CEO being Scammed by the CMO's Social Agencies.

I have to say that time and time again we hear the virtues of Social Media and how much it creates new business and this wonderful new economy. The fact is that most Social Media interaction is the equivalent of being a title sponsor at a concert or sporting event. You can't really quantify what it has done to drive revenue.

Sorry, the fact of the matter is that without good data you not getting results, and please do not equiate your "Like" button to success of a campaign. If thats your goal you should be fired from your job as a marketing executive.

Fact is that we are and must be measured on how many leads did we bring into the Sales Channel, that's it. If you can not clearly answer that question then you have wasted a good deal of money and time.

Your CEO does see the need to market but you know that the CFO is on the other side looking at the numbers. Today the CMO must play both roles and present a clear case for the cost of customer acquisition. If this cost can not be justified or result in a sale conversion then we have not succeeded in our marketing efforts.

The term "Big DATA" is in play and gaining traction everyday. This term simply means "More Money" and at some this will stop. If the point is to collect data then go work for Google but the fact remains that we are the showmen, the points of contact before the sales magic happens. 

What makes our data so hard to put into practice is that our tagets are constantly moving. As CMO's we have to make sure that the infrastructure can handle these targets and navigate toward bring the fish toward the boat.

Its not hard but it can be tedious in the beginning. I know that everyone today is a social media expert which simply means that they spend to much time on Facebook. Data should and always be the point of concentration. Its not the medium that give will drive results but the data on where your customers will be.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year and to all of our current and future clients, Thank You.

Printing News - No. 3 Printing Machine maker Manroland files

Here at MLI we have used Heidelberg and HP digital equipment and expanded into online media many years ago. In today’s struggling economy; it’s important to try to make the best decisions you can. The news shocks us all every day and we all know that our economy is not moving the right direction.

A lot of companies including some of the folks in town have been using Manroland equipment and we hope given the recent events they do not have to go through too much pain to get parts for their presses because it can mean significant downtime and a sacrifice on quality.

Last week Reuters reported that major print machine maker Manroland filed for insolvency, its owners Allianz Capital Partners and MAN SE failed to find an investor before the world's No.3 printing machine maker ran out of money.

Competitor Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, jumped on the news as investors hoped they may be able to snap up market share. At this point there may be an alliance with their rivals, the article said.

Printing machine makers have been hit hard by a shift in demand to online media and a slump in corporate investments in new equipment as the economy stutters. It was quoted an expert saying "Overcapacity is and remains a feature of the sector. We do not see any shortage of capacity,"

It says Manroland was feeling the effects of the debt crisis particularly in southern Europe and it was planning a move to the packaging sector via acquisitions.

If you have any questions about MLI’s equipment and technologies please contact us for assistance.

What are we telling customers about printing, digital media and digital marketing

A trusty vendor asked today; what are you telling your customers about all these changes and what to concentrate on?

We are telling our clients that now is the time to focus and fast-track growth in the two areas where we see the largest market opportunities to communicate to your customers and drive sales and that’s using print combined with digital media and digital marketing. Use your data! Mine your data! Make it work for you!

Focusing on integrating digital media and using marketing software tools and it will help you increase revenues.

In an economy that is slower-than-expected thinking about next year right now is key.

What separates us from most of the others and helps us make sure our customers succeed is a main benefit we provide...

Since we control both the hardware and software aspects of our business we can make things very proficient and cost efficient while giving our customers direct access to the most up to date tools and processes. All in one place.

You will get results.

Make the most of Digtial Print and Data.

When I look at all the new social sites that are entering the market place and I see the levels of funding committed to these endeavors; I sit back and think what does this mean for the CMO and EVP of marketing? 

The truth is that most of these interest don't have an impact on how a CMO can drive leads into the sales channels. The power of any campaign is with the data mined from you internally and this will provide you with a path forward. Today digital print actually saves money and increases response rates through personalization. Digtial Printing in concert with data is a springboard into true multi - channel campaigns. Social media is just one part of the campaign and the results are quantified in terms of views. If this is the objective then great, you did good; but really the C level suite is looking for revenue. How many qualified prospects or existing customers did you bring into the sales channel? If you can't answer that direct question in relation to the size of your marketing budget then... well you know.

I am fortunate to see so many different campaigns come through MLI but I have to say most are lacking from the standpoint of data. They take a detour from what the objective was originally designed to be. The path of data is a simple one; and being able to deliver customer personalized messages and promotions still has great impact and response rates. Check the stats for Personalized direct mail and you will see that it is still a top rated marketing investment. The problem most companies run into is; too much time is spent in the design phase and the data is almost an afterthought. Now, some of you reading this might think, "not us" but the truth is it happens.

Data is everything in today's marketing world. It not only provides direction for deployment but tracking the data is just as critical. It really comes down to how are you going to respond and can your campaign react to the results. If your prospect or customer responds and it take two weeks or more to follow up then something is broken.

Think as MLI.

A combination of "New" and "Traditional" media yield best results!

There is no denying the widespread use and remarkable impact of "new" media. It is enormously important in the lives of consumers, particularly Affluent’s, and is becoming more so. Further, any business that suddenly finds 20-30% of its best customers "experimenting" with less profitable options  will face important challenges and serving them.  We always believe that a blending of both New and Traditional methods are best.

In an interesting analysis this year…

Throughout 2011, AdAgeStat(Kraus& Shullman) professes while using  it’s Mendelsohn Affluent Barometer to track new and traditional media use among American Affluents. This monthly survey consists of more than 1,000 online interviews with respondents making at least $100,000 in annual household income -- in other words, the 20% of Americans who account for about 60% of U.S. income and approximately 70% of U.S. net worth. The survey was conducted between March and May 2011.

In the same way, it has been well-documented that younger consumers differ in their media-consumption patterns from their older counterparts, and certainly they have been earlier adopters and heavier users of some emerging and alternative platforms. But even today's younger generation shows the characteristic pattern of tending to consume media through its most traditional outlet, even as they show more cross-platform "experimentation." For instance, among those aged 18-34:

•88% read magazines in print, followed by 35% who read them online

•Newspapers show the greatest amount of experimentation -- 70% read newspapers in print, followed     relatively closely by 54% who read them online

•94% view video content on TV, followed by 35% who do so on computers

•93% read websites on computers, followed by 38% who do so on smarthphones

The moral of this story seems to be that those that can provide a combination of both new media and traditional media  is surely  to get the best results for their customers.

A Conversation with a Marketing Team.

So often we meet with a marketing team and of course the direction of the meeting is skewed as not to damaged the ego of those involved. The real questions are averted such as " Where are you getting you Data" and " Why can't IT provided you with this information" then it navigates toward a project time line that is frankly just silly. In the end the objectives of the campaign were not meet and the sales channels suffer.

The real questions are hard to answer and the truth is that its easier to organize and Ad agency then it is to look at the data, and determine who you are going to target, with what product or message. Data mining is key to any successful campaign and knowing how to deploy the data is even more important. The value of digital printing and web integrations can not be stressed enough, but the fact is that most companies do not know how to execute this type of campaign or to read the data results, this is a shame. Most companies are trying their hand in banner ads, which is great if you are looking for a response rate south of .09 or less. Look, traditional static direct mail can get better results any day of the week and you own the data.

In the end Digital print, Purls, Txt and digital assets are you 4 aces but like anything else in life if you play them to soon you will not get the ROI that you really should have received.

Think as JR.

Welcome to the Blog! What's next? How about QR Codes and how they can be of benefit!

We all know that one of the secrets to great SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is making sure you keep your website updated, nice and fresh.  So we’re introducing this Mainline Blog.  

Our thoughts are whether you do have a blog, or you change your homepage with new offers, coupons or new products, it’s important to show Google that your site is “active and alive.” For many small businesses in particular, this is a real challenge. So we are pushing that!

We are always sharing our tech knowledge. Our customers tell us they appreciate it and those that are not tech savvy are pretty inquisitive, which opens the door for conversation and a potential sale. We are always hoping that our customers may be more receptive to our presence on the web, our Twitter presence, Facebook, YouTube etc.

If you already have cool, fresh content on your site—what’s next? Do you know what is coming that may benefit your small business? What do I do?

MLI can help with that.

Have you heard of QR codes yet? Here is a quick introduction…  

QR is short for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a cell phone). They are used to take a piece of information and put it in to your cell phone. I am sure you’ve seen it in magazine advertisements, on a billboard, a web page or even on someone’s t-shirt. Once it is in your cell phone, it may give you details about that business or show you something like a URL which you can click to see a trailer for a movie, or it may give you a coupon which you can use in a local outlet.

The QR Barcodes are really useful because  they can store and digitally present much more data, including URL links, geo coordinates, and text and all you need is your cellphone.

We are often asked about QR Codes and how we deal with them.  Being able to scan a printed piece with your cellphone helps you get so much more info.  Our opinion is that most every printed piece should have one and we can make it happen.

QR code integrity, is important and we make sure that every QR code printed is clear and accurate, and will swiftly access the correct website when a QR code is read.

Print quality inspection is key. They are being used in sports entertainment, financial, pharmaceutical, medical, and packaging printing, to name a few, where accuracy and image consistency is noticeable to print customers; but it’s important as well as in jobs with less rigorous quality requirements.

Google is seeing them;  If you add them to your website, the search engines will see that your pages have changed, and that you are updating pages and index it accordingly. The future shows that the search engines further recognize QR codes and possibly index the content in them too. This is only just scratching the surface of how they will be used;but the MLB Tampa Rays baseball team has added one for every player their directory and it’s part of growing information aspect of it’s players.

Your business, no matter how small or large, could use QR codes in different ways. You might auto generate one next to every product on your web site containing all the product details, the number to call and the URL link to the page so it can show up on the cell phones. You could add one to your business card containing your contact details so it’s easy for someone to add you to their contacts on their cell phone.

Add them to any print advertising, postcards, posters, brochures, catalogs , etc containing:

•Product details

•Contact details

•Offer details

•Event details

•Competition details

•A coupon

•Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin IDs

•A link to your YouTube video