Political campaign photography matters. The quality of the photos provided for mail, walk cards, etc., are crucially important. Nowadays, everyone is used to seeing glossy, vibrant photos on screen, and assume they can grab a digital photo off the Internet and include it on their campaign lit. They are often surprised that the photo is not as clear, crisp or vibrant as the on-screen versions.
On April 10, 2014, the United States Postal Service (USPS) implemented a new policy called Load Leveling on standard (bulk) mail drop shipped to the DSCF level. This new policy changes the way mail enters the DSCF level and moves through the postal system. The new policy is meant to “allow a more balanced distribution of DSCF standard mail across delivery days.” This basically means that this mail, if accepted by the DSCF on a Friday or Saturday, will now take 4 days (the previous the standard was at 3 days) to move through the postal system and to local post offices for delivery. This is intended to decrease the volume of mail being delivered on Mondays and level that mail throughout the week.
Democratic direct mail that utilizes reply cards increase voter engagement and help connect you to members and supporters in a powerful way.
We’ve all received Democratic direct mail that includes little postcards asking you to fill out information and send if back. Why do folks use them? The short answer is that they cost very little and can begin a real conversation with voters and members on important issues.
“Nasty, brutish and short,” doesn’t just sum up Thomas Hobbes’ feelings about the state of nature – it also applies to the often-lonely life of a piece of Democratic direct mail. It’s tough to get noticed and stand out from the other items stuffed in the mailbox, and even if it does get noticed, it’s usually quickly tossed out and forgotten. Sad stuff if you’re a piece of Democratic direct mail. But your Democratic direct mail doesn’t have to exist in a Hobbesian nightmare (extra points if you’ve slogged through Leviathan). Here are a few tips to help your direct mail stand out from the crowd and avoid immediate relegation to the dumpster.
Political direct mail printing part 3: In previous installments of this series on political direct mail printing we covered finding a political direct mail printer, managing schedules and specifying paper. Today, we’re going to get technical and talk about presses. We couldn’t have political direct mail printing without presses to get the job done, so let’s examine the differences and uses for digital and offset printing.
In part one of this series we talked about the characteristics of a good printer for political direct mail printing and how to find them. This week we’re going to talk about schedules and paper.
Political direct mail printing has a lot of moving parts. Tired of blurry photos, mail pieces that look like they went through a washing machine and words that are so small you need a magnifying glass to see them? Well, this series on political direct mail printing and union printers is for you. In our next four posts we’ll cover:
Your organization has developed a strong campaign supporter list. That’s great news! Now let’s make sure we keep your campaign supporters involved with your campaign or cause. Email is undoubtedly one effective method of communicating with your campaign supporters. There are, however, a variety of other ways to engage with your campaign supporter list as well. Here are a few suggestions:
I have heard the story many a time; "I am running down ballot in a state-wide primary, so I am only going to do television." Sadly, if you are still using a Television only strategy you may miss many voters you need to reach. If you are running in primary think about incorporating a targeted communications medium like Democratic direct mail or online advertising, here is why:
If you make use of USPS for political direct mail, there are some important changes happening with the United States Postal Service (USPS) beginning in January 2014. The biggest change is that Full-Service Intelligent Mail is now required for automation pricing (automation pricing gives you discounted postage rates) for First-Class and Standard letters and flat mail as well as Periodicals and Bound Printed Matter.
Full-Service will require Intelligent Mail Barcodes on each mail piece, tray and container. It will also require that documents be submitted to the USPS electronically (eDoc) to identify the submitting party, identify the mail owner, and determine who gets reports. Though, as a policy, our political direct mail at The Campaign Workshop always includes these barcodes, they have technically been optional. As of January, they will be mandatory in order to realize the automation postage discounts. Intelligent Mail Barcodes uniquely identify each piece of mail, allowing for electronic identification and tracking through the postal system.
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