Direct Mail

So you send your final political direct mail file off to the printer and breathe a sigh of relief—until you get your printer proof. Now what? The political printing process continues long after you finalize designing and proofing your direct mail file in-house.

Political direct mail, even in the digital age is a critical part of any campaign’s communications program. Not only is it cost-effective and efficient, but it is also an impactful way to target and communicate with potential voters. Therefore, when hiring a Democratic direct mail firm, you want to make sure you choose the firm that will produce the best product for your campaign.

Two things off the bat to consider are costs and timing. First, die-cuts add costs, so it's not something to suggest on every campaign. Second is the time factor, die-cuts do add time to the production of the piece, so this needs to be worked into the schedule. If you have the budget and time for producing a die-cut piece, then the issues become production related.

Political direct mail printing part 3: In previous installments of this series on political direct mail printing we covered finding a political direct mail printer, managing schedules and specifying paper. Today, we’re going to get technical and talk about presses. We couldn’t have political direct mail printing without presses to get the job done, so let’s examine the differences and uses for digital and offset printing.

In part one of this series we talked about the characteristics of a good printer for political direct mail printing and how to find them. This week we’re going to talk about schedules and paper.