Political mail expected to surpass 2 billion pieces delivered
EAU CLAIRE, Wisc. (WEAU) - While political advertising is reaching new platforms for this campaign, an old fashioned way of catching voters' attention is more popular than ever.
Political ads online and on-air are seen by millions every day, but political mail is still valued by candidates hoping to get their names into voters' hands.
Even though overall, postal service usage is down, political mail is at an all-time high with more than two billion campaign ads delivered to mailboxes.
The U.S. Postal Service said it expects to make about $500 million on campaign mailing ads this year, up to 50 percent more than it did in the 2010 elections.
WEAU political analyst John Frank said candidates continue to use mail for a variety of reasons.
"Number one, while some people still aren't on the internet, everybody's got a post office address. Secondly, it's more difficult to throw away. You can't program something to not accept it. Third, it's cheap. And fourth, and probably most important, it gets you effective name recognition," Frank said.
Eau Claire County Republican party chair Brian Westrate also works with direct mail marketing and said through mail, campaigns can target more specific demographics.
"You can get a mailing list now from Amazon, that will tell you in this zip code, these are the people that have purchased catholic related materials in the last six months ... and you can specifically mail pieces, your target piece to that list," Westrate said.
WEAU left a message with the Eau Claire Democratic party but did not hear back.
Frank said mailings can make a bigger difference in smaller races.
The postal service said it offers discounts for bulk mail, with the lowest rate for political mail, at around 14 cents per piece.
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