Your Direct Mail Can Be a Cut Above
But the keys to success are not what you think.
By Andrew Kennedy
May 2008
When discussing what makes good or bad mail, too often people focus on the final product. They talk about graphic design (be creative) or copy (be concise) but, in truth, those are some of the final decisions you’ll make. The keys to a successful mail program are actually defined weeks and months earlier, long before you start writing the first piece.
- Know your candidate bio
Because mail is less animated than TV, it relies more heavily on details about your candidates to bring them to life. Salting the copy with personal details regarding the candidates’ local ties (where they grew up, their high school, where their grandfather’s business was first located) will make their story interesting. And by researching your candidates’ bios you will also learn their weaknesses, ensuring that you won’t make an attack that could be deemed hypocritical. - Build your foundation on good research
You’ll need to know the opposition as well as your own candidate, so a well-funded campaign should conduct opposition research and polling. Research both sides’ strengths and weaknesses, their successes and failures. What you’ll say about your candidate depends in part on what you think the other side will say about theirs. Test these messages in a baseline poll that walks through key message themes of each campaign—positive and negative—so you know what’s believable and credible to voters. And when you finally do write that first negative mail, footnote every claim. In this new information age where people can Google almost any fact instantaneously, voters are even more wary of claims made without any substantiation. - Spend the money on a real photo shoot
Nothing makes an elected official look worse than a mail piece with three pictures: one grainy, one a head shot in front of a flag and the third a shot of them handing an oversized check to an unprepared township official. Put as much time into the still shoot as the TV shoot; think about what the major themes of the campaign will be and plan a shoot around those issues. Recruit as many volunteers as you can—seniors, kids, firemen, teachers, doctors—they’ll all make these pre-planned shots look as natural as possible. And don’t forget to take the diversity of your district into account when recruiting volunteers. - Understand your budget’s constraints
Most people realize that your mail budget affects the volume of mail that you can send: The more money you raise, the more mail you can send. But it also affects the tone of your pieces. Fewer pieces means shortening the arc of what will be presented in the mail program. For example, in a competitive race, a 10-piece program might propose five positives, two comparatives and three negatives, spread out over five weeks. However, a four-piece plan might default to four comparatives over two weeks. A larger program will allow you to repeat key issues over a number of pieces. A smaller program must gamble and focus on just one or two issues, at most. - Lay the entire program out in a comprehensive plan
Once all the research is done and you have a good estimate of your budget, create a detailed mail plan that ensures the key players of the campaign are all on the same page. This plan should lay out the path to victory: the number of pieces, timing, targeting, themes, approval dates, mailing dates and cost. Moreover, ensure that contingency plans are clearly defined, in case your campaign has trouble raising money or the opponent runs a very different campaign (i.e., much more negative) than you expected.