Posts Tagged ‘Precision Marketing’

Making the Switch to Digital

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

At this year’s Graph Expo, Ricoh is cranking up the commercial print energy, and will focus on helping customers expand and enhance their digital printing capabilities!

Joe Caruso, Global Business Development, Commercial Print

Commercial printers sometimes juggle several different solutions that complete an overall workflow; they even get stuck buying workflow software based on specific customer requirements! What a pain!  They have to do the best for their customers with workflow and optimize productivity with all kinds of different solutions– which is a key reason to engage with a proven and professional services and solutions team that can help to connect all the dots (like Ricoh!)

Most commercial printers are fundamentally changing their approach and their offerings to their customer base, where print becomes just one communication channel in their overall portfolio.  Thinking like a marketer will get print companies to utilize data and  drive content, design, and production – ingredients the printer already has access to!

Integration of timely and relevant data is crucial for their customers who are trying to differentiate from their competition.

By the way,  driving these proven communications are in high demand.  Recent surveys show both a double-digit ROI and increased customer retention; so commercial print customers will be excited about working closer with their print partners with these kinds of results!

Ricoh has dominated in enterprise print and transaction segments by driving use of the Automated Document Factory (ADF), Precision Marketing and Data Analytics, as well as our industry-leading inkjet technology. Commercial printers can tap into this incredible experience as they continue expanding their offerings portfolio and changing the way they think about their print customers’ needs.

If you are attending Graph Expo in Chicago on September 11-14, come by our booth #2600 to learn about more and check out some of the solutions first hand!

See you there!
Joe Caruso

Global Business Development, Commercial Print

The Trend of Social Media in the Utility Industry – Is It Working?

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Regardless of industry, social media use is on the rise.  At  InfoPrint Solutions Company, we began our journey into social media a few years back and even went as far as to encourage our employee’s to blog and tweet. This was quite a departure from our heritage as a hardware manufacturer.  So it is no surprise that even the most regulated industries such as utilities have begun to tweet. Recently E-Source did a survey to find out how many utility companies are using social media. And as expected, similar to our main objective for social media most uses are for customer communications.

Utility companies are engaging with customers via social media in efforts to create a better overall customer experience.  E-Source found that hundreds of utility companies are using social media, and that the most successful ones see the long term benefit and are investing in the staff and time to incorporate social media into their day to day communication efforts.  This integration should eventually be tied to all customer communications.  Wouldn’t it be nice as a consumer to have images at the bottom of your bill directing you to where to find more information on the web from your utility company?  Considering the overall “instant and immediate” concept of social media, these channels might be the first place I’d look for more accurate, up-to-date information on my services, local initiatives and more.
In related news, the Energy Collective recently posted an article about the growth of Consumer Experience Managers (CEM) as an up and coming position within the industry. This job is a blend of promoting the Smart Grid within social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. CEMs use new methods to enhance the traditional hoping to increase positive customer relationships and loyalty while decreasing disengagement which leads to frustrated, unhappy customers.

Some consumers may view their utility company as “old school” but these stats and steps highlighted above ensure us that these companies are in fact embracing these “new” mediums.  They are taking advantage of social media to educate and inform their customers of anything from smart grids to new policies – and by the looks of it, it’s paying off.

What do you think of CEMs in the utility industry?  Will they have a strong affect on consumers?  Do you think social media is the way to go for utility companies and how can they best optimize other channels to promote their work in this space?

Looking forward to your thoughts!

Best,

Lee Gallagher

Director, Precision Marketing Enablement

Settling in for Summer – Recap of 2011 Events

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Every year InfoPrint Solutions attends, participates in and hosts many events, and the past six months of 2011 have been no exception. We’ve shared our impressions from each of these events on the blog, and before we settle in for the summer we wanted recap some of our favorites– and hear back from you!

Hunkeler InnovationdaysWe traveled all the way to Switzerland to attend the Hunkeler Innovationdays in February. Not only does the show bring together the most influential providers in the paper processing sector, but it focuses on the production system as a whole – rather than on individual products. One highlight was our presentation to “doxnet vor Ort” – a regional user group of roughly 300 German-speaking industry vendors, document composition software providers, outsourcers and in house-printers from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Read more about our three days in Switzerland here – day one, day two and day three.

Lesley Wylie @ Hunkeler Innovationdays

On Demand Expo 2011 – We had a major presence at the On Demand Expo held in Washington, D.C. March 22-24. The hottest topic at the booth was InfoPrint’s Managed Automated Document Factory (ADF) Services, which launched just prior to the show. Additionally the InfoPrint 5000 MP color demo was quite a hit with the crowd and garnered more than its fair share of positive feedback. To read more, check out our blog post about the expo.

A View from InfoPrint Solutions @ On Demand 2011

Xplor 2011 – This year’s Xplor was held April  5-7 in Florida, and the theme was “The Next Generation of Customer Communications” – particularly fitting as we are always working with our customers to ensure they are implementing cutting-edge tactics. The education sessions were more crowded than ever (attendance was up 30 percent from last year!), and the content has never been so helpful. We were very involved with the conference – we had executives speaking and we were honored with an award, as well! Carrie Murphy presented a well-attended and informative session, entitled “Data: The Key to a Winning Strategy,” and she was also awarded her M-EDP accreditation. I even had the opportunity to moderate a few sessions – what an honor that was! The company took home the Technology Innovation of the Year Award for our work with Merrill Corporation, and customer Robert Cook of Merrill participated on the panel, “What’s the Future for ADF?” Our very own Brian Doyle was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. You can read more in our first and second day recaps.

Jonathan and me with our Xplor Technology of the Year award

Go Beyond the Meter - One of our most exciting events in 2011 was the launch of our first-ever Go Beyond the Meter, a conference to help utility executives address their customer communications, which was held April 27-28 at our headquarters in Boulder. Sandra Zoratti, Vice President of Global Solutions Marketing here at InfoPrint Solutions, hosted the successful conference with an expert line-up of speakers, all advising attendees on how to make the shift to implementing a data-driven campaign to assure targeted and relevant customer communications. Check out the full recap here.

National Postal Forum- We also had the opportunity to venture to sunny San Diego to the NPF, May 1-3, which was a real treat! This is a unique conference, because it shifts the focus from hardware to software and workflow solutions, and this year there was a specific spotlight on ADF and workflow optimization. At the booth we had an automatic reprint generation demo with Kern, which displayed easy-to-manage reprint workflow technology that lets customers automatically validate an inserter’s final job status and identify damaged mail pieces. Mail can be a major cost to many companies, so we know it is important to help our customers understand the benefit of a successful mailroom operation. Find out more about our time at the NPF from our blog on ADF Savings here

Did you attend any of the events outlined above? What’d you think? Any we missed out on that are must-sees for 2012?

Next up is Graph Expo and boy, will have an even bigger presence there!  Be sure to follow us at @InfoPrint to stay up to speed on our news at the show!

Best,

Michele Bollig

Worldwide Marketing Manager

Part Two: Advice from the Top with Sandra and Lee

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

As promised, here is Part Two of our two-part series with marketing specialists Sandra Zoratti and Lee Gallagher

How has Precision Marketing evolved over the years and what ways do you see it changing in the future?

Precision Marketing has evolved to encompass all customer communications.  A decade ago, most printers used the term “TransPromo” which really honed in on adding personalized content to transactional documents.  It was a very focused term, one that left little room for flexibility.  To top that off, it didn’t register with the marketing side of the house. 

The use of customized communications has morphed to become a broadened, more dynamic channel to promote, address and inform a targeted audience.  From direct mail to e-mail; a statement to a publication – customer-facing documents have often been an underused way to share a message.  Today, organizations across all industries including insurance, publishing, banking, utilities and more are using precision marketing tactics with an intended goal of communicating a targeted message to a targeted audience.

In the future, we will only see precision marketing take on more forms and be implemented via more channels.  Mobile and other instant forms of communications will likely be optimized as an avenue to show customers that you know them – a key goal of precision marketing.

What is one of your favorite your precision marketing best practices implementations that you have worked on?

We worked closely with the team at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to implement a full, end-to-end operational shift, re-designing their monthly customer statements to better meet customer needs.  We worked together to refresh the look and the feel by adding color, graphs and visual elements to show customer usage patterns, and made icons for each service (water, electric, gas) – making the bill easy to follow and understand.  The main objectives were: to improve clarity of the information; in turn reducing call inquires by 20 percent; influence customer behavior to reduce energy consumption and emissions; and lower the cost of statement operations through process automation.  The overall goal was to influence customer behavior to keep costs low, while better serving the customer’s communication needs. 

Just launched in May, this new bill is sure to exceed these goals.  And we’ll be eager to share that news with you once it happens.

Is there one mistake most companies make when they are looking for content to mine to create relevant messaging for their audience?
Most companies find the data daunting.  Specifically, they are intimidated (and understandably so) by silo’ed data, disparate data across multiple databases, inaccurate data and multiple customer records.   The mistake is that this fear of data causes paralysis.  

We have devised a crawl, walk, run approach that encourages companies to start with the data they have in the format they have it in, and expand iteratively and modularly from there.  This avoids paralysis, eliminates the need for huge investments in infrastructure over longer time horizons and generates proof points along the way that help justify additional efforts.  We say the most important step is to get started and use the data you have or a simple data file that can be generated with simple data-gather techniques.  In fact, we have generated a 3-digit ROI by leveraging one 30-day transactional data file.

What is the one strategy you would say is a must when implementing a successful Precision Marketing campaign?

Set your goals early on and evaluate post the campaign to realize what worked, what didn’t and what could be changed for the next time around to enhance results.  Often times, goals are not set early on and that can cause complications, especially when tracking for ROMI.  If there’s one tip to remember, this is it!

What is the number one lesson for reader’s to take away from this book?

Marketing is one of the most challenging disciplines in business because of the rapid pace of change, increase in number of marketing channels and the threat of consumers disengaging.  In addition to these factors, businesses today require marketing to measure, prove and improve on a quarterly or monthly basis.    The number one lesson of BMA’s Top Advice is to collaborate and learn from others so that you can shine in your B2B marketing role and deliver quantifiable value to your business.

Part One: Advice from the Top with Sandra and Lee

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Sandra Zoratti, Vice President of Global Solutions Marketing and Lee Gallagher, Director of Precision Marketing Sales at InfoPrint Solutions recently participated in the launch of the first-ever Business Marketing Association (BMA) Colorado chapter’s published book – “Advice from the Top: The Expert Guide to B2B Marketing.”

In this first part of a two part series, Zoratti and Gallagher discuss everything from the value of B2B marketing through to their inspiration behind their chapter.
 

Q1.You have spent years leading discussions and panels talking about B2B practices and tips, what inspired you to contribute to “Advice from the Top?”  

A1. There are three main reasons why we decided to take on this challenge.  First and most importantly, the BMA Colorado as an organization is a thought leader in the area of B2B Marketing Best Practices.  It was an honor to be asked by them to contribute to this inaugural book alongside 23 other B2B marketers in Colorado.  We welcomed the opportunity to share our slice of knowledge with this esteemed organization and their dedicated followers.
Furthermore, the other 23 authors who contributed to this book are true luminaries in B2B marketing.   We are honored to be part of this cutting-edge project that puts individual company interests aside to help the overall B2B marketer regardless of the industry, challenge or area of expertise.  
We wrote about Marketing ROI (also known as ROMI –return on marketing investment) and have seen this emerge as a significant requirement for marketers across industries.   Marketers today are under extreme pressure to perform better and prove the value of each campaign.  Based on this newfound pressure, the ability to demonstrate ROMI has become the key metric of success to the business.  It is the one metric which translates the language of marketing into the language of the business.  While this metric is critical for marketers to maximize and measure, simultaneously, this requirement has come at an extremely challenging time.  Our inspiration for writing this chapter is to help our fellow marketers more clearly demonstrate their ROMI and aid them in repeating it for future successes.
 
Q2. What have your experiences been like working with the BMA team on this book?
A2. The BMA Colorado has been tremendous.  The quality of their approach, editing team, selection of topics and recruitment of authors was impressive.   BMA has established itself as the leader in all things B2B marketing and is forging new ground in this field by delivering member-driven topics, speakers, authors and adding tremendous value to their members through compelling, relevant and practical content.  We believe this is truly remarkable considering that their budgets might not compare to those of the competition.

Q3. What is the best advice from the top you have ever received that has stuck with you throughout the years?
A3. Well, as it relates to Marketing ROI specifically, I think the mantra is measure, prove and improve…and repeat.   The justification and scoring of marketing’s value can go a long way in promoting marketing as an extremely valuable — and quantifiable — discipline in organizations.  Knowing this has helped me become the marketer I am today – I can’t seem to knock the habit!
 
Q4. What challenges did you face when sitting down to write this and explain your methods in a book?
A4. We strove to make this very practical and applicable to the BMA membership and all B2B members.   We used real-world examples and experiences so that readers could learn from our journey.  We have learned through hands-on experience in our own company as well as working with other companies.  We are sharing the ROMI best practices — built on both our successes and mistakes – which we believe will be instructive to other B2B marketers and shorten their learning curve.
 
Q5. How important is it for marketing campaigns to integrate online components in this digital age?
A5, Creating a unified and consistent customer experience is a laudable goal for many marketers.  It has been shown that through the unification of customer touchpoints across all functions (for example customer service, sales, marketing, financing, etc.) can exponentially increase the value of a company in the eyes of their customers.  And that in turn can generate incredible levels of customer loyalty and customer advocacy.  Further, a consistent customer experience can often drive cost out of the required marketing spend.  The only way to achieve a unified customer experience is to integrate online marketing with traditional marketing and all other customer touchpoints.  A tough goal but a worthwhile and ROI-generating one.

Transforming Through Communications

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Companies are constantly giving themselves makeovers, reinventing themselves in some way. It may be changing a logo, rebranding a website, hiring a new spokesperson, or a new design for a catalogue and billing statement.  Trends and consumers are constantly evolving and companies must keep up to evolve with their customers..  Some elements of each brand may be timeless, but there are always variable factors which must transform and adapt to the consumer.

Is this a sign of weakness within the company?  Certainly not, as even the most successful companies have done so.  Take for example one of the most successful fast-food restaurants, McDonald’s, which spent more than one billion dollars to revamp themselves to a more upscale image. The company is investing in a shift from a stop-and-go-eating establishment to a more comfortable atmosphere where customers may want to stay longer to use Wi-Fi or socialize with friends.  The strategy is to create a different and more memorable experience than McDonald’s competitors, like Burger King and Wendy’s. What these adjustments indicate is that McDonald’s is committed to changing customer perception.  Another way companies can transform their brand recognition is by changing the way they communicate with customers.  Using Precision Marketing tactics to improve communications isn’t a new technique – as customer specific messaging has been a proven to work albeit infrequently executed – however, a recent initiative from the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) is worth relaying.

LADWP – Go Beyond the Meter

InfoPrint Solutions worked with the LADWP to revamp their monthly customer statements to better meet customer needs.  They refreshed the look and the feel by adding color, graphs and visual elements to show customer usage patterns, and made icons for each service (water, electric, gas) – making the bill easy to follow and understand.  The main objectives were: to improve clarity of the information; in turn reducing call inquires by 20 percent; influence customer behavior to reduce energy consumption and emissions; and lower the cost of statement operations through process automation.  The overall goal was to influence customer behavior to keep costs low, while better serving the customer’s communication needs. 

Mark Townsend, Assistant Director of IT Services for LADWP, detailed the case study at InfoPrint Solutions’ recent utilities marketing event, Go Beyond the Meter.  The redesign also garnered positive reactions from LADWP consumers and local media, such as Southern California Public radio and KCAL 9 Los Angeles.

LADWP Introduces New Bill Format

Although it may not be as global of an exterior makeover as McDonald’s, a bill redesign like LADWP’s can be just as successful.  The way organizations communicate to customers is a key factor in how they are being perceived and may be the most personal experience some customers have with the company.

Is there a particular brand reinvention that sticks out in your mind? How do you feel consumers react to companies changing their image?

By Jay Robinson

Senior Solutions Consultant, Professional Services and Softwar

InfoPrint Solutions at the Xplor International Awards

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Thursday, April 7th was the Xplor International Awards ceremony and a great way to end a successful, enjoyable and educational week in Florida.

As part of the ceremony Paul Abdool, Xplor Chairman, announced the list of X2 (X squared) members. X2 is a group of Xplor members 40 years old and under that represent the next generation for Xplor. It was really nice to see these individuals honored, as they are the future of the industry. InfoPrint Solutions employees Don Dew, Miranda Reeves, Trevin Perez and myself are all a part of the X2 community. Look for their input in up coming Xplor eDocument News articles, as well as, other communications from Xplor.

Merrill Corporation and InfoPrint Solutions were awarded the Technology Application of the Year award. InfoPrint Solutions supplied Merrill with its ADF offering, powered by InfoPrint ProcessDirector, to fulfill their need for an end-to-end, hardware agnostic workflow solution platform that enables document management at record, page and piece levels.  Check out this video testimonial from the Merrill team to hear more.

Merrill Corporation and InfoPrint Solutions are honored with the Technology Application of the Year Award

Additionally Brian Doyle, InfoPrint Solutions Consulting IT Architect, won the Brian Platte Lifetime Achievement Award. Throughout the past 45 years, Doyle has made significant contributions to the evolution and advancement of the document design industry.

Brian Doyle is honored with the Brian Platte Lifetime Achievement Award at Xplor 2011

The ceremony was a great way to honor those who have contributed so much to the industry. Congratulations to all the winners at the Xplor Industry Awards!

As you can tell from our previous posts, the InfoPrint Solutions team truly enjoyed our time at Xplor once again.  From beginning to end, the event was educational and fun.  We had the opportunity to network with some of the brightest in the industry (sometimes on the beach!) and share ideas that could change the way the industry operates in a few years.  All in all, it was an incredible experience.

I hope to see you all at Xplor 2012!

Best,

Jonathan McGrew

Brand and Graphics Coordinator

Why Go to Xplor?

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Every year Xplor International hosts hundreds of attendees at its Xplor Conference and Vendor Forum. Personally, I consider this a must-see event and I’m really pleased to be attending again this year.  InfoPrint Solutions is counting down the days until this year’s event and we hope you are too!

This year’s theme is “The Next Generation of Customer Communications.”  As always, presenters and educators at the event will offer information, knowledge and networking in a personal setting. There will be five educational tracks, including more than 60 sessions and panel discussions  – all focused on the theme of customer communications.

I have the opportunity to present a session this year titled “Data – The Key to a Winning Strategy.”  The world of communications is ever-changing thanks to the evolution of social media, green initiatives and regulatory requirements. With that, consumers are getting bombarded with information from all directions via all channels. The number of consumers opting out of receiving information via email continues to grow and customers will continue to actively switch brands if they’re not feeling acknowledged or appreciated. I advise the audience on how they can get back in control by delivering relevant and customized data and implement a precision marketing campaign.

You can also see my colleagues speaking on the following topics while in Tampa:

 

In addition to the plethora of sessions where you’ll see an InfoPrint Solutions presence, you’ll also see our name in lights during the award ceremony on April 7th.  We have won the Technology Innovation of the Year award and couldn’t be more pleased to receive such a tremendous honor from a globally-recognized prestigious organization.

Good luck to everyone participating or attending Xplor Global Conference and Vendor Forum 2011 and I hope to see you there!

Have you ever attended an Xplor Conference or are you attending this on in April? What sessions or events are you most looking forward to? Or what have been your favorite things about the conference in the past? Did you know that you can attend regional meetings and webinars throughout out the year?  Please visit www.xplor.org for more information.  Look forward to you feedback!

Best,

Carrie Murphy, MDP

Market Development Manager

Do Direct Mail like The Locals

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

The combination of a weakened economy and the proliferation of new media has encouraged many companies to cut corners to reduce spending.  In most cases, marketing departments in many large corporations have begun opting for online communications over direct mail as a lower cost alternative. However, some local businesses stuck with traditional direct mail – even through the economic downturn – and now enjoying impressive results. 

Chantal Tode at Marketing Powers Activate recently spoke with local business owners regarding their direct mail successes and lessons learned. The takeaway? Local businesses aren’t planning to drastically cut direct mail spend and have proven that consistent communication plays a major role in developing significant customer relationships.

One example is a dental practice that implemented a marketing program including a newsletter and postcard mailing. Prior to implementing the campaign, this office typically had an average of fewer than 22 new patients per month. Post-campaign the average rose to 30-40 new patients, and revenue has increased $10,000 per month. With results like these, it’s evident that direct mail produces an increased return on investment.

It’s no surprise that technology has significantly improved over the years – not only with regard to new social media tools, tablets and smartphones, but also in relation to traditional direct mail. This technological growth for conventional tactics is often referred to as precision marketing.

Both local businesses and international corporations can take their direct mail a step further using precise data analytics to deliver a more customized and relevant communication to recipients. One might argue that precision marketing is not an optimal tool for securing new customers as we don’t have much data – but that’s not true. What it does mean is that a company’s data analytics solution must be strategically implemented across all areas of a business to ensure consistency and integration. 

For example, a company may know where their potential new customer lives and can market what is most relevant based on that specific location. Once the patient is in the door and their information is entered into the company’s computer database, the relationship with the consumer can grow to become more personal, allowing for the customer to feel a close relationship with the company. The business can then decide how they can utilize this information to implement precision marketing. This can mean deciding between direct mail and online communications, finding relevant and customized information to add to the document and much more.

Every type of business can make their own type of mailing, mining the appropriate data from their databases to implement a successful precision marketing campaign.

Will others realize the importance of keeping a streamlined, continuous communication with their customers via direct mail, in efforts to solidify a relationship with relevant, meaningful data? Largely it remains to be seen, but we’re interested in what you see and think.

What do you think? What are you seeing?

Best,

Mike Bryant

Worldwide Customer Strategy Practice Leader

Shop ’til You Drop!

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

When one thinks of the Google search engine, Gmail, Google Maps and even Google Shopping may come to mind. But fashion?  While that might have seemed like a stretch, it’s not anymore.  Boutiques.com, Google’s newest cutting-edge technology from Like.com, lets Google strut its stuff on the runway.  Recently, a New York Times’ article dove into how Google is using shopper preference and real-time feedback to grow loyalty by creating customized shopping boutiques for their customers.

Boutiques.com is a compilation of hundreds of virtual boutiques compiled by designers, celebrities, retailers, bloggers, magazines, television shows, and even regular consumers.  These individuals or groups of individuals can set up their own boutique on the site, allowing visitors to follow trends and shop directly from these mini-shops. In addition to viewing the selections of the boutique curator you are browsing, Google’s genius algorithms come into play by generating additional choices, influenced by the boutique’s style. These boutique options are endless in regards to the creation and inspiration generated. 

Another cutting-edge highlight of this site is how it engages their customer. By providing the opportunity for customers to set up the personal boutiques with their “loves” and “hates” of different colors, styles and trends, Google is able to “learn” what the customer’s prefer are and make recommendations based on these preferences. Users can comment on trends, styles, and individual boutiques, as well as share their favorite photos. As the article states, if a shopper is unsure how to style a newly purchased pair of shoes, the site will display street-style photos exhibiting different looks, creating a panel-like experience so the user can see multiple options and examples. Boutiques.com creates an easy-to-use, easy-to-style environment for its browsers. 

Boutiques.com creates a personalized shopping experience, which opens a door for marketers to create personalized messages for the shoppers. Customers are indicating their preferences for specific styles and trends, providing perfect opportunities for Precision Marketing. Advertisers can utilize customer information based on identified preferences to deliver relevant messages for viewers.  Boutiuques.com helps classic customer shop for classic items; trendy customers stay trendy, all while providing advertisers the opportunity to speak directly to the customer segment they resonate with best.

While this is a shopper’s dream, has it created the marketer’s dream? Are online marketer’s jobs becoming easier as websites are making users experiences more customized? I believe these are perfect venues and opportunities for the Precision Marketer- would you agree?

Best,

Amanda Thall

Global Solutions Marketing Manager