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

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

Get Connected

Over the past 2-3 months, I have been doing more networking than I've ever done in my life. I was pretty skeptical of all the events and functions and how they could help me grow sales and help my business. I couldn't have been more wrong!

After I got over my initial case of nerves to stand up and introduce myself and BPI Media Group in front of a room full of strangers (i.e., prospects!!), it has become second nature to share who I am and what BPI can do. These networking events have opened doors for me to have more meetings, more quotes and more opportunities that I would not have had otherwise.

It isn't just the "live and in person" networking that is helping either. It is social media networking. LinkedIn and Twitter have expanded my professional network and helped me have a means to reach out to some of these prospects. Having a good online presence through your website and/or your social media accounts is just an extension of me, so it is critical that our website be clear and concise and my social media accounts be up to date and informative.

Are your company and sales team using networking, both traditional and social media, to make new connections and grow sales? Consider having an open house or hosting an event yourself to generate some buzz and activity. Promotional items and giveaways are great leave behinds and reminders of your company. If you need some guidance in how to get your website social media savvy and set up accounts on social media, drop me a note. I would love to help you with this, so you can get connected and stay ahead of the game. If you need a little proof in numbers on the power of social media, check out today's Sales Playbook post. WOW!

Until next time...Elizabeth

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

What exactly is the prize? The customer or prospect to gain, retain, persuade or thank, that's who is the prize. We each have these prizes in our scopes on a daily basis (I know I sure do!), so how do you keep the focus on them and market to them in the way that will be most rewarding? We at BPI Media Group have a few tips on how to stay focused on the customer and learn which channels they use and which ones are used for various things.

So, you know your customers are on facebook, twitter, shop online and have email accounts and mailboxes. How do you know which messages or offers to send through which channels? Here's a short list of 5 ways to help with this marketer's pain point and keep your eyes on the prize(s) of customers and making them happy and engaged customers.

1. Do your homework. You've got to research to find out who is your target or idea customer. You can do this by creating a customer profile and then break that down into segments. Doing so provides valuable insight into how to reach them and what types of messages and offers work best for each segment. For example, when I'm calling on prospective customers, I break them into vertical markets (manufacturers, education, banking, service, etc). This helps me know what has worked well in the past for reaching out to customers who are in these vertical markets. BPI's data mining services can be a real asset in lead generation and conversion once you've identified your ideal customer.

2. Customize your strategy. Of course you wouldn't want to send out mass mailers to all customers and hope for the best, so you come up with a marketing strategy that involves several channels using the channel for each message and prospect that seems best based on your homework. Carefully consider which channel is best for the segments of prospects and which digital printing method would best fit. Segmentation and personalizing your messages are key to keep the communication strong with your customers and prospects. Click here for some of the benefits of personalized print and how relevant and engaging messaging can help boost your ROI.

3. Break the mold. Don't just do what's comfortable and what has always been done. Sometimes it is a good thing to change up your messaging as well as the channels in which they are delivered. When you review your customers buying patterns, you'll most likely be able to tie the actions to some sort of message or offer. When did mail work best? Email? Social media? Landing pages? By reviewing customer history, you learn more than just how many orders were placed in a time frame, this info can serve as a valuable tool in planning your marketing.

4. Shhh...and Listen to the data. Were the responses to your messaging and channels in which they were delivered well received, opened, responded to? If the answer is yes, then do more of the same to that segment; if the answer is no, are there similar segments who responded better to direct mail or email messaging? With BPI's integrated marketing campaigns, you can alter your messaging on the fly. Need to change the art because it's just not working? No problem. Need to add an email blast to accompany the direct mailer? No problem. That's one of the biggest benefits of digital printing with BPI.

5. Measure! This last step is just as crucial as any of the previous four steps, if not even more so. By tracking what works, you can keep up with the evolving way your messages need to go out and to whom. Since there's no one sure-fire way to reach ALL customers and prospects, we have to mix it up and measure what works best and alter the plan from time to time. Tracking the ROI for each campaign and its channels are key in knowing not only how, but when to deliver your messages and offers. BPI's online dashboard even has a built-in ROI calculator. I'd be glad to show you how this works!

Using these steps can help in creating your content, timing, frequency, channel, etc. of your marketing messages. Please give me a call or leave a message here if you would like to know more about how BPI Media Group can help utilize our solutions to yield a better ROI for your company. To read more on 5 Ways to Focus on the Customer, click here.

Until next time...Elizabeth

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