Political Campaign Printing: The Competitive Advantage of High-Quality Printing for Candidates
For political candidates – especially local ones – print is still an essential tool for rousing support. Whether that support comes in the form of votes or financial resources, political printing is a primary driver.
Digital marketing has its place in politics, but print can spread campaign messaging faster and with greater precision among local voters. Given the time and resource-intensive nature of political campaigning, print’s advantages give it an edge over online marketing, especially for local contests.
Here are some of the ways printed materials can be used to maximize voter awareness and enthusiasm.
The Impressive Versatility of Political Campaign Printing
Commercial printing services can produce a comprehensive array of campaign materials, including:
- Floor (pop-up) and wall banners
- Flyers
- Door hangers
- Mailers and envelopes
- Postcards and campaign posters
- Campaign buttons and stickers
- Yard signs
- Brochures
- Vehicle decals
- Letterhead
- Push cards and business cards
- Apparel, including shirts and hats
In short, political printing services can get your candidate’s message out to the constituents, which is vital for any campaign.
Further, experienced printers have design talent on staff, which can be used to create a logo and brand political materials for an election campaign. In this way, commercial printers can be a one-stop shop for political candidates.
On top of print’s unbeatable versatility, there are several advantages to partnering with a commercial printer during election season, including:
1) Developing Campaign Awareness Among Local Voters
Local, city and state campaigns rely on street-level voter awareness. That means putting the candidate’s name out on the street, literally. Yard signs, posters and vehicle decals capture high visibility spots where voters are most likely to be – in neighborhoods, along high-traffic roads, at busy intersections, close to schools and so on.
However, experienced commercial printers can take this idea a step further, with quality apparel products that raise awareness wherever the wearer goes. And don’t forget the classic political button, a piece of American political history that candidates of all parties can use to great effect.
Ultimately, the first step to winning voters is getting people’s attention. For centuries, print materials have done this better than any other political tool, especially for local elections, and that remains the case today.
2) Establishing a Brand for the Candidate and Their Campaign
When it comes to campaigning, attention isn’t the only goal. Print pieces are tools for visual communication, which means they can be used for branding and messaging purposes. It’s impossible for candidates to win an election if they don’t have control of their own brand – including their campaign platform, pledges and promises.
Print items are a powerful message driver and candidate brander. Even the use of certain colors can inspire positive (or negative) feelings in voters. There’s a lot of information packed into visual design, and candidates can be specific with their messaging with push cards, door hangers and brochures. These inexpensive-at-volume items condense a candidate’s platform for voters and are therefore an inoffensive approach to convincing people.
3) Supporting Fundraising Efforts Through Targeted Mail Campaigns
Fundraising is part of a campaign’s lifeblood and is necessary for scaling up electioneering efforts. Political candidates understand the virtues of fundraising, of course, but it can be difficult to capture consistent success here. At every level of politics, fundraising is an ever-present concern for campaigns.
Political printing can help candidates sell voters on their platform, driving enthusiasm to the point where fundraising goals can be realistically set and attained.
Print also offers a unique fundraising advantage in that it can reach people in their mailboxes. Print mailers (and return envelopes) are a proven fundraising strategy, even if voters don’t use the return envelope to send donations. Among older voters, who tend to be more engaged in the political process, mail-in donations are still viable and can add up quickly. But for younger voters – we’re talking millennials on down – a print reminder for financial support can push them online to donate funds.
Print mail isn’t a relic of yesteryear, either. Marketing research shows that people spend considerable time looking at and considering mailed materials when they check their mailbox. That’s a valuable piece of time for candidates to capture voters.
4) Improving Campaign Marketing Through Demographic-specific Messaging
More than ever, political leanings skew along demographic lines. Successful candidates leverage this fact by identifying where their best voting prospects are. If a particular candidate appeals more to older or younger voters, married couples or singles, families with or without kids, men or women – reaching those voters with precision is essential.
Since print materials can be delivered to people at thce individual voter level, they can be used to precisely target favorable voting demographics. For example, if a candidate is running for a school board position, messaging to families is key. That means delivering print materials to neighborhoods with single family homes – ones with a reputation for attracting residents of a certain age. By targeting these areas, school board candidates can optimize their resources to harvest the maximum number of votes.
This is just one example. No matter the campaign, the platform or the message, there is a way to craft it and target it toward high value voting groups. Political printing is foundational to this goal.
Political Printing has a Long History of Success That Continues Today
Technology marches forward, and so do campaigning tools. What hasn’t changed, though, is political printing’s central role in helping candidates get elected. Whether it’s a cluster of yard signs, a stack of fliers, an eye-grabbing banner, boxes full of t-shirts or collectible campaign buttons, quality political printing can give candidates a campaigning edge.
