A Publication Focused on Growth for Companies Like Yours | November 2019

Marketing • Design • Printing • Online Marketing • Promotions

V A L U EIS OFTEN HIDDEN

I NPLAIN

S I G H T

Idea Generators: Subway's SUB-versive advertising

3

Letter from the Editor..............................................................................4

Ignored Direct Marketing that Hurts your Marketing .............5

Descubre Mi Mexico Goes Native ......................................................9

Beyond Trusted Advisor - Becoming a Trusted Asset ...........11

Design Tips: Demystifying Image Resolution .............................13

EDITOR: Eric Webb

Publisher: AlphaGraphics of Cary

Art Director: Bruce Harris

Writers: Eric Web

Bob Lambert

Bruce Harris

Contact: ewebb@alphagraphics.com

919.233.7710

© 2019 - Eric Webb. All Rights Reserved.

This AlphaGraphics® business is an independently owned and operated franchise of AlphaGraphics, Inc.

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Enjoy

Eric Webb,AlphaGraphics Cary | N. Raleigh

Letter from the Editor

Eric Webb,President of AlphaGraphics, Editor of Momentum

Please send your comments or suggestions to me at ewebb@alphagraphics.com. We are always looking for unique stories about growth, and facts to publish, as well as ways to improve.

In this issue we focus on hidden value. Many times we think our value is fairly easy to see. Just like the Momentum Cov-er, the bottom half shines; but how does the rest of the cover not? Where does the shine come from? Is it a pos-itive ink affect or negative affect of where the ink is not? Many times true value remains hidden. The articles in this issue discuss hidden value or bring value forward. Whether understanding the value decisions made for marketing or getting to the value of understanding the customer. This issue helps point out value we may not recognize.

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When marketers discuss their plans, strate-gies and tactics I often hear that the majority of the spending is going to online marketing efforts. I ask them how did they come to that conclusion and in most cases they say, “our website analytics show where all the leads are coming from.”

I then ask, “what offline efforts are planned?”

The response generally is “conferences, a postcard or two, maybe a newsletter.”

“How often are these offline efforts repeated?”

“Once or twice for the whole year.”

That’s when I go more deeply and start ask-ing how they are measuring their offline programs. Most don’t try to measure it, and assume it’s just par for the course. I explain that their offline marketing efforts may have a greater impact than they think as many of their website visitors may be coming from the offline effort; they just don’t measure it correctly.

Ignored Direct Marketing Principals that Hurt Your MarketingBy Eric Webb

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Direct Marketing strategies are built around measurement and ROI. If marketers and business owners think in those terms their marketing spend may go in different directions. Below are some facts by channel that are important to understand when it comes to response rates:

Direct Mail Response Rates1. Direct Mail response rate was 4.9% for

prospect lists in 2018. This is significantly higher than in 2017 and the highest since the report started in 2003.*

2. In 2018, the direct mail response rate for house lists was an incredible 9%. This is also the highest number for house lists since the report started and is nearly double from the previous year.*

3. Direct mail still pulls a higher response rate than any digital direct marketing medium. Its response rate ranges from about five to nine times greater than that of email, paid search, or social media.*

4. A letter-size envelope for a lead generation campaign to a house file produced the best median response rate overall — 15.1%*

*Source: ANA/DMA Response Rate Report 2018

2015 2016 2017 2018House List Prospect List

9876543210

Median Direct Mail Response Rates

Direct Mail(N=79/61)

Email(N=161/103)

Paid Search(N=76)

Direct Mail(N=79/61)

Direct Mail(N=79/61)

House/Total Prospect

10%9%8%7%6%5%4%3%2%1%0%

Response Rate by Selected Media 20189%

5%

1% 1% 1% 0.3% 1%

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Based on the statistics that exist a lot of companies ignore the numbers and choose online marketing solely. When I ask more questions to dig deeper, what I find is that the marketing resources are tight and most business owners view it as an expense and not an investment.

That’s the first problem.By using direct marketing principals to mea-sure results, of EVERY CHANNEL, you can quickly adapt budget spend to areas that have the best Return On Investment. Spend-ing on SEO and PPC ads is easy, convenient

and you get immediate feedback. The prob-lem with this strategy on its own is that you are fighting for people already far down the funnel, with a need.

And all your competitors are there too!If you ever read the book “Red Oceans and Blue Ocean Strategies” you will understand that overtime you spend more money per person trying to fight it out with all your competitors in the mix instead of creating differentiation and standing out. Below are some basic tenents on Blue Ocean Strategies from authors Chan Kim and Rene Maborgne.

% of respondents who selected each option N = 1,200 Source: MarketingSherpa

Q. In general which type of advertising channels do you trust morewhen you want to make apurchase decision?

82%Print ads (newspapers, magazines)

80%TV ads

76%Ads/catalogs I receive in the mail

71%Radio ads

69%Ads in outdoor and public places (billboards, transit ads, posters, etc.)

61%Search engine ads (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.)

47%Video ads that appear prior to an online video

43%Sponsored posts on blogs that I read

43%Ads in social media (Facebook, instagram, etc.

39%Online banner ads

39%Mobile phone ads

37%Ads in podcasts

25%Online pop-ups

© Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne. All rights reserved.

Red Ocean vs Blue Ocean StragegyRed Ocean Stragegy Blue Ocean Stragegy

Compete in existing market space

Beat the competition

Exploit existing demand

Make the value-cost trade-o�

Align the whole system of a firm’s activities withits strategic choice of di�erentiation or low cost

Create uncontested market space

Make the competition irrelevant

Create and capture new demand

Break the value-cost trade-o�

Align the whole system of a firm’s activities inpursuit of di�erentiation and low cost

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While this article is not about the Blue Ocean Strategy concept it is about finding the best area that drives the best ROI. Most organiza-tions look at the cost of things not the return on investment; especially when it comes to marketing spend. And even those that do look at the ROI of efforts they can fall into the practice of being short sited.

I have one client that spends tremendous amounts on PPC ads. His PPC marketing agency (that’s all they do) shows results that beat any other channel they’ve tried that are typing in specific terms and phrases.

What they don’t realize is the cost of swim-ming with all their competitors is only going to go up. The Bid Rate for those placements will keep going up as each competitor tries to outbid the other. And if they were to start to measure the final ROI in obtaining that one buyer, they will see that the cost per acquisition is getting more and more expensive.

They have experimented with other chan-nels but the PPC ads always drive more leads to the website. These are not inexpen-sive products (thousands of dollars for one). Direct Marketing Principals follow many of the same Blue Ocean Strategies.

How do I create differentiation? How can I be where my competitors are not? How can I get ahead of my competitors and have the consumer only want to deal with me?

In this case a Content Marketing Strategy would work well to differentiate them. Direct Marketing pieces sent to consumers would add more credibility and trust. If you are go-ing to spend thousands of dollars on a prod-uct, you want to trust the organization you are buying from.

Imagine a packet of educational material sent to a home explaining why they are dif-ferent; and yes they are more expensive but here is why.

It’s important to look at the ROI of your ef-forts and not just the cost of it. Measure-ment is key. While many marketers think

direct mail and other online efforts are hard to measure, they really are not.

The USPS offers Informed Mail which tracks your mailings through a scan by the USPS driver. This tracking capability works. With trackable phone numbers you can use a spe-cific number on a mailing and have the abil-ity to track the call, where it came from, and have it recorded to help train your CSR’s.

With conferences you can leverage geo-fenc-ing to capture individuals’ phones and deliv-er ads to the owner. Direct marketing is not just direct mail, and the principals should be leveraged across all channels to change the mindset of expense versus investment.

We offer Beyond Mail

Beyond Mail, which is an omni-channel mar-keting platform, allows us to mail a direct mail piece, upload the same list and match it to the contact’s Facebook feed. We also re-target visitors to your website via the same platform and can lead match contact infor-mation to the 96% of people that visit your website but never engage – for less than 25 cents per contact:

These are all Direct Marketing platforms that provide ROI as fast as PPC alone. In many cases, such as the phone tracking, you re-ceive even more personal information be-cause you can listen to a recording of a conversation between your customer and your service rep.

By ignoring other channels because of pre-sumed expense and short-term thinking, we, as marketers, will be in a continuous fight for budget and differentiation. Only by having an ROI mindset will you be able to dictate the amount of funding you need and know it will result in a specific increase of sales.

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When advertising on social channels, you want to make sure your campaign fits in with the newsfeed that surrounds it. An ad that stands out for all the wrong reasons will quickly be ignored as users scroll on to less obtrusive posts. To ensure your ad meshes seamlessly with native content, take note of the trends and styles on each channel and incorporate them into your ad creative.

Descubre mi mexico instagram carousel ad - Travel Ad Examples

Above, Descubre Mi Mexico takes a page from one of Instagram’s popular hashtags, #thingsorganizedneatly

The precisely arranged objects in this Car-ousel ad not only fit in with Instagram’s content; they also display the wide range

of activities travelers can enjoy in Mexico, whether it’s a fancy dinner, golf game or outdoor expedition. The clever inclusion of a Descubre Mi Mexico pamphlet in each Car-ousel image also helps to subtly advertise the travel company.

Descubre Mi Mexico Goes NativeBy Carolyn Berk

source: www.nanigans.com/2016/10/13/4-travel-social-ad-campaigns-that-go-the-extra-mile/

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Idea Generators: Subway's SUB-versive advertising

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In The Little Teal Book of Trust, sales and marketing guru Jeffrey Gitomer offers sever-al strategies salespeople can use to become a trusted advisor. Here are the best ones:

1. Trusted advisors try to provide value, not supplies.

2. Trusted advisors focus on building rela-tionships, not just closing deals.

3. Trusted advisors consistently provide buyers with actionable insights and strat-egies for improving their business.

4. Trusted advisors make decisions based on what’s best for the customer’s interest, not their own.

5. Trusted advisors view themselves as partners in each buyer’s success.

6. Trusted advisors put the relationship first, quota second.

7. Trusted advisors speak in terms of long-term value and return on investment

First, let’s look at the term “Trusted Advisor”. It’s one of the most overused terms for many decades, it’s like the overuse of “paradigm & synergy” in the last decade, and “pivot” this decade. This overuse has led to a “so what”

everyone says the same thing attitude. BTW who’s determining what a Trusted Advisor is?

What do prospects, clients, and customers say about “Trusted Advisors”. That’s what really counts… what they think, not the sales person’s pre-determined view.

Starting with word Trust in (Trusted Advi-sor), what does trust mean? What are the components and elements of trust? What, in the eyes of the prospect, client or customer makes you trustworthy?

According to Steven M.R. Covey in his book “The Speed of Trust”, there are key compo-nents that makeup trust. One is Character, its key elements include; integrity, & intent (agenda). Second is Competence, which has key elements of skill, knowledge, and results.

Recently a group of bank executives told me that one of their top goals was to train their bankers to be “Trusted Advisors”. When asked what a trusted advisor is, they stum-bled through describing what that is. More importantly, when asked what their clients’ view of a trusted advisor is, they again stum-ble explaining and admitted that they have never asked their customers why they buy from them.

B E Y O N DTrusted Advisor

BECOMINGa Trusted Asset™

By Bob Lambert, Founding Partner, Samurai Business Group Turning sales mastery into a competitive advantage

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Next, I would suggest that the “Trusted Ad-visor” has limitations. Going beyond the ad-visor is really getting to a higher level for both buyer and customer. First, you can’t become a “Trusted Advisor” to a prospect until they’ve determined you are a person that they can trust.

The key to earning trust is understanding what the buyer values, what their compel-ling reasons are and the criteria they use for evaluating who they’re going to trust doing business with.

There are four basic criteria the buyer is using:1. Does your product/service overcome the

pain of change?

2. Do they believe your solution meets their compelling reasons to buy?

3. Is your solution viable for them to implement?

4. Does the buyer trust you and your company to deliver on your commit-ments and promises?

Beyond Trusted Advisor – becoming a Trusted Asset™

Trusted Advisor Trusted Asset ™Try to provide value. Viewed as a useful and valuable person, an

advantage and resource.

Focus on building relationships, not just closing deals.

Relationships are built on mutual trust, character and competence go beyond business.

Offer insights and strategies for improving business

Pro-actively provide business-building opportunities from divergent resources.

Make decisions based on what’s best for the customer’s interest.

Their guidance has proven profitable and expanded the scope as a resource to the customer

View themselves as partners in each buyer’s success.

Viewed by the buyer as collaborators, part of “their team or staff” and important to the overall success.

Speak in terms of long-term value and return on investment.

Have established a long term value and proven ROI through constant improvement

Strive to be considered experts in the field. Go beyond what is expected, they establish a level of trust through honor, service, and commitment.

Your goal, with all of your clients, should be to move from trusted advisor to

Trusted Asset™. You can accomplish that only by constantly putting the client

first, and by going beyond the scope of the definition of your professional

opinion. Stating it differently, if you believe and follow the guidelines of a

Trusted Asset™, in reality, you are a Trusted Friend.

About Samurai Business Group LLC®Samurai Business Group was founded with a vision of helping companies and selling professionals more effectively compete in a complex, rapidly-changing global economy. Devoted to sales and business development mastery, Samurai provides sales and sales management training programs, coaching and consulting to turn selling into a competitive advantage and drive long-term business success. For more information, please visit www.samuraibizgrp.com or email r.lambert@samuraibizgrp.com

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What is a Pixel?A "pixel" (shortened from "picture element") is defined as the smallest illuminating ele-ment on a digital screen. However, while this original definition remains perfectly valid, the meaning of the word has grown beyond the physical, to include its digital analog. To-day, we use the word far more commonly to describe the individual data points that make up a digital image, regardless of how that image might eventually be displayed. Paper obviously has no pixels, yet we still rely on the "pixel dimensions" (see below) of an image to determine its optimal print size. Just keep in mind that there are two kinds of pixels. There are physical pixels that make up a display screen, and image data pixels that make up a digital image.

What IS Resolution?When talking about image resolution in par-ticular, most people understand that we're discussing the clarity or sharpness of the image, but how does it work? The type of images we're discussing here, namely ras-ter image types like JPGs, TIFFs, and PNGs are all fundamentally the same in how they form images. Simply put, they're large grids of colored squares*. Each square in the grid is a pixel. A larger grid means more pixels; more pixels means higher resolution.

Pixel Dimensions and PPI vs DPIWe define an image's resolution by its width and height in pixels, or it's "pixel dimen-sions". When we place an image into a doc-ument, we can resize it how we like to fit our document. It's size changes on the page, but it's pixel dimensions remain the same.

Stretch the image large enough and it soon looks "pixelated". The higher its resolution, the larger you can stretch an image before it appears pixelated.

The concentration of pixels across a physical medium is usually described in terms of "pix-els per inch" or "ppi." The larger an image is stretched, the fewer pixels fall into a single inch, thus resulting in a lower ppi.

A term that is commonly used interchange-ably with ppi is "dpi" (dots per inch) but the two terms have entirely separate meanings. While ppi is the number of pixels concentrat-ed into one inch, dpi refers to the number of dots that a printer can place within an inch on paper. A typical printer can print some-where between 600-2400 dots per inch. The size, color and distribution of those dots control the overall print quality. So ppi refers to pixels, while dpi refers to dots on paper.

But it Looks Fine on My Screen!If you have ever hired a printer, you have probably been nagged by a designer like me about the resolution of your images. Those same images probably look beautiful on your monitor, but monitors and printers work on vastly different scales of detail. A relative-ly "high resolution" 27" 4K monitor is 3840 (physical) pixels wide. Each pixel is roughly .007", which seems tiny until you look at the dot size printed by a typical printer, which falls between .0004" to .00167". At standard resolution (300ppi) that 4K monitor's 27" wide picture prints at a mere 12.8" across on paper. The takeaway here is to understand that monitors typically only display around 72 ppi, while a high resolution printed image

*pixels may take other shapes, but square is typical.

DPI (ink)Microscopic view of print on paper

PPI (light)Microscopic view of a monitor

Design Tips: Demystifying Image ResolutionBy Bruce Harris

Wherein I attempt to explain the concept of image resolution from the ground up, in plain language.

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18ppi (131x87)

web icons

36ppi (261x74)

thumbnails

72ppi (522x348)

web photos

150ppi (1088x725)

posters

300ppi (2175x1450)

print

600ppi (4350x2900)

resource

requires over 300% more detail in roughly the same space for the same level of quality.

Effective ResolutionThe essential objective of image resolution is to pack enough pixels into a small enough area that you can't see the grid. A low res-olution image looks pixelated because the pixels have been stretched large enough that we can see the grid. The effective reso-lution of an image is the ratio of pixels (dig-ital points) to its display medium (physical distribution). In other words, you can make a low resolution image appear to be high resolution simply by displaying or printing it smaller, thereby squeezing more pixels into a smaller space. Therefore, "high" resolution is completely relative. It is entirely based on whether or not we can see pixelation. If we can't, it's effectively a high resolution image.

At the top of the page, I have created what I hope will illustrate the difference between "resolution" and "effective resolution". Along the top, I have placed cross sections of an

image. I have altered the pixel dimensions of each cross section, and labeled each column accordingly. When they are all scaled to the same height, it is easy to identify the lower resolution images. Along the bottom, I have placed the same image at 300ppi effective resolution. This shows the optimal printed size for each image. Due to limitations of our eyes as well as the printing process itself, you will not likely notice an appreciable difference between the 300ppi and the 600ppi images.

ConclusionI hope this crash course on image resolution has explained some unanswered questions. My goal with these design tips articles is to equip readers with the tools and informa-tion they need to create with confidence. Regardless of its content, the quality of your printed materials sends a telling message to your prospects about what level of quality they should expect from you and your ser-vices. So go make something great that you can be proud of, and show it to the world!

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Idea Generators: Subway's SUB-versive advertising

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