Cultivate and Develop

The sales team at BPI Media Group is at it again. We're focusing on business development and want to help you do the same. With all the marketing tools at our disposal, we want to work with our customers (and future customers!) to help us all grow our businesses. Why partner with BPI to cultivate prospects and turn them into loyal customers?

• We have proven results with our existing customers. Just ask. We can provide case studies and references.
• Our customers stick with us because of the customer service and relationships we garner with them.
• Our expertise in both traditional, offset printing and newer technologies that come with digital printing are proof of the 70+ years of experience of our skilled press operators.
• Evolving technologies of print on demand and storefronts with real-time reporting help us provide the info our customers really need to know.
• Specialized solutions such as cross-media integration and data analytics allow us to show our customers how to have 1:1 communications with their target audiences.

Need more proof that we can help your business grow? Just look at our own sales...ask our sales team...we're growing and don't plan on stopping any time soon.

Until next time...Elizabeth

Put Your Name on It!

I have to admit, when I get a piece of mail that has my name on it (besides in the address block), I get a little giddy. I love to see that marketers are using variable data to communicate with me 1:1. Now more than ever, it is imperative for companies to target their customers and prospects with a relevant message. What's more relevant than calling me by name and having a message that's tailored just for me?

Here are a few ways BPI Media Group can help you embrace 1:1 communications in your marketing plan:

• Variable Data on Direct Mail Using Digital Printing
• 1:1 Conversations via Personalized Landing Pages (aka pURLS)
• Data Segmentation to Create Relevant Messaging
• Versioning Collateral to Reach Different Groups of Customers and Prospects
• Cross Media Integration (such as QR Codes, eMail Marketing, Special Offers/Coupons)
• Personalized Give-Aways or Promo Items(think a personalized iPhone cover with your top prospects/customers' names to show you value their business)

Here are a few more examples of how you can create customized messaging to reach your customers and prospects with the most direct and relevant messaging.

Until next time...Elizabeth

Gaining Ground

As many of you know, I'm a runner. Right now, I'm training for a half marathon that's on December 15. As race day approaches, speed and endurance build. These don't come easy though, it takes hard work and careful planning. I've also been training myself on my sales skills. Reading books, articles and blogs, but also engaging in networking opportunities to help me practice the craft of "the elevator speech." Hard work is paying off, and the confidence it takes to call on large accounts is now part of my routine.

Are you and your company practicing your craft of sales and marketing to your target audience? If not, BPI Media Group would love to help you in the following areas:

• Segmented mailings
• 1:1 personalized messaging
• Direct mail list purchases with clearly-defined demographics
• Integrated campaigns (including landing pages, QR codes, SMS messages, email messages and direct mail)
• SEO website
• Fulfillment to keep you product moving to the anxious customer

BPI would love to talk with you specifically how these marketing strategies can help you reach your sales goal and by getting a practice through campaigns under your belt, you can learn about your prospects and then better target with each consecutive message.

Until next time...Elizabeth

Train Hard for Big Rewards

Training. We all go through training in different areas of our life. There's potty training as a child, college prep training as a high schooler, on-the-job training as an adult and athletic training for those of us who push ourselves physically and run, cycle, swim, etc. We even print a ton of training materials for our customers. What are you training for right now?

BPI Media Group offers training for our customers on a variety of our solutions through BPI University. These trainings are a great resource, but our most important training is that which we do every day, and I bet the same is true for you too.

I was reminded recently that the best training I can get is to work hard and keep doing my job EVERY SINGLE DAY. BY exercising the same activities every day, our skills get sharper, just like our muscles. When I run, I can run farther and faster the next time. When I'm working, I can focus on the projects at hand and work toward gaining new prospects and customers. How are you gaining new prospects?

Here are a few tools I utilize from BPI that help me stay in contact with customers and prospects:

• Direct mail with 1:1 personalization
• Personalized landing pages with dashboard management
• Web portal for ordering campaign pieces to target prospects
• Email marketing to communicate in multiple channels

How can we help you in your training to keep your marketing messages fresh?

Until next time...Elizabeth

Turning Problems into Opportunities

You've all heard the statement "It's not a problem but an opportunity." That's never been more true than it is now and BPI Media Group wants to help you capitalize on those opportunities to help your sales grow!

Think about your biggest challenge right now. Is it lacklustre sales, issues with collateral materials, problems with marketing campaigns? Let's put a positive spin on these problems and consider some of these options for turning these opportunities into growth.

Slow sales? Consider taking a long, hard look at your data, big data. BPI can help you with data analytics which will break down your data into segments, so you can version your marketing messages or even make them 1:1 messages. These types of positive changes yield big numbers.

Overwhelmed by collateral? Think about a web portal where you can manage all your collateral in one place, see inventory levels and order as print on demand rather than order large volume just for the sake of a lower unit cost. BPI's web portal can help with managing your collateral, provide approval steps and order history with reporting.

Struggling with flat ROI? Let BPI help you with putting together a marketing plan using multi-channel communication. Our integrated campaigns help target your message to the prospect using the channel(s) best suited for him or her. We can provide a dashboard to help you track results and respond to the hot leads in real time.

I'm as guilty as the next, so let's stop focusing on the problems and think how we can turn them into opportunities which have a greater chance of being converted into a sale!

Until next time...Elizabeth.

Push for a Big Finish in 2012

Like most people in sales, having a strong last quarter of the year can make or break your yearly numbers. At BPI Media Group, the fall and last quarter tend to be a busy time, and for that, we are very grateful. But, if you're like a lot of companies who are season and fall isn't one of your strong sales seasons, we'd love to help you plan some things to change that and make it a great last quarter of 2012!

While running in a 5K Friday night called Midnight Flight, it got my wheels turning about how we all tend to start out strong since the first mile of that race was my best per mile pace. Then, we tend to "coast" a little or climb an uphill battle in the middle and then scramble at the end to finish strong. While my race time was respectable at 26:35, I have definitely achieved better in the past, and have to remember how I did it: disciplined training. The same is true for my sales, and I'm sure your company's sales as well. If you slack off for even just a little bit, it shows in those monthly and quarterly reports we see from our bosses. I personally get frustrated if I see my numbers slipping, whether it's in a race or in sales. So, let's make a pact to finish 2012 strong and stay disciplined for ALL of 2013, and not just have a great start and finish. Deal?

How do we stay focused and not let up? With the long weekend to enjoy the Labor Day holiday, I was able to get in an extra run on Monday at a local state park. Running the trails is the best time for me to think, so I spent the hour and nine minutes thinking about how I can stay focused, get back my fitness and sales momentum and never slack off...ever again. Here's what I came up with while taking in the phenomenal sights and sounds at Paris Mountain State Park:

• Develop a consistent plan to reach out to customers & prospects.
• Utilize BPI's resources of data analytics and mailing to execute this, especially with 1:1 communications.
• Follow up with customers & prospects to keep them from going cold.
• Maintain TOMA (top of mind awareness) with promotional items and face-to-face meetings.
• Use our website to share information about our company and engage prospects via relevant social media content.
• Stay focused on the end results: better sales and reaching goals!

If you want to commit to finishing strong and staying strong for the last quarter and all of 2013, drop me a note. I'd love for us to do this together! Until next time...Elizabeth