Using Targeted Postcards to Reach Residents and Voters

Reaching people across a city or county can mean communicating on behalf of local government, or it can also mean trying to reach an audience within that community. A political campaign may need to reach voters in a particular county. An advocacy organization may want to build awareness around a local issue. A city may need to tell residents about an upcoming meeting or program.

In each case, the challenge starts with the same question: How do you get the right message in front of households in a defined geographic area?

Digital channels can help, but they often depend on people already following, searching for, or engaging with the right sources. Targeted direct mail gives you another route by putting your message directly into homes within the area you need to reach.

For focused city and county outreach, postcards can be particularly effective.

1. Outreach Starts With Geography

Many outreach campaigns are defined by where the audience lives. A city may need to communicate with its residents. A political campaign may want to reach voters within particular ZIP codes or neighborhoods. A local organization may only need to reach the people who live near an upcoming project or initiative.

Direct mail lets you build your distribution around that specific geography.

Rather than waiting for the right people to encounter your message elsewhere, you can identify the areas you need to reach and put your campaign directly into those households.

The ability to narrow an audience can go even further with variable campaigns. Variable postcards can tailor messaging based on factors such as audience interests, region and demographics, giving organizations another way to make a broad outreach effort more relevant to the people receiving it.

2. Postcards Put One Clear Message in the Mailbox

Postcards are a really strong choice when you need someone to understand a concept clearly and take a specific action. Attend this meeting. Register for this program. Complete this survey. Learn about this initiative. Remember this candidate.

A postcard fits that kind of communication well because the message doesn't have to compete with additional pages or content. Recipients can immediately see the headline, supporting information and call to action without opening an envelope.

You can then use interactive elements like QR codes for recipients to gather more information beyond what’s on the postcard. But the simple, concise, and action-oriented messaging of a postcard works well for getting readers to do what you need them to do.

3. You Don't Need Someone to Already Be Engaged to Reach Them

One of the challenges with digital outreach is that many channels work best once someone has already connected with you. Email requires opt-in. Social media posts don’t always reach everyone who follows your page. They may not go to your website without reason to.

But city- and county-focused outreach often needs to bypass algorithms to directly reach people. A resident may not follow their city on social media. Someone affected by a local initiative may never have visited the organization's website. A voter may not have subscribed to communications from a campaign.

Direct mail gives you a way to proactively reach those households rather than relying on people to find you first. That doesn't make digital outreach unnecessary. It gives you a way to start the interaction somewhere else, then use digital channels to continue it.

4. A Postcard Can Turn Offline Attention Into Online Action

A postcard doesn't need to explain every detail of a program, issue, campaign or initiative. Instead, it can focus on the message that gets someone's attention, then give them a clear path to learn more. A QR code or memorable URL can direct recipients to a webpage where they can register for an event, complete a survey, review detailed information or take the next step.

That makes direct mail particularly useful when the information already exists online but the challenge is getting the right local audience to see it.

Digital advertising can then extend that connection even further. Instead of treating the postcard and digital campaign as separate efforts, you can coordinate the audience, creative and message across both. The postcard creates a physical household touchpoint, while digital advertising gives people additional opportunities to encounter the same campaign online.

Related Content: Better Together: Stop Making Direct Mail and Digital Compete

How to Build a Campaign Around What You Want People to Do

The most effective outreach starts with the action you want someone to take. Once that's clear, the postcard message, call to action, and supporting digital components can all point toward the same goal.

You don't have to fit everything you want to say onto one mail piece. You need to give the audience enough information to understand why the message matters and what they're supposed to do with it.

Reach the Right Households With a Coordinated Campaign

Whether you're communicating with residents or trying to reach an audience within a particular city or county, successful outreach starts with knowing who needs to receive the message and what you want them to do next.

Mailbox Merchants can help you turn those goals into a targeted postcard campaign, from identifying the right geographic audience to creating the mail piece, managing distribution and coordinating digital advertising around the campaign.

Ready to put your message in front of the right households? Talk to Mailbox Merchants about your next direct mail campaign.

Mailbox Merchants is the Northwest’s largest independently owned direct mail, multi-channel and digital marketing provider for local businesses. We marry the old and the new by tapping into the perpetual power of print media and using technology to strategically segment, target behaviors, and optimize performance through measurable marketing results.