How Harnessing Direct Mail’s Impact Can Help Campaigns Engage a Shifting Electorate

In an era of digital media dominance, the 2024 Election underscored a critical insight: direct mail remains a powerful tool for political campaigns. As political campaigns gear up for the upcoming election cycles, leveraging the tried-and-tested power of direct mail could be the differentiator they need.

The United States Postal Service® conducted post-election research to uncover actionable insights on how to optimize the power of direct mail to reach voters. The research found consultants and voters both say strategic use of direct mail not only cuts through the digital noise, but also effectively engages key voter demographics. In fact, nearly 90% of political consultants surveyed affirmed direct mail was strategically important in 2024, whereas 84% of voters reported receiving direct mail, a significant increase compared to 2020.

The annual white paper – Engage a Shifting Electorate with Direct Mail – offers more in-depth insights that campaigns can use to capture a shifting electorate’s attention.

Understanding the Evolving Electorate

The 2024 elections revealed surprising voting patterns among Gen Z men, Hispanic/Latino men, suburban women and Black men, highlighting the essential need to understand these dynamics for future campaign success.

• Eighty-five percent of surveyed Gen Z men said mail piece layout and design makes it more memorable – compared to only 67% of all surveyed voters.
• Fifty-eight percent of surveyed Hispanic/Latino men speak Spanish regularly, but only 40% received political mail pieces in Spanish.
• Sixty-five percent of surveyed suburban women want the tone of their mail pieces to be informative and data driven, while 50% want it to be sincere and personal.
• Seventy percent of surveyed Black men said the mail they received was visually effective – compared to 45% of all surveyed voters.

Timing, Personalization, and Design: The Winning Combination

Taken as a whole, this input, along with other survey results, highlighted three critical areas for optimizing direct mail strategies: timing, personalization, and design.

Sending mail pieces early enough, for example, allows voters the time to consider their options, especially with the growing trend of early voting.

• Seventy-three percent of surveyed voters agreed direct mail was the best channel for learning about a candidate in time for early voting.
• Forty-three percent of surveyed voters indicated the ideal cadence for receiving direct mail was at least weekly during the election, more than any other frequency.

Personalization also stands out as a significant factor. Campaigns can use USPS’s targeting to deliver personalized messages, enhancing voter connections.

• Seventy-eight percent of surveyed voters say it is important the messaging in mail pieces speak to them personally on the issues and concerns they care most about – but 38% felt that they did not receive personalized mail pieces.
• Fifty-two percent of surveyed voters perceive direct mail to be more reliable and less prone to misinformation than digital ads.

Additionally, eye-catching design and engaging content capture voter attention, facilitating voter recall and encouraging further engagement with campaign materials.

• Sixty-seven percent of surveyed voters agree layout and eye-catching visuals impact the memorability of a mail piece. 
• Fifty-eight percent of surveyed voters feel less overwhelmed by the content in direct mail than other advertising channels.

Maximizing Engagement Across Channels

USPS direct mail and digital tools – like our Informed Delivery® service – transcend mailbox delivery by creating integrated experiences. A digital preview of daily incoming postal mail, the USPS Informed Delivery® service and QR Codes® merge physical mail with digital interaction, providing voters with cohesive, multi-channel experiences that boost engagement and amplify campaign messaging effectiveness.

A Call to Action for Campaign Strategists

The “Engage a Shifting Electorate with Direct Mail” white paper provides many more insights for navigating political changes using direct mail in multichannel strategies. Campaigns should utilize the white paper to fully harness direct mail’s power for engaging diverse electorates and making lasting impressions.

Voter & Consultant Insights Sourcing: All 2024 election data sourced from post-election surveys, voter ethnographies, and consultant interviews conducted on behalf of the Postal Service™ by KRC Research from September 2024 through January 2025. The research includes an online post-election survey of 2,000 voters nationwide as well as an oversampling in key swing states.