Margie Dana

This is one cool story that happens to

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be true. My son goes to high school in Brookline, MA, with Bernie Zak, aka . When Bernie got wait-listed at UCLA for admission next fall, he refused to sit back and…wait.

So he took to Twitter. He created a campaign to convince UCLA to move him off the wait list and onto the one that says, “You made it!” Using #AcceptBernieUCLA, he then decided to tweet one reason a day for 50 days why the venerable California institution should accept him. He began 50 days before the final decision date, which is June 1.

One of UCLA’s publications picked up the story and ran this article at http://goo.gl/5DUq9. Our local newspaper, the Brookline Tab, also covered it.

Turns out Bernie didn’t need all 50 reasons after all. Today my son came home from school and told me that Bernie got into UCLA.

Did his Twitter campaign do the trick? I do not know. I don’t know if Bernie will ever find out. I’m fairly confident that UCLA has pretty stringent admissions requirements.

But it clearly didn’t hurt.

What’s also interesting is that Bernie hasn’t been a very active tweeter, at least not according to this account. It shows a couple of hundred tweets and about a hundred followers. So the quantity of tweets wasn’t a factor.

Here’s the latest story from UCLA about Bernie’s good news: http://goo.gl/eOeLA.

To me, this is one clever use of Twitter. It put Bernie Zak on the map – and on the road that leads right to the front doors of UCLA.

Congratulations, Bernie!

Choosing the Right Webinar Format

They’re everywhere and every day – webinars. I should keep track, but I’m guessing that I get invited to or information about upcoming webinars three to five times a day.

I hadn’t been a fan, and I still prefer face-to-face seminars, but it doesn’t matter what I like. It’s clear that webinars are a fact of doing business, and I’ve decided that I should probably add them to my new business.

When I did webinars for Print Buyers International, they were 30 minutes long. I like this length a lot. Sixty minutes is just too long for me to commit to sitting still, watching a slideshow and listening to one or multiple speakers from the confines of my office. Besides, I get distracted. Work calls. Emails beckon. There’s always a project or two in the work.

Most of the webinars I’ve joined this year have involved slideshows. But there was one nifty webinar I attended in March that I much preferred – not only was it just 30 minutes, but it only had a cover slide or two. That’s it! It was designed to be an open discussion for the attendees. They could ask questions “live” and make comments as well, just by using the “Raise your hand” function on the webinar technology.

This meant I could listen and still do other things, which I did. I also took lots of

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notes, since this webinar was on marketing in the printing industry (my sweet spot).

That webinar made all the difference. I will model my own on this format and see what the audience thinks: open forum, one topic to chew on, everyone can contribute.

What do you think? Have you attended such a webinar, with no slides to tie you to your monitor? I’m interested in the opinions of attendees like me – how often do you “do” webinars? What’s the perfect length? Do they really grab your full attention?

Tracking Your Print Campaigns: Part Two – DirectSmile®

This week I’m back to writing about tracking your print campaigns. How can you do it? Yes, there are QR codes and PURLs. And two weeks ago, I wrote about XMPie’s solution for tracking print campaigns.

Today I’m writing about another software solution from DirectSmile^®. I learned about DirectSmile from Andreas Weber. Andreas is the CEO of Value Communication AG in Mainz, Germany. For this Tip, Andreas focused on DirectSmile Cross Media, which allows you to create personalized print pieces, personalized emails and personalized web sites. I asked him a few key questions.

How does DirectSmile help marketers track their print campaigns?

DirectSmile Cross Media allows you to create personalized print pieces, emails and websites. Additionally, different media can be combined into cross-media campaigns. It can track various things, mostly related to the online media being used, such as the opening of an email, visits to a landing page and specific activities of website visitors.

The print pieces that are part of a typical cross-media campaign cannot be tracked electronically, of course, but are tracked indirectly. As part of the distribution process, a barcode can be printed on the piece and filmed during sorting or enveloping.

To track usage, a printed flyer can include a QR code. The software then tracks how many people used this code to access a landing page (which has already been created with the software).

During an active campaign, it might be important to know if a printed piece has been produced for a specific record; for example, a person who has confirmed his attendance at an event can needs to receive a printed VIP ticket.

In this case, there is a special database “event” that can be set, which tells the campaign manager that a printed piece for this specific record has been produced.

In addition, database fields may be used for tracking activities.

Do marketers ever purchase this app, or is it typically print service providers who do so?

The DirectSmile app has both types of customers. Marketers within corporations buy it as do service providers. One aspect for larger corporate clients is the fact that they don’t want their data to leave the firm.

In a nutshell, how does it work? Is it most effective for multi-channel campaigns, or can it work as well for print only?

The DirectSmile Cross Media app is most effective for cross-media campaigns based on two or more media; for example, print used with a website. In fact, the future will show that print in combination with online creates the highest effectiveness for communication campaigns.

The beauty of this application is the fact that it allows you to create personalized, targeted print products and combine them with one or more other media so you get the best of both worlds – without needing programming skills like html.

The user can simply and easily create websites in a graphical editor.

So you could say that DirectSmile Cross Media allows you to enhance the significance of print pieces by making it as easy as never before to add other media and create a real response cycle.

This application can be used by any print-focused user who simply wants to add a response line and measurability to a great printed piece.

Is there a real-time component, so that the printers/marketers can see how a campaign’s doing?

Yes, the app provides users a dashboard. The user can also create this by using drag & drop and creating a dashboard with the corporate identity of the campaign owner.

Where can readers learn more about DirectSmile, Andreas?

For more information, please visit

http://dsmx2.directsmile.de/Demo_Movie%40Demo_English.html
(real demo of the software, 10 mins) to see how this works.

Or watch

http://www.directsmile.com/?id=486

This movie is created for the perspective of a marketer and explains what the software does. It’s also interesting for a service provider because it presents some typical challenges marketers are facing in corporations.

Margie Dana Launches New Business As Content Stylist

CHESTNUT HILL, MA — April 23, 2013 – With her sights set on helping companies promote their strengths and corporate personalities through carefully crafted content, Margie Dana has exited the event production business and started a new company at margiedana.com.

Since 2003, when she founded the local Boston Print Buyers association, followed by the Print Buyers International group, Margie has been committed to bridging the gap between print manufacturers and their customers. Her newest venture is an extension of this mission. As explained in this new video, Margie now focuses on content strategy services for companies who lack the resources to toot their own horn.

As a former print buyer, Margie is sensitive to the issues and motivations of professionals who source print. And as the founder of a major print buying association that held annual conferences for seven years, she is acutely aware of the challenges that this market faces as print and print buying continue to evolve. She will draw on all of her previous professional experience to help clients articulate the benefits of their products and services.

Building communities through content

Ms. Dana might be best known for her weekly email newsletter, “Margie’s Print Tips,” which she started in 1999 to promote her first business. That newsletter is still published every Monday and will be housed on the new web site. “If it weren’t for my Tips newsletter, I don’t think anybody in this industry would know me,” said Dana. “I’m living proof that content builds communities, and now I want to help companies build their own communities by providing and publishing great content both online and off.” She has also launched a new blog, “Margie on Marketing,” which will be regular musings about business marketing trends – the good, the bad, the ugly.

Goodbye event producer, hello content stylist

After years of producing successful annual conferences for print buyers, Margie is exiting the event production business. With a desire to get back to her first love of writing, she’s honoring her late mother who (along with many English teachers) encouraged her to “use her words.” Services include writing and editing content, ghostwriting (such as social media posts), public speaking, and private event design. Ms. Dana will also continue to do market research about print buying.

“Too many companies in this industry have zero resources for developing good content about their work and their accomplishments. I’ve been itching to help them for years – not only in words but also in videos, images and in-person participation at appropriate events. Content development has always come easily for me. I think of it as content styling – and I’m certain that I can help clients increase their visibility in the same way. ”

For details about this new business, visit margiedana.com, where you can also sign up for Margie’s Print Tips as well as her Margie on Marketing blog.

About Margiedana.com

Margie Dana launched her new business in 2013 as a content strategist with a specialty in printing and print buying. As comfortable working in social media as she is in traditional media, Margie’s on a mission to help clients build customer communities through carefully crafted content. For details on her services and to sign up for her newsletter and new marketing blog, visit margiedana.com or send an email to .

Spring Cleaning Is Good for the Soul

Guess how many Print Tips I have written? Over 700! I started back in the fall of 1999, and here I still sit, writing a column a week about print and related fields.

When I decided the time was right for a change in my business, I just couldn’t toss the Tips – I have too much to say. But it surely was time for a makeover. Here’s the first issue of my newsletter’s new look: cleaner and leaner.

Your time is precious, as is mine. I vow to keep my Tips short and sweet.

What’s in store for this new generation of Print Tips? Here’s what interests me:

– How print ‘plays nice’ (or not) with new media

– How marketers are changing how they incorporate print in campaigns

– How new printing technologies can help marketers

– How printing companies are evolving

– How print buying pros are dealing with changes in their careers

– How other media affect the print industry

These topics will continue to be the grist for my newsletter mill, as it were. Looked at as a body of work, they will help me help you keep an eye on what’s changing about print – and what’s exciting.

Very soon I’ll be doing a short survey to find out what your interests are. For all I know, you want me to write about raising a mini poodle (just kidding) or the secret to a perfect piecrust (go ahead, ask me). Seriously, I want to know what you want to read. Then I’ll do my best to deliver.

I hope you’ll come along with me for this ongoing ride. Once again, welcome to my new newsletter. As always, I value your comments. Don’t be shy – tell me what you think!

Tracking Your Print Campaigns: Part One – XMPie®

This is a column to share with your marketers.

Have you ever wondered how you could track a print campaign so that you could measure the response and gauge its effectiveness? I have.An innocent query from a marketer on this very topic had me post the question in my professional network, and two experts replied with information too good not to share.

Larry Zusman is Director of Video Personalization at XMPie®, a Xerox Company. I've heard Larry speak about personalization several times – he's terrific, and clearly an authority on this subject (so if you need an expert to present, hint, hint.)

I also heard from Andreas Weber, the CEO of Value Communication AG, in Mainz, Germany. Andreas is widely recognized as Germany's leading business communications analyst and innovation expert, with a focus on state-of-the-art graphic communications concepts and solutions for variable business/brand communication.

These experts taught me about two software solutions that marketers – and print providers – should be aware of, when developing cross media campaigns.

This week, I'll share what I learned from Larry about the XMPie solution. In two weeks, I'll share Andreas' information about DirectSmile®.

XMPie®
I spoke with Larry Zusman over the phone to learn more about XMPie's solution for tracking and analyzing multi-channel campaigns. He focused on a particular tool: PersonalEffect® Analytics (PEA). According to their web site, it is “the industry's first Web-based tracking and reporting tool that monitors each phase of a multi-channel, one-to-one marketing campaign, including print, email and the Web.” (Visit www.xmpie.com for details.)

PEA is a tool that lets you track the success of a print campaign. It has a unique capability, said Larry, something called ADOR, which stands for Automatic Dynamic Object Replacement. The ADOR is the ID of a specific variable content object that is being referenced in a print or electronic document as a variable component. For example, it could be the name of a person, or it could be a graphic, image, audio file or movie. The ADOR object represents something in the database that could change for each recipient in a campaign – across all media. By linking these ADOR objects to the design document, based on business rules, you create communications to the recipient that are highly targeted and relevant. Why is this important? He explained that when you start the PE Analytics process, you determine what you want to track. Let's say you're doing a New Moms marketing campaign. You're going to get photography and determine what photos might be appropriate for a new mom, an older mom, or a mom of a boy, etc. You, the marketer, can track and test down to the level of the specific image used for each recipient in the XMPie campaign.

Imagine you get a printed piece in the mail, advertising the New Moms promotion from a major retailer. Maybe you redeem the offer by calling the call center or visiting the personal website or scanning the QR code in the mailer. The response mechanism that you used and your response to that particular piece can be tracked and analyzed for recipients, groups of recipients or larger populations.

Keep in mind you don't track everything in a campaign. You have to ask, what's relevant? What do I want to track? The marketer in that Moms campaign might want to know if the cover image is strong enough for new moms.

Here's another scenario: a marketer might do a PURL that is included within a concurrent print and email campaign. Analytics can show if print pulled better than email, and vice versa. And you can also determine which content used for each one of these components did better.

The software can ask some very complicated questions, in addition to basic ones. For example, these can relate to geographic difference in component responses among different populations or tell you, for example, the characteristics of respondents in relation to their response to variable offers. ADORs let you track content at a very deep level, tracking and measuring every action and reaction within your campaign.

Marketers want to know the analytics, and with the XMPie solution, it's easy. They've created some cool gauges, said Larry, “like a good, better, best rating” on the ROI in a campaign. This can be generated using PEA and can also be accessed via XMPie CircleTM, an SaaS solution that provides an interactive digital storyboard for multichannel campaigns.

With XMPie Circle, the customer has a view of the whole campaign and can roll over the various components to see the measurement online. (For details, visit www.xmpie.com/Circle.) Larry noted that XMPie integrated with Exact Target on the email side, so that emails are tied-in with PE Analytics.

Who buys these solutions? Typically marketing solutions providers and print providers, though Larry mentioned that many end customers, including universities, financial services and hospitality companies, do as well.

I know I learned a ton about tracking campaigns from my conversation with Larry Zusman, and I hope this information serves you well. Do visit their web site at www.xmpie.com. Should you have questions, please contact .good customer service essay

Who Writes the Specs?

Last week someone in charge of sourcing print for his company wrote to ask my opinion: should he write the printing specs, or should his clients – the internal folks at his firm? He’d heard in the past that clients should write specs.

It brought me back to my corporate print buying days at Boston University in their publications department and at MFS, when I handled financial printing in their communications department. In each position, I dealt with dozens of internal “clients” who worked with our buying pros in order to get something printed.

We were the inside printing experts in both cases. We were required to know how to help clients shape their projects. Our task was to determine what they wanted; advise them on details, pricing, and schedule; get estimates; place orders with the appropriate printer; set and oversee the production schedules; and help ensure that clients ultimately got the jobs they expected. This included writing job specs.

Of course we’d work closely with clients to learn what they had in mind. Discussions included such things as quantity, format, inks, images, paper, finishing techniques – and anything else related to a job.

It was our responsibility to develop detailed job specs to send to printers for price estimates. Our internal clients lacked the industry experience, for the most part, and frankly, I wouldn’t trust any job specs they might attempt to write, especially if I was the one responsible for getting something printed.

So if you’re in a print buying role for your organization, this means it’s your job to develop detailed specs for every project. It presumes you have the knowledge and skill to do so. If not, you have to acquire it. Start by asking your printers for a lesson. Also, buy a copy of Pocket Pal and a copy of Getting It Printed. Terrific books, both of them.

I Feel a Blog Coming on

BeeGees The Bee Gees may have started a joke, but I started a blog. For a long time, I’ve wanted to write about marketing, and now, with the launch of my new business, I can!

While my weekly newsletter will continue to cover how print and digital media intersect*, this blog will take a broader look at how companies are marketing themselves with all sorts of tools across lots of channels.

Some days I’ll be writing as a consumer. Other days, I’ll be writing as a small business owner. And I’ll also post comments from my ‘day job’: a marketing specialist in the graphic arts industry. (I’m a bit like Eve, what with these three faces and all.)

Regardless, I hope my blog provides valuable food for thought about marketing techniques, tools, media channels, relevancy, faux pas, trends, and predictions.

Dear _____________, I wear blinders when you come calling

I’m living a very real challenge for two marketers who already serve me. They have a hard time selling me anything else.

I’m thinking in particular of my health club and my email marketer.

First, a focus on (my) fitness: Don’t you dare try and woo me away from my health club, the local JCC in Newton, MA. A member for over 15 years, I’ve developed close friendships with other members and rate the J’s fitness classes as the best to be found anywhere (and I mean anywhere). That’s how loyal I am. I’m there daily. The J is absolutely my second home.

The club does a great job of keeping in touch by email to announce upcoming events. And the web site is truly excellent – but to be honest, I don’t spend any time there except to look up the group fitness classes when my memory fails me. For all I know, the rest of the site could be in Greek.

Similarly, I’ve been a client for 10+ years. They send out my weekly newsletter on Mondays. I have zero complaints about their service. I get all the reporting I need. Maintaining and exporting my databases from CC are easy functions. They’ve truly never let me down.

I get lots of emails from Constant Contact. I think they’re promoting seminars – but to me, I get what I need from them for email management. So I ignore and delete other communications that I deem unrelated to my email service.

In fact, in both cases, I feel I’m getting what I need from them – what I signed up for, what I purchased, what I enrolled in.

Surely, this can’t be unique to me. Does it happen to you? Do you dismiss attempts from current service providers to promote other things to you?

I suppose it depends on the particulars. For example, if I were a regular at a restaurant and on their email list, I’d expect they’d contact me about new menus, special events and maybe guest chefs. I’d absolutely pay attention to those emails.

But in the examples of my health club and email marketing firm, I’ve turned a deaf ear to their repeated contacts with me, for the most part, unless the subject line speaks directly to me.

It has to be one of marketers’ biggest challenges. Something to keep in mind, that’s for sure.

Monthly Archives: April 2013

This is a column to share with your marketers.