Having an impact with postcards

How do postcards have an impact?

Postcards have an impact partly because they are physical, have visual appeal, invite interacting with and tend to hang around for a while to remind people. While they are generally lower volume than email or petition signatures due to cost, less is more because they are more memorable.

Postcards especially have an impact if they are pleasing to look at (because they are kept), they are unique (like personal stories and unique images) and especially if they are hand written or drawn. Despite PostBug being an online platform, hand-written and hand-drawn postcard messages and images are possible.

Sparkle, not magic

List all attention-seeking, the unexpected stands out in a crowd. Yet it takes more than just differentiating your campaign with a new mediums: you have to be smart about it.

Bring smart with any campaigning requires a few things:

1. Have clear change objectives
2. Know who influences those changes
3. How those decision makers influenced?
4. What are your supporters capable of?
5. What can you actually do? Note this is never one thing. The more variety the more you are likely to be noticed.

PostBug was built by campaigners for campaigners. Postcards help with this final step: providing one of many tactics you can do to achieve your change objective. It

The platform serves your strategy

Too often, the limitations of your campaigning platform constrain your strategy: if your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat everything like a a nail. PostBug is different. We built it to adapt to your strategy, and if it can't yet, we'll improve it.

A great change strategy should at a minimum adapt any approach to the recipient. This can mean acknowledging their existing position, speaking in their political or economic language, mentioning supportive allies they trust, inviting them to learn more and being memorable.

In practice, this means tailored messaging for each recipient and/or each recipient segment such as supportive vs undecided vs opposed.

With PostBug, your change strategy can benefit from:

• Postcard images tailored to each recipient or recipient segment
• Supporter messages with relevant content for each recipient or recipient segment
• Local content to show the campaign is relevant to the recipient
• Targeting to only reach an influenceable subset of a recipient group e.g. one party, one region
• Delivery scheduling to get the strongest messages out first and/or at the right time
• Print and email options to allow second and third chances to reach the recipients
• Moderation to ensure only the right messages get through

If there is something you want to do, let us know and we'll explore how to make it possible with PostBug.

Examples of postcard strategies

1. Using a variety of postcard images so they stand out, represent different facets of the issue and appeal to different supporters and recipients.
2. Tailored messages for the governing party members (vs opposition) and with special messages for the government leader and senior team members
3. Personal messages to a sender's doctor (general practitioner / GP) or GP office about how important prescribing time outdoors in nature is for mental and physical health in terms of both prevention and recovery.
4. Excluding politicians in extremist parties from getting supporter messages as they would be unlikely to do anything and would be actively hostile
5. Local area facts and stories to show how a widespread issue is having an impact in the immediate area
6. Targeting local or regional politicians vs national ones as these people can put pressure up to if needed
7. Using PostBug to collect supporter stories and moderate it to release the best story per recipient so the impact is greater
8. Getting supporters to send postcards to family, friends, neighbours and colleagues encouraging them to vote (and register to vote), to get vaccinated, inviting them to an event or just showing appreciation at key cultural holidays.
9. Sending solidarity messages to imprisoned people as they generally have the right to receive mail
10. Supporters ordering batches of blank message postcards to enable them to gether with friends and neighbours to hand write (or draw) messages for sending to others (e.g. neighbours, voters, prisoners)
11. Having an postcard as the invitation and entrance ticket to attend an in-person event

Have an idea? Share it with us.