Maximize the Impact of Every Constituent Communication

Newly elected Congressional offices are always passionate about being responsive to their district. Did you know that a strong mail program can be a huge asset to other aspects of Congressional work?

According to Steve Gilleland, “You know your district better than anyone. You spend time there, in many cases you grew up there. But you can also use constituent interactions through your mail system to better understand what people in your district care about most.”

Steve started his 15+ year career on the Hill as a Legislative Correspondent handling the mail. He worked his way up to Policy Director and eventually Chief of Staff for multiple offices. including a Committee Chairman.

Pulling from his experience running Congressional offices, Steve has identified three big ways that Congressional teams can make the most of their mail program, in addition to being responsive to constituent requests.

Use engagement data when determining legislative priorities

If you are collecting and organizing constituent interactions with your office through a Constituent Management System (CMS), then it should be easy for your mail program to identify trends and pull reports on the issues that your constituents are passionate about, both big and small.

Let’s say 500 people write to you in favor of clean water initiatives in your district while another 3,000 write to you with a range of opinions about gun control. Having direct input from your communities can help your team make informed decisions on how best to deploy your limited policy resources around sensitive and timely issues like these.

“You can also use this data to justify the legislative actions that you are taking. So when you introduce a bill, go out and tell everyone that 2,750 people have written to you advocating for this policy position over the course of the last month, and now you’ve introduced this legislation to take action on their behalf.”

Never miss an opportunity to tell constituents that you are fighting for them

“Whenever you take an action — whether that’s sponsoring a bill, signing a letter, or speaking at an event — pull a universe of your constituents who have written to you about those issues in the past, and send them a notice that you are out there fighting for them.”

Micro-targeted outreach is the perfect way to keep constituents informed about the issues they care about. Use these segmented lists to plan thoughtful and engaging content tailored to different groups of constituents. Data-driven outreach strategies like these have proven effective at growing subscriber lists and building positive name ID within your district.

“It’s impactful when someone writes to your office and asks you to take a certain position and they receive a response back from you. It’s far more impactful when they then get a follow-up from you four months later saying: ‘I know you care deeply about this issue, and I wanted to make sure you saw this action I took on your behalf on that issue.’”

Amplify constituent voices to humanize your efforts

“Nothing is more impactful than having an individual or group of individuals in your district that you can point to as the reason you are fighting for certain legislation.”

Whether your team is working to expand funding for pediatric cancer research or championing reform for veteran benefits, you’ll find your policy efforts to be much more effective if you can build a narrative that is authentic and relatable.

“Use personal stories to humanize the legislative work that you are doing. Partner with affected individuals to help amplify their voices using your position in Congress.”

Equip your team with a CMS from this decade

“If your casework team has the proper tools to be able to track and manage constituent messages, they also have the proper tools to identify opportunities where you can actually take further action beyond resolving their case.”

Get in touch to learn how Indigov can help your staff provide best-in-class customer service to constituents!