Let's Start Something New

For a few years, networking has been an integral part of my work life. This became more of a priority to me when I moved to South Carolina and had very few contacts and zero customers in the Upstate. Boy, am I glad those things have changed (and will keep changing). Working for BPI Media Group has allowed me the opportunity to meet some pretty incredible people (some I am fortunate enough to call friend and customer), but BPI has also allowed me to expand my territory and help other marketers.

While I enjoy the network groups I attend regularly, and I have found a new customer or prospect here and there, the time has come to start something new-something for the people with whom I work closely, marketers. It's very early in the developmental stages, but with the help of good partners and fellow marketers, the Upstate will soon have a chapter of AMA. I couldn't be happier to be recruiting the committee to help me start this venture and next step to take our networking to the next level in our area. New challenges bring new focus, and the formation of an AMA chapter will allow us to talk with people who deal with the same challenges and share the same triumphs over successful marketing campaigns. Let's face it, we can all learn so much from each other and a diversity of marketers offers many opportunities to see how a campaign is approached, executed and tracked.

For me, this is a project that will be near and dear to my heart as I continue to work alongside the brilliant minds of marketers in creating marketing and event campaigns to launch a product or service, promote an event or offer promotions to the consumer. Whether it's B2B or B2C, I truly enjoy working with creative people who blow me away by their strategies and ideas. I'm the lucky one who gets to help them execute the campaign and track the results using BPI's online dashboards and reporting tools. Whether you're an online strategist, event planner, graphic designer, social media specialist, web guru or C-level marketer, I think this group will have something to offer and help us all grow.

If you're in the Upstate and want to join me in starting this networking group, drop me a note. I'd welcome your input and any help you can lend to get the chapter offer the ground. I promise, you don't want to miss this "meeting of the minds."

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.

Spring into Action!

While we may have lost an hour of sleep when we moved the clocks forward an hour this past weekend, we have gained an extra hour of daylight in the evenings. For me, that makes for more productive days and getting things checked off my "to do" list such as planting flower beds and longer walks with the dogs. The springtime weather and extra daylight are really great motivators for me, and it seems to be the busiest time of year for many of BPI Media Group's customers.

What does spring hold for your company? A lot of busy bees! Trade shows, conferences, or annual fund-raiser events? All of these are busy times for both sales and marketing, so I hope you'll find this short list of time-saving tips helpful, so you can spend more time enjoying the warmer weather and get more things marked off your to-do list.

• Utilize print on demand for short runs of your collateral.
• Promote your brand through specialty items and give-aways at your booth or event. http://bpimediagroup.logomall.com/ to shop promo items.
• Push traffic to your booth via a cross-media campaign using a purl to track the ROI on your campaign dashboard.
• Remind customers and prospects of your spring event(s) through email marketing.
• Send follow up materials after your event via direct mail.

This last item on my list will hopefully be the first on yours:

• Get outside and enjoy Spring!

Until next time...Elizabeth

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