Sending via Paper:
A Practical and Powerful Action
... especially with the addition
of a hand-written note
What are the communications of the highest value?
Degree of Influence of Different Communication Actions
1. By paper in U.S. Mail instead of an e-mail: 44% vs. 34%
2. With a hand-written note instead of a form letter: 44% vs. 3%
Flooding
Flooding the U.S. Congress’ offices with our personalized letters in envelopes in the U.S. Mail:
— It is practical and powerful (has a definite impact), as confirmed with the above percentages, shown in more detail below.
— It will lead to publicity for our cause due to our huge numbers.The monthly e-mail reminders make both of the actions relatively easy:
A. Letters for U.S. mail. The letter to print and put into the U.S. Mail is already pre-addressed and written for you.
B. Addition of hand-written note. The ideas and suggestions in each e-mail reminder helps in each participant being able to add a hand-written note to make the letter personal, which is MUCH more powerful than keeping it as a form letter. That's seen by the 44% vs. 3%, above and below.
Beyond the numbersThe numerical facts below may be interesting for you, but it's good to add the opinion of a political leader:
U.S. Senator Barack Obama on 4/3/2007 communicated in one of his campaign town hall meetings that the sending of letters in the U.S. Mail by a group of people is an excellent action to take to influence Congress. He specifically stated a thousand to two thousand letters in the U.S. Mail be sent to each of the U.S. Representatives ... a total of roughly one million letters in the U.S. Mail.
More Details from the Thorough Study of This Subject
Detailed study based on input of Congressional staff. A thorough study was conducted by the Congressional Management Foundation on the subject of communicating with Congress. The resulting report “Communicating with Congress” confirms the high value of individualized (personalized) letter in the U.S. Mail.
1. SEND BY PAPER IN THE U.S. MAIL
Value of sending a letter via the U.S. Mail compared to sending an e-mail:
- 44% - a “lot of influence” via letters in the U.S. Mail
- 34% - a “lot of influence” via e-mails
where “lot of influence” was a choice on the surveys of 335 staff members,
including Chiefs of Staff, of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate2. SEND AFTER ADDING A HAND-WRITTEN NOTE
Value of sending a form letter (no personal note) compared to
sending an individualized (personalized by a hand-written note)
letter to the U.S. Congress
- 44% when you make it your individual input by adding a note
- It becomes a highly valued communication via a “lot of influence”.
- 3% impact when you print and send with no note added
- It becomes only a form letter.
As indicated by the above information, the report (pdf) confirms the high value of the personalized letters in the U.S. Mail: called “individualized postal letters” in the report.
If you have any difficulty accessing a pdf file, please go here.
Accessing PDF Files
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Source
The report “Communicating with Congress” confirms the high value of the individualized (personalized) letter in the U.S. Mail. See page 20, Figure 7; page 28, Figure 16. The report is provided by the Congressional Management Foundation, which is the source of the report.
Direct from the report summary:
“Only 3% of (U.S. Congress) staff surveyed say identical form postal mail (“form letters” or pre-printed postcards) would have “a lot” of influence on their Member of Congress if he/she had not reached a (firm) decision (about an issue).”
“In contrast, 44% report individualized postal letters would have “a lot” of influence.”
Bolding and parentheses were added.
Millions of informed citizens communicating:
more power than the opposition's media and lobbyists.
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