Is your mail getting a second look?

Terry Flynn of Market Chord Direct Group has some great ideas for making sure your mail stands out in a busy company mailroom. Her tips extend to mail that lands in any mailbox, so even if you’re not trying to get your mail past a mailroom gatekeeper, you ultimately want to make sure the end recipient is interestedenough to open the piece. In a MultiChannel Merchant article this month, she suggests not only making sure your mail delivers something of substance, but particularly, making it LOOK like your mail delivers substance.

She even says that it can be worth the additional postage and production cost to “bulk up” your piece. You can do this by making the package thicker, following the logic that more pages must mean more content. Several promotional products mailers found that their response rates improved when they included a sample.

Beyond giving the look of substance, delivering information of substance – adding value to your contact’s day – is always a good thing.

Inauguration crowds?

It’s the Saturday before the inauguration, and the parking lot at the Vienna Metro is 3/4 empty. Is this a sign of lower-than-expected crowd turnout, or is it just the calm before the storm?

Post-script (1/30/09): I should have updated this when I woke up on the morning of inauguration day to helicopters flying overhead, police sirens outside my window and a line to get on the train that followed along the parking garage all the way to the street. But other than that, it was a strangely quiet drive to work with hardly any traffic on the road. I watched the inauguration on a projector at work with my coworkers.

Who do you trust?

Every year, Edelman does a survey asking people questions to determine their level of trust in different institutions. The Edelman Trust Study finds that trust in professionals is decreasing, along with decreasing trust in government. At the same time, trust in “people like me” is increasing, which might explain conversational style we’re seeing everywhere from Charles Schwab’s “Talk to Chuck” ads to the GEICO gecko’s working class British accent and straightforward language.

Business Mail Seminar at the USPS

I went to the business mail seminar at the post office today. Cindy T went through mail size restrictions, indicias, and when you can presort and how you can get the bulk mail automation discount like she was telling us how to tie our shoes. She made everything seem so simple. And it is, until you start looking into the way the regulations are written. When you go through security at the airport, you see a red circle with a cross through the restricted items you can’t bring on board the plane. Or to be even more visual, the airport might have put out an example of liquids in a plastic bag, or show you a full trash can of water bottles before you go through Security. I liked the way she explained the regulations through images and physical pieces of mail.

Cindy had pieces of mail spread out on the table in front of her. She showed us all different sizes, shapes and materials, and explained why the rejected pieces couldn’t go through the automated equipment. The most interesting piece I saw was a clear material filled with “oil.” The post office banned it because it was labelled as oil, but it was just dishwashing liquid!

She also explained that the post office, for the first time ever, is making a change in the rules to make life easier for the mail delivery people. I couldn’t believe it was the first change they had ever made with the mail carriers in mind, but there you go!  The rule change is about where the address should appear on flats, like magazines or large, flat envelopes. When you hold the bound edge in your right hand, the address has to be on the upper half (or maybe upper third) of the page. What a great, visual way to remember where the address has to go.

Hyperlocal mapmania

Earlier this week I was having dinner with my mom, Bobby and Amanda. We were talking about Berryville, VA, where Amanda grew up. I had been to Berryville once before, so I knew where it was. Bobby also knew where it was, because as soon as he met Amanda two years ago, he looked it up. Not only that, when he went to look up Amanda’s address with her later, her red car was parked out front. We have access to such an overwhelming amount of information, including an overload of information about places, that I’m getting a headache just thinking about it! Where to start?

Which leads us to the hyperlocal trend of 2009. With an overload of information about every place, will people be more inclined to focus in on things going on close to home? With pressure on personal finances, the trend probably will be to pay more attention to nearby happenings to save money too. “Hyperlocal” is a preference for things produced locally and authentically, and it’s a 2009 trend identified by trendwatching.com . When we combine hyperlocal with mapmania, we get a pulse not only on locally-grown foods and local music, but on where our friends are at all times via twitter or Loopt, BrightKite, Plazes, Where or Whrrl (I have not tried these out yet – I need to figure out who I can stalk first!) I predict a lot of hyperlocal friend-following will ensue in 2009, and I am very excited for all the local fun!

Who’s been naughty this year?

As we near the time when Santa drops down the chimney, he’s checking his list twice for who’s been naughty and nice. But who decides whether catalog marketers have been naughty or nice? And who’s getting a lump of coal in their stockings this year? ForestEthics takes on the catalog marketers each year, ranking them on their environmental practices.

Sears, Capital One and American Express all made ForestEthics’ 2009 naughty list.

And what does it take to make the ‘nice’ list? ForestEthics ranks on four criteria, according to spokesperson Ginger Cassidy (quoted in AdAge):

1. whether endangered forests are cut to produce the company’s catalogs;

2. whether the company uses Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper;

3. the amount of post-consumer recycled content in the company’s direct mailings; and

4. the company’s efforts to reduce overall paper consumption.

The good news this year is that catalog companies are moving in the right direction. They are reducing the number of catalogs they mail, improving the post-consumer recycled content they use and improving their list quality, so catalogs are mailed to the person they are intended to reach at their new address. Reduce – Recycle – Refresh (my new mantra for smart mail)

As we celebrate Christmas, I’ll rejoice that catalog marketers are working to reduce their environmental footprints.

By the way – here’s who made the ‘nice’ list: Timberland, Patagonia, Crate & Barrel, Dell, Victoria’s Secret, REI, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Williams-Sonoma and L.L. Bean.

Ken Robinson on Creativity

Our public education system was created for an industrial economy, but who knows what the world will be like in 60 years? Ken Robinson says we need to re-examine the way we think about education to re-value the richness of human capacity.

He says intelligence is: 

Diverse: We experience the world kinesthetically, visually, and through sounds.

Dynamic: Different parts of our minds interact with each other.

Distinct: Some people have to move to think.

And, we have to be willing to take chances. He says, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

Create Buyer Personas

David Merriman Scott suggests creating buyer personas to help you understand your customers. The process goes like this: 

1. Who is a typical customer? Give her a face (a drawing, a magazine cut out…) Name her.

2. Repeat to create multiple buyer personas (segment your customer base into several customer types)

3. For each buyer persona, what are his/her problems? What do you want your buyer persona to believe? 

4. Ask, does my communication use language that my buyer persona uses? Do I address what’s important to my buyer persona?

If the answer to #4 is “No, I’m not speaking my buyer persona’s language or speaking to what’s important to him,” then talk to some people who fit your “buyer persona” type. Find a way to be relevant to them.

Scripted “interviews”

Every Saturday and Sunday morning without fail, I can find an infomercial that sounds like a radio interview. This infomercial advertises the Dual Action Cleanse. It is persuasive because the “radio host” is engaged, supportive, and excited about the product. The “interview” is compelling. I haven’t listened long enough to hear the beginning or end to know if there is a disclaimer, but if you were skipping across radio stations, you might think it was a real interview. On the other hand, publicists frequently ‘place’ stories in news publications. Is this putting this infomercial on the air similar to a newspaper printing a press release almost verbatim? Is the Dual Action Cleanse radio infomercial unethical?