If you’re like most of us, you get home from work and check the mailbox to see what you got – hoping not to find bills and junk mail. I on the other hand look forward to the junk mail (but not necessarily the bills)! Junk mail is a great source of freebies (I’ve received seeds, recipe cards and even art prints) and design samples. These sources of inspiration are great and I wanted to share some tips to help small businesses get into print for their marketing pieces.

Last week, Infusionsoft held its final Revolution Tour stop at our office in Phoenix for 2010. I was pleased to meet one of our customers who wanted some advice on doing direct mail pieces. I started compiling resources and tips and thought I should share them with all of you!

POST CARDS

Post cards are a great way to promote your business. They are colorful and don’t hide in an envelope. They can also stand out in a pile of mail when they are a different size and texture than the rest of the competing messages. Listed below are the standard U.S. post card sizes and links to download free templates in Adobe InDesign from Designers Toolbox.

Post Card Sizes:

• 6 x 4-1/2 – See the postal guidelines and download the InDesign file here.

• 7 x 5 – See the postal guidelines and download the InDesign file here.

• 8-1/2 x 6 – See the postal guidelines and download the InDesign file here.

• 9 x 6 – See the postal guidelines and download the InDesign file here.

• 11 x 6 – See the postal guidelines and download the InDesign file here.

• 8.5 x 11 – See the postal guidelines and download the InDesign file here.

You can use these templates yourself or simply send them to your designer. They are set up as 2 pages (front and back of the postcard). The files have blacked out areas you need to keep clear to meet postal guidelines (indicia/stamp, mailing address and barcode).

ENVELOPES

Sometimes you need more space than a postcard will allow or you need to send a gift where an envelope is needed. There are lots of styles and sizes you can choose from. Below are the standard U.S. envelope styles and sizes with links to download free dielines as .eps files from Designers Toolbox.

What is a die line? A die line is a dotted line placed in a design file as a separate layer to assist in proper layout (these are usually in vector formats). In the case of envelopes, the die line includes all of the flaps that fold and glue together to create the full envelope. This is needed if you want to create envelopes with unique paper or full printing. Don’t worry, you can just send it to your designer and they’ll know what to do.

These envelope links also show you the suggested enclosure size for each envelope. The last thing you need after all of your hard work is to find out that your direct mail piece won’t fit into the envelope! The sizes are all slightly smaller than the envelope to allow for folds and multiple sheets that add to the thickness.

Envelope styles include:

• Commercial – This is the standard envelope used. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Booklet – Used for booklets, catalogs, folders and more. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Ticket – Used for movie, concert, and theater tickets. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Window – Used for invoices, statements, paychecks, receipts, and more. (Shows the name and address through a window.) Get size specifications and die lines.

• Remittance – Used for direct mail, coupons, applications, statements, and more. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Policy – Used for insurance polices, bonds, mortgages, and legal papers. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Catalog – Used for catalogs magazines, folders, reports and more. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Metal Clasp – Also used for catalogs magazines, folders, reports and more but can be used multiple times. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Announcement – Used for announcements. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Wallet Flap – Used for statements, and other documents that require a stronger envelope for added protection. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Baronial – Used for invitations, announcements, greeting cards, and more. Get size specifications and die lines.

• Coin – Used for coins, small parts, and more (most are NOT mailable). Get size specifications and die lines.

CHEAT SHEET (DIRECT MAIL SIZES)

For quick reference of both envelopes and postcards I’ve created a cheat sheet that you can download.

Tips

Direct Mail Samples
Get a box and fill it with your interesting junk mail! This helps you see folds and sizes as well as what others have done to get ideas. I keep a stash here at the office to have them ready and on hand for new projects that come up.

Paper Samples
When creating a direct mail piece, you are not limited to the standard white papers. You can use different textures, weights and colors. You can talk to you printer about your options or get paper booklets. These booklets are available from some printers or the paper manufacturers themselves – just check out their websites.

Recommended Suppliers
A great paper supplier is Xpedx and one of my favorite paper manufacturers is Neenah Paper.

Have fun taking your marketing automation to the physical mailbox! With the power of marketing automation software, you can segment and send just the right message to your contacts. Hopefully with this guide, you’ll be able to navigate the world of print and direct mail pieces a little easier.

–Elisa

We love our customers! And we love the thousands of testimonials we receive each year! But now, for the first time ever, we’ll be rewarding one avid customer $10,000 and a year of Infusionsoft for telling us about their Infusionsoft experience. This contest is the biggest one we’ve ever done and have raised the stakes by giving our users a chance to win ten thousand dollars. (Just think of what you’d do with that for a minute …)

We’re calling it the Pitch the Switch Contest. All we’re asking for is a 2-4 minute video to be posted on YouTube. The video should explain:

• What system(s) the customer ditched for Infusionsoft?
• What their results with Infusionsoft have been?
• Why others should try Infusionsoft (in other words, ‘pitch the switch’)?

Once the videos are posted, it’s up to each contestant to drive traffic to their posting. The ten most viewed videos will make it to the final round. (Infusionsoft judges will select an additional five wildcards to compete as well.)

In the final round, an open-to-the public vote will take place and one lucky winner will walk away with $10,000 and Infusionsoft Basic FREE for one year!

All participants will receive a free gift from Infusionsoft, and three runners-up will win an iPad (1^st), iPod Touch (2^nd) and Flip HD Camera (3^rd).

Our past contests have all been amazing. And we expect the “Pitch the Switch” contest to not only be a fun chance to win some money, but a demonstration of how much our customers love Infusionsoft.

We want to hear the stories. We want to rejoice in customer successes. We want to give each of our customers a chance to win big. And we want to get the word out about the power of marketing automation.

So what are we going to do with the videos? Promote Infusionsoft of course! The winning videos will be used (or rerecorded) to create an entire marketing campaign. With your words, we’ll let the world know how important it is to combine email marketing with contact management.

The website for the Pitch the Switch contest is now live. If you’re an Infusionsoft customer, and you could use $10,000 and Infusionsoft FREE for a year, then be sure to go to pitchtheswitch.com!

Stay tuned for more details when the contest launches by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.

As Infusionsoft’s senior graphic designer who puts together all the design you see from our company, I thought it was time to help share a little bit of my expertise with you. A common question entrepreneurs and small businesses ask me is if design matters for their business. Trust me, I pick my battles between copy and design on a healthy basis, but I want to elaborate on why design matters for small business.

Take a look around you right now. What do you see? Maybe a computer, product packaging, pens, pictures on the wall, logos, ads and a cell phone? All of these things have been designed. Some better designed than others, but all have had thought put into them whether simple or complex.

The first scenario that comes to my mind when thinking about design (or lack thereof) in a small business is restaurants. When I sit down to eat at a Mom-and-Pop restaurant I’m excited for the possibility of finding a diamond in the rough that provides better food and service than your typical franchise. I get a little apprehensive (more so than others as I’m a designer) when they hand me the menu that has obviously been designed in Word. I start thinking this can go one of two ways – either the food is amazing and I won’t care what the menu looks like or it will be obvious to me why they can’t afford to get the menus designed.

What does this mean? It means that design makes me form opinions and judgments before I have the means to establish a true judgment on the company. This is true of all businesses. We are all visual people even if we are not all designers. People can make false assumptions about you and your business based on your appearance and branding.

Furthermore, a well-designed piece that doesn’t convey the right message is not a well designed piece. In this case, if fewer design gets the correct message across then it is the better choice. Remember you can always test designs before you make a final choice and once you are using something, you can always improve from there.

Not everyone will have the same impression, but you want to do your best to convey your message through design.

Does design matter for small businesses? The short answer is “yes.” Design does matter in small business; good design contributes to the bottom line because people need to understand how to use and interact with a brand.

In order to help your business succeed, I plan to periodically offer you design tips and ideas that will be helpful to you. If you have any topics or ideas you’d specifically like me to cover please feel free to leave a comment to let me know.

–Elisa

[Editor’s note: Elisa can bake a mean batch of goodies and can be found blogging her latest recipes at elisacooks.wordpress.com. -Joe]