a story from a supporter. Or what you have done for the community. The second option is a QR code link that’ll take them right to your website, an article, or youtube page. Using QR codes allows you to send smaller mailers (saving money) while still taking advantage of the attention you have.

Vottiv offers software and high-quality data to political campaigns of all sizes to make connecting with voters simple, easy, and affordable for anyone. Our platform has the ability to target specific voter groups and send mailers right from our platform. If you’d like to learn more you can check out our youtube channel or head to our website to sign up today.