Mobile Marketing - March 10th, 2010
Since its modern debut in 1982, the mobile phone has changed the way in which
we communicate. Now, with over 2 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, more and more marketers are realizing that the mobile phone can serve as a complementary medium to an overall marketing strategy. In essence, the mobile phone is a medium that [...]
Green marketing - March 5th, 2010
Green marketing is quickly making the shift from trendy marketing tactic to cultural movement as more and more consumers demand environmentally friendly products, made in a sustainable way. Green marketing is also about leveraging the green benefits of any product to appeal to the conscientious consumer. Get in on it now to do your part [...]
The Dawning of a New Workforce - February 15th, 2010
Generation Y’s infiltration into the world’s workplace is happening now, not a few years down the road. Rather than run for cover or use same-old communication and management techniques on this budding group of employees, it’s time to face their presence head on and foster a mutually beneficial relationship.
Harness the power of online video - February 15th, 2010
Whether you’re catching the latest episode of your favorite show on Hulu™, checking out the latest trending videos on YouTube or watching a series of how-to training videos, there’s one commonality: You’re contributing to the 160 million viewers that watch online videos each year.
Although you may be accustomed to viewing online videos for personal [...]
Ergonomics in the Workplace - February 4th, 2010
Let’s face it: sometimes, work can be a pain in the neck. Or rather, the way in which work is preformed can cause a pain in the neck…or the back…or the wrists…or the knees…you get the idea.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics (BLS), in 2008 work-related musculoskeletal disorders—like nerve damage from typing [...]
Emergency Planning for Small Business - February 1st, 2010
Often when we think of emergencies, we think natural disasters, pandemics, accidents or terrorism and we rarely think of these events in the context of the office. But this is a grave mistake: The good news is that you can take actions today to prepare your small business for disaster tomorrow.
Fundraising Basics Part II - January 20th, 2010
Previously in Fundraising Basics: A Love Story, Part I, we discussed donor research
and prospecting. Now that your organization has identified and courted likely prospects, it’s time to make “the ask.”
Fundraising Basics Part I - January 20th, 2010
The art of development is similar to a romantic affair. In order to appeal to donors
and build lasting relationships, your organization must first find someone with
similar interests, make a connection and then let the wooing begin.
An Introduction to Business Reading Groups - December 3rd, 2009
People who read at least seven business books a year earn a reported 2.3 times
more than people who read only one. Whether that information is strictly reliable or not, executives and avid readers everywhere will attest to the value of professional reading—for personal development, leadership training, continuous learning and company innovation.
Becoming a Thought Leader - November 30th, 2009
For some people, the surest way to become a thought leader is to declare that
you are one. These people are not true thought leaders. True thought leaders are those who strategically cultivate industry insight to build foresight. They go beyond being experts to become innovators and in doing so they influence organizational change, [...]
Mastering microblogging for business - November 11th, 2009
Twitter® has gone from a virtually unknown Web quirk to the buzz of the Internet
in a short period of time. Since its 2006 debut, Twitter has garnered millions of
users. As Twitter continues to gain momentum, more businesses are recognizing
its value as a legitimate business tool.
What’s in the Breakroom: Employee Diet and Productivity - October 29th, 2009
Hold the donuts and the soda machine. Be careful with the fundraising candy
bars. Research shows that what we eat impacts our performance at work. From
mental clarity, to energy and stamina—food determines just how well our
bodies function.
What Is Your Body Language Saying? - October 19th, 2009
In today’s competitive—and increasingly global—business culture, the value of
effective and active communications seems obvious. Often times, however, so
much thought is put into the verbal message that another key factor of successful
communication can be overlooked: body language.
Professional Associations: Putting Them to Work For You - October 2nd, 2009
Today, there are hundreds of local, national and international professional associations serving professionals within varying industries. If you are seeking to expand your professional and personal networks, grow your skill set or knowledge base, or become accredited within your industry, membership in a professional association should not be overlooked.
Dollars and Sense: The Impact of Multi-Sensory Marketing - August 18th, 2009
Your brand may be associated with a sound experience. From our ambient surroundings to a product-produced noise, sound influences our ideas and judgments about the goods and services we buy.
Effective Event Planning - August 18th, 2009
Whether you are planning to throw an annual dinner and dance, a fundraiser, a company picnic, a conference, celebration or convention, event planning is not to be taken lightly. Company-wide events, no matter your industry or sector, can be well worth the effort, but require a great deal of planning and resources.
The Benefits and Methods of Continuing Employee Education - July 17th, 2009
In a worldwide economy with rapidly changing conditions, when competition for business is not only fierce, it can be deadly for organizations that enter the battlefield unprepared, it’s more important than ever to make certain your employees are ready. Many companies have encouraged their employees to stretch themselves mentally and hone their skills with continuing [...]
The Business Case for Stress Management & What Can Employers Do About It - July 17th, 2009
Job stress comes with a hefty price tag, costing American businesses more than
$300 billion a year. Just how do all those dollars add up? Stress impacts our ability to perform, leads to workplace turnover, and is a direct contributor to medical and insurance costs.
The Best Job Candidate for the Job - June 30th, 2009
Companies looking to hire have an enormous field of candidates from which to choose, yet the market is flooded with job applicants, many of them desperate to get work doing something—anything—even if they aren’t remotely qualified.
Managing for Performance - June 30th, 2009
Maximizing performance should be every company’s top priority. But when
it comes to performance, we must look beyond our daily to-do lists toward
big picture results.
Customer Experience Management: Putting Customers in Charge - June 18th, 2009
From behind the profit numbers and marketing analysis, it’s easy to measure the level
of your business success. From that vantage point, your customers seem happy. But as good as those numbers may look; permanent changes have come to the customer relationship landscape.
The Power of Recogntion - May 21st, 2009
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number one reason people leave their jobs
is because they don’t feel appreciated. Shocking isn’t it? Or maybe it isn’t. We all want to
feel valued—it’s part of human nature.
Building a Culture of Innovation - April 28th, 2009
With all of the business decisions that you face in a day, focus on the one element which serves as the lifeblood stage for business differentiation, growth and success.
Inventory Control and On-Demand Manufacturing - April 22nd, 2009
Once you eliminate the risks and carrying costs of inventory, gone are the days of stalling a product enhancement or pushing product on a client while you wait for inventory to draw down.
Getting Started with Word of Mouth Marketing - March 30th, 2009
Word of mouth marketing has been around forever, far before the advent of advertising. The goal is to get people talking about your business and, of course, saying good things.
Understanding Memory Training and the Benefits to Your Business - March 19th, 2009
If memory were a muscle, you”‘d enroll your employees in regular strength-training exercises. You might even lead morning calisthenics! After all, memory can help your sales staff seal the deal by forging stronger personal connections with clients.
The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Customer Service - February 18th, 2009
Customer service is a costly endeavor and getting more expensive but one bad experience is quickly reported to thousands of potential customers via blogs and online review sites.
Tips For Marketing Your Way Through A Recession - February 10th, 2009
Let”’s start off strong and get that scary “R” word out of the way: Recession. Phew. There “- that”’s out of the way. Now, let”’s move on to what we all can do about it.
Going Virtual: The Telecommumuting Revolution - January 27th, 2009
What do more than half of Sun Microsystems”‘ employees have in common with nearly 40 percent of IBM”’s workers? They all are telecommuters. Translation? Teleworking is the new flextime.
Passing the Torch and Keeping it Lit - January 7th, 2009
A Succession Planning Overview for Owner-Managed Companies
Cracking The Personality Code - January 6th, 2009
How workplace personalities affect individual, team and organizational success
Staking Your Claim and Choosing Your Customers - December 18th, 2008
The customer may always be right, but that doesn”‘t mean the customer is always right for you. Whether you”‘re big or small, a single customer can have a profound effect on your workload, your profits, and your sanity.
Color Choices Matter - November 13th, 2008
For centuries, color was considered an upper-class luxury. Yet, despite its wide accessibility, color can still be a mark of status-brand status that is.
Promotional Apparel - November 5th, 2008
Clothes. Everybody”’s wearing something. Shirts and jackets, shorts and t-shirts – everyone has to have them. But it”’s not just necessity that makes clothing a popular tool for marketers-it”’s the capacity to influence opinions.
Operation: Communication - October 21st, 2008
When 30 Coca-Cola employees visited the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, they weren”‘t there to participate in the events. They were there with one mission, and one mission only: to blog their fingers off.
Blogger Outreach - October 1st, 2008
Marketing”’s new holy grail, blogs, represent an affordable-yet oh so valuable-opportunity to promote your business. Get a positive product mention on a well-read blog, and you”‘ve successfully set off the viral buzz that is word-of-mouth marketing.
Get Wellness, Soon! - September 22nd, 2008
It’s no secret that an employee’s physical and mental
wellness affects his or her performance at work. Chalked full of prevention, wellness packages are
yielding positive results for both employee health and
company pocketbooks.
Teamwork Matters - July 21st, 2008
Teamwork matters. Just ask researchers Francis Crick and James Watson. In 1953, the duo boldly announced they had “found the secret of life.” Crick and Watson, along with the assistance of a few other scientists, had discovered DNA.
The New Social Scene - July 21st, 2008
It”’s a fact in today”’s fast-paced, internet-savvy society: quick, convenient connections are king, and user-driven interactions are essential to heightened online involvement. That”’s why it”’s no surprise that one in four online consumers participates in a social network.
Make Your Product Launch Take Off - July 21st, 2008
Today”’s market is saturated with products and services promising to satisfy all your potential customers”‘ desires. And thanks to the continued success of the World Wide Web, these customers literally have the world at their fingertips. So how on earth do you get them to buy yours?
Search Engine Optimization - July 21st, 2008
“If you build it, they will come.” It worked for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but it doesn”‘t work for Web sites. You can build a site, but if you don”‘t rank high on the search engine results… well, let”’s just say you shouldn”‘t hold your breath waiting for any impromptu games of catch.
Survey Savvy - July 21st, 2008
Survey data can be manipulated, misquoted and just plain made up. No wonder people shy away from conducting market surveys. But when written well, applied to the right audience and-most importantly-when results are acted upon, a market survey is a “do or die” element of business.
Guerilla Marketing - June 1st, 2008
Low-cost buzz. At its heart, that”’s what guerilla marketing is all about. Guerilla marketers are do-it-yourselfers who rely on creativity rather than expensive billboards or glossy magazine ads.
Generational Marketing - May 29th, 2008
Marketers face conflict when trying to reach divergent age groups. Understand these different groups, and you”‘ll have a better idea how to reach them with your marketing messages.
PR Crisis - May 21st, 2008
Speeding bullets are of little concern to superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. But for mere mortals who lack chests of steel and magic bracelets, metal projectiles can be crippling, if not deadly. And in the business world, these bullets don”‘t even have to be real to cause real harm.
Webinars - May 20th, 2008
Skip those cross-country sales trips and host an online
event instead. Marketers find webinars save money
and build new leads. Here, we review the benefits and
give you a guide to getting started.
Press Kits - May 19th, 2008
What do double-platinum rock stars, top government space programs and world-famous doughnut chains all have in common? The answer is…they all have mastered the press kit and utilized it for their ultimate gain.
Mentoring - April 17th, 2008
Did you know that 71% of Fortune 500 companies rely on mentoring for employee development? Organizations such a General Mills, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble have found that mentoring programs lead to greater employee engagement, improved retention, and greater productivity.
Shoestring Marketing - March 26th, 2008
It’s a tough reality, with direct implications on the marketing budget. What’s a business owner to do when the economy stumbles? Ideally, the same as when confidence is booming: get to know your customers and give `em some love!
Customer Service - March 26th, 2008
The customer is always right. Ah, the fateful adage drilled into the heads of every new employee when crossing the threshold into new career territory. But, you may be surprised to hear the truth: the customer isn’t always right, but he or she always comes first.
Podcasting - February 20th, 2008
Video may have killed the radio star in the 1980s, but podcasting has brought the medium back to the masses. Podcasting is sort of like radio for the Internet. Instead of creating Web pages, podcasters deliver content via audio or video.
Slides Are Not Handouts - February 17th, 2008
Okay, hold on tight. This might rock your world a bit. You know those conference handouts that are really just miniatures of the speaker’s PowerPoint presentation? (Yeah, you know. You’ve done it. We’ve all done it.) Well, that is just so old school.
Email and Productivity - February 17th, 2008
Feel as though you don’t have time for anything but e-mail? Worried that e-mail is cutting into-rather than increasing-office productivity? Find out what other companies are doing to reduce and improve e-communication.
Dealing with Media - February 17th, 2008
“Free ink” is journalistic jargon for generally positive articles about your business-stories that you did not pay anyone to write. People have a love-hate relationship with the media; businesses are no different. We love the media (newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, Internet) that inform and, let’s face it, entertain. We hate the media that confuse or [...]
Commitment - November 15th, 2007
Psychiatrist Ari Kiev wrote, “Commitment enables you to be fearless in the face of obstacles so that you can turn obstacles into opportunities. When you commit to a vision, you become the cause rather than the effect of your life.”
Write to the Point. Writing - November 13th, 2007
Cut through the bull that permeates corporate writing, and enact a company-wide policy that demands all writing from e-mails to annual reports to be correct, concise and interesting.
Integration 101: A crash course in comprehensive marketing - October 18th, 2007
It’s a normal Saturday at home. You wake up and put on a pot of coffee. You flip on the morning news and watch it out the corner of your eye as you simultaneously check your e-mail and do a little Web surfing.
What’s the Big Idea? Brainstorming and Innovation - October 18th, 2007
Another day, another dollar. Everyone in business knows we must attend to day-to-day functions to keep our operations running. But that’s only good for the short-term. Successful business-types know that innovation, the what-if wonderings and creative out-of-box thinking, is what keeps our businesses viable and thriving into the future.
Go Green - August 26th, 2007
Light green. It’s a term coined by Heather Stephenson and Jennifer Boulden, co-founders of Ideal Bite, an online community that helps readers find new, simple ways to lighten their ecological footprint.
The green movement is gaining significant momentum in the U.S., and more and more people are altering small daily habits in accordance.
Clean up your Act - August 26th, 2007
Getting organized is just plain good business.
Have you ever felt beleaguered and oppressed by papers and incoming mail, email, and messages. Is your inbox overflowing? Do you step around piles of work on your way to your desk? A clean desk does create an empty mind-one with room for creativity and focus.
Open House - June 13th, 2007
People have a natural curiosity about how their favorite products get made. For some brand loyalists, a factory tour is akin to a pilgrimage. For others, it’s an entertaining way to spend an afternoon or beef up the educational value of their vacations. Either way, you get an attentive audience, asking (and in some cases [...]
Stretching the Envelope - May 15th, 2007
Gatekeeper got you down? You’re convinced your service has value to the CEO, but you can?t get past his/her assistant. Or maybe your direct mail is on a direct flight to the recycling bin. You have your closing routine down pat, if only you could get through.
Sound familiar? Then it’s time to get creative and [...]
Themes for Trade Shows - January 30th, 2007
Trade shows are an inexpensive way to meet many potential customers in a brief period of time. They are the ultimate in efficient networking.
Employee Recognition - January 30th, 2007
In How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie writes about one of the greatest human desires: a feeling of importance. It’s his “big secret” for dealing with people. Fulfill that desire and people will gravitate toward you.
Logo and Printing Primer - October 15th, 2006
Vectors and rasters and CMYK, oh my! Creating a logo can seem overwhelming. Having the right tools and know-how makes all the difference. We’ve asked logo design experts to share their best ideas to help you get up-to-speed quickly on the technical side of logo design.
6 Steps to Effectively Launch a New Brand - October 15th, 2006
You’re all set to go. But is your brand REALLY ready for primetime? If you’re planning to launch a new brand, check out our 6-step ‘Brand Launch’ checklist. Our real life examples will help you see the essential elements for a brand boost and the avoidable attributes that lead to brand bust.
Employees as Brand Stewards - October 15th, 2006
Who’s really in charge of your brand? Your front-line team. They’re the ones interacting with customers and clients. Turn them into company evangelists and watch your brand build. We’ve pulled together clever ideas for making that happen.
Maintaining Your Brand - October 15th, 2006
Getting to the top is one thing. Staying there is a whole different animal. Brand loyalists – your customers who recommend you to collegues, friends and falily – are worth their weight in gold. Learn how to use their impact
Impact - October 1st, 2006
There’s an old adage that everyone loves free stuff. If that’s the approach you’ve been taking when you select your promotional products, you’re missing some big opportunities to make big impressions. Promotional products-those clever little marketing tools that bear a company’s name and logo-can be powerful branding tools. When chosen correctly and used creatively, they [...]
Humor - June 29th, 2006
In today’s commodity-filled world differentiating your product or company from the competition is easier said than done. This 4imprint Blue Paper discusses the many forms differentiation can take and provides real world examples of how some major companies, as well as one small business, have succeeded at this task.
Developing a Logo - June 11th, 2006
Creating a new logo or considering a ‘refresh’ on your current one? This 4imprint Blue Paper outlines key points for you to consider. Includes a case study showing a ‘before and after’ makeover.