Whether planning for local government elections, or for a national general election, it’s become increasingly important for political parties to get their promotional strategy right. In the modern age we live in there are a multitude of channels, both online and offline, to get your message across.
It can often be overwhelming to understand where to prioritize your marketing budget. Here we’ll tell you why direct mail marketing should be at the core of your political campaign’s promotional strategy.
What is Political Direct Mail?
Political direct mail is any mail sent that contains a political message or purpose. It might be a mail piece about a referendum, a local election or even a party’s newsletter. It often has a persuasive purpose, whether that is maintaining or strengthening a party’s current voter base, or with the aim winning new supporters.
One of the advantages of political direct mail marketing is that it can come in many different formats:
- Party manifestos
- Election materials
- Informative leaflets
- Literature to raise awareness
- Newsletters to party supporters
- Postcards
Why is Direct Mail Effective for Political Campaigns?
Mail Improves Response Rates
Direct mail is seeing a huge uplift in popularity due to the saturation of online marketing channels like email and social media. Direct mail has been proven to improve response rates compared with other forms of media.
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found that direct mail achieves a 4.4% response rate, compared to 0.12% for email. This is largely down to the tangible nature of mailshots, whereby postcards, letters and other mail pieces have a lasting impression on our memories. It’s important your political mailer resonates with your audience as well as possible.
Direct Mail Creates a Lasting Message
It’s been proven that people prefer reading mail to email. According to a study by the AAPC, 62% of people agree with the statement “I’d much rather scan for useful info by going through the mail I receive, than by clicking through emails sent to my inbox”.
If you have an important political message to get across to voters, it’s vital to choose their preferred means of communication. Given the cluttered nature of email inboxes, sending mail directly to people’s houses can guarantee a good chance of them reading your political mail.
Effective Targeting & Personalisation
Direct mail allows for better campaign targeting and personalization. Modern forms of marketing like TV and radio have a very broad undefined audience, meaning you can’t be specific about who you want to show your message to. This means your budget can be wasted on the wrong eyes or ears. Control is key. Segmenting your audience and personalizing your message can improve the effectiveness of your political campaign, and boost its return on investment.
How Can a Mailing House Help?
As a full service mailing house, Snapmail specialize in data services and personalization, two important facets of targeting. Using in-house data and personalization technology, we can cleanse and prepare your political mailing list so that your political mailer targets a specific group of people, with a specific, personalized message. We can help you make best use of demographic data like age and income to improve the targeting of your campaign, with the ultimate aim of being persuasive with your message.
If you’d like to hear how Snapmail can help to maximize the ROI of your next political campaign, make sure to contact us for a chat with one of our mailing experts.