A recent article in AdvertisingAge spoke of the increasing value of mascots in branding – this new offering from the USPS provides a great medium to put those mascots to work!

Sample Picture Permit, courtesy USPS

Available for First-Class or Standard Mail letters and cards mailing with the Full-Service IMb, the process requires a bit of set up:

1) Either working directly with the USPS or with a Mail Service Provider (MSP) – that’s us! – register and complete the Picture Permit application (you’ll need to have your own permit number set up in order to do this step),

2) Design a permit just for your company or even just for a specific campaign,

3) Submit the design to the USPS for approval, and finally

4) Submit 500 hard copy mailpieces for testing and approval (this process will take between 30-45 days).

There is an additional fee ($.01 per mailpiece for First-Class and $.02 per mailpiece for Standard Mail) when using the Picture Permit.

For more details or to get started, visit the Picture Permit home page or check out this fact sheet. And if you’d like help with this process, the Action staff are ready to help as always!

We took part in a trade show last week and shortly afterward, a coworker received a very thoughtful thank you card from a prospective customer for inviting her to the event because she found it so useful at the start of her new career. How thoughtful, right? I’m certain she was thankful – just starting out in a new industry, there are fewer better ways to get a handle on things than to meet industry movers and shakers and take in topical educational sessions to boot. Most people in a  similar situation would feel the same way – but how many would actually take the time to express it?

My friends and I enjoy leaving these sticky notes when dining out together as a way to express our gratitude for awesome service, a great smile or just as a way to brighten a day.

It’s so easy to do – the important piece is doing it when you are feeling that surge of gratitude toward someone – once that moment is gone it becomes so easy to push the item further down your “to do” list until it becomes seemly unimportant. It’s definitely quick to shoot off a quick email with a word of thanks, or to create an e-card to send. For what I still believe packs the most punch, send a thank you card in the mail. And just a few kind words is all it takes.

Make it a point to thank someone who has made you thankful each and every week. Let the people who do good to you know you appreciate their thoughtfulness.

This summer’s promotion will again provide a 2% upfront postage discount to any mailer who integrates a mobile barcode (most commonly the QR Code but other mobile barcodes qualify) that can be scanned by a mobile device. The biggest change with the 2012 promotion is that the barcode must lead the recipient to either:

1)    A webpage that allows the user to purchase a product/service on their mobile device, or

2)    A personalized URL that takes the user to a personalized web page.

The program will take place from July 1 through August 31, 2012 and is available for First-Class Mail cards, letters, and flats and Standard Mail (including Nonprofit Standard Mail) letters and flats with a mobile barcode inside or on the mailpiece. Action is completely set up to manage the back-end processing (electronic documentation to the USPS is required) and can help with personalized URLs and QR Code generation. Start getting ready for the sale!

I fancy myself a bit of a contradiction on this issue: personally I tend to err on the side of caution about what information I share about myself in both the virtual and physical world, but professionally I work in an industry that benefits greatly from gleaning the minute details when building databases. Not only does having specific information about potential prospects and customers have the ability to lead to improved sales, but it also means our customers are able to market smarter – so, in theory, end consumers are only getting messages most relevant to them and not a lot of non-applicable ”junk”.

So, my suggestions as a dichotomy of pro and con data collection are these:

1. Be diligent. Spend time continually up-keeping your database – old data is bad data. Trying to sell local garbage services to a prospect that has long-since moved from the area you are targeting is not beneficial to you or them.
2. Be creative. Start with the things you know – contact information, buying habits from your company, information on their company or job. Then consider other less obvious factors that might make an impact (this is where knowing what your ideal customers look like becomes so important!). Take time to build this information into your database – either by appending information from outside databases or building it organically.
3. Be strategic. Making sense of data isn’t usually a quick and easy process. It requires researching and hypothesizing and testing to validate claims.  When talking data mining and targeting, it’s almost universal that people will understand the concept when using shopping on Amazon as an example. Think of the work built into their back-end that allows them to make the recommendations they do. Find those connections between your customers and make relevant recommendations.
4. Be useful. We have a local grocer who notifies my husband of great deals on bacon when he enters the store – because he knows that my husband is going to stock up on all the bacon he can fit in his cart. And he realizes that the indirect statement of “I know you and I know what you like and I want to share this with you because I value you and our relationship” goes a long way. Make good use of the data you collect – use it to benefit both your customer and your company.
5. Be transparent. If you are collecting information when someone is on your website, say so. If you are collecting information when they leave your website, say so. If you are surveying your customers and plan to use the information for future marketing, say so. Sneaky never feels good, regardless of your intent.

I think Seth Godin said it well in a recent post, and I paraphrase: the concern isn’t so much privacy – we gave that up long ago – but the concern is being surprised.

Whatever you decide to do with your data, try it out wearing the hat of the opposition – a little duality can go a long way in the success of using your data.

The Intelligent Mail barcode, which will permanently replace the traditional POSTNET barcode starting next January, allows you to add tracking to your mail and Action has a very easy to use portal that lets you “watch” your mail get delivered.

Want to learn more? Check out this video or give us a call!

And as always, we have an amazing staff of Mailpiece Quality Control certified sales & account managers who are readily available to talk through any questions on your mail!

Back to the Killian household: we have some family living outside of Minnesota that we do not see for the holidays and this means gifts in the mail. Imagine a seven-year-old coming home from school and seeing a Priority Mail box (or just as easily UPS or FedEx) sitting on the table with her name on it. Anticipation, spontaneous grins, excitement. Pure joy!

I love to shop from catalogs and online and one of the key reasons is because I like getting packages in the mail. And really, who doesn’t? Even here at Action, there is a general excitement whenever someone in the office gets a package. There’s that same pre-gift anticipation of the endless potential hidden behind that corrugated packaging, just waiting for you to open it.

So, if a package can elicit that kind of response – pretty much across the board - why are we not sending more packages?

A common theme I seem to keep running across in my daily reading is that consumers today are more discerning and demanding of trust than they used to be. Now, while I could take issue with this conclusion (do you really believe yesterday’s customers were expecting to be cheated or really not paying attention?), technology does make it easier to do research and, probably more importantly, allows unhappy customers a wider reach to express dissatisfaction (and conversely, potential customers easier access to learn of that dissatisfaction).

So, if you are looking for a way to give potential customers peace of mind about your offering, why not send them a sample? Give them the opportunity to interact with you and decide for themselves whether your claims are true (building trust) and potentially express excitement about you and your offering (building loyalty and positive feedback). You, too, can elicit spontaneous smiles when your recipients come home to a package of possibility waiting for them to open.

Take cards for instance – we celebrate Christmas at the Killian household and one of the things I enjoy most about this holiday is receiving cards. Granted, I am of an age where I grew up having a pen pal from Korea I never met and a cousin who lived in Indiana that I exchanged letters back and forth with between our twice-yearly visits, so I have a pretty solid relationship with mail, but I love getting these holiday greetings and cannot imagine them being replaced by electronic media.

I think there are lessons to be learned from those cards that should be applied to mail generally for better effectiveness:

• Send to everyone who might have interest: I’ve been slow on the uptake with this one as I’ve always justified “only families with kids” do this (which I’ve just recently become), but I’ve been missing out on some key segments (in both the sending and receiving arena) by subscribing to this logic. Put yourself in your potential recipient’s shoes and consider whether they would appreciate you reaching out to them. Most often, they would rather get the message than potentially feel snubbed by being excluded.
• Make it interesting: A greeting store card is nice, but a photo montage card is even better! I enjoy seeing how my friends families are evolving and appreciate the “peek” into their world. Consider how you can share at that level with your customers and what they would find interesting to know about you or more importantly, how something about you reflects on (or effects) them.
• Make it personal: Without a doubt, my favorite cards include the “Year in Review” letter. I know they are often fodder for jokes and can certainly be done wrong (though I think it would be interesting for active Facebook or Twitter users to do a “Year In Review” using their status posts/tweets), but a well-written letter leaves you feeling like you’ve just gotten off the phone with your long-lost friend and have re-established that connection. Try to make your communication with your audience establish that connection: well-maintained data and targeted messaging will do a lot to get you there but don’t forget to leave the “real-ness” in your messaging. If the government says corporations are in fact people, then lets make messaging from them more personal.

Mail is still an amazing communication medium – and though we are facing another rate increase this month, it is still quite a value for its potential. As with every other advertising medium, it is evolving and what worked 10 years ago, 5 years ago or even last year, may not be what works today – but that speaks much more to the rate of change due to technology and information. Keep your messages personal, interesting and keep sending – and you will continue to see results!

I have a few more thoughts on holidays + mail that I’ll save for my next post… Happy 2012!

1) In Home Dates no longer honored

View this letter to read the official notice; the USPS is saying they will no longer use the “In Home By” dates printed on the outside of mail, but will instead only use the following factors for processing mail:

•  mail entry location
• critical entry time
• mail type
• applicable Service Standard

Before you let this change get you down about mail meeting your delivery window, know that the transportation system and discounts for closer-to-destination delivery have been seriously beefing up over the past decade – so with a little planning regarding delivery (which we’ll take care of for you), you can cut time mail is in transit by drop-shipping mail closer to the addresses that are receiving your message.

Additionally, this might be a great time to try adding mailpiece tracking using the new Intelligent Mail barcode – it’s easy to add, easy to track and gives you the complete picture of when your mail is arriving in-home. Check out this video for a brief introduction on our track-n-trace service!

2) Self-Mailer revised rules are in effect now

The USPS has published a new set of rules regarding self-mailers (letter sized mail that is not bound) that is similar to the recent change in letter-size booklets. The most notable changes are:

• size: new max size 6 x 10.5 x .25 (was 6.125 x 11.5 x .25)
• weight: max 3 ounces (was 3.3 ounces)
• tabbing: no single tabbing allowed, preference for glue closure, no perfed tabs, new tabbing placement specs (updated 12.02.11 reference)
• final fold: horizontal fold: final fold on bottom (no open bottom)

These changes are effective immediately but will not be required until January 2013. We’ll continue to work with you during this transition phase to ensure your mailpiece design qualifies you for the best possible postage discounts.

Each year, our employees donate over 1,000 pounds of food for Second Harvest Heartland and we are inviting you to join in on the giving! We make it easy to do:

1. Fill a bag full of food or other household goods (see list of Most Needed Items 2011), then
2. Contact us to schedule a pick up of your donated items, and then
3. Feel really good about doing something so simple yet so powerful!

We also have a site set up for those who would prefer to make a tax-deductible donation here.

We encourage you to join in the season for giving after you give thanks with the ones you love.

Happy Thanksgiving!