Friday, February 24, 2012

Going Postal

For over a week now I have been preparing a bulk mailing to introduce Mark McD design to Pasadena businesses. Being on a tight budget, I decided to do everything myself.

Of course, I designed my brochure and my business cards and my return address labels. I put in a 4”x6” pad of sticky notes with my logo and contact info, and loose-glued into each brochure was a business card. I was pretty happy with the package as a promotional piece, and I’m hoping that at least one person who received it has come as far as to check out the blog page (which is linked to the redesign of my website). If you have, I’d really appreciate it if you could leave a comment (see how-to instructions to the right).

Now, if you take a look at the inside graphics of the brochure and go to the website on your computer, you’ll see a Flash animation of the graphics on the intro page. (If you go there on your mobile device, there will only be a static image, since most don’t support Flash.) And with the redesign of this blog page, I think the branding consistency is pretty good. Hopefully, concentric purple squares will soon be burned into many heads here in Pasadena; I know they’re burned into mine.

So my days have been filled with adhering 500 business cards inside 500 brochures, stuffing 500 envelopes with brochures and sticky pads, sealing the 500 envelopes, applying 500 return-address labels, generating a 500-name mailing list, printing and affixing 500 address labels. Little did I realize that the fun was only beginning.

Actually doing a bulk mailing is much more complicated than I thought. Had I known then what I know now, I would have coughed up the extra 25 bucks and sent everything first-class mail. (the per-piece price for bulk mail is cheap, but the $190 annual permit is not.) I figured, though, that I might want to send out a mailing of postcards or some such in the next year, and having the permit already would make sense.

I went online to the USPS website and researched what I had to do. I had all my mail presorted, lowest zip code to highest zip code, and went down to the post office.

My first adventure was getting directions from an employee in the front lobby, who said the bulk mail section was “around the corner of the building at the blue gate; just push the button.” Following these directions, I ended up sitting in front of what is the employee parking lot, which has no buttons at all.

I had not had the presence of mind to put the phone number for the bulk mail center into my cell phone, and the main line for the post office was constantly busy, so I went home and found the bulk mail number, put it into the phone, called and found out that I had been sitting at the wrong gate (there are three blue gates at the post office).

Day two of my adventure: I headed back down with my presorted mail in clearly marked boxes, found the correct gate and marched in to get my permit and mail my bulk. This is when I found out that I had to arrange my mail in authorized USPS letter trays and separate out local zips (910, 911 and 912) from non-local zips. Also, I either had to pay an extra $190 for a preprinted bulk mail stamp (which meant ordering a rubber stamp with my permit number and waiting for it to get to me), sign up for a very expensive private postal metering service, or purchase bulk rate presorted stamps and affix one to each of the 500 envelopes. The budget dictated I go for the stamps.

Now these specific stamps come in two quantities only: rolls of 500 and rolls of 3,000, and they cost 10 cents apiece. The rolls of 500 are gummed, and you have to lick them, while the rolls of 3,000 are self-adhesive. Once the stamps are affixed to the bulk mail piece, their cost is deducted from the overall price of the mailing costs, so they’re basically free. So I grabbed three trays on my way out (at least the permit had been paid for), then headed to the front lobby to purchase the necessary stamps.

That afternoon and evening was spent removing all the mailer pieces from the boxes, licking and affixing 500 stamps, then placing the letters, numerically sequenced, into the trays. I stacked them on their sides in order to accommodate two rows in each tray so that everything would fit.

Day Three through the bulk mail looking glass: I proudly took the trays down and presented my completed form (downloaded from the USPS website) at the bulk mail desk. The woman there informed me that I had to put the letters in the trays topside up, and that the trays had to hold only one of the three-digit zip codes: 910, 911 or 912. All others zips that fell outside those local codes could be placed together in a separate tray, being charged at a higher rate.

Once the trays were properly separated and filled, each had to be slipped inside a cardboard sleeve and transferred to a hopper for weighing. Finally, one piece picked at random had to be opened and inspected to make sure the contents met the criteria for bulk mail (like no invoices or bills allowed, among other restrictions). When the woman opened my piece, she seemed very impressed with the brochure and the sticky pad (especially one so large). Once all this was done, I had to return to the front lobby and get a metered strip and pay the balance of the mailing fees.

You would think by now I would be foaming at the mouth or in a rage, expressing the true meaning of “going postal.” But to be honest, I was having fun. The woman at the bulk mail office was patient and friendly, and even helped me sort out my pieces, and I have gained a new appreciation for what, exactly, it is you pay for when you hire a mailing service.

So, I close with this photograph of myself. It was taken just after waking up in the morning, but it is a fairly good interpretation of how I felt after the mailing was out and done. But you know what they say: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” For practicality, I think “or crazier” should be amended to that statement of wisdom to make it a touch more accurate.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Branding Frenzy

You may have noticed a change in the look of the old blog page here. Well, it’s all part of my excursion into a place I like to call Branding Land. It’s odd, but marketing my own business is a crash course on how to market other people’s, as well.

The biggest part of my recent work has been redesigning my website, which had to be reworked for potential customers rather than potential employers. It’s clean and simple, and I think it will do the job. Also, on the “about” page, there is a link to my portfolio website (which has not been rebranded … yet).

Yes, as part of starting up the studio, I have been immersing myself in all kinds of marketing information, both traditional and e-marketing. Beyond reworking my website, I have also built a business Facebook page for the studio, and have even joined twitter (a social networking site that has always eluded me). Both are now linked to every page of the website because you have “to be where your customers are,” according to the latest viral marketing information. I did stop short of putting them on my business card and brochure, since the cybersavvy customer will check out the website first, anyway.

So I’m spewing my logo around cyberspace, as soon I will be spewing it around town via a mailing and handouts of my brochure. Each brochure will have a business card inside, stuck with removable glue, and each mailer will have a 4”x6” promotional sticky pad (the biggest sticky I could find).

The brochures and cards should be ready at the printers tomorrow, and the return address labels (also branded!) will be coming from a production house (because I could get them half-price online). I already have the sticky pads and specially sized envelopes to house all the pieces. When everything comes together, there will be a flurry of unfolding, gluing, refolding, envelope stuffing and label sticking around here.

Once the mailing is out, I plan to walk each area of town and hand out brochures in person, meet the small business owners in the area and get their business cards to add to my database. (I started building it about two weeks ago and now have over 800 entries with business names, contact names, e-mail and mailing addresses, and phone and fax numbers. I probably have another 200 or so to add before I start my canvassing).

So, I’m seeing nothing but purple squares, and tints and tones thereof. I’ve been working with these images for so long, that I’m starting to get visually numb to them. I’m hoping they will make a good first impression on those who haven’t seen them yet. And, hopefully, they’ll join me on Facebook and follow me on twitter and fall in love with the idea of having a personal designer who’ll work one-on-one with them to achieve their graphic communications goals, whatever they might be.

I don’t have this blog directly linked to my website at present (like I do on the portfolio site), but I think that might be coming sometime very soon. So this space still will be about what’s happening in Mark McDougal land, but I probably will be adding more graphic design-related entries as well, so I’ll have something of interest to post about on Facebook and twitter … because that’s where my customers are … supposedly.

But I still believe in the old-fashioned notions of face-to-face meet-and-greets, of something special showing up in the mails, of a follow-up call and a dedication to serving as a part of your community and not necessarily marketing to the entire globe.

Stay tuned for more purple squares.