Hello John:

Over the past few months, representatives from the United States Postal Service (USPS) have attended campaign industry conferences across the country, including AAPC’s Pollie Awards™. At these conferences, the Postal Service listened, presented, and discussed the ever‑changing formula to reach, persuade, and motivate the American electorate.

Whether you’re at the top of the ticket or the bottom of the ballot, here are four tips you need to know this cycle that will enable you to get the most out of your campaign ahead of the 2022 cycle:

• Reach voters’ inboxes and their mailboxes through Informed Delivery® Feature. The Informed Delivery Feature provides voters the ability to preview in their email inboxes a mail piece the day it arrives in their physical mailboxes. In last year’s 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia, 41% of surveyed voters said they were more likely to open political mail after seeing it in Informed Delivery1. With more than 48 million national Informed Delivery subscribers and an open rate of 67% of users2, Informed Delivery is a must for campaigns. Additionally, USPS is running a promotion starting August 1 through the end of the year where it is offering a 4% postage discount for certain mailings that include an Informed Delivery campaign.
• Red Tag mail for processing visibility and peace of mind. Red Tagging political mail is crucial for any registered political candidate, committee or outside spending group. Tag 57 is a red container tag designed to provide added visibility to direct mail from postal acceptance to processing operations.3 Tagging your mail alerts all Postal employees in the processing chain this is political mail.
• Sequence mail by leveraging Informed Visibility®. Informed Visibility is a data reporting tool that tracks your mail as it travels within the mail stream, so you know where individual mail pieces are at key steps along the way. These insights allow campaigns to coordinate and time a follow-up email and/or social post to constituents in the same area, with relevant campaign messages that tie back to the direct mail. By knowing when campaign mail has arrived in the voters’ mailbox, campaigns can increase the impact on targeted voters, while streamlining campaigns.
• Contact a Direct Mail consultant at the Postal Service to discuss the above or find out about the latest voter insights. The Postal Service is listening and learning from your experiences during the last campaign cycle to become an even stronger partner in the electoral process. The expert team of Direct Mail Consultants have marketing and campaign insights, can share best practices in direct mail design, and can provide operational support to help you reach your campaign goals