Did you know that 86 percent of registered voters check their mailbox at least five times per week? Or that, on average, non-college educated voters receive about half as much mail as college-educated voters do?

A new joint paper by AAPC and the United States Postal Service™ unveils new insights into the behavior and attitudes of Americans when they go to their mailboxes. Elena Neely (USPS), Steve Bassermann (Weber Shandwick), and Sam Hofstetter (KRC Research) discussed broader, non-campaign mail use trends and how campaigns can leverage them during the August 2, 2017 webinar, ‘New Study on Voters and Mail: Insights and Opportunities,’ courtesy of USPS.

Check out their expert tips & takeaways below!

Elena’s Lessons:

1. Direct mail is here to stay is because the ability to reach a specific voter is so important. You have to be direct, persuasive, and targeted when utilizing direct mail.
2. At the end of the day the 2016 election produced an increase in direct mail use; proving that direct mail is not “dying.”
3. Creativity matters. Anything to get your voter’s attention is vital when implementing direct mail.
4. 82% of millennials surveyed by USPS reported political mail being important. The millennial generation does care about mail and they use it to drive social media messages.
5. Mail is still the campaign channel with 100% voter reach. Direct mail brings the voter to the message rather than bringing the message to the voter.

USPS has launched a few features for direct mail users including Informed Delivery, Irresistible Mail, and Share Mail. Make sure to take a look!

About Elena: Elena Neely, MBA, CLSSGB, is the National Lead for the US Postal Service political mail outreach efforts. Elena mobilizes a national team of specialists who consult with and support political campaigns, campaign strategists and political alliance mailing partners. She manages USPS’ strategic sponsorships with political associations and coordinates marketing and sales efforts to support the use of political mail. The US Postal Service helps political campaigns identify winning media combinations to deliver the win for their campaigns.

Steve’s Lessons:

1. Most Americans go through their mail every day. This is coined the ”Mail Moment“–the concept that people are constantly inundated with news, but mail feels real.
2. Voters find early voting, absentee ballot, and voter registration deadlines most important when receiving political mail.
3. Voters want to hear about candidate issues rather than candidate endorsements.
4. Americans without a college degree receive about 12 pieces of candidate mail each week. Americans with a college degree receive around double that.
5. One of the most important things about mail that has stayed consistent throughout the years is that voters will most likely slow down and actually look at a piece of mail compared to other media. Use this to your advantage, and get your message out there.

About Steve: Steve Bassermann is a former congressional campaign manager and currently holds the position of vice president at Weber Shandwick.

Sam’s Lessons:

1. New businesses should be utilizing direct mail since 73% of Americans tend to agree that they block phone calls and spam, but open direct mail pieces, according to USPS research.
2. Direct mail response rates are up 40% in the last 2 years.
3. Folks surveyed who are considered the “head of the household” (73%) will look through all of their mail to make sure they are not discarding anything important. This is vastly different than being able to scroll through a newsfeed and only click the links you want to see.
4. It is extremely important to share new information about your candidate via direct mail. Americans want to see this, and appreciate discovering the mail they receive each day (63% of household heads to be exact!).
5. The bottom line is that campaign mail leads to voters taking action. Inspired direct mail can lead to further research on a candidate and even help a person make a final decision on how to vote on an issue or candidate.

About Sam: Sam Hofstetter is a former campaign pollster and currently holds the position of research manager at KRC Research.

A huge thank you to the US Postal Service and our speakers for sharing their expertise with the AAPC membership!  To view the full USPS + AAPC Joint Paper discussed in this webinar, please click here.