The interlinkONE Blog
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
Mailing and Fulfillment in a Multi-Channel World
From May 12th through the 15th, I will have the opportunity to attend and participate in the 2012 MFSA Southwest Chapter Conference.
interlinkONE has been a Gold Partner of MFSA on a national level for a number of years, and we are always happy when we get the chance to interact with members on a regional level.
During the conference, I will be delivering a one-hour presentation that is titled “Multi-Channel Marketing for the Mailing and Fulfillment Services Provider“. The presentation will cover a variety of topics, including:
- Challenges Faced by Service Providers in Today’s World of Marketing and Communications
- Selling Multi-Channel Marketing Solutions
- Best Practices for Managing, Executing, and Measuring Marketing Campaigns
- Emerging Technologies and Getting Ready for What’s Next
The 2012 MFSA Southwest Chapter Conference is being held Worthington Renaissance Hotel in Fort Worth Texas from April 12th – 15th.
I hope to see you there!
For more information about the conference, please click here >>
Business Lessons for the Mailing & Fulfillment Industries… from Tom Hanks and Wilson

The MFSA Mid-Winter Conference was held in Phoenix this past February, at the beautiful Arizona Grand Resort. As you might expect, the folks back at the interlinkONE office in Boston certainly gave me their share of teasing as they (incorrectly, I might add) believed I spent most of time there in the sun.
However, I must admit that to spent time during the conference watching a movie! This happened during one of the keynote sessions.
The presenter was Wayne Peterson of the Black Canyon Consulting Group and the title of his presentation was “Navigating In a Life Raft”. He prefaced each of the main points in his presentation with scenes from the movie “Castaway“.
In addition to entertaining us with clips of Tom Hanks’ exceptional acting job, Wayne provided 5 lessons that business leaders in the mail, fulfillment, and print service providers can follow in these changing times in the world of marketing and communications.
Step 1: Assess where you are now
Times are less-than-ideal for many folks that primarily provide traditional marketing services, which certainly includes mail, print, and fulfillment. In the case of Tom Hanks, he had survived a horrific plane crash but was stranded.
Wayne encouraged all attendees to avoid standing still, but rather, to take a hard and honest look at their situation. This includes revenue, trends, resources, technology, customers, and more.
Step 2: Define a Strategy
Once you’ve assessed what you have, you need to make a strategy to guide your next moves. According to Wayne, a strategy should consist of three things:
- Diagnosis — a statement of the problem and challenge. It should be a simple, distiller description of what really matters.
- Treatment Plan: what is needed to deal with that diagnosis
- Prescriptions: specific actions needed to start implementing that treatment
Step 3: Build up your Brand
For companies that make their living providing services to other businesses, one thing often gets lost in the shuffle is this: taking the time to service and build up your own company!
One major aspect of this involves taking positive steps to improve and increase brand awareness and recognition.
In the case of Tom Hanks and Castaway, the “brand” that he defined and built up was Wilson.
As a service provider, your brand is quite heavily defined your customer’s perception. To help control that, a company must deliver on their brand promise. In order to motivate one’s customers, a brand promise should:
- Convey a compelling benefit
- Be authentic and credible
- It must be able to be kept, every time.
Step 4: Go to Market
This step is much easier said than done. And often, it takes multiple attempts. In “Castaway”, Tom Hanks ran through multiple attempts and variations as he looked for ways to find rescue.
Going to market involves taking a look at your strategy and brand promise, and then choosing how to take that value to find new customers or new business from existing ones.
For many service providers, this may require changing the resources or process that guides their Sales team. Reps may need to adjust from selling commodities to selling solutions.
That may not be an easy transition, but one that can reap extraordinary benefits.
Step 5: Create a Compelling Customer Experience
In today’s multi-channel world, a customer’s perception of one’s business is defined by ever touch-point that they experience with us. Thus, we must be willing to analyze everything we do — from invoices, to phone reception, to email signatures, to website content, to collateral, and more.
Those items must align with the goals and values that we want our company to reach and be known for.
In Castaway, Tom Hanks’ character works for FedEx. They have long been known for having a brand promise that a package will be delivered! Near the end of the movie, there is a powerful scene where Tom Hanks delivers one of the packages that was originally on his plane to the destination mailing address.
Now that’s a way to deliver on a promise!
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I must say that this was certainly one of the more unique presentations that I have ever seen at a conference. And while I did use a few of my hand-written notes to help create this blog post, many of the points are still clearly in my head more than a couple of weeks since my trip to Phoenix.
The 2012 MFSA Mid-Winter Conference

From February 21st through the 24th, folks from both interlinkONE and Grow Socially will be attending the 2012 MFSA Mid-Winter Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
What is the Mid-Winter Conference?
The Mailing and Fulfillment Services Association (MFSA) always brings together a great collection of folks at their events, including the annual Mid-Winter Conference. This year’s event promises to continue that trend. Folks from all aspects of the mailing and fulfillment industries will be there — including representatives from the USPS, owners of mail and fulfillment companies, hardware and software vendors, and people that run the day-to-day operation at their facilities.
Needless to say, we are quite excited about the opportunity to participate in this year’s Mid-Winter Conference.
If you will be attending, we looking forward to seeing you! Here are a few things that you may want to keep an eye on:
Presentation from John Foley, Jr.
On Thursday, February 23rd, our CEO John Foley, Jr. will deliver a presentation and moderate a star-studded panel. Their theme is “A New Path to Profit: Business Transformation a Multi-Channel World“.
This session will take place from 10:30am until Noon.
During those 90-minutes, John and the panelists will discuss the challenges that service providers may face as they seek to adapt in a multi-channel world! They will share strategies, plans, tips, technologies, and tools that they are using to help their business grow!
Launch of a Book for the Mailing and Fulfillment Industries!
The 2012 MFSA Mid-Winter Conference will be the official launching pad for our CEO John Foley, Jr.’s new book!
Titled “Business Transformation: A New Path to Profitability for the Mailing and Fulfillment Industries”, this book is packed with case studies and growth strategies that are specific to the mail and fulfillment services providers.
Make sure visit our table in the Vendor area to pick up your copy of this book!
Benefits of our Warehouse Management and Automation Software
Our VP of Sales Karen DeWolfe will be on hand throughout the conference. If you are looking for ways to streamline your warehouse and inventory operations, make sure to spend some time with her!
Karen will be able to provide you with an overview of the latest enhancements to our ilinkONE Version 8 software. Let her know which areas you are looking for help in — whether it’s related to online ordering, inventory management, order processing, pick tickets and packing slips, shipping or more — and she will show you how our solution can help!
Learn How to Make Money with Mobile
There is no doubt that mobile is having a dramatic impact on the way that people communicate and consume information.
We will demonstrate how solutions that incorporate QR Codes, mobile websites, and more can be used to increase the effectiveness of print, mail, and fulfillment.
Ideas to Help You Improve Your Marketing Efforts
There is no doubt that service providers face tremendous pressure today to remain relevant and grow their business.
One way that they can do this is by increasing the effectiveness of their own self-promotional efforts. Grow Socially’s Vice President Dena Woerner will be at the conference, and she’d love to chat about ways that you can grow your business through website improvements, SEO, and social media efforts.
See You There!
We hope to see you in Phoenix! MFSA Mid-Winter Conference, here we come!
Marketing Tips for Mail and Fulfillment Service Providers
In just a few days, my beloved New England Patriots will be facing the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. And while I will certainly be rooting heavily against New York in that game, that certainly will not stop me from heading to that State in order to meet with some mail and fulfillment service providers!
On Wednesday, February 1st, I will be speaking at a meeting of the Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA) New York Chapter.
Presentation Overview
The presentation that I will be delivering is titled “How You Can Improve Your Own Marketing Efforts”.
I will focus on providing actionable items and intelligence that service providers can use to reach more prospects and generate more leads. Some of the main topics that will be covered include:
- Creating a marketing strategy and plan
- How to incorporate online marketing and content marketing into your effort
- Ideas for executing multi-channel marketing campaigns
- Ways to use social media and mobile marketing in your business
If you are in the New York area, I hope to see you there!
Event Details
When: Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Where: Club 101, 101 Park Avenue, (40th St), New York, NY
5:30 – Cocktail Reception
6:15 – Dinner
7:00 – Program
Need more information? Please visit the MFSA New York Chapter’s website >>
P.S. Go Patriots!





I recently had the chance to speak at the 2012 MFSA Southwest Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.



