The campaign spent $6 in stamps alone to send me an envelope

[timosman]

Well, you might be right. But one of the biggest reasons to hire a DM company as opposed to, say, having volunteers just stuff envelopes is that they are experts in the field, and know how to maximize return for minimal costs.

Benton isn't running this campaign, so I am more inclined to trust that they are indeed being run competently, and that the firm that is handling their DM campaign does indeed know what triggers will get the most responses.

Winning elections is not the DM company primary objective. All they care about is getting paid. You can not allow to not have any oversight over mail campaign unless you are not playing to win. A sucker is born every minute.

[angelatc]

True, and I'm sure it's working well from that standpoint. I am a bit concerned that there doesn't seem to be a way to keep a $5 stamp from going out to someone who specifically tells them it will be a waste. Again I suspect there is no incentive for the DM side to take anyone off the list. But wouldn't it be refreshing to be able to shop a company that did operate that way?

Yeah. One place that the Democrats run rings around the GOP is hashing out that data.

[timosman]

But wouldn't it be refreshing to be able to shop a company that did operate that way?

What do you expect us to do ? An intern is doing this sh*t. We are here to win the election !

Here is the plan:

1. Screw everything we can.
2. ????
3. PROFIT ! (Top ten in the primary. Blame "them" for not allowing us to win)

[timosman]

Yeah. One place that the Democrats run rings around the GOP is hashing out that data.

But GOP uses Snapchat, so I guess it evens out.

[Matt Collins]

A $5 donor that works out to be a $1 net loss in campaign contributions is also a newly committed voter, with a dog in the fight, bought for $1.

Incorrect. First off, people usually don't donate just $5 through the mail. It's usually $35 or more for each mail-in donation. Secondly they will hit the donors again with a lower cost mailing a few weeks later.

The donations of less than $10, known as 'microdonations' are usually made online.

[Matt Collins]

Winning elections is not the DM company primary objective. All they care about is getting paid.

Incorrect. If the direct mail company does not produce winning results, they don't stay in business very long.

[devil21]

Incorrect. If the direct mail company does not produce winning results, they don't stay in business very long.

Unless they latch on to a growing movement and imbed themselves into the movement, of course.

Hey Collins, are you employed in any way by Saber or a company that used to be named Saber?

[nayjevin]

Most people don't care about that sort of thing. Only a very small % of Ron and/or Rand's supporters even have an account here, much less lurk or post here. Those of us who do are abnormal in the data set. So no, most of the liberty supporters don't think like you and I do.

A 1% abnormality, when understood and addressed, has the potential to be worth a 1% increase in donations over the course of the campaign.

It's not like increasing profits by tailoring to segments is a new business strategy.

I'm not arguing that there are zero people outside this forum who feel as we do either. I am not arguing that this forum is representative of the whole.

[nayjevin]

Incorrect. First off, people usually don't donate just $5 through the mail. It's usually $35 or more for each mail-in donation. Secondly they will hit the donors again with a lower cost mailing a few weeks later.

The donations of less than $10, known as 'microdonations' are usually made online.

But the principle is true. The $5 buys more than just the amount that is sent in response.

Except that human behavior is mostly the same.... I see people around here have emotional and irrational knee-jerk reactions to lots of different things, the same way the rest of the voters too for example.

Well sure, but the word is 'mostly'. The extent to which they aren't directly translates to a business opportunity.

I once thought that people who are like-minded for liberty were slightly more above that, but we really aren't apparently. Humans are humans.

There's no doubt that a person who supported Ron Paul is more likely to see through bull$#@! than the average person. But again, Bastiat, what is seen, and what is unseen? What we see are the people who still voice opinions in public, which forms any opinion of 'what are liberty movement people like'. What we don't see are the people who move on to be authors or start organizations or run for office and 'shift rhetoric'. We also don't see duplicate accounts, sock puppets, people voicing intentionally false opinions.