Tag Archives: multi-channel marketing

Profitable cost reduction in print and communication services.

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Every executive is tasked with reducing costs and increasing profit.  We can forget.   The press of managing the budget can get tied into just meeting the plan instead of achieving the underlying goals.  An officer has a fiduciary responsibility to increase shareholder equity.  You can’t just “manage the budget”.  It needs to improve impact on the bottom line.

Print services is one of those areas that just seems to take money and not give a return.  That is a shame.  Print services can be such a profit booster, when rightly implemented and attached to corporate initiatives.

Last week my partner and I reviewed two university in-plants.  They were ivy league and state.  In just a few hours we were able to isolate incredible opportunity to both reduce costs and expand profitable services.  You just have to know where to look.

I’ve written quite a lot lately about business plans and new product development.  Those were the subjects taught at GraphExpo and are being reviewed by hundreds of folks daily.  Some of the feedback I get is a need to be able to assess a print services operation and come up with a viable action plan to improve impact on the bottom line.  Too often managers and consultants are looking to survive.  You need to thrive.  There is no reason not to thrive.  The opportunities are amazing.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore how to thrive.

There is no reason to just get along.  There is no reason to roll over to conventional strategy of limiting the benefit of your overall communications engine through bad sourcing decisions and coagulation of IT, marketing, and print services.  Where you source your print and communication services is a growth decision not a cost cutting decision.  You can throttle your progress engine by making this decision incorrectly.  Done correctly, you will cut costs, improve service, increase access to effective communications and be a hero.  Done incorrectly, you will cut short term costs and produce blockages in your growth and communications engine and frustrations for marketing and sales and the data miners.  You cannot grow using yesterday’s wisdom in a thriving world of interactive print, direct, indirect, social, online, mobile, and mass virile and viral communications.

Related:

Responsibility and Sustainability

Removing Workflow Constraints

Pain Points

Starting Fresh – Get an innovative pop to your great insurance marketing idea.

Every marketing initiative starts with a fresh idea.   Somewhere either a brainstorm erupted in a private time or meeting or a customer voiced a need and you awakened.

What do you do with that fresh idea?

Do you run rampaging through your team and ask them to “get on it!”?

Do you get tied up in a single sale and miss big movement?

Do you thoughtfully consider your options and begin analysis never to come to a conclusion?

Do you gather a group of agents and brainstorm?

Do you pay an exorbitant fee to an advertising agency to develop it for you?

Do you throw the idea out on the internet to one of a thousand groups on linkedin or g+ or a blog?

How can you get this thought blurb from being  just an idea to something that will potentially produce income and generate qualified leads for you as a marketer of your services?

Okay here is a new and quick tool to help.  It doesn’t do it all, but pretty close.

Blog | Big Dog Innovations | Your Marketing Department’s Secret Weapon http://bgdg.co/SuccessfulMarketingCampaigns

Finding Solutions For Print That Morph With Your Need

There is a powerful move in print provision to online and sourced.  It is affecting both In-Plant providers and commercial.  You need to be a part of that move to morph.

How does it look?  You get all your static materials locked down and secure accessible to just who needs them as they need them in quantities they need them in real time.

Can I get dynamically produced items?  Sure.  Online catalogs should have dynamic content options to allow visual uploads and content block options preapproved by marketing and sales and legal.  You can do it.

Will it integrate with multi-channel marketing online?  It can.

How does it work?  A great provider works with you to inventory need and match a solution specific to reduce your costs.

Is it available now? Absolutely.  There are quality In Plants that have made the move.  If you have an In Plant company or organizational source, go talk to them.  They might already be doing this for other departments.  Absolutely.  If you don’t have an In Plant or maybe your organization is not large enough or has not made the shift, there are good commercial providers.  You can get what you need at much reduced costs to your present solution if your need model is right.

What do I do?  Call me at 405-388-8037.. Or email me at phil@shepherdok.com  We have many contacts with good providers and can help you navigate your options effectively.