How We Got Here

In planning for sales in 2012, I was reflecting up on 2011 and the previous 11 years I've been with BPI Media Group. My how things have changed! When I started at BPI (then known as Boaz Printing), I didn't know a thing about the printing process. After spending a day in each department, I had learned some basic terminology: ftp site, stripping (not what you think it is!!), cmyk, plates, offset, saddlestitching and the list could go on and on. Since the first decade of the new millennium was one of constant growth and change, as soon as I learned something, it would change. The first major change was getting rid of film in 2002 and going CTP (computer to plate or direct to plate). This was a big change for the prepress department but one that now seems as if it has always been the way to image plates. The next big change came when 20,000 square feet were added to the building to allow for a new press room and warehouse. This place was huge! I requested a scooter to buzz around the plant, but that request was denied. :( It seemed there was always a new system, a new term and a new role at Boaz.

After working in customer service for 3 1/2 years, the opportunity was presented to me to become a part of the sales team. I felt I was ready and eager to tell everyone what a great printing company we were! Even though talking to customers as a CSR helped prepare me for sales in more ways than I could have imagined, there is no comparison for being across the desk from a prospect and feeling green (not just green from inexperience but also from nerves). After a few months and finally settling into the sales position, things really started changing in Boaz.

The growth continued. After the new, larger press room was added and presses moved from the back of the plant, the old press room became the mail department. The creation of this new department meant more terminology to learn, new faces at Boaz and more internal control over direct mail campaigns for our clients. Doris Breedwell became our mail specialist and remains in that position today leading our mail department and overseeing both mail machines that have since been added. Not long after the move to the new press room, we added a new 6-color, 40" Heidelberg press with a coater in 2004. I had never seen anything like this press; it was huge! It took those guys quite a while to assemble it once it arrived on our dock in 4 tractor-trailers! The addition of this larger press gave us the capability to run 16-page signatures (of 8.5 x 11 size), so our efficiencies improved immensely being able to get more work out the door and to our customers.

The changes didn't stop there. The addition of a digital press in 2006 opened the door for variable data and short runs or print on demand. In 2008, Boaz Printing changed its name to BPI Media Group to better reflect the variety of solutions we offer. After all, we weren't just a printer any more. We could mail, do fulfillment (utilizing the additional warehouse space), print on demand, cross-media campaigns, email campaigns and we provide an online storefront solution. By adding these new services, we were making strides toward becoming a MSP (marketing service provider) and not just a PSP (print service provider). Click here to watch a video to see how we got here!

Since the company name change in 2008, we have continued to grow and learn more ways to better serve our customers. We have explored QR codes, social media marketing, email marketing, cross-media campaigns and how all these tie in with a print campaign to yield the greatest ROI for our customers. We added Insite, our online proofing system, and storefront to manage the print on demand and inventory orders. We've attended numerous webinars and conferences to learn more and keep up with the technology that is integral in our world at BPI. Earlier in 2011, we added a second digital press to our digital department, a Kodak Nexpress. The most recent area of growth for us is the addition of creative and web departments. Our creative department, led by Leisa McGowan, allows us to help customers who don't have a designer on staff. Our web department, led by Brandon Rome, is helping customers with a website rebuild or update and also assisting in ways to boost SEO. We've recently started our webinar series of training for customers on the new solutions we offer; this educational venture is called BPI University, and you won't want to miss it! We'll tell you more about all the new services and how they can help you save time and help the marketing budget go farther on your campaigns.

I am excited to see where 2012 will take BPI. It has been a great 11 years, so bring it on! We are ready for the challenges that marketers bring to us because we feel the solutions we now have to offer can be truly beneficial to your company's long-term success.

Here's a timeline to show you how Boaz Printing has grown and changed over the years. It was started long before I ever started working there!

Until next time...Elizabeth

While travelling home for Thanksgiving to visit family, it is so easy to get caught up in the holiday hustle. Instead, I am trying to reflect on this past year and ways to improve both personally and professionally. I am a firm believer that if you grow in one area, you will prosper in both. Key point: prosperity doesn't just happen; it takes planning and hard work.

So, this week, I am going to share some tips I have found that help me in sales and in life in general. While this blog is typically speaking to the marketer, this week, we'll shift focus to our partners in crime: the sales team. If you have some tips to share, please pass them along! I am a firm believer that we should learn from one another because chances are, someone else has faced the same challenges you're facing and overcome them! Whether that challenge is a tough sales call, closing a deal, meeting deadlines or struggling to reach the top of the hill when you're 10 miles into a half marathon, the same principles apply. BPI Media Group is committed to helping you reach those goals with your company as our partner!

As a sales person who is also a runner, I tend to approach sales like training for a race. The road work training is difficult, but the more miles you log, the better prepared for the race you'll be on the big day. The more sales calls made in a day or week, the easier it is to cold call and the percentage of accounts you'll land goes up with each call made. For those of you who are fellow runners or, like my boss, Alan Davis, President of BPI Media Group, you know when training for a race that you have goals each week of how many miles you'll log. It doesn't matter if it's cold, raining or 100 degrees, you'll find a way to reach those goals each week. Why? Because NOT reaching that goal is NOT an option! We can apply the same principle to our sales for ourselves and for our companies that we each represent.

In planning for 2012, here are some things that will help me stay on track and put together an achievable goal that I can confidently work toward and be proud once the year-end goal is reached. Consider BPI as your partner for the long run because who you partner with in training makes all the difference in how you reach your goals.

Tip 1: Map My Run. Anytime I'd go out for a longer run, I would use this handy online tool to plot out a course. The key in this is that you have to identify how far you want to go & what exactly you're wanting to achieve. When planning the direction of your company or your sales tactics, consider it the same way. Map out a plan of action to help you achieve the end result. BPI's sales team along with our creative department can help you plan out a way to reach your goals in a way that both cost and time efficient. Planning out an online storefront is a great way to do this. This maps out how the sales team (and other staff members) can order collateral and s.w.a.g. to assist them in their daily tasks of boosting sales for the company. Or consider, mapping out a direct mail campaign with staggered drops of mail and email messaging--a sure way to boost ROI!

Tip 2: Persevere, Train and Regroup. When you start out on course you've mapped out, you know quickly that it takes a great deal of diligence to persevere and not give up. This is the case when you've called 5 prospects in a row and either gotten screened or sent to voice mail all 5 times. Sure, it'd be easy to turn around and give up, but perseverance and training will only make you better and stronger. With each task you mark off your list, each contact you make, the better you get and the closer you are to reaching that goal. Preparing the sales team for how to handle the leads they'll be fed to keep the sales funnel full requires a team effort. This is where sales and marketing have to team up to generate leads, nurture those leads and convert them into long-term customers. BPI's online campaign dashboard is a great way to manage a campaign--whether it's using a purl, curl (personalized or campaign url), SMS text messaging, email marketing or QR code implementation, you can see how each piece of the campaign is working. If the course isn't going well, it's time to regroup. Modify your plan of attack and map an alternate route. Our cross-media campaigns allow for on-the-fly changes. That's the beauty of digital printing too!

Tip 3: Log Efforts and Results. After any run, write down or record your time, pace, energy level, etc. Some folks keep a journal; some folks use online tools through their iPod synced a gps device. Either way, measuring your results is key to knowing if you're getting closer to your goal. Same goes for your marketing campaign. How do you know if it's working for your company and your sales team? With the help of our online campaign dashboard, you can access campaign info in real time. This allows you to see your ROI as the campaign progresses. There's even a ROI calculator to help you stay on track and document the results.

Tip 4: Reap the Rewards. When you're on the last mile, that last stretch before the finish line, the feeling of accomplishment is within reach. Then, when you take that last step across the finish line and receive your finisher's medal, there's no denying a great sense of pride. The same holds true for landing a new account. After numerous calls, possibly even mail drops of a targeted campaign and then a few meetings to hammer out the details of the deal, once that "hand shake" to seal the deal is made or the contract is signed, you can report to your boss the good news that you won!

After going through the training process a few times for a big race or for a big meeting, you learn a little each time, accumulating an arsenal of tools to get a little better each time. I'd really like to hear how you plan your campaigns, track your results and celebrate a victory. Even better, I welcome the opportunity for BPI to be a part of your team in training for the next challenge your company faces: boosting sales in 2012!

Happy running and good sales all around. Until next time...Elizabeth

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Which Digital Printing Level Is Right for You?

Whew, what a week! In the past week, I've logged over 900 miles, but it is always great to sit across from a customer or prospect and learn what's going on from a marketer's perspective. I learn more during those meetings than I do any other time. Thank you to those who've taken the time recently to meet with me and hear about some of the exciting things going on at BPI Media Group. I have truly been blessed to have some really great customers. Because of that, I love working with them to help business grow, prosper and make their daily duties easier.

This week, I want to share the 7 levels of digital printing because they just might help in your marketing plans for 2012. If you've never considered some of these, chances are you will after learning a bit more about each level. With the addition of our Kodak Nexpress earlier this year, we've opened the door to possibilities for our customers that weren't possible before. I hope you'll embrace a few of these levels and even adopt them into your 2012 marketing plans. You'll see how each level builds upon the previous level, digging deeper into a more personal 1:1 communication with your customer or prospect.

Level 1: Static, Short-Run Printing. Static, or unchanging, documents that are needed in a small quantity fall into this category. Perfect for when you need, for example, 200 copies of a flyer in a hurry. Digital printing allows press runs for as few as one copy and can contain multiple paper types. Benefits of this are for most everyone providing quick turns, avoiding excess and obsolete materials and eliminating storage space for the larger runs.

Level 2: Version Printing. This includes a common design but has unique content or verbiage to target a specific audience. Versioning makes for a more relevant communications piece and can allow for dealer or distributor branding while using the corporate standard.Versioning can also help lift response rates.

Level 3: Personalized Printing. Using a database with recipient information, you can seamlessly add names and/or addresses into the copy of your printed piece. This direct communication encourages a stronger customer or user relationship.

Level 4: Customized Printing. When you not only personalize the message but also customize the images to make it more relevant to groups, this is customized printing. This further increases participation, drawing the recipient in, thus improving response rates. Customizing also allows for individuals to receive smaller, more timely messages tailored to their specific interests or needs.

Level 5: Transactional Printing. Printing digitally, or "on the fly", allows you to include financial or other personalized and customized content onto the piece. This can also include dynamic charts and graphs specific to the recipient's unique demographics. Thousands of transactional printed pieces can be produced much more economically through digital printing.

Level 6: Fully-Customized Printing. This level of printing incorporates more complex personalized and customized applications including images, text, graphic and layouts that are unique for each recipient. This means every single piece is unique with a true 1:1 communication to the customer or prospect allowing for highly relevant information to be shared.

Level 7: Automated Fulfillment. When your customers or prospects visit your website, for example, and enter specific information, a personalized campaign piece can be generated based on the information that person entered. This is done through a very efficient workflow where the entire digital printing process is automated. This reduces the need for manually creating each piece and can link the print communication program to e-marketing.

While you may be familiar with levels 1-3 or even 1-4, I would love to go over any of the levels with which you're not yet familiar to see if they would benefit your program or offering. These are just the tip of the iceberg and are all great ways to enhance your marketing communications pieces. Added value is seen in each of the levels, so if you've yet to consider the benefits of digital printing, give me a call or send me an email, and lets work on a plan to help you and your company print smarter. To download more info about the 7 levels of digital printing, click here. Until next time...Elizabeth

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Making Space & Going Back to School!

Each time I'm in front of an existing customer, they ask " What's new with BPI?" Well, sometime's it's simply easier to show you than tell you. This week, I'll share some very exciting news as we are continuing to grow, add staff and start a new program for customers and prospects. BPI Media Group is excited about our growth and hope you'll help us keep up the pace!

You've heard the expression in real estate that it's easier to go up that out with your space? Well, that saying is true for the BPI warehouse. Check it out: we've added a new racking system to store inventory. The racking allows us to hold more materials and work smarter. This means inventoried items will be assigned rack and bin numbers, so whomever on our fulfillment team is doing the fulfillment can easily locate the items and fill the orders more efficiently. Music to a marketer's ears!

This system will not only make it easier for our fulfillment team to locate & pull items for orders, but it will also assist in managing any inventory BPI stores for you and further reduce any possible errors in miscounts or potentially misplaced items. Everything will have a "place" and is labeled accordingly to avoid any confusion. This is one of the many great feature of our storefront solution.

Here's what BPI's President, Alan Davis, had to say about this growth, "BPI Media Group has expanded our warehousing and fulffillment capabilities with additional pallet racking system for greater efficiencies. Combined with our storefront solution, we are able to manage marketing assets materials with real time reporting and freight tracking. BPI continues to make improvements and expand our capabilities in our warehouse and fulfillment department. With the addition of 80+ units of racking, we can inventory well over 300 additional pallets of marketing asset materials."

The other exciting BPI news I have to share with you is our continuing education program, BPI University. To sign up for the monthly email notifications about upcoming webinars at BPI University, click here. We would love for you to join us and learn more about the new services BPI is offering and how they can help save you time, money and stress! We'll host one webinar each month, so you will not want to miss the chance to join BPI's knowledgeable and experienced team members as they guide us in learning about these hot topics.

Upcoming webinar topics for BPI University:

• Insite 101
• Web development 101 & 102 advanced
• Storefront 101 & upcoming new features
• Emerging Technologies
• Adobe CS5 training

Of course, if you have any suggestions or requests for webinar topics, please feel free to contact us. We love to hear your feedback and want to continue to be a work in progress. After all, if you stop working, you stop progressing. Until next time...Elizabeth

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The Proof is in the Planning (and don't forget it's Movember!)

Late last week I met with a customer at a credit union. Over lunch, we were discussing direct mail ideas for 2012 (yikes! that will be here very soon), and ways that you can most effectively use mail to reach clients and prospects. After tossing out the typical questions, such as do you want this to be an ongoing mail campaign (multiple drops), how many are you targeting, are you offering different services or a group or services, etc., I realized she needed more ammo than I could "shoot from the hip." In planning for her annual budget, she needed proof that what we were discussing was a good method of approach for her 2012 marketing campaign. So, I came back to my office and dug up some case studies from BPI Media Group's storefront for account reps. Here's what I found, and I wanted to share it with you in case you need to tap into some of these resources in planning your marketing strategy for 2012.

I discovered a wealth of knowledge and experience we have through case studies. The case studies are those from BPI and our peers in the industry through professional associations. We have these broken down by vertical markets:

• Automotive
• Education
• Financial
• Fundraising
• Grocery
• Healthcare
• Hospitality
• Insurance
• Mortgage
• Real Estate
• Retail
• Sports
• Statements (Notices/Invoices)
• Telecommunications

Within each of these folders for each vertical are multiple case studies. Some are geared strictly toward direct mail, some toward personalized landing pages, some toward digital printing and some toward VDP (variable data printing). There's a ton of info and insight into what has worked for other marketers. The way I see it, why not learn from the experience of your peers and colleagues in the same industry? Your planning can be made easier by the proof they provide in these case studies. How awesome is that?

Being able to help this marketer by providing her with case studies not only gave her the statistics she needed to see for what has been effective (and present that data to the board for budget approval), but it also got the creative wheels turning. Sometimes, just a different perspective is all one needs to come up with a genius marketing plan! This is where marketing and strategy come together to develop a plan.

Another thing that you may want to consider in your planning is having an online storefront. Using BPI's storefront made it easy for me to locate the case studies I needed, save them as a pdf or order a few copies as print on demand. If you could benefit from having a site where reps or employees can order items as print on demand or have access to pdf documents, we would be glad to discuss your needs and provide a quote. You could include a storefront in your 2012 marketing plans, and myself along with some of BPI's clients can tell you how much time that has saved! (PS-I have a marketer's brief that is all about materials asset management to help you determine how much a storefront/fulfillment solution could save you.) If part of your to-do list in the coming weeks is to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and present a marketing plan or preliminary budget and you need some help with planning or proof of what works, let me know. I'd love to talk with you about it and share a case study (or studies) with you to help guide you in your planning. We could do some quotes for you to help know costs up front. After all, doing your homework can really pay off in the long run! (I know some high school teachers who are grinning ear to ear reading this.)

Join me in supporting men's health during Movember for the special men in your life (Dads, brothers, boyfriends, husbands, sons, etc.) Click here to learn more and donate to this great cause if you'd like. Until next time...Elizabeth