The Changing Face of Print

An interview with JP Midgley, CEO of Avalon Document Services

For a while, many companies were charging full-speed ahead with blinders on away from print marketing. Now, however, they are realizing that the key is not abanding print completely, but instead being more strategic about how they use it. We recently spoke with JP Midgley, CEO of Avalon Document Services, on whom we rely for many of our own and our customers' printing projects. In the following Q&A, he discusses the changing trends in printed marketing materials: what types of print collateral companies are ordering — and what types they're not. We also offer our own comments and examples throughout (in the boxes, in green).

Thinking Outside the Box

In April, we talked about some outdated marketing materials and practices that might be holding your business back. Now we’ll discuss a few ideas that are ahead of the curve. While business cards and company brochures are still staples at tradeshows and similar events, many forward-thinking businesses are getting more creative with their promotional materials.

Hall of Shame

Is Your Marketing Strategy Optimized to Attract Today’s Buyer?

The operative word in this question is Attract. The impact of pushing your message out to your target prospect via advertising, PR, and direct sales has changed. Leading companies recognize that buyers no longer just listen to your message – that it takes an engagement process to first attract the right prospects and then move them along the buying process, until they are ready to make a decision. An engagement mindset is important because according to Forrester Research, your prospective customers are 67% to 90% through the buying journey BEFORE they contact the vendor.

Google+: A rundown

Although it has been criticized as a too-little-too-late competitor to Facebook, a year and a half after its launch, Google+ (sometimes abbreviated as G+) seems to be holding its own. The site (plus.google.com) has 500 million registered users, 135 million of whom are active on a monthly basis, Google announced Dec. 6, and it is the fastest-growing social network.

Tech Marketing Budgets & Trends

Earlier this Fall, IDC released their 10th annual CMO Tech Marketing Benchmark Study, highlighting the budget allocation and trends of mid-sized and large tech companies. Marketing Profs also covered some of the results last month. While the IDC survey represents primarily mid-to large tech companies, there are insights and trends that apply to even the smallest of tech companies.

Press Releases: Do they still work?

PR has always been considered an important part of an integrated marketing plan. It helps to create awareness and establish credibility in a way that paid advertising cannot. 

Inbound Marketing Takes Hold

Having just returned from HubSpot’s #Inbound12 conference in Boston, participants, most of whom are inbound marketing HubSpot partners, like us (PLS Launch Solutions), HubSpot customers, and marketers – I learned of companies in a broad range of industries (B2B & B2C) having success generating sales through inbound marketing while leveraging HubSpot. I also learned that traditional marketing continues to play an important role – more focused – more integrated, on- and off-line. The bottom line is our clients need to be where their customers are – and that’s more on-line.

Does Email Marketing Still Work?

Email marketing is passé. Business people are inundated with so much email. The chance of getting their attention is slim. Email marketing is being replaced with other channels including mobile and social media.

Are Mental Biases Derailing Your Corporate Strategy?

The presidential debate has spent a lot of airtime on something we businesspeople already know: corporations are people. Whatever the corporation's rights and responsibilities, success and failure comes down to the people that make up the business. And corporate strategy most often fails due to our inherent mental biases.
In a classic McKinsey report, Hidden Flaws in Strategy, Charles Roxburgh outlines the 8 human biases that drive good executives to create flawed strategies:

Generate Qualified Sales Leads

In a recently released Marketing Sherpa benchmark report on Lead Generation, two charts in the report excerpt caught my attention. In this study which was conducted in early 2012, over 1900 marketers weighed in on their lead generation initiatives and success.