Belk Printing Technologies is one of the best Commercial Printing companies that I have had the honor to partner with, located in Pineville, NC. By the way, they do so much more than just printing! Check out there web site – http://www.belkprinting.com/
Speaking of commercial printing, here is a great news site if you want to stay up on what is happening in the world of commercial printing. http://www.topix.com/business/commercial-printing
Are you in retail? Do you need a partner that can help you with creative marketing? One of my good iGen customers in Charlotte is Creative Marketing Solutions – here is there web site… http://www.creativecms.com/
Also, check out this article on 50 good marketing ideas for those in retail. Truth is, most of these are good ideas for most industries! http://retail.about.com/od/marketingsalespromotion/a/marketing_ideas.htm
Creating a blog is really easy and commercial print sales people can absolutely do it and do it quickly. I hear it took less than 30 minutes for George!
I highly encourage “customer corner” section and have your customers tell your story!
Anyway, check out one that George Aquilante just did yesterday! It’s a great start and took less than 30 minutes!
http://gaquilanteipp.blogspot.com/
George – great job! Looking forward to seeing your enewsletter and brainshark next :>
Chris Brogan has amazing ideas for business. If you are not following him, I highly recommend you do. Here is his article on 50 ideas on how businesses can use twitter.
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/
Check out this press release that i just found on yahoo finance. “Xerox Ranked Number One in Computer Industry by FORTUNE’s Most Admired Companies Survey”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Xerox-Ranked-Number-One-in-bw-14515279.html
Don’t overlook the power of positive thinking! I am not suggesting ignoring anything, however, I am suggesting that you find the positive in any situation. And yes, no matter what it is, there is always a positive angle you can choose to see. This applies to your business and mine. Check out Bill Clinton’s advice to Obama!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Clinton-to-Obama-Talk-apf-14430526.html
Not all areas are impacted the same by the recession? Are you taking advantage of those areas where it’s helping?
If you are selling soemthing that appeals to a young generation, are you taking advantage of the opportunity to send marketing messages to their mobile phones? Check out Admob! I met the owner at the AMA event in Orlando and can connect you if interested. Pretty cool stuff.
Check out what Toby Bloomberg says on the subject. If you connected with Toby, let me know! I heard her present at AMA and she was awesome!
http://www.sunjournal.com/index.php?t=8&storyid=300880&subpub=168
Back in early December, I posted a link to MPlanet. http://www.mplanet2009.com/marketingblog/ If you aren’t aware of the event AMA is putting on in Orlando, please visit www.mplanet2009.com because I highly recommend it.
Well, this week, MPlanet has asked bloggers across the country to talk about one of their 4 themes for 2009!
So, I started thinking about Brand building in a digtial world. I thought, “Scott, what is your brand?”
We all know the importance “Brand” plays in the success of a company. We also know how difficult it can be to change a Brand image, once established. In fact, many would say our company Brand is the most important thing we have. So if Brand is so important to a business’s success, couldn’t we also argue that it is equally important to our own success, as employees? Do you think about what YOUR “Brand” is? Are you creating the “Brand U”? Well you are, whether you know it or not. Here’s some good news. Brand building in a digital world is not as challenging as you might think.
As a Xerox Graphic Communication Sales Growth Consultant, I spend a lot of time creating “my Brand”. For example, I started using ConstantConstant.com to help me put out a monthly Graphic Communication industry enewsletter. I started my own industry blog at
http://titus.blogs.xerox.com, featuring a section called “customer corner” where I ask my customers to leave feedback about me and my team. I also began attending seminars and industry events that were more relevant to my customers’ business than my own business. In fact, I began presenting at some of those seminars, including customer seminars, major franchise meetings, Printing Industries of the Carolina events and NAQP sessions. I even put together my own industry events, bringing in Industry consultants and other Xerox resources in to present on topics related to business and sales growth vs. my Xerox Digital Solutions. An interesting thing began to happen. My network and brand started to grow. Suddenly, my customers began to talk about the value I was bringing as part of the business partnership. One customer was featured in a recent magazine saying, “I bought a relationship – the equipment was free.”
I read a book several years ago by Seth Godin called “The Purple Cow”. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend you do. My goal was to become a “Purple Cow”. That is, I wanted to be so unique, so spectacular that people would have to stop and take notice!
So, think about “Brand U”. As a marketing person, what is your brand? What sets you apart from your peers, your competitors? Most important, do your customers agree with what you think your brand is?
Let me stress again, building a company’s brand in today’s digital world is easier than you think. Why? People can spread messages faster and more efficiently than ever before. It’s no longer just print, TV, radio, phone and word of mouth. You can use email. You can text. You can use a blackberry. You can use twitter. You can use facebook. You can blog. You can “internet search”. You can join networks on sites like linkedin.com. And I could go on and on.
Basically, you can communicate to millions and millions of people in seconds in today’s digital world. Equally as important, so can your customers! And what if they communicated “Your Brand”?
Go ahead. Take a minute and write a comment about what you think of when I say, “Brand Building in a Digital World.” And let’s make it a goal in 2009 to expand OUR brand.
