Leads, Leads, Leads...Quality Over Quantity

One of the biggest "issues" I hear about from marketers is regarding lead generation. One of the biggest "issues" I hear about from fellow sales people is regarding lead generation.

Here are some great tips for helping both sales AND marketing increase lead quality. Yes, quality; not quantity. Read on to learn more and ways BPI Media Group's various solutions can help along the way of helping to find leads, reach out to them, lure them in and communicate with them 1:1.

1. Agree. When sales and marketing agree upon what is meant by a lead (and a qualified lead at that), then you're well on your way to a happier team and the potential for more revenue for your company. (For more reading on sales and marketing alignment, click here.) Once you identify the demographic(s) of who an "ideal" lead might be, then you're well on your way to this agreement. BPI's data mining solution can definitely help you in identifying the categories of folks who are your best buyers, potential buyers and rule out those who just plain aren't interested. Read more.

2. Dig Deeper. Once you've agreed upon and identified what constitutes a qualified lead or an ideal customer/prospect, you'll gain an understanding of the demographic profile of this group, subgroup, etc. This provides you with a benchmark by which you can score and measure other potential leads. Data mining can also be highly beneficial in this area as well. You can monitor your leads and new customers to see how trends in the demographics may change and restructure your marketing message accordingly.

3. Observe and Record. Once you've launched a campaign to your qualified prospects, you'll need to closely monitor the behavior of these leads to see exactly to what they're responding. Was it an email for this segment? Was it a coupon for this segment? Was it direct mail for this segment or maybe even a QR code? This will help you better market to these types of prospects on future or ongoing campaigns. For more details about executing these types of campaigns, drop me a note, and I'd love to discuss in depth to create a plan that's right for you, your sales team and your prospects.

4. Track. While you're nurturing your lead with campaigns, collateral and possibly even calls from your sales team, don't forget the importance of tracking the results. BPI's only dashboard is beyond perfect for this. If you do an integrated campaign (combine print and web), you'll have access to your own dashboard for every campaign where you have record of your prospects' activities and can pass on those warm leads to the appropriate sales region or rep automatically. To see more about how this works, click here. I can also share some case studies with you if you'd like...just ask!

5. Respond. When using the real-time dashboard, you will see how quickly you get an email notifying you of a prospect's activity. Strike while the iron is hot and reach out to that lead while the getting is good!

6. Follow Up. This is an extension of #1 above. Marketing needs to follow up with sales to make sure they're reaching out to those "hot" leads, and sales needs to follow up with marketing to let them know what's working. This can usually be done through a CRM (we love salesforce!) where leads and sales activity are recorded. BPI's integrated campaigns and dashboard sync seamlessly with salesforce to make this even easier for both departments.

For more reading on "6 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Lead Quality", click here. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and BPI Media Group would love to hear from you and explore how our solutions of marketing, printing, design, campaign execution, mail and data management can help you not only generate qualified leads but also convert them to repeat customers.

Until next time...Elizabeth

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1:1 and Other Ways to be Green

Kermit the frog said it best when he said, "It's not easy being green." However, with more options now, being environmentally responsible doesn't have to be difficult. In fact, with BPI Media Group, we make it pretty easy.

Today, I'll share a few ways you can take comfort in knowing that printing isn't as bad as you think for the environment. It's all about partnering with folks like BPI Media Group who care and are willing to do what it takes to make a difference.

"What's your company's environmental policy?" Sure, I hear this from time to time from marketing executives. Sure, every printer more or less has a policy like this in place, so I'm not going to tell you that ours is better, but I will tell you some ways we offer solutions that can make your efforts to protect and conserve go further, and save some green at the same time.

Top 3 ways BPI Media Group can help you go green and save green:

1. Database cleansing. When's the last time you really took a look at your data and purged it, updated it or deduped it? Even if you mail to your entire list, you can save paper, print and postage costs simply by checking for undeliverable addresses or deduping. In a lot of cases, there's no need to send the same direct mail piece or catalog to more than one person at the same address. Deduping by address is a great way to eliminate this extra cost. Many lists we see have incomplete addresses or misspelled names. BPI's mail department has some really great systems in place to help with these common issues. We run all lists through what's called NCOA (national change of address), which automatically updates an address for anyone who has moved and left a forwarding address. We also cass-certify all mailing lists to verify addresses. This same process will dedupe by name, address or exact match. All of these are great resources that are FREE when we handle your mailing.

2. Targeted personalization. By pairing down your main catalog or book to only include what is appealing to an individual or a targeted group can help your ROI and efficiency tremendously. Not only are you saving on print costs, but you're also sending a focused message to that customer or prospect of relevant material. Here's a great example of this: a small college prints a full catalog listing all majors, courses, extra curriculars, etc. This 200+ page catalog can be awfully pricey, and consume a lot of raw materials, to print and mail to all students. Instead, this college reduces their consumption of paper, ink, chemicals, etc by approx 75% simply by narrowing down the material that is relative to that particular student or group of students. This is essentially called versioning, and we'll cover this indepth in a future blog. BPI's digital print department can effectively handle this type of project when you wan to print various versions of the same piece. The info you need to narrow down a catalog like this can be gleaned from your database, online surveys, sales team, etc. Use this info to reduce waste and be more effective in your communications pieces. There's a trickle-down effect here too: elimination of energy used to produce excess/unread pages, gas and/or postage to distribute them, and not to mention all the raw materials saved during the production process.

3. 1:1 Mailing. Along the same lines as #2, you can get even more focused on your list by personalizing your direct mail pieces. Printing a 1:1 message engages your customer or prospect in ways that weren't possible a few years ago or cost effective for that matter. With the addition of our Kodak Nexpress and prinergy workflow, BPI can handle variable data printing (VDP) in a multitude of ways from graphics to messaging. These personalized mail campaigns tend to be to a tighter group of recipients, thus having a direct decrease in your print and mailing costs. More green saved!

Here are some of the technologies that BPI has in place to help make us all better stewards of our environment:

-Kodak Insite Proofing System: Offers soft proofing instead of hard-copy proofs. (We know there are times when color is critical and a hard-copy proof is needed, but for the times that you can soft proof, this is a great alternative!) You can also use this for your internal proofing without having to print out multiple copies of proofs every time changes are made.

-Storefront Solution: Set up this online ordering site where your internal staff, sales team, etc. can order collateral and stationery on an as-needed basis rather than printing and storing tons of materials that will become obsolete a few months from now anyway. This is a huge time/energy-saver for your team as well as a way to reduce print and storage costs. You'll also be saving paper and other raw materials as well.

-Database Analysis: We can help in cleansing your database, so you can do more targeted mailings, save on print and postage costs. Our mail department has been trained on ways to help mail more efficiently. We can even suggest some parameters at the design phase of your project that could help. (Size, shape, paper really does matter.)

Here are steps BPI takes to make sure we are preserving the environment:

• Recycling all plates, ink, wooden pallets and paper
• Using vegetable-based inks
• Using a soft proofing system
• Cleaning mail lists to reduce bad addresses (wasted print and mail costs)
• Providing options for recycled-content paper
• Using papers (both digital and conventional) that is 100% biodegradable
• Using a digital press with consumables that are 100% biodegradable
• Using only paper that comes from sustainable forests.

Interesting stats about print vs digital media:

• It takes 500 kilowatt hrs of electricity to produce 440 lbs of paper (average amount we each consume annually). This equates to powering one computer continuously for 5 months.

• 20% less CO2 is used/yr by a person reading a daily newspaper (print!) vs that person reading web-based news for 30 min/day.

• Print is a renewable resource, on average 5 million trees are planted ea day in the U.S.

• According to the EPA, paper is recycled at a much higher rate than any other materials at 57%, with glass at 24%, plastics at 7%, electronics at 18%.

-Source: DOWN TO EARTH, A Practical Look at Environmental Issues and Trends, The Print Council

So, printing isn't the environment's worst enemy after all and paper isn't the only way you can save money on your print budget. I'd love to talk with you and explore ways our environmental measures can mesh with yours to help us preserve this beautiful planet we call home. Here's a great resource for learning "Why Print is Green."

Until next week...Elizabeth