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Tag Archives: direct mail marketing
HERMES CREATIVE AWARD WIN!
There’s a lot of excitement around here today as we were notified that we have a 2013 Gold-Hermes Award for our twitter social media campaign in the Emerging Market Category!
There were over 5,600 entries from through-out the US and several other countries in this year’s competition and judging is based on quality, creativity and resourcefulness. It’s an added bonus to win gold in the emerging market category and we are very proud to be honored by this prestigious organization. Our bi-monthly newsletter, The Bureau, received an Honorable Mention Certificate, too!
The Hermes Awards is an international competition for creative concept, writing and design of a traditional and emerging media and is conducted by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.
You can see an outline of our entry on our YouTube Channel BEB TX or click here to review!
Calendar QR Code – May
Have you scanned the May QR Code from your BEB – Business Extension Bureau 2013 Calendar? We have a special message for you! You can also click here to see where it goes!
April HPCC Meeting
We attended today’s Houston Postal Customer Council Meeting held at the downtown USPS facility. The focus was on the upcoming prmotional programs hosted by the Postal Service. The first slide of the presentation read: “The report of our death is greatly exagerrated.”
So said Mark Twain, and so says Kathy Hall of the USPS, today’s featured speaker. In addition to outlining upcoming programs such as Emerging Technologies and Earned Value Reply Mail, Kathey discussed the difference between mobile friendly and mobile optimization. She also educated attendees on Augmented Reality. We were excited to receive credit for introducing the USPS crew to String Augmented Reality and had fun showing off the animated features using their free app. 
Kathy finished with a peek into the 2014 promotions which included mobile wallet, NFC, Green Advertising Mail and Color in Transactional Mail. We will (of course) keep you informed of details on current and upcoming USPS promotions.
Vacation Daze – A Newsletter from August 1966
The first is a newsletter from a company called Tom’s Print Shop in Zanesville, Ohio from August 1966. The mail piece covers some interesting dates with fun facts such as August 1, 1659- William Prynne, an English Puritan and member of Parliament, opened a crusade against bobbed hair for women and August 5, 1884- Cornerstone laid for pedestal of Statue of Liberty.
There is an article on Hamburgers, stating that more than 70 million were eaten every day in America in 1966, while today over 100 million are consumed daily. An article on a boating boom, a piece on Economic Waste reviews the cost to clean up litter and a review of the “new” IRS computers are also included. My favorite is entitled Woman’s Touch. It’s below, and I hope you enjoy!
It seems to me that being a woman in business, in the finest sense, means being always a pleasure to work with and supplying the qualities that women best supply in business – serenity and calm, grace in all situations, warmth, strength, and intelligent understanding. And being a woman in business means using to the full, women’s special creative abilities on the job – whatever it may be. So look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man and work like a dog, but I urge you be a woman. – Mrs. Jean Simpson, Vice President
Congress Kills 5-Day Delivery
The US Postal Service Board of Governors met yesterday to discuss the Continuing Resolution recently passed by Congress to fund government operations. Congress included restrictive language as it pertains to 5-Day Delivery which specifically prohibits a new national delivery schedule for mail the US PMG Pat Donahoe wanted to implement the week of August 5, 2013.
The statement released by the Board said; “Although disappointed with this Congressional action, the Board will follow the law and has directed the Postal Service to delay implementation of its new delivery schedule until legislation is passed that provides the Postal Service with the authority to implement a financially appropriate and responsible delivery schedule.”
HBJ TOP 20 PRINTERS IN HOUSTON
The Houston Business Journal published the 2013 Largest Printing Companies List on Friday, ranking BEB-Business Extension Bureau in the top 20! The prestigious list ranks Houston’s printers based on number of employees, types of presses and diversity of service offerings. BEB ranked #16 based on size, #14 based on presses and #1 based on years of operations!
Picture Permit Indicia
The USPS is hoping to boost visual impact and increase open rates of mailpieces by introducing the Picture Permit Indicia program. It’s a great idea, incorporating a logo, brand or trademark within a mail permit or indicia. The regulations for indicia elements (verbiage, location and placement) are the same, however, there are so many additional stipulations that the “great idea” is buried in a mountain of red tape.
- The service is available for mailing of First-Class or Standard letters and postcards using Full-Service IMb.
- Graphics must be in color because black and white images did not perform to satisfaction in operational tests.
- Registration to use the service is required.
- A separate application must be completed and approved.
- Upon approval from the PMO (Program Management Office), a sample PDF copy of the addressed piece must be submitted for approval showing envelope/card dimensions, IMb, clear zone and proposed PPI design.
- Upon approval, an additional 500 hard copies of live mail samples must be submitted for USPS Engineering, Operations and Acceptance to test and testing takes approximately 30-45 days.
- After passing the operations test, you will need to submit your mailing schedule including dates and volumes.
There’s also an additional charge connected to service as well. First-Class Mail cost is one additional cent per piece and Standard Mail costs two cents a piece. The idea of using an indicia branded with a corporate image is exciting and let’s hope that in the future the USPS eases up on the rules and the cost to allow their client base to incorporate this new marketing tool in their mail programs. 
From the President
We are already at the start of the second quarter of 2013…that is hard to believe. January has brought our semi-annual BEB Summit meeting where the executives of BEB meet to plan a strategy for the future. We examine where the marketplace is going five-years out, review technology changes that impact our business and conduct a client review to determined how we can better serve our existing clients and where to find new business. Our plan to add a second digital press in the first quarter has already come to pass. Other items for the coming year include expansion and upgrade of our 15,000 square ft facility, Postal Reform and the enhancement to direct mail with online interaction.
This year’s summit was very informative and we look forward to the coming year as we find better ways to serve our clients by planning for the future. Our first ever BEB Calendar has been a big hit with customers and vendors alike! Don’t forget, in addition to the beautiful photos (featuring our great state), we highlighted events unique to Texas and added a QR Code for each month. The QR Code will take you to a landing page that has fun videos or photos specific to the month. We hope you enjoy the interactive experience throughout the year.
January and February brought appointments with our clients as we were invited to conduct our POSTAL 101 class several times. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we’ve managed to keep the presentation down to 30-minutes! We cover the new postal regulations surrounding the FSM (Folded Sel-Mailer), review the new rates and want to expect in Washing with Postal Reform. We’ve created several classes with content geared specifically toward individual companies and provided “cheat sheets” branded with their logos that will allow our customers to distribute the reference materials as their own. Business Extension Bureau “hit the road” in February too. Joy Zehrbach, our VP of Marketing traveled to Florida for the annual AMSP (Association of Marketing Service Providers) Mid-Winter Conference. She participated on a panel discussion covering the emergence of cross media marketing, conducted a round-table on self-promotion and even though she is a newly elected Director on the nation Board, was invited to join the Government Affairs Committee. Our sister company, BEBdata (one of the largest bankruptcy data compilers in the nation) was in Florida last month attending the National Automobile Dealers Association’s annual conference. We mixed and mingled with several of our valued clients and got a chance to meet some new ones too! We are always looking for ways to connect with you clients in a face-to-face manner and we managed close a deal with a new client just a few days after the show. It was a great success and we look forward to participating again next year!
Ron Royall
Opposites Attract
We are often asked, “Do newsletters really work?”. We’re also often asked, “What relevance does social media have on your business”. The two venues seem to appeal to opposite audiences, however, we’ve found they are a match made in heaven. Below are some surprising results.
NEWSLETTER RESULTS:
Since the creation of our bi-monthly newsletter last September, it has generated 10.5% of our new business revenue in 2012. 14% was from reactivated accounts, clients that have done business with us in the past, but not for more than one calendar year. Afer each mailing, our website landing activity increased on average by 16.3%.
TWITTER RESULTS:
- 51% of our active client base has a presence on Twitter.
- 100% of new clients acquired since creating our own presence on Twitter in September, are active on Twitter.
We conducted an in-depth analysis of one of our 8 Twitter accounts (@BEB_BOB) and rendered the following results.
1. Today there are 432 following @BEB_BOB.
2. 16% of the followers are relevant to our business today and are made up of the following categories:
- 38.8% Industry Education Accounts
- 20.9% Prospective Clients we are actively pursuing
- 10.4% Active Clients, representing 12% of our annual revenue
- 9% Employees
- 9% Vendors
- 6% Competitors
- 6% Industry Associations
Real and relevant results from perceived opposite platforms. Direct mail and social media are an excellent and revenue generating combination.