Aug. 13, 2020

1315: Why You Should Stop Putting Logos on All Your Swag w/ Erik Kostelnik

In this episode we talk to Erik Kostelnik, Founder & CEO at Postal.

If you like this episode, you'll probably also love...

...these past episodes:

Stop Sending Fruit Baskets: The Art of Strategic Gifting with John Ruhlin

5 Revolutionary Ideas for Automated Direct Mail Campaigns with Kris Rudeegraap

....and this book:

Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Client Retention


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Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:09.269 Welcome back to beb growth. I'm Logan Lyles with sweetfish media. I'm joined 2 00:00:09.349 --> 00:00:13.949 today by Eric Kastelnik. He's the founder and CEO over at postal. Eric, 3 00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:18.309 how's it going today and, more importantly, what wallpaper is currently on 4 00:00:18.429 --> 00:00:21.460 your cell phone? Listeners want to know, man, what wall favors of 5 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:23.980 myself on? It will first off, its gone great. Thank you, 6 00:00:24.059 --> 00:00:27.420 logo, for having me on my on my cell phone, I have I 7 00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:32.979 have picture of my twins, so Oh, non and family photo my little 8 00:00:33.020 --> 00:00:36.490 guys. Yeah, Oh, and well and very well dressed at man. 9 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:39.770 How do you? How do you actually get those? That's not often, 10 00:00:39.890 --> 00:00:43.250 by the way. That's that. That is like a one time every you 11 00:00:43.369 --> 00:00:45.609 know whatever, two years, we can get them dressed up like that. 12 00:00:45.729 --> 00:00:49.170 So yeah, I totally hear, man. I love open it up with 13 00:00:49.609 --> 00:00:52.920 just a fun question to get to know our guests a little bit more here 14 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:57.000 lately. Today we're going to be talking about how do effectively use direct mail 15 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:00.759 and gifts, both in the sales and the marketing side. To give listeners 16 00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:03.750 a little bit of context, Eric, why is this something that you and 17 00:01:03.829 --> 00:01:07.310 your team over at post or so passionate about right now? Yeah, I 18 00:01:07.349 --> 00:01:11.189 mean, I think that the world of sales and marketing has been so focused 19 00:01:11.230 --> 00:01:17.390 on the digital aspects of marketing and sales automation over the last fifteen, twenty 20 00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:22.540 years with, you know, the advent of Aliqua and Marquetto and then hub 21 00:01:22.659 --> 00:01:26.340 spot and then getting through to get your sales automation platforms like Sales Loft and 22 00:01:26.420 --> 00:01:30.859 outreach and people on an AI and inside sales and all these other companies that 23 00:01:30.859 --> 00:01:36.890 are trying to solve for the str opportunity there that the the amount of like 24 00:01:37.930 --> 00:01:42.489 information being set and processed on the digital set of things is rich, critical 25 00:01:42.569 --> 00:01:47.159 mass, and so a lot of what we're focused on is doing all the 26 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:51.560 things that marketing automation and sales automation has done well for the digital, for 27 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:56.480 the offline, and really what postal is is the sales and marketing engagement platform 28 00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:00.870 that generates leads and increase sales and improves customer attention. But optimizing those offline 29 00:02:00.909 --> 00:02:06.230 interactions, which we think is even more important today. Yeah, absolutely, 30 00:02:06.269 --> 00:02:09.870 especially when we don't have that human to human interaction totally. How can we 31 00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:15.259 get something that is that is tactle, that is real and is not not 32 00:02:15.419 --> 00:02:19.419 just pixels? So I think we're going to. We're going to dive in 33 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:23.500 a bit into the how to use both on the marketing and the sales side. 34 00:02:23.099 --> 00:02:27.020 We tend to touch on both sides of the fence, if you will, 35 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:30.090 on this show. I'd like to touch on marketing first. Where do 36 00:02:30.169 --> 00:02:36.449 you see some of the primary applications for direct mail? We've had some other 37 00:02:36.569 --> 00:02:39.969 conversations with folks, especially in an ABM play. Is that where you're seeing 38 00:02:40.050 --> 00:02:44.840 marketing teams really get the most out of direct mail, or is that only 39 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:46.800 one piece of it? Yes, I think you have to look at the 40 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:53.280 the average sales price, so the SP of what our businesses is pushing product, 41 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:57.960 and I think it really it sets the the strategy based on what those 42 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:01.669 what that average shales price is. So for those companies that are essentially under 43 00:03:01.710 --> 00:03:06.389 like a five thousand dollars average sales price and that's more of like an e 44 00:03:06.469 --> 00:03:10.509 commerce product or more smb, you find that they leverage more actual direct mail 45 00:03:10.590 --> 00:03:14.659 pieces, so it's not that expensive to send a postcard or send a note 46 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:19.419 or send a brochure about Your Business. When you see the sales prices go 47 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:23.259 up to, you know, over fifteen or up to fifteen up to twenty 48 00:03:23.300 --> 00:03:27.770 five. You generally see some gifting involved within that as well, so sending 49 00:03:27.889 --> 00:03:30.689 some personalized swag or sending some some wine. And then when you get to 50 00:03:30.729 --> 00:03:37.250 the enterprise level conversations, it's generally pretty curated items that that companies are sending 51 00:03:37.610 --> 00:03:42.039 and having through their workflows and generally like offline as a major strategy for them 52 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:46.319 because of the fact that it's such an important sale. It's it's such a 53 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:49.360 HIGHSP generally. You know, you don't you don't find, you know that 54 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:53.680 they're closing a lot of those deals and so the the lead generation of those 55 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:58.270 opportunities, the cost per leads are tend to be much higher and so really 56 00:03:58.270 --> 00:04:01.629 you look at those average shales prices and the amount of cost it's associated to 57 00:04:01.750 --> 00:04:05.349 generate a leader, generate an opportunity, and you can understand the strategy. 58 00:04:05.469 --> 00:04:11.939 But all in all we see very similar strategy of leveraging offline. Those that 59 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:15.900 have done it, and everybody started with handwritten notes. I mean you sold, 60 00:04:15.139 --> 00:04:19.259 I've sold. Those companies that have been able to integrate handwritten notes into 61 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:24.730 a process very early on tend to have a higher conversion rate. What postals 62 00:04:24.810 --> 00:04:28.009 really doing is thing. Hey, let's take all that, all of the 63 00:04:28.129 --> 00:04:33.209 communication and engagement that you're having through handwritten notes or gifting or donations, and 64 00:04:33.610 --> 00:04:38.959 make sure that it's now in side of your your process, that you have 65 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:43.439 inside of your workflows on the marketing and sales side of things. Marketing specifically 66 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:46.680 tends to do your like they tend to own like an ABM strategy. So 67 00:04:46.759 --> 00:04:50.639 they'll have their strategic accounts where you're saying, okay, I've got these hundred 68 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:55.709 accounts that I've identified, this is what air cover I'm going to give my 69 00:04:56.110 --> 00:05:00.149 sales team, and that air cover generally comes in the form of advertising cookies, 70 00:05:00.230 --> 00:05:05.350 understanding how people are behaving online, sending engagement emails and that it's also 71 00:05:05.470 --> 00:05:12.100 taking like the the items that they're sending from a corporate brand perspective. When 72 00:05:12.139 --> 00:05:14.819 it goes over to the sales side of things, it has everything to do 73 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:18.939 with personalization and ensuring that that message that they're delivering to that individuals coming from 74 00:05:18.980 --> 00:05:24.490 the Rep with a message with an impact that actually will help them get into 75 00:05:24.610 --> 00:05:27.889 that sales funnel, which would be, you know, a qualification call or 76 00:05:28.050 --> 00:05:32.449 a demo request. Yeah, absolutely. As I'm starting to think about specific 77 00:05:32.490 --> 00:05:38.959 plays that you can run as you incorporate direct mail, gifting and personalized gifts 78 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:43.040 into both your sales and marketing function. I don't know if it's just my 79 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:46.199 journalism background, I'm thinking about the common questions, the the what, the 80 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:50.149 win and the how. I would love to touch on a little bit of 81 00:05:50.550 --> 00:05:55.990 of the what. What? What things do you see that specifically are performing 82 00:05:56.069 --> 00:06:00.470 well? It seems like you know, with email templates, with marketing campaigns, 83 00:06:00.589 --> 00:06:02.910 with gifts, you know, there's this cycle. Right, something's new, 84 00:06:03.230 --> 00:06:06.339 then everybody does it right. Like how many times have we seen the 85 00:06:06.459 --> 00:06:10.420 hub spot email that says, you know option A, B or C, 86 00:06:10.740 --> 00:06:13.899 you're not consisted, now's a bad time or you're stuck under a filing cabinet? 87 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:18.050 Right. So what's new in the what of sending? And I have 88 00:06:18.170 --> 00:06:21.329 some follow up questions there, but I just curious to hear what's kind of 89 00:06:21.610 --> 00:06:26.689 new where you seeing some customers innovate in what they're sending. And then I 90 00:06:26.769 --> 00:06:29.769 want to ask some questions about the when and the how, where you see 91 00:06:29.810 --> 00:06:32.600 some nuances or you guys have some data to show you know what's working, 92 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:36.240 when and how. Yeah, that's a great question. So we have to 93 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:41.319 remember that, like, although we were starting to see the same emails pop 94 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:44.879 up and we're starting to see the same engagement, taken about fifteen years from 95 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:47.589 marketing automation to get to this point in time. I so talk get taken 96 00:06:47.589 --> 00:06:50.470 a long time. Not only has it taken fifteen years of technic, technical 97 00:06:50.509 --> 00:06:56.870 development, but it's also taken fifteen years for adoption of these customers to adopt 98 00:06:56.910 --> 00:07:00.949 these new philosophies of how do you engage with people through this digital channel. 99 00:07:00.389 --> 00:07:03.100 So I would have to say that like we're in like not even in the 100 00:07:03.139 --> 00:07:08.579 baseball game yet. We're still in like batting practice. So when you think 101 00:07:08.579 --> 00:07:14.899 about how to automate the offline and how to engage with people in a scalable 102 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:18.410 way through offline engagement, you know, we're still seeing this as as being 103 00:07:18.490 --> 00:07:23.209 very basic and it's a crawl before you walk thing. Right. We're not 104 00:07:23.569 --> 00:07:28.089 we're not trying to, we're not trying to influence our customers to do anything 105 00:07:28.129 --> 00:07:30.639 that is above and beyond what they should be doing currently, and that is 106 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:35.560 leveraging direct mail pieces from the reps, leveraging swag through our platform, leveraging 107 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:42.680 donations on behalf of their customers, but using that within the actual workflow, 108 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:46.430 within the communication. Like it's like it's not coming out of like left field 109 00:07:46.470 --> 00:07:48.230 that they just got a bottle of wine from a random person, right, 110 00:07:48.350 --> 00:07:50.550 that's just that like, or a brand, right, or I got a 111 00:07:50.670 --> 00:07:55.230 t shirt or a mug or something. Right, that process of like getting 112 00:07:55.269 --> 00:08:00.779 something needs to actually mean something and it needs to be in the actual sales 113 00:08:00.899 --> 00:08:05.819 workflow or that ABM strategy, and there needs to be consistency across all of 114 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:09.660 the messaging that happens on all these platforms, from the digital side and from 115 00:08:09.699 --> 00:08:13.370 the offline side, and that's why it's so important. When we built postal, 116 00:08:13.529 --> 00:08:16.529 was like, Hey, let's ensure that we integrate with these systems that 117 00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:24.209 actually allows us to automate these pieces of content offline in these workflows that are 118 00:08:24.209 --> 00:08:28.199 already established. And so that's really that's really like what we've seen, what 119 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:31.759 we're focused on, what we've seen work. But those that are more advanced 120 00:08:31.799 --> 00:08:37.480 actually actually answer your question about those that have done this more more efficiently. 121 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:43.590 What we see is that they've actually created so we do have playbooks actually in 122 00:08:43.750 --> 00:08:46.110 our software, which is drip drip marking offline. So what we've seen is 123 00:08:46.149 --> 00:08:50.429 we've actually seen customers using drip marketing tactics on the marketing side of things. 124 00:08:50.549 --> 00:08:54.110 So an example would be if you find out one of your customers is a 125 00:08:54.149 --> 00:08:58.899 coffee lever or you want to do some sort of branded swag campaign, what 126 00:08:58.980 --> 00:09:01.899 you're able to do is you're actually able to set up that playbook to say 127 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:03.539 I'm going to send this on day one, I'm going to send this one, 128 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:07.299 this next thing on day thirty, this next thing on day sixty, 129 00:09:07.580 --> 00:09:11.250 and they can just set it and forget it on in the postal world on 130 00:09:11.330 --> 00:09:13.730 the marketing side of things. And at the same time, and we see 131 00:09:13.769 --> 00:09:16.889 like customers doing like, you know, something like sports teams, or, 132 00:09:18.330 --> 00:09:22.090 you know, they see see college, like college athletics, or or you 133 00:09:22.169 --> 00:09:26.639 see something like a coffee lover right, or electronics, like all those different 134 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:33.080 components and the things that that you actually can can drive like through that engagement 135 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:35.840 on the offline. All of that is kind of curated inside a postal and 136 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:39.669 done. Then you have those those customers that are saying, okay, now 137 00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:43.269 that I'm doing this on the marketing set of things, let's go ahead and 138 00:09:43.350 --> 00:09:48.509 shift this to the efforts to our sales team and instead of writing those handwritten 139 00:09:48.549 --> 00:09:52.419 notes, let's actually have a handwriting and postal have it set up where it's 140 00:09:52.500 --> 00:09:56.379 like, okay, like I want to just send out these notes that are 141 00:09:56.419 --> 00:10:00.419 sending to people automatic if we don't have their address, maybe have to sense 142 00:10:00.419 --> 00:10:03.379 some verification across, like Hey, where are you? Were he living? 143 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:07.059 Now? Where you working? So there's there's a lot important, especially right 144 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:09.409 now more than any time before him or right. No, totally, and 145 00:10:09.730 --> 00:10:13.090 it's like one of those things. It's like hey, we happen to be 146 00:10:13.129 --> 00:10:16.009 launching the any pandemic. Go figure. Right. It's a challenge, but 147 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:20.850 I think the thing that we've seen the best that our clients are doing is 148 00:10:20.970 --> 00:10:24.919 taking what is manual like taking their marketing closet and Brigades of the cloud, 149 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:28.519 taking their printed vista print postcards that they have their their reps and out and 150 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:33.919 bring that into the cloud and have a system that actually manages all that communication 151 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:37.230 for them and that we've we've seen that be like kind of the first step, 152 00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:41.549 the crawl before we started walking. Yeah, so, speaking a little 153 00:10:41.590 --> 00:10:46.110 bit to the what my next question is the win. You spoke about it 154 00:10:46.190 --> 00:10:48.789 a little bit there, Eric in. Okay, there's there's some marketing air 155 00:10:48.909 --> 00:10:54.620 cover. We're we're equipping sales to to be able to send things automated. 156 00:10:54.659 --> 00:11:00.659 Again, it depends on that ASP or that that ACV. A lot of 157 00:11:00.740 --> 00:11:05.009 our customers are, you know, marketers at Sass, companies that sell mid 158 00:11:05.129 --> 00:11:09.210 market enterprise, a little bit larger deal sum is not quite as transactional. 159 00:11:09.289 --> 00:11:15.529 Oftentimes in that scenario. Specifically, Eric, when do you see the best 160 00:11:15.610 --> 00:11:18.559 time to layer in these personal pieces? Do you see a lot of your 161 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:24.879 customers using it more to break into new accounts or to nurture and keep engaged 162 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:31.639 that entire buying committee through the process of a longer sale cycle? I mean, 163 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:33.909 really, it's you could point it as being the same engagement that you 164 00:11:33.990 --> 00:11:39.110 heavy email. I mean, if you're as long as you're communicating via a 165 00:11:39.470 --> 00:11:43.950 like as long as the because it's just it's just like an engagement tactic right. 166 00:11:43.029 --> 00:11:46.509 You're you like you have a pattern interrupt that you want to do through 167 00:11:46.590 --> 00:11:50.580 this offline channel. So what we've seen at the top of the funnel is 168 00:11:50.659 --> 00:11:54.460 that if you have, if you have a system in place, and this 169 00:11:54.580 --> 00:11:56.259 is generally for the larger customers, if you have a system in an ABM 170 00:11:56.299 --> 00:12:01.100 strategy, in place that you are actually knowing when people are coming to your 171 00:12:01.139 --> 00:12:05.769 website and you know when people are actually like taking action, you should be 172 00:12:05.929 --> 00:12:11.049 sending them communication from the brand. So, whether that's a swag piece or 173 00:12:11.529 --> 00:12:15.570 whether that's a note from the CEO or something that's more generalized, we see 174 00:12:15.649 --> 00:12:18.080 that as being strong to get them through to the top of the funnel. 175 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:22.600 Then when you're inside of the actual sales funnel, what we what we see 176 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:26.960 is it's actually a little bit more curated and it's not necessarily like you're gifting 177 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:30.909 someone something to bribe them. It's more of like you're gifting this thing to 178 00:12:31.110 --> 00:12:33.429 keep top of mind, right. So it's like just I know we're going 179 00:12:33.509 --> 00:12:35.909 through this this rpe process, or we know where that we're going through this 180 00:12:35.950 --> 00:12:39.350 process of this sales, long term sales process. I just wanted to give 181 00:12:39.350 --> 00:12:43.110 you let you know that I'm thinking about you. Here's a donation on your 182 00:12:43.110 --> 00:12:45.779 behalf and you know this is the way that we operate. You know this 183 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:48.899 is part of our brand. Another thing would say is that if you're sending 184 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:54.419 like a swag piece across that you know a lot of times it's like hey, 185 00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:56.899 you know, just want to see what size you are because I have 186 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:58.210 this awesome thing for you and then, like next you know, you're in 187 00:12:58.250 --> 00:13:03.370 a conversation with that piece. So you find it like that, the offline 188 00:13:03.649 --> 00:13:05.690 tacked, because do we're not doing handshakes anymore. That's the thing. It's 189 00:13:05.730 --> 00:13:09.690 like you're not going out to clients offices, you're and with enterprise sales, 190 00:13:09.769 --> 00:13:13.120 like I know I did it for a very long time. I'm really good 191 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.519 when I'm in front of someone and shaking their hand, but am I is 192 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:18.600 good on zoom? I have no idea. Are we all going to be 193 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:22.879 better? Probably not right and taking people out to dinner and go into conferences 194 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:26.679 like that's gone the time being, hopefully not forever. So that being said, 195 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.909 like you have to have some sort of physical engagement with them, and 196 00:13:30.990 --> 00:13:35.070 that's why I just I love this space so much where it's like pattern interrupts. 197 00:13:35.190 --> 00:13:37.230 You're getting things, you're engaging with people at their homes. You know, 198 00:13:37.309 --> 00:13:41.820 people are excited to get packages, they're excited to interact with the mailman 199 00:13:41.100 --> 00:13:45.580 because it's some sort of outside engagement. We see that being very helpful with 200 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:48.659 in the middle of the funnel and then once once customers are on I we 201 00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:54.539 do it at postal, getting a playbook set up to where automatically triggers like 202 00:13:54.700 --> 00:14:01.289 a four step which is a quarterly based playbook on sending them something per quarter. 203 00:14:01.649 --> 00:14:03.610 And it doesn't need to be big. It can just be like hand 204 00:14:03.610 --> 00:14:05.169 writ notes, or it can be, you know, a brochure or a 205 00:14:05.250 --> 00:14:09.889 white paper that I'm thinking about, or a piece of swag or a gift 206 00:14:09.929 --> 00:14:13.919 basket for, you know, the the holidays. All of those things can 207 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:16.320 now be structured and automated in a way that they have before. Yea and 208 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:20.679 the House with retention. It helps with like the mindset of like, okay, 209 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:24.350 this company stop of mind, their care about me, like and they're 210 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:26.909 doing something differently than my other vendors. And that's even if they give the 211 00:14:28.029 --> 00:14:30.830 thing away and just say don't send this to me again, they're going to 212 00:14:30.909 --> 00:14:33.710 remember it, right, they're going to remember that piece. Yeah, absolutely, 213 00:14:33.750 --> 00:14:37.509 Eric. I want to ask a couple of follow up questions on the 214 00:14:37.669 --> 00:14:41.700 how how you see people following up timing? You've mentioned a couple things there. 215 00:14:41.740 --> 00:14:43.899 I want to dig in there and just a seg but I want to 216 00:14:43.940 --> 00:14:48.100 back up and and ask you a question that we we normally think about here 217 00:14:48.139 --> 00:14:52.860 at sweet fish are our founder and CEO, James. He's a big fan 218 00:14:52.929 --> 00:14:56.570 of Gift Ology, the the book from totally. It's John Rulin, right, 219 00:14:56.570 --> 00:15:01.009 Yep, yeah, and one of the things he talks about in that 220 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:07.840 is sending people something with their logo on it rather than yours, because they're 221 00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:11.000 more likely, unless you have a really good relationship. To me, I'm 222 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:15.799 more often, if I'm reaching out to someone who is not associated with our 223 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:20.279 brand yet, sending them something that's associated to something they love, which might 224 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:24.070 be their company and their brand, as opposed to hours. Now, for 225 00:15:24.230 --> 00:15:28.309 some of our customers who are big advocates of ours, who would proudly, 226 00:15:28.590 --> 00:15:31.950 you know, represent something that has, you know, our show logo on 227 00:15:31.029 --> 00:15:35.470 it, growth or the the sweet fish logo or values or something like that, 228 00:15:35.860 --> 00:15:37.980 but to me it's always been a little bit off to where, Hey, 229 00:15:39.019 --> 00:15:41.899 I'm giving you this gift and we don't know each other, but it's 230 00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:46.980 got my logo on it, and it's almost feels a little bit selfish from 231 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:50.730 the gifter because it's like, I want you to wrap our brand and they 232 00:15:50.769 --> 00:15:54.129 don't know your brand yet. What's your thought on your logo versus there's and 233 00:15:54.250 --> 00:15:58.690 the timing of that as I kind of ramble on and stream of consciousness on. 234 00:15:58.809 --> 00:16:03.049 That's a very strong like observation and I actually go with no logo. 235 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:10.799 I believe that that logo less things are actually more worn more and the thing 236 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:14.759 is you remember where you got things, like you, you remember those right, 237 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:18.710 and so I it's really interesting. When we started this business we didn't 238 00:16:18.710 --> 00:16:22.470 have swag. So we didn't have a swag in our actual like market place 239 00:16:22.590 --> 00:16:25.909 and and postal set up to where, you know, basically we're taking all 240 00:16:26.149 --> 00:16:30.309 of this these this market place items, all of these things that are sent 241 00:16:30.429 --> 00:16:33.860 out there in this world and the pup, the pup is good, man, 242 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:37.220 you're all good. So I was gonna say my kids are going to 243 00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:38.899 be running back here. So at some point. So all of this, 244 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:44.139 all the stuff that's out there that people send, we made a conscious decision 245 00:16:44.500 --> 00:16:48.009 not to actually have branded anything to start and I said, I don't think 246 00:16:48.049 --> 00:16:52.490 it matters if you get a Jettie Cup that has your brand or their brand. 247 00:16:52.529 --> 00:16:55.929 I just think it's if you send this Yetie Cup, they're going to 248 00:16:55.970 --> 00:16:59.370 be more interactions with that Yetie Cup if it has nothing on it, or 249 00:16:59.409 --> 00:17:03.159 if you send something like a college sweatshirt or something the effect that it is 250 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:06.279 like something that they they act, we generally care about. All those things 251 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:11.599 are like non branded. Now we've had so much questions of the marketing branded 252 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:15.390 stuff because people have lost their marketing closets. So the marketing closets are like 253 00:17:15.549 --> 00:17:19.589 locked and you know in an office that people are no longer in or they 254 00:17:19.670 --> 00:17:22.509 just ordered all of this stuff or we're going to order all this stuff that 255 00:17:22.589 --> 00:17:26.230 has the brands on it. How do you manage that? So we had 256 00:17:26.269 --> 00:17:30.099 to get into the swag space to help really with that problem, and it's 257 00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:34.220 just about solving problems. So the how to answer your question, it's I 258 00:17:34.660 --> 00:17:37.740 really and I love the gift Doledge Book. We actually have a huge book 259 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:42.420 collection inside of the marketplace, so we send that book out to a lot 260 00:17:42.460 --> 00:17:47.890 of folks. So books in education, materials and things that actually like spur 261 00:17:48.450 --> 00:17:52.769 thought and conversation, I think are more important than the actual value of the 262 00:17:52.809 --> 00:17:56.170 asset. I'm just not a I'm just not a big fan of sending something 263 00:17:56.210 --> 00:18:00.920 that's super expensive. It feels a little bit off. But if it's curated 264 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:06.319 and it's personal and it's something that is that's nice. It's in the workflow. 265 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:10.880 I think the workflow piece and the personalization of that item, meaning that, 266 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:14.029 you know, there's actually a note that goes back to that whole engagement 267 00:18:14.190 --> 00:18:18.950 process, that that's more effective than anything that's branded or not branded. Yeah, 268 00:18:18.990 --> 00:18:22.630 I love what you said there are thinking about is this going to be 269 00:18:22.829 --> 00:18:26.069 used? Is it something that is going to remain around, even if it 270 00:18:26.109 --> 00:18:29.740 doesn't have my logo on it? It's one of the reasons, I know 271 00:18:29.980 --> 00:18:33.619 John Rulin is books. As you know, don't send food because then it's 272 00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:36.380 gone hat. Send it, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I 273 00:18:36.579 --> 00:18:38.180 was like, Nol kids do not sell. We had to get cupcakes on 274 00:18:38.220 --> 00:18:41.609 the platform because we will have had to. But right, right, yes, 275 00:18:41.730 --> 00:18:45.009 like, I love not bakery. They like personalize the box and everything 276 00:18:45.170 --> 00:18:47.529 and they're a great partner of ours. But you know, at the end 277 00:18:47.529 --> 00:18:51.849 of the day, I I think it's the message and I think it's, 278 00:18:52.289 --> 00:18:55.170 you know, what people will see value of. And again, it's not 279 00:18:55.289 --> 00:18:57.599 about it's not about, you know, bribing them to do anything's about are 280 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:00.559 they going to have something functional that they actually point to say hey, this. 281 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:07.359 During this process I actually really enjoyed like communicating, engaging with this brand 282 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:11.349 because we're all representatives of our brand, of our corporate brand. It's like 283 00:19:11.630 --> 00:19:15.950 our sales people are our marketers, are executives, we are we are representatives, 284 00:19:15.950 --> 00:19:18.509 we are the brand and your engagements, of the things that the brand 285 00:19:18.670 --> 00:19:26.900 sends online and through email and through phone calls and through the offline all of 286 00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:30.579 that needs to be consistent and if one part of that brand is off or 287 00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:34.339 just like a little bit wonky and doesn't doesn't align with the other parts of 288 00:19:34.380 --> 00:19:37.059 the brand, then you know that it then it just doesn't work and it 289 00:19:37.099 --> 00:19:42.329 seems it just doesn't seem real. Yeah, absolutely. It's funny that you 290 00:19:42.369 --> 00:19:45.529 mentioned norms bakery. You know, for folks just listening, they won't they 291 00:19:45.529 --> 00:19:49.250 won't see this, but up over my left shoulder here I've got propped up 292 00:19:49.529 --> 00:19:55.039 a cover to one of the wooden boxes from no night shop and it has 293 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:59.000 the BEDB growth logo on it. So there is kind of a balance of 294 00:19:59.079 --> 00:20:02.160 all those things that we're talking about in that example. Now, it was 295 00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:06.200 food. I really liked getting the food in that. Yeah, because the 296 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:10.509 cookies are freaking delicious. Check outnomins bake shop, y'all. But you know, 297 00:20:10.670 --> 00:20:12.269 the box was personalized. It didn't say NAM's bake shop on it, 298 00:20:12.309 --> 00:20:15.150 because what am I going to do? Like, I'm not going to hang 299 00:20:15.190 --> 00:20:17.750 on to that right. I don't want to, you know, wrap nombs. 300 00:20:17.750 --> 00:20:19.269 I might mention them two people and on the PODCAST, like I'm doing 301 00:20:19.349 --> 00:20:22.859 right now. But I hung on to the to the top of that box 302 00:20:22.900 --> 00:20:26.420 because I was like hey, I could prop that up on my bookshelf and 303 00:20:26.539 --> 00:20:29.940 it's something that has the BB growth logo on it. And before we got 304 00:20:30.019 --> 00:20:33.259 these MIC flags for our podcast mics, I didn't have anything that really showed 305 00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:37.730 the BB growth logo very regularly. And it's it's small, it's in my 306 00:20:37.809 --> 00:20:40.730 background on all my zoom calls, but hey, it's something. It's there. 307 00:20:40.849 --> 00:20:42.529 Someone might say, Hey, what's that? And so that was kind 308 00:20:42.529 --> 00:20:45.769 of that mixture, right, it was branded for me, even though it 309 00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:49.240 was food. There was something personalized that hung around, right. It didn't 310 00:20:49.240 --> 00:20:52.559 just have like, you know, logo on a cupcake that got devoured and 311 00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:56.400 was gone. So so, from a technical standpoint, let's let's dig into 312 00:20:56.440 --> 00:21:00.160 this a little bit because I want to make sure that everybody understands like you 313 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:04.190 can do anything right. Technology will allow you to do anything. But the 314 00:21:04.269 --> 00:21:10.869 question is, is that how scalable is that is that piece. So when 315 00:21:10.910 --> 00:21:15.630 I look at the technical challenge that that faces. So yes, you could 316 00:21:15.630 --> 00:21:21.180 absolutely go through each one of your customers and design something inside of postal that 317 00:21:21.339 --> 00:21:23.980 that that had logos on it to send to each one of the customers, 318 00:21:25.859 --> 00:21:30.539 but the challenge lies within actually how you scale that. And so there's this 319 00:21:30.779 --> 00:21:36.369 been I say this a lot and probably heard another podcast. There's this. 320 00:21:36.529 --> 00:21:41.490 There's this divide between personalization and automation. Okay, so you want to have 321 00:21:41.650 --> 00:21:45.130 as much activity as you can and you know, we think about activity generation. 322 00:21:45.410 --> 00:21:48.480 It has everything to do with automation. How do you automate things to 323 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:53.839 happen automatically? So it just like all of the communication happens as as it 324 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:56.519 is, as it's you, as you set it up, and you have 325 00:21:56.559 --> 00:22:00.000 all the mail merge functions, all the other stuff. Then you have personalization, 326 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:03.630 which is hyper personalization. It's understanding that specific person, like who is 327 00:22:03.789 --> 00:22:07.029 Logan? What does he care about? Why should I be calling him? 328 00:22:07.069 --> 00:22:10.269 Why should I be sending him and know, why should I say he said? 329 00:22:10.549 --> 00:22:12.390 And then you have personalation. And what I'm trying to do is I'm 330 00:22:12.390 --> 00:22:15.819 trying to bring these two together and that they're like they're like polar they're like 331 00:22:15.980 --> 00:22:19.539 the same magnet, you know, like they're both positives going against each other. 332 00:22:19.579 --> 00:22:22.859 And yes, you can't sput everything. I see personalization at scale. 333 00:22:22.859 --> 00:22:26.940 I'm like, you can't just put those those words together and say how go 334 00:22:27.099 --> 00:22:30.289 together? Right? Very hard. Yeah, so, like so, and 335 00:22:30.410 --> 00:22:34.210 we know this because this is where we live as a business. So we're 336 00:22:34.250 --> 00:22:40.089 trying to bring these things together. And so technology is is what is the 337 00:22:40.210 --> 00:22:44.319 in the intersection of this is if you can build technology that can actually help 338 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:49.880 with automating or scaling personalization, then it becomes very interesting, and so I 339 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:56.359 encourage all of your listeners out there. Of You know the offline is very 340 00:22:56.519 --> 00:22:59.190 personalised and that's why we got into this. We believe, Hey, there 341 00:22:59.349 --> 00:23:06.470 is a technology opportunity with this massively disjointed offline engagement that just happens with no 342 00:23:06.670 --> 00:23:10.589 tracking and no like it, like understanding of how much we're spending from a 343 00:23:10.589 --> 00:23:15.259 budget perspective or control of what the messaging is. And then we have this 344 00:23:15.339 --> 00:23:21.220 understanding of automation and how technology can influences. Let's pull this, let's pull 345 00:23:21.339 --> 00:23:25.579 this personalization over as close as we can get to the automation piece to ensure 346 00:23:25.619 --> 00:23:29.490 that we're making this more effective. But again, we're like in the batting 347 00:23:29.569 --> 00:23:33.289 practice right now. So how are we able to just do the very easy 348 00:23:33.450 --> 00:23:37.769 things that people are doing manually and actually convert them to online, trackable, 349 00:23:38.170 --> 00:23:41.680 you know, measurable, and then bringing the automation at some point in time? 350 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:45.319 Yeah, I mean, look, you guys are living this day to 351 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:48.640 day with what you're experimenting, with what you're enabling your customers to do. 352 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:52.799 Eric so I really appreciate that perspective on all of this. If anybody listening 353 00:23:52.839 --> 00:23:57.630 to this is new to you or postal, what's the best way for them 354 00:23:57.670 --> 00:24:03.670 to asking follow up questions, stay engaged with you guys or find some resources 355 00:24:03.789 --> 00:24:07.589 you guys have to enable them in this area of personal gifting, direct mail 356 00:24:07.670 --> 00:24:11.819 and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, so we've got an incredible resource 357 00:24:11.859 --> 00:24:15.460 section on postal dot aoh that has all of our e books and all of 358 00:24:15.539 --> 00:24:18.220 our all our webinars that we've done, all of our podcasts that we've done 359 00:24:18.619 --> 00:24:23.450 and some great infographics actually share what we're seeing from our customers. So if 360 00:24:23.490 --> 00:24:26.970 you're if you're on posted io, just take up the resource section or this 361 00:24:27.130 --> 00:24:30.809 product is free to try. We're not trying to like block anybody from trying 362 00:24:30.890 --> 00:24:34.970 this out. We want you to come into postal and understand how you can 363 00:24:34.970 --> 00:24:38.240 start scaling this. Talk to a salesperson, have them walk you through it 364 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:41.119 for thirty days and if you like it, you can move forward. But 365 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:45.200 it's free to try. I love it, Eric, thank you so much 366 00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:48.359 for being our guests on the show today. I really appreciate it. Thanks. 367 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:53.470 Look at for the longest time I was asking people to leave a review 368 00:24:53.589 --> 00:24:57.990 of BB growth in apple podcasts, but I realize that was kind of stupid 369 00:24:57.990 --> 00:25:03.150 because leaving a review is way harder than just leaving a simple rating. So 370 00:25:03.309 --> 00:25:07.380 I'm changing my tune a bit. Instead of asking you to leave a review, 371 00:25:07.420 --> 00:25:10.579 I'm just going to ask you to go to baby growth and apple podcasts, 372 00:25:10.900 --> 00:25:15.259 scroll down until you see the ratings and reviews section and just tap the 373 00:25:15.299 --> 00:25:18.099 number of stars you want to give us. No review necessary, super easy 374 00:25:18.380 --> 00:25:22.890 and I promise it will help us out a ton. If you want to 375 00:25:22.970 --> 00:25:26.529 copy on my book content base networking, just shoot me a text after you 376 00:25:26.569 --> 00:25:29.890 leave the rating and I'll send one your way. Text me at four hundred 377 00:25:29.930 --> 00:25:32.970 seven four, and I know three hundred and three two eight