Throughout the past 15 years, direct marketing has continued to be at the centre of political campaigning in the UK. While, nowadays, much is rightly made of social networking as a means of communicating with supporters, there’s still nothing quite like the campaign leaflet.
Twitter and Facebook are useful tools for engaging with a specific set of supporters and activists. They can galvanise like-minded people into action. But they do not reach the voters that direct marketing can reach. While political parties have access to the email addresses of many party members and supporters, they do not have the same access to the average voter’s details. The only easily accessible information is the electoral register, which provides only postal addresses.
The great thing about traditional campaign leaflets is their versatility: the same item can be placed directly into a voter’s hand or delivered to any elector at any address in the country – something that can’t be done via email or Twitter. And with the ceaseless decline in old-fashioned post, finding a well-written, well-designed piece of literature on your doorstep is rapidly becoming a novelty that attracts attention.
What is it that makes a piece of campaign literature effective? The single most important element of all political marketing is the core message. This drives everything else. If the message is confused, obscure or ill-defined, no amount of clever design or use of images will make it work.
Once the core message is defined, then all other elements of the direct marketing campaign must reinforce it. It’s no use defining a core message of, say, “Candidate X is a respected world leader”, if you then use images that don’t show them going about the business of being a respected world leader.
Once the message is clarified, the next most important element is the text. It may seem obvious but good, concise writing is essential. All campaign literature must be relevant, accurate and, above all else, readable. And whatever you do, don’t try to squeeze as many words onto the page as possible. Less is more. Too many campaigns produce leaflets packed with dense text that turns voters off.
Direct marketing also requires good quality design. The look and feel of literature is an essential element in getting people to pick it up off the doormat and read beyond the first paragraph. The design encompasses the layout, the use of space and fonts and the overall look and feel – the ‘brand’. It doesn’t matter if the literature is for a street stall or a major direct mail; it must capture the spirit of the campaign.
The design should also include what the words are printed on – the shape and texture of a piece of print both matter. Do you want to use a newspaper style, a simple postcard format or an unusual shape that may attract attention? Do you want to use card, or paper made from rhino dung? These things need thought. In Oldham East and Saddleworth, the Labour Party produced a targeted polling day flyer, delivered to households before daybreak, that was oblong in shape. It had pictures of boiled eggs accompanied by the slogan: “You can break eggs. You should never break promises.” This flyer worked, as its unusual shape and connection to the time of day grabbed people’s attention. Once the reader was engaged, the message was a simple request to vote.
And, lastly, images. Images can make or break the effectiveness of a piece of literature. Get the selection right, and the images can linger in a reader’s memory. Get it wrong, then the campaign – and the candidate – can appear inexperienced or unprofessional. Images should reinforce the core message. They need to be sharp and dynamic. The higher the image’s resolution, the better. And, please, stop using tired clichés: a serious-looking councillor kneeling by a pothole is about as inspiring as… a bloke kneeling by a pothole.
What must you avoid? More than anything else, no piece of campaign literature should include factual errors or outright falsehoods. Those responsible for political literature should remember the Phil Woolas case that forced the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. This provided a salutary reminder that political campaigns are never above the law, and that the consequences for transgression can be serious.
Other frequent mistakes made include the use of images without relevant permission, complicated text that leaves the reader confused and poor quality photos. Make sure you cover the basics that should be on all direct-mail literature: contact information for the campaign, including postal address, email, web address, phone number, Twitter and Facebook accounts and – in an ideal world – a Freepost return slip. The voter should be offered as many ways as possible to contact the campaign and engage with it. And you must always include the imprint ‘promoted and printed by...’, which is required under electoral law.
Good campaign literature doesn’t have to be expensive. During the 2005 election in South Dorset, I worked with my favourite set of leaflets. These were a bit of political fun rather than direct mail, and, frankly, of an appalling print quality. The Conservative candidate had disgraced himself and gone into hiding. The Labour Party ran “Wanted: Have you seen this man?” leaflets, which alluded to a similar stunt in the same county in 2001. It was effective, political fun that highlighted the opposing candidate’s errors and played well with the media.
Hard-copy campaigning is alive and well, and remains an essential part of any political strategy. To campaign today without direct marketing would be a huge mistake, and time spent on designing and writing good material is rarely time wasted.
Dave Roberts is a Labour campaign consultant
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