BY JILL CORCORAN
BUILDING THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: HOW DIRECT MAIL CAN SHAPE VOTER HABITS
T
he first votes in some 2022 elections have already been cast, but if you’re involved in a political campaign, it’s not too late to consider using direct mail. Whether it’s your first political rodeo or your 30th, your challenge remains the same: to get the attention of potential voters, inform them about your candidate, make the case for their support, and, finally, get them to cast their vote. That’s not an easy task. The average American sees hundreds of promotional emails, pop-ups, Facebook and Google ads, TV commercials, videos, texts, signs, and other communications every day. Direct mail can help you cut through all that clutter. Recently, we conducted research into what trends are apparent from election and political mail campaigns and developed five key insights about political and election mail — and how you can use them to improve your mail and drive citizens to participate in our democracy. 1. Target Voters with Segmentation Because data is the king of direct mail and a crucial factor in its success, you must use it correctly. There’s certainly a time for generic election messaging, such as when you’re introducing, or re-introducing, your candidate. But as a campaign progresses, you can also segment your political database and send mail to groups of voters based on an incredible variety and combination of data points. Working with a credible data supplier, zero in on specific audiences whose values and profiles better align with yours. Design mail pieces that speak to these attributes by highlighting your experience, issue positions, and specific proposals. Some of the examples we came across demonstrate how campaigns — as well as official election bodies — reach out to different demographics, as shown in this voting information effort mailed by Sacramento County (Figure 1). 2. Emotional Motivators Separate neuroscience studies by Temple University and True Impact reveal that messages found on physical printed material, 28
MAY-JUNE 2022 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com
such as direct mail, involve more emotional processing and create better recall and motivation to act than digital ones. Now imagine the power of print paired with visual and verbal cues that tap the seven main emotional drivers and you have a powerful combination that drives action: Guilt Fear Anger
Salvation Exclusivity Flattery
Greed
Figure 1