Direct Mail

Mail-in ballot voter fraud remains what election experts have long called “the biggest problem that doesn’t exist.” Six years after the pandemic-era expansion of mail voting, the data hasn’t changed: fraud involving mailed ballots is extremely rare, and the safeguards states use to catch it are working.

As we approach the upcoming primaries and mid-term election cycle, it’s time once again to take a look at the changes at the USPS and how they can impact your direct mail program.

What does a campaign mail firm do? Admit it, this is a question that a lot of people have asked but never got a clear answer. Well, never fear, after producing winning Democratic direct mail for over ten years, The Campaign Workshop is here with answers.

Red tag political mail is a mystery to some. You may wonder how the United States Postal Service (USPS) treats the massive amount of campaign mail that moves through the postal system each election. The "secret" is red tag political mail US postal service tag 57 – a container tag that is designed to give more visibility to political mail, so it is given expedited status but sent as bulk mail. We write about this in our direct mail e-book.

Writing a campaign mailer for a judicial candidate presents many challenges. For most legislative races, it’s easy to say that you’ll “stand up for affordable healthcare” or “fight for a living wage.” But judicial candidates often can’t come out for or against a particular issue. If they do, they may have to recuse themselves in the event that they win and one of those cases comes before them as judge.

Getting your political direct mail out the door and into voters’ mailboxes can be a confusing process if it’s new to you (and frankly, even if it’s not so new to you). There are a lot of factors to wrap your brain around, such as the printer and the mail house to work with, the type of permit you can use to mail pieces, and the approval timeline you’ll have to meet to ensure your mail is arriving when it needs to.

When it comes to producing political direct mail, it’s crucial to vet your copy before any piece goes out the door to avoid mistakes. As people in my life dating back to the second grade can probably tell you, typos are the bane of my existence (everyone has their thing). Minor mistakes in writing can sometimes warrant a laugh or be just momentarily cringe-worthy. We’ve all made errors in our spelling or grammar in final products at one point or another—famous authors, New York Times columnists, teachers, bosses, Barack Obama—and the stakes aren’t always sky-high. On the opposite end of the consequences spectrum, in some instances, something as seemingly small as a missing hyphen can set you back $80 million (I’m looking at you, NASA).

The Only Thing Missing from This Direct Mail Is Snoop Dogg

The words “cool” and “direct mail” don’t immediately seem to go together. And it’s true, a lot of direct mail is uncool (let’s just be honest here). But just like Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg’s delightful friendship, sometimes an unlikely pairing is a fantastic fit. What I’m about to share is cool direct mail. Buckle up...