Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
CEO John Foley Wins the L.U. “Luke” Kaiser Educational Award
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on Monday, June 20, 2011 
at 4:16 PM 
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On behalf of all of the employees at interlinkONE, we would like to send a special shout of congratulations to our CEO, John Foley, Jr.
At the 2011 MFSA Annual Conference, John received the L.U. “Luke” Kaiser Educational Award.
Here is a description of the award from the MFSA website:
This award is given in the name of Luke Kaiser, a true industry pioneer, who founded the Premier Company, Houston, Texas. Mr. Kaiser was a great believer in the value of education as evidenced by his membership in 12 industry trade associations. The Kaiser award, established in 1978, is given to that person in MFSA who has contributed the most to the advancement of betterment of education pertaining to our industry. It may also be given to a student who attended one of MFSA’s technical training seminars, and, as a consequence, exhibits a high degree of competence.
A number of pictures and videos were taken at the Conference during the Awards gala. There is even a rumor that John’s acceptance speech is on video! If that turns out to be true and we receive permission to post it, we promise that we will share it with you.
Tags Mailing, Fulfillment, and Multi-Channel
From June 15th to the 18th, interlinkONE will be exhibiting at the 2011 MFSA Annual Conference.
While I won’t be there personally, two interlinkONE legends — John Foley, Jr. and Karen Sheehey will absolutely be in attendance!
Here is a quick video regarding some of the things that they’ll be talking about — including mail, fulfillment, and multi-channel marketing:
Tips for Finding Success in Warehouse and Inventory Management
Recently, interlinkONE’s Jason Pinto talked about a challenge that many sales reps face — being able to find & order collateral quickly when they need it.
I believe that challenge affects many companies across countless number of verticals and industries. Thus, there is a tremendous business opportunity for service providers that can offer solutions in regards to warehouse and inventory management.
If you are a print, mail, or fulfillment services provider that is looking into possibly offering those types of solutions, you may be looking for best practices. Well, you can absolutely start by looking at MFSA (Mailing and Fulfillment Services Association).
I had the opportunity to sit with Ken Garner, the CEO and President of MFSA recently. He shared the following tips for service providers that are looking to offer warehouse and inventory management solutions.
Tips from Ken Garner of MFSA
- Find market leaders who have done this successfully and are willing to share. Peer groups are important resources.
- ID the best in class vendor suppliers who can help and have a proven track record for transition.
- Develop a detailed comprehensive plan. Don’t do it for the sake of doing it. Have a direction, a goal, and a strategy for achieving it
- ID any required skill set internally or outsourced so you aren’t flying blind
- Consider engaging a qualified consultant
A Few Thoughts After the MFSA Mid-Winter Conference
From February 2nd through the 5th, we (myself and John Foley, Jr.) had the opportunity to attend the 2011 MFSA Mid-Winter Conference. As we headed home, we both agreed: it was an excellent conference.
Full disclosure: the location was Miami… the weather was absolutely beautiful. Yes, that helped contribute to the atmosphere. But even beyond the weather, we saw & experienced a number of positive things related to the mail, fulfillment, print and marketing service provider industries:
The Power of Belonging to an Association
In quite a few cases, companies that attended this show competed in the same markets. However at this show, they were far from “enemies”. Everyone seemed willing to share ideas to help each other grow their business. This happened especially throughout the smaller breakout sessions.
I especially enjoyed the discussions on how to motivate employees and compensate accordingly.
Increase in Social Media Usage
Social Media has been discussed at MFSA conferences over the past couple of years. While many may have been skeptical at the beginning (“why do I care what you ate for lunch?!”), I am happy to report that many of the attendees at this conference are now using social media through at least one channel for their business.
Some are farther ahead than others. For instance, I think that Summer Gould of Eye/Comm Direct and the folks at MMS Direct have it going on.
Since I’ve left the conference, I’ve seen a number of the attendees increase their usage of Twitter and beef up their profiles on LinkedIn.
Accepting the Need & Challenge to Change
Many of the attendees at the MFSA Mid-Winter Conference have been in the mail, fulfillment, and print business for a number of years. Perhaps the generation before them also did the same thing. In those cases, change is not always preferred route.
However, judging by the attendance, participation, and conversations in the breakout sessions on “strategy”, “planning”, “transition” in respects to marketing services, I will say that many of the service providers there are actively looking for ways to offer more solutions & programs to their clients, as opposed to commodity-based sales.
Using Direct Mail to Promote Online Activities
The Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA) has been around for more than 88 years. As you can tell from their name, their primary objective is “working to improve the business environment for mailing and fulfillment companies”. (Full disclosure: interlinkONE is a Gold Partner in the MFSA Vendor Program)
Yes, traditional mail and fulfillment has been their focus for a long time. However, they are not shying away from using online tools to help them accomplish their objective.
I received a direct mail piece from MFSA this week. It contained an invitation to their New England Chapter meeting in September. The mailer listed costs, registration options, an overview of the agenda, and I also believe a choice of chicken or prime rib (Okay, I made that last one up).
However, one of my favorite pieces of content on the mailer was a line that said “Join the New England Chapter Group on LinkedIn“. The familiar LinkedIn logo was placed next to this line of text.
I am quite familiar with MFSA — I’ve attended conferences, I receive most of their email newsletters, I’ve been to chapter meetings, and I visit their website. However, I was not yet aware that there was a LinkedIn group for the New England Chapter. It is certainly possible that I have completely overlooked advertisements about it on those other channels.
However, for some reason, seeing the note about it on the direct mail piece caught my attention. I joined the group that day.
People see, hear, touch, and smell more marketing messages than ever before. We are all competing to find ways to get our message noticed.
In a multi-channel world, I think MFSA just did a great job of that.
The Direct Mail piece
The Promotion of the LinkedIn Group
