Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
interlinkONE Headed to the MFSA Annual Conference
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From June 15th to the 18th, interlinkONE will be exhibiting at the 2011 MFSA Annual Conference!
If you will be attending as well, we’d love to see you there in Colorado.
Here a few of the things that we’ll discussing and presenting at our booth:
- How service providers can successfully benefit from the USPS discount on QR Codes!
- Enhancements to our ilinkONE Version 8 software, including inventory management, order fulfillment, and marketing automation.
- iFlyMobi and QReate & Track –How these tools can help mail, fulfillment, and print service providers reach the mobile audience.
- Best practices for companies that are looking to grow their business with social networking and online marketing.
Oh, and here’s one more reason why you might enjoy swinging by our booth — we’ll be giving away a Kindle! Increase your chances by registering here today.
There are a number of great sessions on the agenda as well. For example, Jason Quinn of Edwards Graphics will be chatting about how he’s successfully launched integrated marketing campaigns — including print, mail, email, and the web.
This conference promises to be beneficial for everyone involved. We are certainly honored to be a part of it, and we hope to see you there!
Tags 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
Sharpening the Spurs of your Online Marketing Efforts
San Antonio, here I come!
On April 2nd 2011, I will be speaking at the MFSA-Southwest Annual Conference. The event is being held in San Antonio, Texas at the Historic Old Menger Hotel.
While I’m certainly hoping that the weather will be warm, I can promise you one thing: if you attend my presentation, you will receive a whole lot of tips, tricks and other advice on how to improve your company’s online marketing efforts.
My presentation is tailored to mail, fulfillment, print, and marketing services providers.
If that is you, I hope to see you there!
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.
interlinkONE Participating in the 2011 MFSA Mid-Winter Conference
We are happy to announce that interlinkONE will be participating in the 2011 MFSA Mid-Winter Conference. The event is being held at the Doral Resort in Miami, FL, from February 2-5, 2011.
We are certainly looking forward to catching up with a lot of the friends that we’ve made through MFSA over the years. If you take a quick moment and check out the agenda, we think that you’ll agree that the topics being covered are all geared to help service providers move their business forward.
Of course, there’s one session that we are particularly excited about (plug alert!). On Thursday, February 3rd, interlinkONE’s CEO John Foley, Jr. will be leading the “Social Media Practice Session“. (I’ll have the opportunity to be a part of this as well.)
Here is a description of the session from the MFSA website:
This is a training session on how to develop and implement a social media marketing plan led by John Foley, Jr. of interlinkONE. Several real-world scenarios will be addressed covering the Big Three (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) plus Youtube. Examples and exercises will be distributed to participants to help them learn the techniques for successful social media marketing.
Does Miami (and discussions about marketing) in February sound good to you? If so, we hope to see you there.
