Run: Employ Traditional Campaign Media

With your message statements clear and your candidate information card or flyer in hand, you can draw from these well-crafted words to be sure your messages are consistent across all media. Traditional campaign media include direct mail, print and broadcast media, billboards, and yard signs. Depending on the size, location, and competitiveness of your election district you may choose to use one, two, or all of the following traditional campaign outreach methods: Direct Mail: Letters and Postcards: We’ve all received one or more direct mail pieces from a candidate. Start collecting and studying the ones you receive so that you can note what features you will incorporate in your mailings. These letters, cards, and postcards are part of the name recognition-building aspect of your campaign, as well as part of your fundraising outreach (see Chapter 8). Over the last century, general direct mail has ranged in effectiveness between a one-percent and ten-percent response rate. Over the last two decades, response rates have dropped to three percent or less. So, make sure your direct-mail budget is wisely spent. As much as possible, target your mailing lists to people who are registered to vote, especially those who plan to vote with an absentee ballot. Reach out to party members when you can secure these voter lists from the party with which you have affiliated. Also, be sure to ask the mail-house who handles your mailing to perform a merge/purge of duplicate names and addresses as well as a National Change of Address database check to eliminate addresses at which people are no longer living.