Outstanding Sales People Possess These Unique Character Traits. Do You?

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What separates an average sales person from a highly successful one? Experts say to look for these 12 qualities.

Whether you want to grow your own sales abilities, mentor an employee, or hire the best candidate, these experts volunteered their informed opinions to help. Ranging from middle market and corporate CEO’s, sales trainers, award winning sales people, and psychologists, here is a list of qualities they say outrageously successful sales people share.

Have strong intuition.

One of the hardest traits to obtain is the ability to know when to keep your feet planted and when to walk out the door. If you want success, you have to listen to your gut instincts in a practical way.

CEO, Marc Cenedella, Ladders

Provide clear value.

We’ve got a team of 20 salespeople, recently reduced from 30. We kept the star performers, who share one thing in common: an unshakable desire to provide clear value to the customer from the very first contact. They have a core attitude of wanting to help, whether it leads to a sale or not.

Seb Dean, Managing Director, Imaginaire Digital

Believe whole-heartedly in your product or service.

Successful salespeople must have knowledge and belief in what they’re selling. If you know your product and believe in it, you’re more likely to be genuine and speak from the heart. People will pick up on that because people often buy the why, not the what of a product or service.

Courtney Gaines, President, CLEAR Property Management

Develop an alter ego.

If you are not who you want to be yet, develop an alter ego. Call upon it when you’re facing a challenge. It’ll allow you to be bolder and more tenacious. It’s much easier facing rejections when they are rejecting your alter ego and not you.

Nalie Lee-Wen, CFO, The PPA Group

Possess a sense of humor.

Successful sales people are not only emotionally intelligent, extremely extroverted, and have a high general sense of well-being, but, in my experience, they typically have a great sense of humor as well.

Christine M. Allen, Ph.D, VP, Insight Business Works

Don’t hear objections.

Objections can throw salespeople off guard and make them lose objectivity. Successful sales people consider the buyer’s objection as an opinion. They don’t try to overcome opinions, they simply conduct mature conversations that take the buyer’s perspective into consideration. They show empathy and curiosity towards the customer’s concerns and validate the importance of them.

Joe Zente, CEO, The Alternative Board Austin ​

Be willing to accept ultimate responsibility.

Sale people with this quality take ownership of their goals and what they want to achieve. They take ownership of who they need to become to achieve their goals, thus they are constantly learning, adapting, and growing. Lastly, they take ownership of the challenges they encounter; thus they focus on finding solutions rather than getting lost in all of the problems.

David Naylor, Executive VP Global Leadership and Learning Development, 2logical

Never stop asking questions.

Great sales people know that buyers aren’t interested in features, they’re interested in finding out whether or not your company can really solve their problem. The best sales people aren’t satisfied until they get to the root of a potential customer’s problem.

Hannah Write, Co-founder, HR Partner

Have courage.

Sales people with the best results are those who have the courage to feel the fear and ask anyway. They win more by being willing to push the envelope. This doesn’t mean that they are being obnoxious or taking advantage of people, it means they don’t compromise. Know your product and what you are selling, and ask for what you really want.

Linda Swindling, Negotiation Expert, and author of Ask Outrageously! The Secret to Getting What You Really Want

Follow the 80/20 rule.

A seasoned professional can tell how well the meeting is going by the percentage of time the prospect is talking. I strive for an 80/20 breakdown. In a great meeting, the client is asked proper questions, allowing them to express their needs, which they may not yet be aware of. Don’t make the mistake of spending too much time selling and not enough time diagnosing the problem that your products may be able to solve.

Adam Torres, CEO, Century City Wealth Management

Collect the right data.

People who are very successful in sales have the ability to collect the right data and interpret it to make meaningful conclusions. Externally, the ability to collect data and critically interpret it allows a sales person to uncover, understand, and address the true pain points of customers. Internally, it improves the sales flow process.

Josh, Content & CommuniManager, Fieldboom

Develop an emotional common ground.

This enables good salespeople to use conversation, body language, other social cues to quickly establish a sense of trust and understanding when cultivating new relationships. The talent required to build that trust and confidence in you as a person, and to find that emotional common ground with people from all backgrounds and walks of life, is what differentiates good salespeople from outrageously successful ones.

Zach Olsen, President, Infinite Global ​

Well, how do you and your team measure up? Let us know in the comments section below. And, add or comment on the character traits that you believe are important.

Branding 101: Mistakes communicators should avoid

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When I started my etiquette business 20 years ago, I hired a college student named Ed to design my logo and website. It was a quick, easy and inexpensive way to get my name out into the world.
However, when it came time to update my materials, Ed was nowhere to be found. He left town and did not provide me with his new contact information. I ended up hiring a more expensive and reputable company to design all of my marketing materials and it made all the difference in the world. Even today, my website is my number one marketing tool. It establishes me as “The Etiquette Expert.” It’s my brand. Your brand is equally important. It is the first symbol people see, it is the last thing they remember, and it is the theme that runs throughout your entire marketing strategy. Big corporations like Coca-Cola, Google, and Apple spend large sums of money and time determining and establishing their brand. So why shouldn’t it be that important to a smaller, more entrepreneurial company? It should be.
If you are just starting out on a shoestring budget or if you have created a business in random chunks, without a formal brand strategy determination, it’s never too late to put a brand in place.
But before you do, you must first be aware of the most common branding mistakes many entrepreneurs make.
1. Amateur logo.
Nothing screams “inexperienced” more than a homemade-looking logo. Even if you are proud of what your teenager came up with, take the time and spend the money to hire a professional graphic designer specializing in branding and logo development. Your designer will also create graphic standards defining the color palette, visual style, font size and style, and usage requirements for your logo. Use these standards to set the tone throughout your entire marketing campaign.

2. You have no consistency.
If you started getting inquiries before establishing your brand, you probably had to rush to get basic marketing materials in place. Your business card, letterhead, social media banners, website, marketing brochure, handouts, labels, invoices, and more should all carry a themed and branded look. Use the same font and colors throughout.

3. No motto.
Big companies create a tagline or motto that encapsulates the message they want to convey. “Think different” is Apple’s, “Let’s Make Today Great” is Kellogg’s, and “Go Further” is Ford’s. Products also carry slogans: remember Alka-Seltzer’s “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz” and Burger King’s “Have it Your Way”? Develop a catchy tag line that represents the benefits your clients and customers will receive. Can’t afford to hire a marketing company? Hire a freelancer by the hour.

4. Not monitoring the competition.
Before you brand, check out your competitors. They have a similar—or the same—audiences as you do. Research similar businesses in other markets as well. Look at their logo, tagline, overall look and feel, and any marketing materials you can access. Review their websites to see how their services stack up to yours. Note any good ideas and revise them into your own unique brand.

5. Not knowing who your customers are.
Not everyone is your customer. In fact, knowing the data on exactly who your customer really is can result in an incremental 241% return on investment, reports a Clickz study. Hone in on and “own” a niche. For example, my niche is business etiquette. That means that I target my marketing efforts to corporations, colleges and universities.
Specializing in a niche requires less investment than mass marketing, and comes with the bonus of free word of mouth advertising and brand loyalty. Niche market members are passionate about their interests, values and hobbies and are more likely to talk about those interests and your brand with others in their network. They also are more apt to keep coming back for more.
Spend some time reviewing your current brand, and if it needs work, make it your top priority. After all, it is the lasting impression that defines your business and will keep you in business for many years to come.

 

 

These 4 Habits Are Keeping You Unhealthy and Unproductive

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Don’t let these four common traps below stop you from a dream business and body.
 

Health and productivity are essential to an entrepreneur’s potential for growth in their endeavors. Without good health and productivity habits, your wealth will suffer.

With this knowledge in mind, it’s no surprise that millions upon millions of articles and advice circulates the internet on how to solve these two key components to a business owner’s journey.

However, with numerous strategies that can become contradictory and downright confusing, it’s tough to decipher which areas to focus on initially. Here are 4 key habits to let go of when it comes to improving your health and productivity.

1. Consuming too much information

We live in the golden age of information. Anything you want to know, find, or learn can happen through the magic of a quick 15-second Google search.

I can learn the basic step pattern for salsa dancing. But I can also become overwhelmed with the countless salsa videos at my disposal (true story on this).

The big glaring problem with this wealth of information is that the abundance of information starts to conflict with each other. What’s right and wrong? What should and shouldn’t I do?

Which diet to choose? Which ad campaign to run? Which email service to use? Which sales strategy to implement? Which workout regimen to follow? How to lose weight the fastest? And on and on?

It’s great to have this information, but the excess of information becomes counterproductive because it leads to analysis from paralysis. Information overload is in full effect and the more information and decisions presented to you, the more likely nothing gets chosen and started.

Find just enough information, pick a plan, and leave everything else out. Otherwise, you’ll jump from program to program with your fitness and try the next shiny object each week in business. With each scenario, nothing gets accomplished.

All diets can potentially work. All business strategies and tactics can work. The key is to stick with the plan, follow it, and give the process time to work out. Your most important step is to find a plan that acknowledges and meshes with your personality and skills–and then get started.

2. Trying to do everything yourself

You can’t succeed in this world alone. This leads to burnout, which affects your health and business.

Seek help when you need it. It’s better for your business to let someone take over jobs and tasks that don’t fit your strengths. This frees up more time to focus on your strengths, which leads to better productivity overall and an improved bottom-line.

It’s better to let someone take over your fitness and nutrition than to continually guess and jump from program to program but still not get anywhere meaningful with your progress in the long run.

Marvin Gaye had a team of songwriters and producers to bring out the best of him for the Let’s Get It On album. Steve Jobs had a talented team at Apple. Even the Avengers couldn’t save the world until they came together as a unit

Don’t waste time trying to do and be everything, let people help you on your journey to greatness.

3. Trying to be a perfectionist

Labeling yourself as a perfectionist and not taking action until it’s right is nothing more than procrastination and fear talking.

In business, if you wait for the perfect moment, you’re too late–the competition has the leg up on you. In fitness, if you wait for the perfect moment, those desired pounds lost and dream body are still waiting to happen. Building a million dollar business and bodyrequires more than just planning, it requires action (imperfection action is better than no action).

Don’t miss the big picture when you’re trying to improve your health and productivity, the main point is to get started. Perfectionist waste time over-analyzing all the small details that don’t play a pivotal role in the outcome.

The perfect moment to start is now.

4. Not creating systems

Life is chaotic and can quickly become overwhelming which is why creating systems are critical to succeeding in business and fitness.

Systems help you not rely on willpower (a fleeting asset). With systems, you can automate the everyday mundane tasks so you can focus on your tougher tasks of the day rather than waste unnecessary energy.

Struggle with what to eat? Meal prep your lunch for a few days. Or use a meal catering service for lunch since that’s your busiest work time and the most tempting time to fall off your healthy regimen.

When you create this system for your nutrition, you’re freeing up your brain power for big decisions in your business. Plan your morning, afternoon, and evening work slots while setting assigned times designated for email and administrative tasks.

Things to consider when starting a small business

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For many, the great American dream includes opening your own business or “hanging your own shingle” as a consultant or freelancer. If you have an idea for a company that you believe could be successful and want to pursue this dream, it is important to do your homework.

There are important steps that every small business owner must take – they include:

*     Identifying an opportunity in the market

*     Researching your customers and competition

*     Preparing a detailed business plan

*     Choosing a company structure that is right for you.

Being financially prepared is another crucial prerequisite to becoming a successful entrepreneur and it starts with a solid financial plan.

Create a financial strategy

If you’re serious about becoming a small business owner, it should be considered a financial goal like any other, such as retirement. It is important to develop a strategy for funding the company over time. A business that lacks a sound financial base may have a higher risk of failing. For greater success, estimate not only your startup costs, but the amount of money you’ll need to fund the company for the next three to five years.

Depending on your plans, these costs may be significant. When striking out on their own, many self-starters optimistically believe that the business will generate enough income to meet their needs and expectations, and even help them expand their lifestyle one day.

While this is a worthy goal, be conservative in your initial projections. It isn’t unusual for a business to lose money in the early stages. You need to have sufficient cash in place to support your personal financial needs while you work to make the company profitable.

Earmark money

It is important to establish a dedicated pool of savings to help finance your new venture. To start, consider setting money aside from each paycheck for this purpose. Determine how much you can afford to save each month and how long it will take to build cash to meet your goals. If anything, err on the high side when projecting how much money you need to save before you open the doors to your business.

If it’s practical, consider establishing your business on a part-time basis before you quit your day job. This lets you test your ideas, make modifications and build a base of customers while also maintaining a stronger financial position.

As you’re putting money away for your future business, make it a priority to continue saving for retirement as well as into your emergency fund. If you do, you will likely have stronger financial security in the event that anything happens to your new company’s revenue.

If capital is required to finance your startup, you may need to borrow money. Be cautious as you consider your borrowing options. It adds another level of financial risk to your plan. You must be confident that you can stay current with your loan repayment schedule.

A good place to learn more about borrowing options is the Small Business Administration website (www.sba.gov). Also be careful about using personal assets (such as your home) as collateral to fund your business ambitions. If possible, you want to keep your personal and business assets separate.

Remember that if you are financially prepared to make your entrepreneurial dreams come true, you will be in a better position to withstand the difficult periods and allow the business the time necessary to grow and prosper. Talk to your financial advisor to determine the best approach to build savings dedicated to your future business.

10 Steps to Change Your Business Image

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With the global business continuing to evolve rapidly, companies are faced with the reality that they often have to update their image to remain relevant in the minds and hearts of their customers and target audience.

If your audience sees the same old look and feel to what you offer, they may conclude that you aren’t putting any effort into following the trends or even leading the way. Or, it may be that you have had some issues in recent months that have tarnished your business image due to a bad decision or an unfortunate turn of events in the market. Whatever the case, your audience and customer base may seek out a competitor.

How to Change Your Business Image

However, you can work quickly and effectively to stay relevant and rebuild trust by transforming your business image in these 10 ways, including numerous solutions that get you there faster:

1. Strategize on a new direction and approach. One of the most challenging aspects of changing your business image is adjusting your operating model to best suit the customer’s needs. Often, it’s hard to separate from longstanding approaches or preconceived notions of departmental responsibilities and employee job descriptions. That makes it more difficult to figure out how to redesign the structure of your business to enable it to address the current and future needs of your target market. This is when it helps to bring in a company like ON THE MARK, which assists in seeing this bigger picture and offering a new blueprint of what your business model looks like and how it can run effectively.

2. Change how you interact with customers to shape how you transform the company. Listening to what your customers are telling you about what they want and what you can change to assist them with a better experience should be part of your plan to transform yourself. When your customers see that you have listened to them and adapted to suit them, you will go a long way toward making the right changes in your strategic direction and delivery, but you will also strengthen existing relationships. You may already have that information to tell you how to transform in your available data but no way of actually knowing what it all means. A company like Salesforce can provide a CRM platform and project management system that organizes and highlights those areas where you may need to make changes or that can define how you transform your image.

3. Engage your audience with content that illustrates your new business image. Today’s audiences rely primarily on written and visual content to make their decisions about a company whether it is on a website, on a blog, or on a social media profile. This is an opportunity to leverage their interest in content to get your messages across about what defines your new business image and, most importantly, how it specifically helps them with their issues or problems. Your content becomes your new business image because it is the communication channel and conversation platform between you and your customers. They can tell you what they think of the new business image or ask questions about what that image means for them. Since it’s an integral way to get noticed and share your new image, it’s critical to have expertise in content marketing from a company like Contently, which can help you to formulate your messaging and craft the content necessary to get the best reaction to this new business image.

4. Put the new business image into your visual presentation. It helps your audience to have imagerythat represents this new business messaging because these are symbols that help your audience connect and remembers the new brand attributes you want them to know about. When you want to change your business image, it’s an opportune time to update your logo, slogan, and website in terms of symbol, color, and messaging. This is where graphic design becomes your best friend, offering a way to consistently revise all visual representations of your company. You can use tools like SummitSoft to create a logo and Wix for a website without having to claim artistic status to make a great impression.

5. Add expert talent in areas of your business where you lack skills. You can change logos and websites all day long, which will help to a certain degree with a business transformation, but it’s really the people you surround yourself with that can make a transformation stick. While you may not be in the financial position to hire a team of full-time talent, you can tap into outsource workers and freelancers that specialize in areas that can help you transform how your business operates, especially in improving technology, marketing and sales, and customer service. Look to agencies like Toptal for IT talent and iFreelanc for graphic designers, marketers, salespeople, writers and even virtual assistants. All these talented individuals can do a better job than you in these areas because it’s what they do, which then allows you to focus on those aspects of your business that you do well.

6. Put influencers to work selling your new business image to the target audience. Influencer marketing is one of the biggest areas of marketing to have a significant effect on convincing target audience members to purchase a specific product or service. With more interaction becoming virtual, consumers and businesses are relying on others to recommend and review products and services before deciding to buy them. It’s these influencers that almost become more critical to a business reimaging than trying to go directly to the audience. Influencers often have more leverage and can sell the message you want to transmit more effectively. Platforms like the AI-driven Influential connects you with the best influencers for your particular segment and helps get your business image revamp to those audience members that can most often be converted.

7. Improve the financial underpinnings of your business. Having the right financial knowledge and tools can help you transform the operational aspects of your company by increasing cash flow, informing sound money decisions, bolstering the security of your transaction systems, and adding opportunities to fund the transformation and growth of your business. Business transformation isn’t always about the public image but it is often more important to focus on behind the scenes mechanisms like anything related to company finances that can make the biggest difference. Financial partnerships are out there in the form of companies like InDinerothat provide the information and platforms you need to revamp your financial processes and approach.

8. Deploy thought leadership strategies to build credibility with your audience. By establishing credibility with your audience that you know what you are doing and have the most visionary, insightful information on a particular topic, you can drive the message of your revised business image home. Your byline and syndicated articles, as well as blog posts, can be the basis for explaining why you revamped your business image in relation to industry trends and issues that your audience understands. Aligning these can make the transition in your business image as seamless as possible and actually build greater trust because the audience sees that, as a leader, you realized changing your image would be more useful to the audience and in response to market evolution. Most industry publications accept bylined articles while news syndicates also readily accept new and relevant content.

9. Take your business image message to Livestream video. In order to get your message to the right people, you need to use the mediums and platforms where they want to hear from you. Livestream video on Instagram, Periscope and Facebook have become very popular due to the interest in consuming video content at a nearly voracious pace. You will be able to reach a larger audience with your revamp messaging and present it in a format that they are most receptive to, helping to create a visual picture of what your new image represents.

10. Plan a campaign around the business image refresh. Turn the business image makeover into an event by creating a marketing and ad campaign around it with a set of collateral designed to excite your audience as though you are launching the business for the first time or even a new product or service. In many ways, that is what you are doing. Create a set of messages to be broadcast on social media by using Hootsuite to blast it out as well as develop an email blast, blog post, and landing page on your website.

Don’t forget to track every tactic you use to transform your business image to see what type of impact it has on your audience. It may take the time to sink in so you may need to repeat some of these approaches and continue the dialogue with your customers and audience until the new image of your business replaces the previous one.

3 Simple Ways to Make Sure Your Direct Mail Campaign Is Opened

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Learn the three things you can do to increase the chances that your sale pieces do their important job of selling your product or service.

Sometimes dropping your mail off at the post office can feel like you’re throwing it into a vast abyss. Once it’s out of your hands, you have no more control over it. Will it get to real people or will it end up in the dead letter office? Will the people who receive it read it or will it end up in the trash unopened?

Fortunately, there are some simple things you can do to increase the chances that your sale pieces arrive at the right place and get opened.

1. Get Your Mail Delivered

It doesn’t matter how great your copy is, how perfectly designed the sales piece is, or how sweet of an offer you have. If you use the wrong mailing list, your mail will not even show-up at the door. The key element to getting your mail delivered is to make sure you start with an accurate, updated mailing list that you get from a reliable source.

25 to 30 percent of your mail can end up undeliverable if you use a mailing list made up of bad names (wrong addresses, old names that have moved, etc.). One of my clients sent a direct mail campaign using first class mail, so the undelivered mail was returned to them. They knew they had picked the wrong list when they received about 20 percent of their campaign back. Consider the money lost due to a bad mailing list.

Making sure your list is right not only ensures that your mail will be delivered, but it is also instrumental in making sure that you get your mail opened by your target audience. If your list doesn’t target the people most likely to respond to your offer, it can be useless.

2. Get Your Mail Opened

Once your mail makes it in the hands of your target audience, your next step is to get them to open it and look through it. You want to make sure you are using the right format that will most appeal to your prospects. Every market niche has its own qualities and you need to find out and employ the format that works best for yours.

For example, suppose you are selling joint pain supplements. It turns out that the most successful type of format to get your mail opened in the joint pain niche is a magalog style. On the other hand, if you are marketing an information-based product and the purpose of your piece is to drive customers online, you will have the best results if you use a postcard or a four-page self-mailer.

So, how do you know what format you should be using? Find out who the most successful marketers are in your niche and follow what they’re doing. Here’s how:

1. Identify the biggest direct mail company in your niche and then see what they’re mailing. If you don’t know who the biggest mailer is, contact a list broker and ask them who mails to the biggest lists in your market. Then you can get a sample of what they are mailing.

2. Get samples of their pieces. This is the best way to find out how often they mail and what kind of offers they advertise is to get on their mailing list. When you request to be put on their lists, you can use a less recognizable name and a home address or a PO Box, if that makes you feel more comfortable about it contacting your competition.

3. Research your niche in SRDS. If you can’t find this reference book at your public library, request it and they may be able to get it for you on interlibrary loan.

3. Keep Your Mailing List Clean

Don’t rely completely on your list provider to give you a clean list. If you are getting lists from several sources, there could easily be duplicates, so always have your mail house run its own list hygiene procedure.

If you don’t clean your list you could run the change of mailing to bad addresses, wrong ZIP codes, and duplicate names. About 10% to 15% of every list has these. That means you could easily end up mailing 1,500 names that won’t respond out of a list of 10,000. Let’s do the math: If you are paying $0.65 for printing and postage, that will cost you $975 of lost money that did you no good at all.

If you don’t clean your list, you can be sure that you will have a bunch of pieces that did not get delivered. That kind of thing wastes your money, ruins your delivery rate, and reduces the number of orders you will receive.

Don’t throw your money away and threaten the results of your direct mail campaigns. Follow the three simple suggestions given here, and your mailings will be much more successful.

How to Successfully Track the Results of Your Mail Campaign

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Increase your mailing response rate by tracking and taking a serious look at your results.

Imagine you just spent $3,000 on a direct mail campaign, the mail pieces are out the door, and you’re finished with the whole process. Now it’s back to business, fulfilling all those orders that are about to flood in. There’s nothing more to do with the mailing, right? Wrong.

Now comes one of the most critical parts of the whole operation. Assessing the results of your campaign so you know:

  • Was it worth it to spend the $3,000 in the first place?
  • Of the two versions of sales pieces you tested, which one did better?
  • Which list of names did better?

In other words, you need to start tracking your results. Tracking your mail campaigns helps you understand every element of the campaign so that you can refine everything you do for future mailings. That’s the only way to systematically get better results as you grow your business. I can’t tell you how many companies I’ve talked to who tell me they don’t really know the results of their direct mail campaigns. They have a sense that orders picked up after sending out a mailing, but they don’t have any hard data. And maybe they tried several different sales pieces over the years, but they don’t really know which one did better.

That kind of lackluster effort doesn’t allow you to make any progress. Sometimes a mailing works, sometimes it doesn’t, but if you don’t know why you can’t use the information to create more effective campaigns. After mailing more than 200 million sales letters, I am certain of one thing: Direct-mail is no place for guesswork.

Tracking your mailings down to the smallest detail, every sales piece you’ve sent out, and every mail date you’ve used, will all help you refine your mail methods and increase your response rate.

Many businesses find that there is a best and worst season for their direct mail campaigns. They know this because they tracked their results, and now they can use this information to help boost their response rates. Getting helpful information like this requires tracking every single mailing, for every single campaign.

If you can’t easily look at and compare your mailing list history, seasonality, and sales piece trends, you are leaving money on the table. You need to track every single detail.

Understanding Basic USPS Requirements For Direct Mail

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There are too many times that a design element can cause you to pay significant additional postage. By learning the basic United States Postal Service requirements, you can save a ton of money. The fees can be 35 cents or more per piece, depending on the issue. And when you’re mailing hundreds of pieces, the cost can add up quickly.

Some of our clients have found that reprinting is actually cheaper than paying the additional postal fees. Knowing the requirements before you print will save you not only money but also time, and in direct mail, time can be the most critical thing.

First, let’s look at the five different mail categories, and the three most common classes of mail, first class, standard and nonprofit. Choosing which category and which class will determine the cost of your postage.

    1. Postcards. These are available in first-class mail only, while the following four are available in all classes of mail. Your paper stock must be a minimum of .007 inches thick and the aspect ratio must be between 1.3 and 2.5 inches. To determine the aspect ratio, look at the mail panel, measure the length and height, then take the length divide it by height. (3.5 inches by 5 inches to 4.25 inches to 6 inches)
    2. Letters. A letter can be a postcard that is larger than 4.25 inches by 6 inches or an enveloped piece. The thickness for all pieces must be between .009 and .25 inches; the aspect ratio is the same as postcards. (3.5 inches by 5 inches to 6.125 inches by 11.5 inches)
  1. Self-Mailers. A self-mailer is a single sheet of paper folded. The minimum paper stock for a piece that is less than an ounce is 70-pound paper. If it’s over 1 ounce, you need to use 80-pound or greater stock. This category has the same aspect ratio requirements as both postcards and letters. (3.5 inches by 5 inches to 6 inches by 10.5 inches)
  2. Booklets. A booklet consists of multiple sheets or pages that are bound by saddle‐stitching, or some type of binding method. The paper stock minimum weight for the cover is 40# to 80# book, depending on the design. This category has the same aspect ratio requirements as postcards, letters and self-mailers. (5 inches by 5 finches to 6 inches by 10.5 inches)
  3. Flats. For flats, the minimum paper stock thickness is .009. There are no aspect ratio requirements for this category. (6.126 inches by 11.51 inches to 12 inches by 15 inches)

Now for the addressing requirements:

  1. Postcards, Letters, Self-Mailers And Booklets. All of these have the same addressing options. First, put the barcode with the address. It must be at least a 1/2 inch from the right edge as well as at least 5/8 from the bottom edge. You need to stay 1/8 inch away from text and images and the maximum distance the address can be from the bottom of the mailer is 3.5 inches. We usually recommend to customers to leave an area of about 4 inches by 2 inches for the address and barcode. This area must be clear of UV coating, varnish, images and other text. The second option is to use the bottom right area for the barcode, which is referred to as the barcode clear zone. If you want to use this area you need to keep all images, color and text out of the bottom 5/8 area. The address would then have the same placement requirements as your first option.
  2. Flats. These are required to have the address block in the upper half of the short edge. For instance, with an 8.5-inch-by-11-inch mailer, you would need to address from the top of the piece down only to 5.5; don’t address below the 5.5. There is no barcode clear zone for flats. You will need to use an address block that includes the barcode, a 4-inch-by-2-inch clear area, no varnish, UV coating, text or images. You must also make sure that you have at least a .125-inch clearance for the address block from the edge of the piece and any text or graphics.

Finally, look at folding and tabbing/fugitive gluing mailers. Obviously, this is not needed for postcards, but you also do not need to use tabs or glue for flats.

  • Self- Mailer Folding. Folding requirements are very strict. You can fold vertically or horizontally based on the mail panel. The final fold should be to the right of the mail panel for the vertical fold, and should be below the mail panel for the horizontal fold. If you are folding an 11-inch-by-17-inch sheet down to 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches, the first fold needs to be to the right of the mail panel and the second fold below it.
  • Booklets. Binding requirements allow for two locations on the binding. You may either bind to the right of the mail panel or to the bottom of the mail panel.
  • Flat Folding. The fold or binding must be to the right of the mail panel. If you are using a poly bag or envelope, this is not necessary.
  • Self–Mailer Tabbing. You have the choice to either tab or glue self-mailers. If tabbing a mailer that is up to 1 ounce, you need two 1-inch tabs and a mailer over 1 ounce needs two 1.5-inch tabs. For fugitive gluing you have a couple of options: One is a glue line and the other is glue spots. The most common tab positions are two above the mail panel or two to the left of the mail panel.
  • Booklet Tabbing. Three tabs are required with a minimum 1.5-inch diameter and may not be perforated. If binding is below mail panel, then two tabs are required to the right of the mail panel and one tab to the left. If the binding is to the right of the mail panel, then two tabs are required above the mail panel and one tab to the left.

As you can see, the regulations can get pretty complicated. Have your mail service provider take a look at a PDF of your design before you print to help you spot any potential problems. When you plan ahead, you won’t have to pay the post office a penalty.

Case study: What brands can learn from the integrated Share a Coke campaign of 2013

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Summer 2013 saw Coca-Cola replace its iconic branding with 150 of the UK’s most popular names for its multimedia Share a Coke campaign, which produced some impressive results. But just what can other brands learn from it? Market research company YouGov shares the secrets of Coke’s winning campaign.

Last summer saw a flurry of activity down the supermarket drink aisles – adults and children alike scrambled through stacks of Coca-Cola, all eager to grab a bottle bearing their name. It seemed like almost everyone was sucked in by the Share a Coke campaign which exploded across Facebook, Twitter and TV advertising.

This unique and innovative approach to personalisation triggered research firm YouGov to roll out a study to ascertain just how and why Share a Coke was so successful and what other brands can take away from this success.

Background to the campaign Share a Coke, created by Ogilvy & Mather Sydney, launched in Australia in 2012. The integrated campaign was launched in Britain on 29 April 2013 and ran until the end of the summer. The soft drink giant replaced its usual branding with 150 of the UK’s most popular names. It was a multimedia effort, with TV adverts, billboards, and experiential marketing in the form of Coca-Cola ‘tours’ where participants could have their own custom bottle made. Each bottle also carried the hashtag #shareacoke to encourage users to share bottles with their names, as well as those of friends and family, using social media.

Reasons behind the research YouGov decided to study its progression and impact with UK consumers for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was already tracking Coca-Cola and its sub-brands, Diet Coke and Coke Zero, using its consumer perception tool. Second, YouGov was drawn by the dynamic nature of the campaign, and how it cut across multiple mutually-reinforcing mediums, including TV, Twitter and Facebook. Finally, Share a Coke’s innovative approach to personalisation made it a fascinating prospect.

Analysis strategy YouGov used connected data to combine actual (rather than claimed) advertising exposure with daily brand perception data to understand the impact of the advertising campaign, and which elements were most effective.

Actual exposure came from panellists who completed daily media consumption surveys, allowing YouGov to access to their social media feeds and let it track their web behaviour. Brand perception came from its daily BrandIndex survey – monitoring views on over 900 brands across 15 metrics each day.

Combining the two meant YouGov could accurately assess the impact of the campaign and understand the impact of each element. In this case it looked at the impact of TV, Twitter and Facebook by taking those exposed on each platform and assessing how their perceptions of Coca-Cola compared to matched samples who were not exposed.

YouGov focused on four measures that were most relevant to the aims of the Share a Coke campaign.

  • Buzz: Over the past two weeks, which of the following brands have you heard something positive/negative about (whether in the news, through advertising, or talking to friends and family)?
  • Impression: Which of the following brands do you have a generally positive/negative feeling about?
  • Recommend: Which of the following brands would you recommend/tell a friend to avoid?
  • Consideration: When you are in the market next to make a purchase, which brands would you consider?

Results

TV Consumer perception of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero improved substantially on virtually every measure for those who were exposed to Share a Coke TV adverts. The uplift in perception for Diet Coke and Coke Zero was slightly more modest than for Coca-Cola, but still impressive. The data shows that 18-24 year-olds who were exposed to the campaign view the brand much more positively than those who were not exposed to the adverts.

Social media As with those who had seen the TV adverts, respondents who were exposed to the campaign on social media had a substantially better view of Coca-Cola than the nationally representative sample. Consumers who had seen the TV adverts and those exposed to #shareacoke on Twitter experienced a similar uplift in consumer perception. However, the consumers who were exposed to the campaign on Facebook showed the most dramatic improvement in how they perceive Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero (up 18 per cent).

What can other brands learn? Share a Coke has emerged as one of the most compelling campaigns in recent memory. The overarching theme that gave Share a Coke its edge is the way a brand so ubiquitous that it can replace its logo with individual names reached out to consumers and spoke to people as individuals.

The campaign showed that when personalisation works it can be highly engaging and effective. However, consumers were also cautious with warnings that when personalisation is attempted it can backfire if it doesn’t deliver. Examples cited were the Starbucks ‘name’ on cups campaign that can be a source of irritation when well-meaning staff members make mistakes.

Another element for marketers to consider is that in the world of social media, personalisation only works if it is something that can be shared with the wider community. This campaign provides people with a reason to share, but one that users can choose to do in their own way – there is a choice, it is customised and left up to individuals to be creative in how and when they use it.

Jane Carn, head of qualitative research at YouGov, commented: “Share a Coke was a multimedia campaign, so we needed a holistic approach that allowed us to understand the power of each component. We combined data sets covering media consumption, brand perception surveys, and social media exposure, so we were able to see whether someone was being influenced by the campaign even if they didn’t necessarily remember seeing one of the TV adverts or posts on Twitter and Facebook. We could also tell which elements of the campaign were working hardest, and while Share a Coke was extremely effective across all mediums, where we saw the greatest uplift in perception of the brand was among those who were exposed to it on Facebook.

“People loved that this campaign spoke to them directly by using their names, or those of their friends and family. They were also engaged in the participative element of the campaign, particularly by sharing images of the personalised Coke bottles on Twitter and Facebook. Share a Coke spoke to them as individuals, while making them feel more connected to the brand and to one another – and that is the secret to its success.”

Let’s bring back direct mail, and make it personal

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Marketing has seen a shift in tactic; podcasts and direct mail – approaches that had previously fallen out of favour – are making a resurgence. Is it nostalgia or the changing economic and political climate that is turning agencies’ heads backward, or is there something else at play?

With so much noise in the market place in almost every industry, and concerns that budgets will tighten thanks to Brexit, brands want to talk to consumers on an individual basis. Audiences are becoming increasingly discerning about the information they consume, whether that’s choosing to listen to their favourite bloggers in a podcast, curating a playlist in Spotify or picking what they view through on demand services (Amazon Prime, Netflix, BBC iPlayer). With this new level of control, we want to feel that brands are making the effort to vie for our attention.

To be clear, this is not just about using our first name or slapping it on a bottle of Coke or jar of Nutella. This is about creating a connection on an emotional level and really engaging with both prospective and existing customers to build brand loyalty and leverage ROI. This means agencies need to be ever more selective in their approach – whether it’s the comeback kid of collateral, the direct mailer, whispering sweet nothings via a podcast or cutting edge tech in chatbots and personal web content.

Inbox overload is a daily occurrence and for every newsletter you signed up for that you actually read, there are probably five you delete without even opening. Yet, it’s likely that the last time you received a beautifully designed piece of direct mail, it is from event you can recall. We’re not talking about the crumpled pizza delivery flyers you get stuffed through the letter box or the latest begging letter from a charity including a free pen in the envelope, but something eye-catching and interesting. Segmenting your audience can mean the ability to discern who to talk to, making an investment from your budget in physical collateral that feels relevant and shows your recipients some love.

By the same token, we know that, depending on your business model, a direct mail campaign might not be the best use of your budget if you are seeking quantity reactions over quality ones. We’ve seen first-hand how different business models’ customer bases can react to a smart email campaign that sends carefully timed reminders and follow-ups based on client reactions, such as opens and clicks. It’s not about whether the customer feels the nostalgic pang of a piece of post. Instead, it’s about demonstrating that as a business, you not only care about your customers, you understand and empathise with them.

Likewise, visiting a smart website that has learnt your preferences and shows relevant content first offers an improved UX and helps engender brand loyalty. It benefits the business by knowing what stage of the journey your customer is at, offering tangible data about your customer reactions and experience through the sales funnel. Details specific to certain personas such as their needs, wants and possible roadblocks mean your website can offer the most relevant content supported by marketing emails.

With brands embracing technology as much as nostalgia, will we actually care if it’s a chatbot rather than a person behind a social media channel? We expect instant responses, immediate solutions and a certain level of reverence for our status as a valued customer as a consumer – so long as the AI has advanced enough to pull the wool over our eyes in short exchanges, making us feel like we matter, we will continue to retweet our direct messages or responses from companies none the wiser. We will feel cared for and understood by the brands we feel loyal to. It doesn’t matter whether it’s old school or new cool, because, for us as consumers, it’s personal.