While all of us want to believe Direct Mail in political campaigns is a thing of the past, you couldn’t be further from the truth. When targeted at specific voters, especially likely voters, it is quite effective, and believe it or not, very affordable.

This is what the United States Post Office says about it;

Why use it?

Direct Mail is one of the most powerful tools to get your message to voters. Your mailings will be:

  • Cost–effective by mailing to specific areas or addresses, and the format can be as inexpensive as a postcard.
  • Personalized with messages and graphics to tell the story of your candidate or message.

As a person who has worked in Graphic Design and specifically direct mail for over 22 years, I have seen the positive effects of strategic direct mail campaigns.

The Wellstone organization, who is the leader in grassroots campaigns has said this about direct mail;

TIP #2: BEGIN WITH A GOOD PLAN

  • Strategic universe: Make sure you define who your targeted voters are using the voter file. If you have a mail consultant, he or she can help you figure out your universe.
  • Repetition matters: Your mail plan must include multiple contacts with targeted voters over a span of time building toward Election Day.
  • Complements other media: To support the campaign message your direct mail must complement all other communications – not just paid media, but what the candidate is saying on the stump, what volunteers are saying at the doors, etc.
  • Thoughtful timelines: Your plan must balance resources with repetition and timeliness of your mail.  Most voters aren’t paying attention to a campaign until the last 90 days. The challenge in waiting until voters are tuned in is that you will be competing against the clutter of everyone else’s mail; you’ll want to make sure you have a big enough program with enough repetition and creative design to break through the clutter.  If you start too early, without a large enough program to sustain consistent contact throughout you risk being forgotten or will not have the repetition during voters’ key decision time.

So what I can’t figure out is why the South Dakota Democratic party steers away from those campaigns, or has weak ones? The SD Republicans always use them, and quite effectively. Guess what? They also win.

The SD Democratic Party needs to wakeup and embrace the power of direct mail.

7 Thoughts on “Enough of the radio/TV ads and Facebook games, SD Dems need to focus on direct mail

  1. The D@ily Spin on November 13, 2016 at 11:39 am said:

    There’s no better option than mail. It’s hard to find enough audience on TV given viewers number of channels, channel preferences, & fast forward past commercials. The newspaper has limited circulation. Something that’s coming about is spots on search, web, or personal media sites.

  2. matt johnson on November 13, 2016 at 1:15 pm said:

    is this because it worked so well for Clara Hart- lets get some candidates

  3. duggersd on November 13, 2016 at 5:49 pm said:

    It also would not hurt if they had a message that resonated with the citizens. The Democrat party has very little in common with the everyday citizens of South Dakota. This might explain why they tried to hide who they are by not having labels listed on the ballot.

  4. Radio, TV, Facebook, and direct mail all have a part to play in a campaign which wishes to be hands-on, but the Democrats need to get back to voter registration, if they ever want to be relevant in South Dakota again.

    Now, I am not talking about the type of voter registration where some good intended Democrats set-up a card table somewhere and hope people will want to register at a given community event, but then they inadvertently end up registering Republicans and Independents, too.

    What I am talking about is a Democratic strategy where Democratic operatives crunch the numbers and know what they can get out of a given precinct, legislative district, county or the state, in terms of a Democratic vote, and then figure out what votes they need to get from the unregistered potential voters to turn those political regions into a win. Then add this strategy to a well funded GOTV of not only those newly registered Democrats, but also of the already known Democratic vote for a given region as well.

    This is the type of strategy that worked well for McGovern in the past. It is the reason that Daschle beat Roberts in ’82, and then Abdnor in ’86. It is also the reason why Johnson beat Pressler in ’96 and Thune in ’02, but unfortunately it seems to have become a lost art within the Democratic Party. But it needs to be reinstated into the Party’s election strategy immediately.

    Many of those who know how to organize such a strategy are still around, but in recent times their talents have gone in other directions. These political leaders know who they are and they need to come back to the plate and lead the Party down a path of a practicable and winnable strategy, which is currently missing from the Party’s playbook.

  5. Many of those ‘still around’ have offered to help, but have been told to buzz off or ignored. It’s sad really.

  6. Oh, I know, I have been a part of some those discussions where candidates think that just one particular commercial or video is going to be the magic answer. In fact, in the past year I have been told twice by politicos that Facebook is where it’s at……(?)

    There use to be a phrase which was dubbed a “California Primary,” which meant a campaign relied entirely upon a media presence to win without any true canvassing or GOTV and it was limited to more populated states with some understanding of practicality, but unfortunately that has now become the norm in our South Dakota Democratic politics, too, where it does not work for Democrats.

    Also, there is honestly a “brain drain” in South Dakota Democratic politics today. I am not saying that those who are leading us now are stupid. Actually, many of them are quite smart and articulate, but I question if they have been truly mentored by the past talent in the SD Democratic Party which is still around, which thus causes a loss of historical memory as to how to do it and how it has worked in the past. There appears to be a gap or a disconnect between the two generations of political leaders in the South Dakota Democratic Party today and they need to join forces soon to effectively pass the torch….

  7. campaign videos shot on cell phones and posted on Facebook worked really well for jay williams, didn’t they?

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