Boxes full of literature piled high in your office?

Wasting marketing collateral because it’s full of old products and services?

Just think what that has cost you and the size of the footprint you are leaving…

Recycling may ease your green conscience, but why the need to recycle in the first place? - there is an alternative…

Print-on-demand (POD) solutions have been around since the late 90s and enable the production of exactly the right quantity of items, at exactly the right time, with no storage requirements and personalised (if required) to the recipient. Email and web (as we know it) have also been around since the late 90s and have dramatically changed how we communicate; so why oh why when the technology and capabilities are available, do we still do things the old way when it comes to printing documents?

Is it just because its the way we have always done it, are we just too scared to embrace the technology available, or is it still cost which is stopping us?

In the same way we can’t now do without the speed of digital print to hit fast approaching deadlines, I believe in a few years time we will also wonder how we managed our marketing collateral efficiently before POD. As production processes improve, technology speeds up, environmental pressures increase further and costs reduce even more this will become the norm, not the exception.

So go on get recognised as a innovator, POD is the future, get yourself involved in the action now!

Last thought for this week….

…Having had a series of meetings today and devouring numerous biscuits of all shapes and sizes. I was just wondering if there was a survey as to the most popular meeting biscuits, what assortment would win?

I think Bourbon.

Congratulations to our latest recruit Ruth on her phenominal achievement.

Ruth recently completed the London Marathon, all 26.3 miles in 4Hrs 22minutes. Coming from someone who failed at their first atempt to run such a distance, believe me this is a great achievement.

If this was not enough, Ruth also was snapped by a photographer and found here picture spread over the front cover of the Monday’s Daily Mail.

Had I known I would have doubled her sponsorship money and painted a bda logo on her forhead.

Any PR is good PR and all that.

bda speak out at an “Understanding Digital Conference” held by Williams Lea the print management giants.

As a result of some of bda’s ground breaking case studies we were asked by the Print Sourcing Director of Williams Lea to present our opinions and experiences in all aspects of digital technology.

The focus of our presentation was the utilisation of digital print to deliver one-to-one DM campaigns, and print-on-demand solutions (hence ‘now, now, now, now, now!’).

All clients want to add value, improve ROI, provide better response rates, better utilise their data and reduce wastage, but many don’t know how; we were there to illustrate how this is being delivering today!

We presented examples of; one-to-one direct mail where response rates hit 37%; an asset portal allowing personalised marketing collateral to be created online; and e-collateral, our print on demand solution delivering targeted, bespoke brochures minimising waste, eradicating bulk print and storage.

The 65 strong audience of account managers and directors posed questions on; the financial model; the effect of increased unit costs and how we are providing real ROI; deployment timescales and pitfalls in delivering such solutions; as well as where we see the print industry in the future.

To accompany our presentation we produced a personalised digital guide, swatch book and PURL allowing all delegates to download their own copy of the presentation and access additional information… So we got and idea of exactly how interested the audience was!

bda, always Strategic, Creative and Measured.

When it comes to selling or marketing, everyone needs an ‘in’. A means of distinguishing yourself from competitors.

These days, you face much competition in business so you have to get your benefits over quickly and succinctly - your ‘elevator pitch’ if you like - to be noticed at all.

Never before have customers had such a range of products and services to choose from. And with the web all pervasive, it’s incredibly easy to compare everything from price to quality.

So, how do you get the customer to choose you?

Much has been said about the need for businesses to have a USP (unique selling point) or ESP (emotional selling point).

The major problem with a USP is that it can be fairly easily copied, (how many truly original business ideas have you seen recently?) and psychologists latest thinking is that ESPs are not valid because people are incredibly complex, with both rational and emotional motivators mixed together within any decision to buy.

So what are we left with?

The Engaging Selling Point - EnSP
This latest school of thought can be defined as the engagement, interaction and INVOLVEMENT of the customer.

The Point of Engagement is the point when a message is no longer ignored but rather triggers a sense of interaction and involvement. This occurs where speaker and listener are completely and utterly connecting on the same wavelength.

The most successful products or services in today’s B2B/C marketplaces often rely on their EnSP.

Your EnSP: Create an experience to get customer buy-in
When we go to sell our houses, why do we ensure the kitchen smells of coffee or have the smell of freshly baked bread wafting around? It’s more than likely because we want to evoke a feeling of homeliness and comfort that everyone relates to. We’re trying to trigger a number of senses in the brain.

The engaging selling point works in a similar way; no longer are you selling AT, or marketing TO a customer, you are striking a chord to involve them and most importantly to elicit an action from them.

Viral marketing and the EnSP

Instead of traditional ads where the product or service is front and centre, viral ads are stories or narratives, sometimes told in episodes which are distributed over the internet, via email or other digital means. They’re often movies, games, or Flash animations whose aim is to engage and entertain as a precursor to selling.

If they’re funny or engaging, they’re passed on from one consumer to another - and so the legwork of promotional effort is done for the advertiser. Very clever and very cost-effective. Good examples have been produced by IKEA, Virgin Money, Mini and Trojan condoms, which were all very engaging and entertaining.

Viral ads use the Engaging Selling Point to great effect. They can be relatively cheap to produce, and are often more credible and believable than standard forms of advertising in the eyes of the public, as they are not forced on the individual but passed to them by friends, family or colleagues.

Applying your EnSP

You don’t have to invest in an online marketing campaign to start using your EnSP. The first step in discovering your business’ EnSP is to apply some lateral creative thinking to your product or service.

Then find an entertaining and memorable story to engage or involve your customers.

Choose your media - you can use your EnSP across all levels of marketing, in adverts, direct mail, print, viral campaigns, websites and e-marketing.

Your EnSP can be rational or emotional, or a mix of the two - but above all - it doesn’t talk at the customer - it INVOLVES them.

Andy Johnson outlines his views and how you can use multi-channel, integrated campaigns to get results.
Download Podcast

Back in mid-2007, Siemens Enterprise Communications made the decision to get away from mass-produced print; a decision that’s now helped them to engage customers one-to-one but also one that’s helping them to dramatically reduce their environmental impact.

Siemens Enterprise Communications wanted to provide printed collateral that spoke to customer’s needs and prompted dialogue, rather than pump out generalised product brochures in response to enquiries. Stockpiling brochures was also creating storage and logistical issues as well as creating huge waste.

Siemens Enterprise Communications appointed bda, specialists in the development of integrated campaigns for the telecoms/IT industry, to come up with a practical solution. Having seen the success of previous one-to-one campaigns developed by the agency, Siemens Enterprise Communications adopted the idea of personalised solution brochures with variable content as created by bda.

Siemens Enterprise Communications was keen not to “sell at” its decision maker target audience, but rather to identify business concerns faced by decision makers before presenting them with product solutions.

bda invented e-collateral, a method for Siemens Enterprise Communications to generate bespoke solution brochures on demand, available in either PDF or printed form.

Siemens Enterprise Communications drives enquiries to a website ecollateralfromsiemens.co.uk where they can access areas that relate directly to one of four operational issues: Grow Your Business, Reduce Operational Cost, Manage your Assets More Effectively, and Achieve Corporate Excellence. The user simply clicks on their area of interest, to then be guided through a short series of tick box enquiries that relate to more specific interests; this in turn drives the content choice for inclusion in the brochure.

The system, developed by bda and piloted in October 2007 in three languages, UK, US Englisha and German, fulfils the broad objective of providing bespoke content, but also offers a customer-friendly way to gather data which turn feeds Siemens Enterprise Communications’ own CRM. Depending on the areas of interested earmarked by the customer, brochure content can vary between everything from case studies to illustrations, with paragraphs of solution-oriented text tactically inserted to blend with the overall message.

“Both parties had a baptism of fire mostly due to the complexity of the variable solution sets available,” says Sharon Scott Global Marketing Manager at Siemens. “But we needed a way to present our portfolio in way that makes sense to the customer. E-collateral meets that objective perfectly.”

Going a step further to engage Siemens Enterprise Communications’ broad customer base, bda plan to implement programming which allows the tone of language used to vary subtly, according to the level of contact making the enquiry, industry sector or company size.

As for output - Siemens Enterprise Communications own research indicates that despite the demand for instant, downloadable information, many senior C-level contacts make decisions on choice of supplier based on receipt of a printed brochure. Enquirers from the e-collateral site are therefore given a choice of receiving a PDF version of their personalised brochure via email, or ordering a printed version online.

Delivery of the pdf version is instant with a printed copy taking just days to arrive.

As bda is affiliated to a well-equipped communications group which includes a print production arm, it has huge access to fulfillment options. An online request triggers the generation of high quality digitally printed items that are despatched immediately.

The environmental angle? Less waste, the eradication of bulk print, less space needed for storage, less lorries on the road.

“Looking around our industry there’s nothing like e-collateral in B2B areas,” says Sharon. “It’s early days yet, but working with bda, we will certainly increase knowledge of customer needs and product demand. Better still, it helps Siemens meet its commitment to minimise our impact on the environment.”

Take a look yourself

With all the buzz around Web 2.0, is a user-generated internet really the way forward in forming customer connections, or is it simply too fraught with risk?
Where marketers jump up and down at its potential for reaching new customers via weblogs, social networking, podcasts, RSS feeds etc., some technology experts question whether the term ‘Web 2.0′ can be used in any meaningful way since many of the technological aspects of Web 2.0 have existed since the earliest days of the web.
Wikipedia defines it as “a social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterised by open communication, decentralisation of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and ‘the market as a conversation’.”
More simply - genuine interactivity, because people can upload as well as download.
Even if it’s not a fully realised phenomenon, there can be no doubt that Web 2.0 has entered everyday web usage:
71% of office workers aged 18 to 29 access social networking and content sharing websites “several times a week” according to new research from Clearswift. Two out of five of these employees access social networking sites several times a day.
Businesses are getting behind Web 2.0 fast, because of the its interactive nature.
Marketers are making use of customer input to drive the provision of more relevant content, while increasing the value of customer relationships and revenue.
Blogs and bulletin boards cost little to set up, and even if the link between the traffic increase and any new revenue generated is unclear, the content itself provides valuable insights.
For some, it’s a double edged sword; when Dell launched its blog in July 2006, almost half the comments made were negative; on the other hand, Dell could be seen to be addressing issues head on as a result of a good web 2.0 strategy that was considered.
Certainly, web content requires policing and quality control. How can you tell if information posted is always accurate, trustworthy and up to date? Set alongside the fact that content can be enormously influential just because it’s increasingly user generated.
While business struggle with how to create competitive advantage from customer input, they must also wrestle with the fact that the everyday consumer can have has much influence over a buying decision as a multi-million pound advertising campaign.Some argue that the success of Web 2.0 is dependent upon its remaining within the confines of non-commercial arenas such as social networking sites - where engagement is not coloured by an attempt to sell something to the user. And that both the security and negative postings aspects create too many issues for those trying to gain a commercial foothold.
The lack of control over postings has already led to many security breaches, with pages of legitimate websites being hacked every day, and malicious software implanted. With the risk of employees routinely adding confidential data about their employer, companies are at risk. With social networking sites now rich in valuable personal information, individuals are now exposed for personalised attacks.
It’s a conundrum for business; on the one hand, Web 2.0 can’t be ignored because of its potential to get closer to customers and develop relationships. On the other, the security risk and potential for negative blogging create headaches until greater control is exercised over access.
While web-based interaction has become crucial in understanding customer behaviour, it seems over-enthusiastic early adopters of Web 2.0 can get their fingers burnt. Handle with care.
I think it is a case of consideration. A well considered, thought out web 2.0 strategy can provide businesses with great opportunities and new ways to engage customers, add value and brand loyalty. Just take a look at DELL ideastorm.