Political direct mail for campaigns and PACs
Design, print, and drop coordinated with the rest of the outreach calendar. Same targeting universes as your texting, same reporting spine, all of it under your firm's brand.
- Shared targeting with texting
- Print and postage handled
- White-label proofs
How political direct mail works
Political direct mail is printed campaign material addressed and mailed to a targeted list of voters: persuasion pieces, turnout reminders, absentee ballot chase, and comparison mail. It is the oldest channel a campaign still buys, and it survives because a piece of paper on the kitchen counter is seen by a household that blocks unknown numbers and skips every ad.
A mail program is four jobs stacked on each other. Pick the universe, design a piece that carries the message and the required disclaimer, print it, and get it into homes on the right day. The fourth one is the hard one: mail moves on the postal service's schedule, so a drop is planned backward from the day it needs to land rather than forward from the day it is approved.
The other thing that decides whether mail works is what else is running that week. A mail piece that lands the same day as the text and the ad reinforces both. One that lands the Monday after the election is money set on fire. That is the argument for running mail off the same calendar and the same universes as everything else, rather than at a separate vendor with a separate schedule.
Persuasion mail
Sent earlier in the cycle to voters who have not decided, usually a larger format with room for an argument, a record, or a contrast.
GOTV and chase mail
Sent late and timed to a deadline: where to vote, when early voting opens, or a reminder that a requested ballot has not come back yet. Short, urgent, and worthless if it lands a day late.
Slate and comparison
Down-ballot slates and side-by-side contrast pieces, often the only mail a municipal or judicial race sends at all.
Design, print, and postal, on one calendar
No separate print vendor, no separate proof cycle, and no targeting universe rebuilt from scratch.
Formats
- Postcards in multiple sizes
- Letter and #10 envelope packages
- Self-mailers and multi-panel
- Door hangers
- Slate cards
- Oversized and jumbo formats
- Full color both sides
- Variable data personalization
Targeting
- The same universes you text and call against
- Household deduplication before press
- Address standardization and validation
- Precinct, ward, and district cuts
- Absentee and early-vote flags
- Suppression and do-not-mail lists
- Counts and cost preview before you commit
Production
- Design from brief, or print your files
- White-label proofs for client approval
- Multiple proof rounds before press
- Disclaimer placement checked on every piece
- Postal presort and mail preparation
- First class and marketing mail classes
- Rush capacity during peak cycle weeks
Scheduling and reporting
- Drop dates planned backwards from in-home targets
- Sequenced against your texting and digital calendar
- Mail tracking through the postal stream
- Piece counts and spend per client
- Sub-accounts, roles, permissions
- Consolidated billing
Four steps from brief to in the mailbox
Work backwards from the day it needs to land. Print and postal lead times are the fixed part, and we plan around them.
Pick the universe and the date
Choose the audience from a saved universe or build a new one, then set the day the piece needs to be in homes. Everything else is scheduled back from there.
Design or send files
Brief our design team or supply print-ready art. Either way we check the disclaimer, the postal geometry, and the bleed before anything goes to press.
Approve the proof
Your client sees a proof with your firm's brand on it, not ours. Round it as many times as you need. The drop date is confirmed at approval.
Print, drop, and track
We print, presort, and enter the mail, then track it through the postal stream so you know when it is moving rather than guessing.
Print that stays on message
Mail usually means a separate vendor, a separate proof cycle, and a targeting universe rebuilt from scratch. Here it shares the audience, the calendar, and the reporting with everything else you run, so the household that gets the mail piece is the household that got the text, and the two land in the order you planned rather than whichever vendor happened to be ready first.
- Design, print, and postal handled end to end
- Same universes you already built for texting and voice
- Proofs delivered white-label for client approval
- Drop dates coordinated against your outreach calendar
- One invoice covering design, print, and postage
Run it, or hand it over
Send us print-ready files and a drop date, or hand over the brief and let our team design, proof, and produce the whole piece under your name.
- Design from brief, or bring your own art
- Managed production when the calendar gets crowded
- A named human on the account, not a ticket queue
What campaigns and firms actually mail
All of it off the same universes, on the same calendar, on one invoice.
Persuasion mail
Biography, record, and contrast pieces to undecided households earlier in the cycle.
GOTV mail
Polling place, hours, and deadline reminders timed to land in the final days.
Absentee and ballot chase
Reminders to voters who requested a ballot and have not yet returned it.
Slate cards
Down-ballot and judicial slates for the races that get no other paid contact.
Fundraising appeals
Donor and lapsed-donor packages with reply envelopes and tracked response codes.
Ballot measure and issue mail
Advocacy and referendum pieces for committees and coalitions.
Event and town hall invitations
Local invitations timed to arrive a week out, then reinforced by text.
Door hangers for the field
Printed and shipped to the field office rather than mailed, sized for a canvass turf.
Rapid response mail
A piece designed, proofed, and at press inside days when a race turns late.
Put your logo on it, and your rate on the invoice
Mail is the easiest channel to put back on your rate card, because the client already expects to pay a firm for it rather than a platform. Proofs go out with your brand, reporting carries your logo, and the invoice has your name on it. We print and drop behind the scenes and never introduce ourselves to your client.
- White-label proofs your clients approve
- White-label reporting and piece counts with your logo
- Nothing on the mail piece identifies us
- Sub-account per client, with roles and spend caps
- Consolidated billing across design, print, and postage
- No channel conflict, in writing
Reseller
Firms & enterprise orgs
- You bill the client directly
- Wholesale rate in, your rate out
- You keep the spread
- Consolidated invoice from us
Commission
Independent consultants
- We bill the client
- You earn 10% of platform spend
- Plus 2% on partners you refer
- Weekly payouts, no billing overhead
Print one drop
Start with a single piece for a campaign you already run. No minimum volume and no commitment to move the rest of your production.
Put mail on the calendar
Sequence drops against the texting and digital you already run here, off the same universes, on one production schedule.
Move the whole print book
Bring your existing mail volume across at wholesale and set your own client rate on design, print, and postage.
What goes on the piece, and what the postal service owns
Two separate rulebooks decide whether a mail piece is deliverable. The first is disclosure: most political and ballot-measure mail has to say who paid for it, in wording and placement set by federal, state, or local rules that differ by office and by jurisdiction. The second is postal: size, weight, aspect ratio, address block position, and presort all decide the class a piece qualifies for and what it costs. We check both before anything goes to press, because a disclaimer error is caught at the mailbox rather than at the proof, and by then the money is spent.
Book a Partner Call →What we check and run
- Disclaimer presence and placement on every piece
- Paid-for-by wording carried as you supply it
- Postal geometry, weight, and aspect ratio
- Address block and barcode clear zones
- Mail class qualification and presort
- Household deduplication before press
- Address standardization and validation
- Suppression and do-not-mail lists
- Proof rounds with your client's sign-off recorded
- Postal entry and mail tracking
- Piece counts reconciled against the invoice
- Audit trail from universe to drop
We do not provide legal advice, and we do not guarantee in-home dates. Disclaimer wording and placement requirements differ by jurisdiction and by the office being sought, and the correct language for your race is yours to confirm with your own counsel or compliance filer. Once mail is entered, delivery timing belongs to the postal service and sits outside any vendor's control, so drop dates are planned against typical windows rather than promised.
Built for campaigns and causes
- 6,000+
- Campaigns
- 900+
- PACs
- 250+
- Consultants
Common questions.
What is political direct mail?
Political direct mail is printed campaign material addressed and mailed to a targeted list of voters. Campaigns use it for persuasion, turnout reminders, absentee ballot chase, fundraising appeals, and down-ballot slate cards. It reaches households that screen unknown calls and texts, which is why it stays on the plan even in heavily digital cycles.
Does political direct mail need a disclaimer?
Most of it does. Rules on who paid for a piece, how that has to be worded, and where it has to appear are set federally for some races and by state or local authorities for others, and they differ by the office being sought and by whether the sender is a campaign, a party, a PAC, or a ballot-measure committee. We check that a disclaimer is present and correctly placed on every piece before press, and we carry the wording you supply. Confirm the correct language for your race with your own counsel or compliance filer.
How far in advance should political mail be planned?
Plan backward from the day the piece needs to be in homes rather than forward from approval. Design and proofing take as long as the client takes, printing has a fixed lead time that lengthens sharply in October, and postal transit is a window rather than a date. GOTV and ballot chase pieces are the ones where being a few days late makes them worthless, so those get the earliest slots on the calendar.
Can you guarantee the day mail lands?
No, and no vendor honestly can. Once mail is entered into the postal stream the timing belongs to the postal service. What we can do is plan the drop against typical windows for the class and the geography, enter it on schedule, and track it through the stream so you know where it is. Where a date genuinely cannot slip, the answer is a faster mail class and an earlier drop, not a promise.
What does political direct mail cost?
Cost is design plus print plus postage, and the mix changes with format, quantity, color, and mail class. Postage is usually the largest share and scales with weight and presort rather than with how good the piece is. Partners buy at wholesale and set their own client rate. Book a call and we will quote the formats and volumes you actually run.
What formats work best for political mail?
Postcards carry a single urgent message cheaply and are the usual choice for GOTV and ballot chase. Larger self-mailers and multi-panel pieces give a persuasion argument room to breathe. Letter packages in a #10 envelope still outperform for fundraising because they get opened. Door hangers are printed and shipped to the field rather than mailed. Format follows the job, and the budget follows the format.
Can direct mail use the same targeting as texting?
Yes, and it should. A saved universe on the platform drives mail, texting, voice, and digital off the same records, so the household that gets the piece is the household that gets the text, and the two can be sequenced deliberately rather than colliding. It also means you are not paying to source the same list twice.
Can I resell political direct mail under my own brand?
Yes. Proofs go to your client with your firm's brand on them, reporting carries your logo, nothing on the mail piece identifies us, and the invoice has your name on it. Partners buy design, print, and postage at wholesale and set their own client rate. We do not contact your clients and we do not compete for them, and that commitment is in writing in the Partner Protection Guarantee.
Put mail back on your rate card.
Book 15 minutes. We will price your usual formats and volumes and show you where the margin lands.