A software company is planning to assist in one of the country's oldest annual direct mail campaigns in an attempt to get voters to the polls in November.
Mailer's Software, San Clemente, CA, said it will give any political candidate who is interested — local, state or federal — a free copy of its Mailer's+4 software. The company said the software reduces mailing and printing costs by 65 percent and provides candidates with a more accurate database of addresses.
The six-year-old software, which is used by a number of businesses and direct marketing agencies, will allow candidates to conduct a more accurate direct mail campaign. Mailer's Software specializes in direct marketing software, and its research has shown that political candidates have been able to best reach their constituents by using direct mailings.
The company already has received several requests for the software from candidates and campaign managers throughout the country. Rick Stucky, who is seeking election to Oregon's State House of Representatives, thought it would be beneficial.
“I read about it a couple of months ago, and it sounds like it would very useful in keeping down mailing costs,” said Stucky, who is running for office for the first time. The seat has a constituency of 30,000 people.
Teri Dimon, public relations representative at Mailer's Software, said the software verifies and standardizes the mail so it can be handled more efficiently at the post office. She said the software will help cut down on the amount of return mail and will assure political candidates of timely and efficient mailings.
“This is not a mailing list,” she said. “It is a database of every deliverable address in the United States that will compare address information on a candidate's list with the most current and updated information from the United States Postal Service.”
The software also can provide certain information helping to create a demographic profile of addresses on a list.
Mailer's+4 is CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) and PAVE (Presort Accuracy Validation Evolution) certified, which will make postal service discounts available to its users. CASS and PAVE are voluntary features that presort and code mail pieces to improve the accuracy of the mailing addresses by using the ZIP+4 feature. Candidates who use the software will see reduced prices in their postage and printing fees, Dimon said.
“We know that candidates want to take advantage of every resource available to save money, reduce waste and increase productivity,” said Raymond F. Melissa, president of Mailer's Software. “The software not only saves them money on postage by correcting and standardizing the addresses on their mailing list, it also updates area code and prefix combinations.”
The software will match the users' list of names against that of the most recent updated database from the postal service determining what is a “deliverable” address and what is not.
Political candidates will have full use of the software for 120 days. After that, the CASS-certified portion of the software expires. If candidates want to use the software longer, they will need to purchase later updates with the current CASS-certified database for $147.50, 50 percent off the list price.
“This is a direct marketing tool that can be used to help them get their campaign message out and they realize that,” Dimon said. “It will help them save time, eliminate duplicate mailings and save money. The learning curve on this software is very low. Campaign volunteers won't have any problems learning how to use it.”
Dimon said her company already has received the ideal response from other businesses that have used the software.
“They have told us that it has saved them money and it is easy to use,” she said. “What better response could you ask for?”
