My penchant for publishing direct mail and data bloopers continues to win me great stories to share here on Digital Nirvana. This one came in this morning and left me scratching my head. My question for readers is this: Do you have processes in place to catch these mistakes before they get mailed? Or are… Read More »
In terms of pure volume, I probably write more blog posts these days than anything else. New case studies and white papers may go up on printers’ websites every quarter or so, but blog content needs to be added on a continual basis. The challenge is, everybody needs blog content, but most companies are drawing… Read More »
Many organizations are rediscovering the role of public relations in content marketing. As an editor, I get over a dozen press releases every day. The four most common failures I see are: Not understanding the difference between “news” and “promotion.” Taking too long to get to the point. Failing to help me see/intuit/perceive a potential… Read More »
When it comes to marketing, content is king. Sure, you can go out and try to find customers on your own, but increasingly, customers are finding you. They know what they want, and they are actively searching for, filtering, and vetting their print and marketing partners based on the content they find. But where do… Read More »
Small business owners tend to believe that marketing is easy. Why, all we need to do is create social media accounts, buy some ad space, and it’s good…right? There are so many articles online about how to market that no one really needs help outside of reading another article, right? This concept is far from… Read More »
The very factors that are causing printers to offer new services, channel complexity, tidal waves of technological change, shifting demographics and intense competitive pressures are the same factors that are causing major changes in the buying behaviors of their target clients.
If you are introducing new services and want a well prepared and effective sales team, you want them to understand what they are selling – that’s a given. As I said in my last post, they also need to have confidence that the new stuff works. Do they need to be technical experts? Probably not,… Read More »
It’s a conundrum, you can’t compete without investing in new technologies and upgrading your services, yet every time you do you are haunted by failed rollouts and change management issues. The only thing you can try to do with a checkered past is to learn from it.
About this time last year I posted a release about the new retail sales branch opened by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. Horizon was one of the first health insurance companies to take a “retail” approach to selling individual insurance policies under the then newly approved Affordable Care Act. In May of… Read More »
It’s natural to avoid asking for help. You worry that it makes you appear weak. That it makes you appear ignorant or uninformed. Like you can’t do your job, or are just plain unable to get the job done. Asking for help doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, it can lead to… Read More »