Resources for Printers & Mailers

I see it all the time, and it has even happened in my own business. Employees (and owners) mishandle situations that end up creating opportunities for their competition. It's not just the sales and customer service people who have to provide a customer-centric experience. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, in making his case for consistency, always claimed that the first bite and the last bite were what the customer remembered most. So pay attention to how your phones are being answered and how your products are being delivered. Consider having written policies to address this.

Create content with your customers' needs in mind rather than the needs of SEO, your company newsletter or social media. Too many companies are misdirecting their focus. If it doesn't present strong value to your customers, then it's not going to help you with the other areas either.

Contributed by Great Reach Communications editor, Heidi Tolliver-Walker

Your company website is the FIRST place prospects go to evaluate you. How does your site compare to those of your competitors? Are you putting your company at a competitive disadvantage right from the start? Here are some things to consider:

Pinterest launched Business Pages this week. Like Facebook and LinkedIn, they now are a player in the 'Brand' marketplace. Google plays favorites. Having a Google+ account is good for SEO. As if you didn't have enough on your plate! Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, gave Facebook a public lashing this week for their new algorithms and attempts to push more companies to pay for promoting posts. It's a good read. Google has implemented so many elements to their algorithm that require detailed knowledge of SEO (not just basics).

In an age when competitive advantage is fleeting, brand differentiation should be the ultimate goal for printers, mailers and marketers. What many companies believe are efforts to differentiate are in reality, efforts to replicate. A quick look at your website and marketing collateral may confirm this.

With branded Facebook pages, content that your company posts only appears on a percentage of your follower news feeds. On September 20th, Facebook revised the Edgerank algorithm that determines those percentages.The number of follower feeds your news appears on is considered your 'Reach.' Simply put, it's how many people you reached. Prior to the recent revision, posted content averaged a reach of about 25%.

In looking at cutting expenses, frequently one of the first cuts is in marketing. This can be a critical mistake. One way to make sure that you are in control of the message is to stay in front of the customer both through marketing avenues and personal one-on-one visits.