Bison Payments — Direct-Mail Pieces (Motion B, Middle ring)

Lead product: Quick Pay. Invoice funding for oilfield-service SMBs — advance up to 95%, funded next day, no concentration limits, no borrowing bases, no personal guarantees, no covenants. RCA is the secondary partner-distributed lane (trifold insert, §6). JIB & Online Payments are pre-launch — never on a mailer, not even a waitlist line. Never quote a fixed APR or rate. “Largest” only ever in U.S. oil & gas — and only as an attributed self-claim, so we omit it from mail entirely and let the customer numbers do the talking.

Voice (mandatory): operator-to-operator, plain-spoken, partnership-first, SpaceX-industrial. A humble champion for the field, never an outsider acting like we know it. “The only thing worse than us not being from oil & gas is us acting like we know oil & gas.” — BISON-BRIEF.md §7.

What this file is: the creative + copy for the §1 Direct-Mail Program in 04-campaign-plan/offline-partnership-referral.md — the physical bridge to the ~60% of real customers no B2B database reaches (BISON-BRIEF.md §6). Three tiered Quick Pay pieces (dimensional / mailer / postcard) keyed to the ABM tiers, plus a secondary RCA-via-Mineral-Answers trifold insert. Every piece is built so the rep’s call lands warm, never cold — mail and the cold-call cadence run as one play.

0. The strategic frame (read before designing anything)

The ICP is “very offline, very analog.” They don’t search for invoice funding and they don’t trust outsiders. They buy on word-of-mouth, social proof, and credibility — and they trust people from the field, not bankers (BISON-BRIEF.md §5). Mail is explicitly named a responsive channel for them (“Responsive on LinkedIn, mailers, phone”). A physical, field-grade piece in the truck-stop mailbox is more credible to this operator than a digital ad — it signals a company willing to show up in the physical world they live in.

So every piece below obeys five rules that are non-negotiable because they are the channel:

1. It must read like it came from an operator, not a marketing department. Hand-addressed where we can afford it. A real rep name and a real phone number. Concrete operational language, no fintech gloss.
2. The proof is a peer, not us. A funded customer’s verbatim growth number ($350k → $7.5M; up 500–600% YoY; double your growth rate in 90 days) outperforms anything Bison says about itself. The operator trusts the peer.
3. The CTA is a phone call first, a QR/URL second. This ICP picks up the phone before they fill a form. Named rep + tracked number leads; QR to the (CRO-fixed) Quick Pay page backs it up.
4. The aesthetic is the job site, not the SaaS expo. Pumpjacks, rigs, hardhat crews, welding, trucks — duotone or desaturated B&W with green type. Never iPads, suits, posed smiling stock.
5. One offer, one number, one reason to call. No menu of products. Quick Pay only.

The offer, stated identically across every Quick Pay piece (this is the load-bearing line):

Advance up to 95% of your invoice. Funded next day. No concentration limits, no borrowing bases, no personal guarantees, no covenants.

The offer’s hook — fast pre-approval:

Get pre-approved this week. Tell us about your shop and your customers and we’ll tailor your terms — no fixed rate card, no application fee, no bank covenants. Most operators know if they’re a fit on one phone call.

(Pre-approval, not “apply” — it lowers the commitment, matches the real underwriting path at app.bisonpayments.com/sign-up/preapproval, and gives the rep the reason to call.)

1. Brand tokens for the designer (from context/design/colors_and_type.css + BISON-BRIEF.md §8)

Type: Poppins 700–800 for headlines (ALL CAPS, exactly one word in --green-500); Mulish 400–600 for body at line-height 1.55; Mulish italic for testimonials. Marketing headlines = ALL CAPS + one green word; product name = Title Case (Quick Pay, Royalty Cash Advance); body = sentence case.

Photography (use the brand set, never stock): context/design/assets/brand/{rig-duotone.jpg, pumpjack-bw.jpg, worker-quickpay.jpg} — teal/green duotone or desaturated B&W with green type, never fully saturated, never glossy.

Logos: context/design/assets/logos/{logo-full.svg, logo-full-white.svg, logo-mark.svg, logo-mark-white.svg, logo-mark-green.svg} — logo-full-white.svg on dark/photo panels, logo-full.svg on light stock.

Entity hygiene: wordmark and return address read Bison Payments (the fintech). Never Bison Technologies / getbison.com on a Quick Pay piece. Mailing address (real): PO Box 249, Oklahoma City, OK 73101. Phone for tracking-number fallback: (432) 219-9988.

2. TIER 1 — The dimensional “From the Oilfield” piece (top ~50 named accounts)

Format: lumpy / dimensional mail. A heavy-stock outer box or rigid mailer that arrives like a piece of gear, not a flyer. Inside: a field-grade item the operator will actually keep and use — a branded waterproof job-site notebook (Rite-in-the-Rain style, weatherproof, fits a work-shirt pocket) wrapped in a heavy-stock “From the Oilfield, for the Oilfield” folder, plus a hand-written, hand-signed note from the named Bison rep who works that basin.

Why dimensional pencils here: the account is enterprise-grade (~$8.3M funded volume/customer/yr per offline-partnership-referral.md §6). The CAC ceiling easily affords a premium piece to the top 50. This is the one tier where we spend.

2.1 The hand-written note (the whole piece lives or dies on this)

Printed shell looks hand-done; the rep adds the basin name, the operator’s first name, and the signature by hand in green ink. Keep it short — an operator reads the first two lines or none.

{First name} —

I cover the {Permian / Anadarko / Williston / [basin]} for Bison, and your name came up as one of the shops that’s actually growing out here. Figured I’d send something you’d use on the job instead of another flyer you’d toss.

Here’s the only pitch: we advance up to 95% of your invoice and fund it next day — no concentration limits, no borrowing bases, no personal guarantees, no covenants. We’re not a bank. We were built for the oilfield by people who came to learn it, not lecture it.

One of our customers in {state} went from $350k to $7.5M in three years. I’d rather just tell you how on a call.

I’ll ring you this week. Or beat me to it — my cell’s below.

{Rep name} Bison Payments · {direct tracked cell} We’re not a bank. We’re built for the oilfield.

2.2 The folder (heavy-stock outer wrap)

• Front panel: full-bleed rig-duotone.jpg (teal #6E928A duotone). Reverse-out Poppins 800 ALL CAPS headline, one green word: > BUILT FOR THE OILFIELD. > NOT THE BANK.
• logo-full-white.svg bottom-left, small.
• Inside-left panel (on #F4F5F4): the offer block, Mulish, with the numbers as #2E8B5F Poppins callouts: > Up to 95% of your invoice. Funded next day. > No concentration limits. No borrowing bases. No personal guarantees. No covenants. > Tell us about your shop and your customers — we’ll tailor your terms. No fixed rate card, no application fee.
• Inside-right panel: one verbatim, attributed testimonial in Mulish italic, with a small pumpjack-bw.jpg strip beneath: > “In our first year we did about $350k. By year three, with Bison’s help, we’d grown to over $7.5M with nearly $30M of work in our backlog.” > — Utility Construction Company, Dallas
• Back panel: the credibility line + CTA stack (see §5).

2.3 The cadence (mail is one move in the play, not the whole play)

1. Send the dimensional piece.
2. Rep call within 2 business days — the note already told them it’s coming, so the call is warm by design.
3. Day-21 follow-up postcard (use the Tier-3 postcard art, §4) with a one-line, hand-noted “Still here when you’re ready — {rep}, {number}.”

3. TIER 2 — The heavy-stock photo mailer (next ~500 accounts)

Format: a single heavy-stock (≥130 lb cover), large-format mailer — 6” × 11” or 9” × 12”, photo-forward, no envelope (it is the piece, so it gets seen at the mailbox). NAICS 213112 + adjacent service codes, ICP firmographics, seven basin states.

3.1 Front (the side that has to stop a thumb mid-toss)

• Full-bleed photo: worker-quickpay.jpg or pumpjack-bw.jpg, duotone/desaturated. A real crew, real iron, real work.
• Headline, Poppins 800 ALL CAPS, reverse-out white, one word in #2E8B5F: > YOUR OPERATOR PAYS IN 60 DAYS. > YOUR PAYROLL DOESN’T WAIT.
• Kicker, Mulish 600, white: > Quick Pay funds your invoice next day — up to 95%.
• logo-full-white.svg, lower corner.

3.2 Back (the offer, the proof, the call)

• Eyebrow, Mulish caps, #6E928A, letter-spacing 0.08em: FROM THE OILFIELD, FOR THE OILFIELD
• Offer block, the standard line with the numbers pulled out as green Poppins callouts: > Advance up to 95% of your invoice. Funded next day. > No concentration limits. No borrowing bases. No personal guarantees. No covenants. > Your bank penalizes you for being “concentrated” in one operator. Out here that’s just Tuesday. We underwrite the way the field actually works.
• Proof, Mulish italic, attributed: > “We’re up 500–600% growth year over year. The flexibility we get with Bison lets us scale way faster than going back to the bank.” > — Oilfield Services Provider, Oklahoma
• The credibility line, #4D4E4E: > We’re not a bank. We’re built for the oilfield — by people who came to learn it, not lecture it.
• CTA stack (see §5) — named rep + tracked number first, QR second. The pre-approval hook: “Get pre-approved this week — most operators know if they’re a fit on one call.”

3.3 Cadence

3-touch sequence over 8 weeks, paired with the call cadence: Mailer → rep call → second mailer (rotate headline + a different testimonial) → rep call → postcard close. Per-tier tracked number so we can read which wave is working.

4. TIER 3 — The basin-wave postcard (broad off-database reach, the 60%)

Format: oversized postcard / self-mailer (6” × 9”), printed at scale, rotated by basin in quarterly waves. Job: seed awareness so the rep’s later call lands warm and the brand is recognized the next time the operator hears the name from a peer. One proof line, one offer, one number.

4.1 Front

• Full-bleed rig-duotone.jpg. Headline, Poppins 800 ALL CAPS, one green word: > {BASIN} OPERATORS: STOP FLOATING YOUR INVOICES.

  (Basin-localized: PERMIAN OPERATORS / WILLISTON OPERATORS / ANADARKO OPERATORS — the operator should feel it was printed for their patch.)

4.2 Back (address side)

• Left half (message): > Up to 95% of your invoice. Funded next day. No concentration limits, no borrowing bases, no personal guarantees. > “Customers typically double their growth rate within their first 90 days.” > We’re built for the oilfield, not the bank. > Call {Rep name}: {basin-specific tracked number} · Or scan to get pre-approved → [QR]
• Right half: address block, indicia, return address Bison Payments, PO Box 249, Oklahoma City, OK 73101, small logo-mark-green.svg.

4.3 Cadence

Quarterly waves, rotated by basin. Per-basin tracked number + per-wave QR/UTM so each wave reports its own cost-per-funded-customer.

5. The CTA stack + QR / landing destination (shared across all Quick Pay tiers)

Order is deliberate — phone first, scan second. The analog ICP calls before it forms-fills.

CALL {Rep name}, your {basin} rep: {tracked number} Tell us about your shop. We’ll tailor your terms and you’ll know if you’re a fit — usually on one call. Or scan to get pre-approved → [QR code]

5.1 QR / short-URL destination

• Tier-specific short URL (e.g., bisonpayments.com/field or /permian) → 301 to the CRO-fixed Quick Pay page (/quickpay, the #1 conversion-fix page per BISON-BRIEF.md §9), pre-approval CTA above the fold, landing on app.bisonpayments.com/sign-up/preapproval.
• UTMs: utm_source=directmail&utm_medium=mail&utm_campaign=quickpay-fieldmail&utm_content={tier}-{basin}-{wave} so the landing page revenue ties back to the exact piece.
• The landing page must mirror the mailer — same hero photo, same offer line, same testimonial. A digital experience that contradicts the physical piece breaks the trust the mail just built.

5.2 The credibility line (use on every piece, never altered)

We’re not a bank. We’re built for the oilfield — by people who came to learn it, not lecture it.

5.3 Compliance lockups (every piece, fine print, Mulish XS #6B6C6C)

• No rate/APR anywhere. “Custom terms, tailored to your business. No fixed rate card. No application fee.”
• No “loan/lender.” Use “advance” / “fund your invoices.”
• No “largest” claim on mail — omitted; the testimonials carry credibility instead.
• Use “up to 95%” — never a guaranteed advance number.

6. SECONDARY — RCA trifold insert (Royalty Cash Advance via Mineral Answers)

Separate audience, separate piece, separate channel. This is the only non–Quick Pay mail in the program, and it never rides inside a Quick Pay envelope. It is a trifold insert distributed through Mineral Answers (the ~$12B/yr royalty-owner platform, BISON-BRIEF.md §4, offline-partnership-referral.md §4.2) — folded into mineral-statement mailings / royalty-owner packets, reaching owners inside the infrastructure they already trust. It replicates the EnergyLink embedded-RCA pattern in print and serves the §4.1 hedge of diversifying off single-partner EnergyLink. Audience = individual royalty owners, not service-company operators — so the voice softens toward personal liquidity. Still field-credible, never bank-y.

Format: standard 8.5” × 11” trifold (6-panel), heavy stock, slips into a Mineral Answers statement envelope.

6.1 Panel-by-panel

Panel 1 — Cover (outer) - Photo: a desaturated, dignified landscape — pumpjack at dusk / family ranch land, duotone teal. Not a crew shot; this audience isn’t on the rig. - Headline, Poppins 800, one green word: > STOP WAITING FOR YOUR ROYALTIES. - Sub, Mulish: Get your next 3 royalty payments now. - Co-brand lockup: logo-mark-green.svg + “in partnership with Mineral Answers” (per the partner-distribution relationship). logo-full.svg on the back.

Panel 2 — The offer (inner-left) > Royalty Cash Advance > Advance your next 3 royalty payments — and keep your minerals. > - Funded next day > - 5-minute onboarding > - No upfront fees > - You keep ownership of your minerals — always.

Panel 3 — Why owners use it (inner-center) > Medical bills. Tuition. Paying off debt. Fixing the house. A business opportunity you don’t want to wait on. > “A 100-year-old got funded on their phone.” > Your royalties are yours. Bison just lets you reach a few of them early — without selling a thing.

Panel 4 — Proof + credibility (inner-right) - Mulish italic: a short attributed royalty-owner line (sourced/approved by the testimonial engine, offline-partnership-referral.md §3.2). - Credibility line, adapted for owners: > We’re built for the oilfield — by people who know what a royalty check means to a family. Not a bank.

Panel 5 — CTA (back-fold) > Get started in 5 minutes. > Scan to apply → [QR → app.bisonpayments.com/rca/signup, UTM utm_source=mineralanswers&utm_medium=insert&utm_campaign=rca-trifold] > Or call {RCA-line tracked number}. We’ll walk you through it.

Panel 6 — Back cover - logo-full.svg, “Bison Payments · Oklahoma City, OK”, fine print: Advance against your future royalty payments. You keep your minerals. No upfront fees. Terms are custom; no fixed rate.

6.2 RCA insert guardrails

• Never crowds Quick Pay as the lead anywhere in the program — this is a separate, partner-distributed lane (offline-partnership-referral.md §4.1 guardrail).
• Never imply Bison takes the minerals. “Keep your minerals” is mandatory and load-bearing (brand.md Safety).
• No fixed rate/APR. No “loan.” “Advance against future royalty payments.”
• Distributed through Mineral Answers — a deliberate concentration-reducer against single-partner EnergyLink dependence, not just incremental reach.

7. Designer execution checklist (hand to whoever builds the files)

• All headlines: Poppins 700–800, ALL CAPS, exactly one word in #2E8B5F (--green-500).
• All body: Mulish 400–600, line-height 1.55; testimonials Mulish italic, always attributed.
• Photos from context/design/assets/brand/ only — duotone teal #6E928A or desaturated B&W. Zero stock, iPads, suits, posed smiles, fintech gloss.
• Logos: logo-full-white.svg on dark/photo; logo-full.svg on light; logo-mark-green.svg for small lockups. Wordmark reads Bison Payments — never Bison Technologies/getbison.com on Quick Pay pieces.
• Offer line verbatim on every Quick Pay piece: “Advance up to 95% of your invoice. Funded next day. No concentration limits, no borrowing bases, no personal guarantees, no covenants.”
• CTA order: named rep + tracked phone first, QR/short-URL second. Pre-approval hook present.
• Per-tier + per-basin tracked numbers; per-wave UTMs; QR → CRO-fixed /quickpay (or /rca/signup for the insert).
• Compliance: no APR/rate, no “loan/lender,” no “largest” on mail, “up to 95%” not guaranteed, “keep your minerals” on RCA.
• Quick Pay leads everywhere. No JIB / Online Payments on any piece — not even a waitlist line.

Sources: _inputs/BISON-BRIEF.md (§4 products & status, §5 ICP/analog buying behavior, §6 TAM 40/60 + NAICS 213112, §7 trust rule & SpaceX-industrial aesthetic, §8 brand tokens/photo/logos, §9 CRO #1 fix, §11 proof assets, §12 guardrails); 04-campaign-plan/offline-partnership-referral.md (§1 direct-mail tiers & cadence, §1.3 creative rules, §1.4 measurement, §3.2 testimonial engine, §4.2 Mineral Answers, §6 ~$8.3M/account economics & CAC ceiling); context/brand.md (voice, offers, RCA “keep your minerals,” contact/address, safety rules); context/design/colors_and_type.css (exact tokens). Framework: Demand Curve B2B Tech Path — Acquisition (Middle-ring direct mail, Motion B).