BPI Delivers

Being in the South, we got a heavy dose of old man winter this week, but BPI "took a lick and kept on ticking." I don't know about where you live, but my postal carrier hasn't delivered mail since Monday. Yikes! To keep our customer's deadlines and commitments we have to delivering, BPI Media Group's owners personally took packages to the ups hub since their trucks weren't able to pick up at our plant. If you're looking for a print partner that goes above and beyond, I'm personally recommending BPI. I can't imagine our team of dedicated management and production crew not doing whatever it takes to help make deadlines happen. Barring any natural disasters, you can count on BPI. Good job, team!!!

You don't have to take my word for it...join us for BPI's Wide Open House on Tuesday, February 25th from 9 am-3 pm CT and see for yourself all the ways we can help with your print communications. You'll be blown away in a BIG way!

Until next time...Elizabeth

Keeping You Informed

Since BPI Media Group started processing mail for our customers, we have made it a priority to not only keep ourselves informed of postal regulations but to also keep our customers informed. In case you haven't heard, there is a postage increase effective on January 28th as well as a few other changes, specifically to FSM (folded self mailers)that became effective this month also. We shared this information via an email blast earlier this week, so if you'd like to join our email list to receive future information such as this, visit here to sign up.

USPS has changed a few pricing structures and definitions to start off 2013, and they have a few more changes coming into effect throughout the year. As mail is an ever-growing part of our business, we wanted to pass the information along to our customers so they can plan and adjust budgets accordingly.

What does this mean?

For most customers, the impact of the changes will be minimal. However, if you do any sort of mailing through USPS, it may prove insightful to read through the following documentation. Please be sure to note the Folded Self-Mailers definition on the BPI release as USPS has changed its sizing regulations for these pieces.

Specifics can be found here: USPS Folded Self-Mailer Reference Material

Until next time...Elizabeth

BPI's Ladies of Print

Tuesday, October 9, 2012 was National Girls Who Print Day! I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize the other ladies of print at BPI Media Group who I work alongside.

My long-time friend and mentor, Wendy Sherrod, has been with BPI Media Group for 22 years.

She is fiercely driven and takes excellent care of her customers. This shows by how many of her customers have been loyal for such a long time. Wendy's experience at BPI transcends that of most as she has gone through the changes in technology seeing film fall by the way side as the digital world of printing closes the gap on traditional printing methods. Her knowledge of "how things work" in print bring something special to client meetings because she sees things from a start-to-finish perspective and offers good insight when planning a project.

One of our newest additions to the team at BPI, Ann Dunaway, has been with us a few months, but she is very eager to help our sales team reach new heights! Ann's positive attitude and sales & marketing experience give her insight into her customers' plans for a campaign or strategy.

Ann says, "I am still fairly new to the industry, but I thoroughly enjoy learning everything that our company is able to do! We have many different services to offer that can truly help our customers be successful. It is a great feeling to know that you were able to help someone in their success!"

Other ladies who rock at BPI are our customer service team of Pam, Jolie and Angie--without them, we would be lost. We have several other awesome ladies on our team at BPI who help us make things happen: Renee (specialty products), Susan (accounting), Jan (prepress), Leisa (creative design team), Doris (mail and fulfillment) and Judy (shipping). Don't get me wrong, we have some great guys working with us at BPI to make it happen, so take a look at our staff page to learn about all of the team members.

Just a shout-out to all the ladies of BPI who are seldom recognized for all their hard work! They have each taught me so much over the past eleven+ years, and I'm sure the learning will continue as we learn and grow together in the print industry. Celebrate Girls Who Print every day!

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

Full Steam Ahead!

The summer holidays are over, and it is clear that everyone is back to work this week. After a S-L-O-W week last week, presses and other equipment at BPI Media Group are running non-stop. That is a great thing for us! When the plant is buzzing and everyone is busy, we are all more productive. We don't have time to stop and think, we just do.

Much like a crew on ship, our team works together to make each project run smoothly and to meet our customers' deadlines. To make sure that this happens, here's what each of us are doing to keep running full steam ahead.

• Sales Team: We keep making calls (despite the rejections and voice mails), making appointments with prospects and customers and closing the deal to make sure the busy season rolls from summer to fall to winter and on into next year. (We welcome two new sales team members, Ann & Colby, as they join us with marketing experience that will help them have an insight into what marketers look for in a print production partner. Welcome to the BPI sales team!)
• Customer Service: This fantastic team is quite possibly the busiest of all at BPI. They churn out quotes quickly while searching out the most efficient ways to produce each project, enter order details and manage each project throughout the plant until it is out the door.
• Creative Team: This department spends countless hours generating ideas for both print and web design for our customers who trust us with the "look" of their sites and projects. Attention to details is an understatement and one of the strongest assets they possess as they create ideas to make your company look great.
• Prepress: Troubleshooting files and outputting proofs are day-to-day tasks for this team, but they also work closely with customers service and sales team members to communicate ways to help customers prep files to help projects flow smoothly during the proofing process, especially utilizing our Insite proofing system.
• Pressroom: These guys are highly skilled and pay careful attention to each job as it is being printed. Set ups to ensure press sheets match proofs, color calibration and constant checks throughout the run make each project top notch as it comes off our presses (both offset and digital).
• Bindery: This crew works on a variety of equipment to fold, trim, collate, bind, drill and/or shrinkwrap each project to your specifications. While doing so, they carefully monitor for quality to make sure everything is finished properly.
• Mail & Fulfillment: This department is diligent in every aspect to make certain that not only the best postage rates are utilized, but they also prep and package each fulfillment order carefully checking off items that are picked and packed.
• Shipping/Delivery: The last but certainly not least step for projects is handled with care as packages are either shipped to customers or delivered on our trucks by drivers who are professional and courteous when they knock on your door to deliver your project.

Each of these departments work hand in hand with one another to make sure that projects flow smoothly through the plant. You can rest assured that when you hand over an order to BPI, it will be managed from start to finish by your sales and customer service reps as we check on the status in each of these departments. Or course, none of this would run as smoothly as it does if it weren't for great captains of our ship steering us all in the right direction toward success for both ourselves and for our customers. If you haven't been in a print shop, or if it's been a while and haven't seen our updated workflow and equipment, we invite you to do a plant tour any time. Visit our website for directions to Boaz, and we hope to see you soon!

Until next time...Elizabeth

BPI's FAQ's

The most common question I hear is "Can you do this?" "This" is always something specific, so I wanted to give you a run-down of the things that BPI Media Group can do. We'll call this the question and answer portion of the blog. While we like to consider ourselves a one-stop-shop, if there's a project that is well outside the scope of our capabilities, we have a network of partners and vendors that we can refer you to in order help make your project come to fruition. As you can imagine, over the past eleven years at BPI, I've been asked "Can you...?" more times than I admit because then I start telling my age.

BPI's Can-Do List

• Provide customer service from your project's start to finish.
• Design and layout a brochure, book, magazine, etc.
• Design a website
• Assist with SEO on your website
• Print up to 28 x 40 sheet size
• Print with variable data (personalized messaging)
• Varnish, aqueous, uv coat or laminate
• Print short-runs (yes, thanks to our Kodak Nexpress digital press, we can do one-offs as easy as we can do a few hundred copies)
• Print boxes or other custom packaging and signs
• Offer a fast, online proofing system (ours is called insite & it's awesome!)
• Help with promotional items
• Address and mail (and yes, with intelligent mail barcoding)
• Purchase demographic-specific mail lists
• Saddlestitch, perfect bind, coil bind
• 3-hole drill, shrink wrap, round corner
• Diecut for a unique size/shape
• Ship to your distribution list
• Set up an online storefront for ordering of collateral, stationery, promo items, etc.
• Manage and store inventory of items you don't have room to store at your location
• Process online orders through our fulfillment system
• Provide case studies, white papers and training on new products/services
• Provide order history and tracking for orders through our storefront/fulfillment system
• Manage integrated campaigns (included sms text messaging, email blasts, QR codes, and landing pages-personalized and standard).
• Provide ROI calculator for integrated campaigns and online dashboard for lead generation/tracking.

While this isn't the be-all, end-all of BPI's ever-changing capabilities, this should answer some of the FAQ's I get. If there's anything you want to know if we can do, just ask. I'll be more than happy to help, and if we cannot do it, I'll work dilligently to help find a trusted partner who can help you. For more details about BPI's services, click here.

Until next time...Elizabeth

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