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Author: John Bracamontes

Now that people are getting back to work, businesses are opening back up fully and people are generally ready to move on from the effects of the virus, what should you be doing now to gain momentum from your marketing, generating new leads and more sales online?

How to Bounce Back with Marketing Post COVID

During the shutdown we took on new clients but spent a lot of time with out existing clients as well amplifying their marketing to ensure they capitalized on the opportunity given to them that the virus created. While business slowed down for many we made sure that our clients gained even more visibility during a time when their competitors pulled back and did less in their marketing.

Competitors Are Still Holding Back!

This makes now (or technically yesterday) the best time to kick start your online marketing.

What Should You Be Doing?

The most effective tactics are going to be a combined effort to ensure you get in front of customers who are eager to get back to work as usual and stay ahead of your competition.  A mix of…

  • SEO
  • Paid Social Campaigns (such as LinkedIn)
  • Paid Search
  • Blogging
  • and Email

… working together are all going to put you miles ahead of the competitors and will have you front and center for customers who need your products and services.

It’s as easy as that. #Truth

 

If You’re Struggling on Exactly Where to Start or Have Questions, Call Us at 866-357-7422

Or Submit your information below

 

     

    This is going to be a very short post because what we are about to say is so simple.

    Print Companies need to be advertising their capability for the printing of signs for those attending protests and demonstrations.

    Here are a few ways to get more protest sign sales

    • Design Unique Graphics for the Signs and share online
    • Team up with a groups that are demonstrating and donate a portion of sales to their group (they’ll need to funnel sign purchases)
    • Design & Print demo signs that you can handout for some protesters with a message on one side and your website on the other

    We get that everyone has their own opinions on what is going on right now and it’s all very sensitive, but the truth is if you want to keep the lights on “you gotta do what you gotta do” and this is a lucrative opportunity.

     

    Regardless of what you do you’ll need to promote yourself.  If you can’t do that on your own we can help.

     

    Have Questions? Call Us at 866-357-7422

    Or Submit your information below

     

      When someone new starts at Acumen we ask a handful of questions to start to get to know them better and share that with you because we’re excited to have Awesome people join the team!

      Where are you from?

      I grew up in Belleville, IL.

       

      What are some things you enjoy doing (besides working)?

      I love going to the Fox and the Muny. Musical theater is my jam. I also studied art in college so I love to draw and illustrate. I’ve written and/or illustrated a couple children’s books and have been working on greeting cards lately.

       

      Favorite Movie Genre or Fave Movie?

      It’s not a real movie genre but it would have to be “fake science.” Regular sci-fi movies are great (Back to the Future and the like), but fake science is another genre that my best friend and I invented to cover the romantic movies that feature some insane scientific anomaly that drives the plot. “Age of Adaline” and “The Space Between Us” are perfect examples of the excellent genre of fake science.

       

      Favorite Type of Music and/or Band You’re Feeling Right Now?

      Again, I’m a musical theater nerd so any showtune is fair game for me. “Come From Away” and “Be More Chill” are currently my favorites.

       

      Place you’d like to visit but haven’t yet?

      Almost too many to name, but I’d love to go to Greece, Australia, and Spain. Oh and the Harry Potter Studios Tour in London.

       

      Drink of Choice?

      Frozen strawberry margarita (mango is also acceptable) with salt, a lime, and an umbrella because I’m classy

       

       

      Welcome to the Team Jacqueline!

      In 2020 Businesses are being mandated to inform Employee and Patrons of social distancing, hand-washing and foot traffic direction.

      Whether you agree, disagree, like it or not, the measures still exist so you as a printer can take advantage of this by ensuring you get this message out to your customers and increase your own sales by helping them comply with the regulations set across the US as businesses start to re-open.

      We’ve written an email that you can use to send out to your customers to inform them that you are creating COVID-19 related signage to help them be compliant and keep their business running during these times.

      This email is Free to you!

       

      Simply fill out the form below, submit and you’ll access the email, a free image to use in the email and directions on how to set it up!

        Your Name (required)

        Your Email (required)

        Your Phone Number

        Private Equity Firms are experiencing a similar saturation issue that marketing saw happen just a handful of years ago.

        It’s gotten to the point that it feels like everyone is starting their own firm.

        This means that firms are fighting for the same pool of investment with new firms claiming similar approaches and opportunities.

         

        So again going back to that Marketing example, Private Equity Firms are now having to differentiate in two ways.

        1. They need to be doing new investor lead generation
        2. They need to have a specific focus or specialty. Something that will make you different from other firms.

         

        We put New Investor Lead Generation at the top of that list because if you aren’t getting found by investors then Good Luck, but if you are doing that lead gen work then you’re already setting yourself apart by at least being an option.

         

        To Answer the Question about How Private Equity Firms Can Generate New Investor Leads

        There are actually 3 ways to really get this going and to make it effective.

        1. SEO for your firm
        2. Paid Search & Paid Social for your firm
        3. Email Marketing for your firm

         

        SEO is a complex beast for most, but to be honest there are easy ways to optimize your website so that it shows up often for the investment terms you need to be showing up for.  Does your firm invest in Commercial Real Estate deals? Then you need to be getting found for terms specific to those investment opportunity types.

         

        Paid Search is similar to SEO in that you can pay to be found when investors search for those terms. Simple and straightforward.

        Paid Social is different and Very Powerful! Using this you’ll be able to target investors directly and get those who are in the market to invest to engage with you in learning more about your offerings and investment opportunities.

         

        Email Marketing again sounds so easy, but not everyone is doing it. At a minimum you need to be sending a message out to your current investors and prospective investors once a month to stay in front of them with updates and opportunities. But even better is to set up marketing automation to nurture new investment passively to warm up to closing on funding with investors.

         

        For More Information on Digital Marketing for Private Equity Firms check out this page: https://acumenstudio.com/private-equity-digital-marketing/

         

        Or if You Have Questions? Call Us at 866-357-7422

        Or Submit your information below

         

          Has getting new sales for your print company stalled or not grown as fast as you would like it to be?

          If your answer is YES, then this article is for you.

          Print Companies have primarily relied on a sales team to go out and get new business. And it worked. But today doesn’t work as well.

          Some print companies rely solely on the owner and other companies have an in-house marketing person to help drive awareness to aid in new business development.

          But still many print companies are struggling to get that sales lift they so badly want.

           

          What I’ve observed over the past 7 years in the Print Industry is this…

          1. The economy is strong and it doesn’t take a ton of work to increase sales  —  (So if your sales are flat or going down something is up!)
          2. Sales teams are typically equipped to close project sold leads / quotes —  (The customer knows what they want and all you need to do is prove that you can do the work, give them a good price, get the quote back quickly and meet their timeline)
          3. Marketers at print companies are typically design oriented people which is great and very much needed but they are typically less savvy in marketing the business strategy that your customers are actually looking for. —  (Your customers need the items you print for them to “do something” and in most cases that is generate new revenue whether it’s directly or indirectly through some leading behavior like showing up at an event or signing up)
          4. And very few Sales or Marketing team members have deep discipline experience in the platforms and tactics on generating new leads online. —  *This statement may not sit well with some of you, but respectfully if you reflect on the things you can do and do well, is this really one of them? (at Acumen we aren’t printers and don’t claim to be, we leave that to the Pros)

           

          And all of this makes sense because Schools Don’t Teach This Stuff! They don’t teach Sales, They don’t teach Lead Generation AND They don’t teach print.

           

          So it’s all Doom and Gloom, Right? Wrong!

          The ONE thing that would help make your Sales Team and Marketers more effective is to give them the wisdom of KNOWING WHO TO TARGET!

          As an owner, executive, manager it is Your (or if you’re in Sales and Marketing, it is THEIR) responsibility to ensure that the entire company knows who your primary customers are and why they are your primary customers.

          It’s not just that they need printing, packaging or fulfillment.  They need it for very specific reasons and having your team Armed with that Knowledge they will have the ability to be the Best they can be.  Without it they / you can only go so far.  It really is a limiter to success.

           

          What Could You Do?

          Outside of working with us on doing Digital Marketing for Print Companies (I’m smiling and winking over here) it would be a good idea to lead a handful of workshops each year on exactly what I shared above.

          Let your company know who your primary customers are, why those customers choose you to do that work, why those customers need the products they have you create for them and what the outcomes your customers expect to get when using your products / services.

          Doing that will positively Change Your Business!

           

          Have Questions? Call Us at 866-357-7422

          Or Submit your information below

           

            Probably not.

            But here are the details…

             

            What is the CCPA ( California Consumer Privacy Act )?

            California residents will be able to demand companies to disclose what information is collected on them and request a copy of that data.

            Companies will be forced to delete consumers’ data if requested by the consumer and will be prohibited from selling information if the customer asks them to via a mandatory “do not sell” link on your website.

            Consumers will also have the right to “receive equal service and price whether or not they exercise their privacy rights” which means, companies won’t be able to treat a user differently because they have requested their data.

             

            Businesses That the CCPA Affects

            Businesses are required to comply with the new regulations if they have annual gross revenues of more than $25m, acquire 50% or more of their revenue from selling consumers’ data, or annually buy / receive / sell, or share the personal information of more than 50,000 consumers, households, or devices for commercial purposes.

            This is roughly 500,000 businesses in the US that will be required to comply with the new law.

            And to be clear ONLY California residents “have this right”.

             

            What Does This Mean For You?

            Well if you sell to people in California, have over $25,000,000 in gross annual revenue or sell consumer data then you’ll need to create a page for you website that has a link to email or form that a consumer can submit asking you to Do Not Sell to them (and you’ll have to not sell to them if they submit).

            AND if one of those California consumers asks you for the data you’ve collected on them you’ll have to give it to them. And if they ask for it to be deleted you’ll have to delete it.

             

            Here’s the Thing!

            Most companies are only collecting basic data on consumers in the form of lead generation or customer information to process orders. Think name, address, city, state, purchase history, etc.

            If you have that information it will be easy to hand over or delete.

            But what most consumers are “freaking out” about is the pixel / cookie tracking that happens in browsers and shows you ads (what people call creepy).  YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE for that tracking. It is not your business collecting that data.  This is more likely to be Google or Facebook.

            DO NOT confuse the CCPA with the European GDPR (which is the whole “give people a message on your site telling them your tracking them” thing).

             

            For Reference here is how Disney does it (to be fair they are the extreme and do way more than you need to)

            https://privacy.thewaltdisneycompany.com/en/current-privacy-policy/your-california-privacy-rights/

            2020 is here and it’s time to think about how you’re going to tackle growth online for your company.

            In this video I outline our hope for you moving into the new year in finding a solid B2B Digital Marketing agency partner that will help you achieve your goals, get more traffic, more leads and more sales.

            You may not be working with anyone now, you may have worked with another company in the past or the currently company who isn’t producing the results you want. Regardless we want you thinking about that plan for the new year and ensuring you’re partnered with someone who is aligned with your goals!

            How do you create a Marketing Plan for a Printing Company?

            That is the question we here from printers and after doing more research found that a lot of print companies are asking about this online as well.  So we decided to break this down for you better than anyone else has.

             

            Here are the 5 Steps to creating a Marketing Plan for a Printing Company!

            1. Define Your Target Customer (who needs / wants your service)
            2. Determine Your Budget (how much you’ll spend)
            3. Agree on Channels (where you’ll show up)
            4. Define a Theme (what you will talk about)
            5. Build the Assets & Launch! (watch the new business roll in)

             

            Printing Company Marketing Plan Step 1: Define Your Target Customer

            This is what everyone says… “Figure out your target customer.”. But how do you actually do that?

            Many print companies will tell us, “Everyone who wants to buy print is a prospect”, of course but can you get a little more creative, come on!

            Here are a few ways to do define your target customer and then some ideas on who you should / can actually target.

            • Is there an industry you sell a lot of print to? If so then make sure to consider them a primary target customer.
            • Look at the job titles of the people who buy from you. Are is there a pattern or a lot of the same job title? Consider them a customer.
            • Is there a specific product you want to sell? What industry uniquely uses that product? That’s a target customer (if you promote that product)
            • In general your safe targeting anyone in a marketing decision making position. Director of Marketing, Marketing Manager, Marketing Coordinator, etc.
            • And then you have publishers like Printing impressions that puts out a list of the top 25 Markets for print. Focus on one or more of those!  Here is the list if you haven’t seen it: https://www.piworld.com/resource/top-25-hot-markets-for-print-demand-in-2019-20/file/

             

            Once you’ve made a decision here you are ready to move on to the next step.

             

            Printing Company Marketing Plan Step 2: Determine Your Budget

            Determining a budget is easy.

            Some think it will be a huge effort and tedious, but it doesn’t have to be.

            If you have a marketing budget that you’ve created each year, then you’re already done because you already do it.  If you don’t then think of any of the marketing activities you’ve done in the past year and estimate how much you spent. If that number is one you feel good about for the next year then use it, if you feel you could invest a little more then add to it.  This doesn’t have to be rocket science.

            If you are planning on attending events, having a booth, traveling, etc. then you’ll probably want to put a little more thought into it, but in general as long as you have a number you’re good because you’ll just work backwards from the channel efforts into that number.

             

            Got a number? Yes?!

             

            Then it’s time to move on the next step, Channels.

             

            Printing Company Marketing Plan Step 3: Agree on Channels

            There are a ton of good places for printing companies to market, but let’s break it down to 3 primary areas.

            • Offline
            • Online
            • Email (Existing Customers)

            Your offline efforts can include national or local trade shows, local events, and direct mail.

            First off we’ll tell you… Don’t Do Sponsorships that only show your name and logo somewhere.  It doesn’t help!

            If you are choosing to do trade shows you likely know what you are doing or are getting all the details for it, we won’t go into detail on how to choose and set up for one of those, but they can definitely be effective.

            Local events are a very successful place to be.  If you’ve chosen a solid target set up at local events where those customers attend and bring printed samples of the things they will need from you relevant to them.  For example if they are packaging people bring samples of packaging! Pretty simple.

            And Direct Mail is obvious and you’re all over that, no need to elaborate on our end.

             

            For Online Efforts you need to optimize your website to show up in the search engines, post blogs, post to social media, run ads and send email.  Period, it’s that simple!

            Here’s an article by us on how print companies can create and run successful ad campaigns  AND here is a page that talks about how to market your printing company online successfully.

             

            And Email is again straightforward.  We do recommend using email as a part of your online efforts, but when we separated it out here we mean that you should be marketing to your existing customers past and present by sending emails to them. Literally the more visible you are to them the more they will buy.  The more strategic and creative you are in your email the more they’ll buy.

            Here is a page on our site that talks about email marketing for print companies.

             

            On to to your Theme (some call it messaging and positioning)

             

            Printing Company Marketing Plan Step 4: Define a Theme

            Defining a theme can be as easy as saying “I am going to market beverage printing to beverage companies” or “I am going to promote 24/7 availability OR Quick turn printing to Marketing Decision Makers”.

            Or it can be complicated and focus on “Tell & Show Industry X, companies in Y geography with 100+ employee head count, job titles of Marketing Directors and VPs of Marketing how easy we make their job by doing ABC things”.

            Either way you’ll do the same thing. Distribute assets to them saying and showing those things.

            But putting it to paper solidifies it and creates a common idea on what your going to say!

             

            Lastly build and launch.

             

            Printing Company Marketing Plan Step 5: Build the Assets & Launch

            This says it all.

            Now you’ll just build out the assets for each of your decided on channels, targeting the people you chose, saying the the things you defined as a theme within the budget you define.

            Then Launch, Go Live, Attend, etc.

             

            This is Guaranteed to get you More New Business.  More Leads & More Sales!

             

             

            Have Questions? Call Us at 866-357-7422

            Or Submit your information below

             

               

              When someone new starts at Acumen we ask a handful of questions to start to get to know them better and share that with you because we’re excited to have Awesome people join the team!

              Where are you from?

              I have lived many different places around the United States but I am currently living in St. Charles MO.

              What are some things you enjoy doing (besides working)?

              I am a wedding photographer and videographer on the side. I also love to run and workout.

               

              Favorite Movie Genre or Fave Movie?

              I am down to watch any kind of Marvel movie any day of the week!

               

              Favorite Type of Music and/or Band You’re Feeling Right Now?

              Right now I am feeling 70’s and 80’s hits, but my favorite band is Panic! at the Disco.

               

              Place you’d like to visit but haven’t yet?

              Visiting Bora Bora and staying in one of the water Bungalows is on my bucket list.

               

              Drink of Choice?

              Any kind of lemonade, strawberry, raspberry, peach, you name it!

               

               

              Welcome to the Team Sarah!