Category Archives: Blog With BEB

TWITTER 101

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young-man-african-american-red-shirt-curly-hair-puzzled-question-unsureWhy should your business be on Twitter?   It’s a great way to stay connected to your customers, it’s an excellent lead generation platform, you can share information quickly and gather feedback in real time.

Twitter is a recipient driven platform.  People choose to follow  your account.  Messaging is quick to read and write, exchangeable anywhere and is easy to integrate into multiple networks such as Twitter, Instagram, and your website.

There are a few cautions to note.  caution-sign-exclamation-point  Be sure to check out the profile before you follow someone.  Pornography sites are prevalent, hackers are present, and stay away from people selling “followers”.  Lastly, be careful about aggressive tweeting – hounding people to follow you, pushing people to interact, you could get your account shut down.  Respect the platform and see who starts to follow you and be sure to follow those whose tweets you want to see more of.

Messaging is limited to 140 characters per tweet (for now).  This includes website links and pictures.  Be sure that you write well though.  Don’t start using short hand unless it’s necessary.  You’ll find the more you’re on Twitter, the more concise your writing will become!

Best Practices

2016-02-11-ron-and-the-dancing-reindeerSHARE! Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them!

Listen.  Regularly monitor the comments about you, your co-workers and your company, brand, and products.

Ask – Respond – Engage

Ask questions of your followers to gain valuable insights and show you are listening.

Respond to compliments and  feedback as soon as you can.

Engage existing &   prospective clients; it may not seem so, it adds a personal touch.

Demonstrate Wider Leadership.  Reference articles and links about the bigger picture as it relates opera-singer-with-notes-horns-shield-blondto your business.

Champion Your Stakeholders.  Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by your followers and customers.

Establish the right voice.

Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of course, a likable tone from you, think about your voice as you Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?

The very best way to become comfortable within Twitter, is to start using it.  Search for people and businesses to follow.  Start with following your current clients.  Then start Tweeting.

You can also attend one of our many Marketing for Small Business classes.  We offer training on how to choose the right social platform for your business as well as how to use those platforms.  Our next HOW TO: Twitter class is on Wednesday, October 5, 2016 from 11:30 – 1:00pm.  Register here today!

Zehrbach elected to PIGC BOD

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2016-09-05-joy-zOur Joy Zehrbach, (Vice President), was elected to the Board of Directors of The Printing Industry of the Gulf Coast (PIGC).

The PIGC is an industry association available to graphic communications firms in the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast area.  It serves as the official representative of the graphic arts industry in the area and further the cause of the industry in the areas of business, government and to the general public.

Established in 1918 by a group of Houston printers as the Printer’s Education and Publicity Bureau, PIGC is one of the state’s oldest still existing trade associations. In 1920, Houston printers joined with Galveston’s printing industry to form the Houston-Galveston Typothetae and affiliated with the United Typothetae of America (the original name for Printing Industries of America). PIGC is a non-profit corporation in the State of Texas.

PlGC’s members provide leadership and knowledge by serving on the various committees and on its Board of Directors. All activities of the Association including its services, functions and positions are reviewed and studied by committees for recommendations to the Board of Directors.

PIGC is an affiliate of Printing Industries of America . Both PIGC and Printing Industries of America work together to deliver products and services that enhance the growth, efficiency, and profitability of its members and the industry through: advocacy, education, research, and technical information.

 

 

In fact, on average, Printing Industries of America members experience growth in sales at a rate 40% greater than the overall industry. Printing Industries of America serves more than 12,000 member firms and their employees with some of them right here in the Texas gulf coast region.

January USPS Rate Increase

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BEB UP ON THE HILL LOGOThe Postal Service has signaled for months that it will be filing for GUEST BLOGGER TOM GLASSMAN 2a general price increase later this year (calendar below). Publication of revised mailing standards (some below) that would also take effect in January.  Much of this follows a pattern the Postal Service sought to establish years ago: regular price changes announced in the fall and effective in January. The question of consequence for Customers, is less whether there will be a price change as how much an increase will be. The amount that prices for market-dominant mail can increase is tied to the CPI-based price cap, including how much “rate authority” from previous rate filings remains unused. As of the July CPI (based on the June CPI), was at an annualized cap of 0.676%. However, under the rules for calculating the CPI cap, because it’s been more than a year since the last general price increase (filed in January 2015 based on the November 2014 CPI), the applicable formula yields a higher cap (0.713%). To this would be added any unused authority (0.308% for First-Class Mail, 0.403% for Standard Mail, and 1.430% for Special Services) to determine the limit on any rate increase at the class level.   OK NOW, In English, take the CPI plus unused CPI would come to around 1.5 to 2 percent as I noted last night. Two big issues that I can NOT get my hands around would be, Flats are not covering their cost and drop ship discounts are not covering the cost so I anticipate a slightly greater increase in flats and a decrease in the drop ship discount by .5 to 1 cent.  If I “mail geeked” you and want help translating just give me a buzz.  Below is the expected time frame and a list of structural changes that I am anticipating.

Time Frame expected to be used by USPS

August: share technical changes and draft postage statements (without pricing) with developers

August: share draft mailing standards

September/October: Final PRC Market Dominant

November: Competitive filings

November/December: Publish final prices, mailing standards

1/8/17: target implement pre-release

1/22/17: targeting price effective date

 

Structural changes under consideration are as follows:

 

First Class

o Combine AADC and 3D auto letters for First-Class Presort (currently the same price)

o 3rd Ounce free for First-Class commercial letters

o First-Class Mail Promotions

 

Standard Mail

o Combine AADC and 3D auto letters for Standard Mail presort

o Simply Standard Auto letters by eliminating the per-pound rate between 3.3 and 3.5 ounces. Letters would be the same price from 0 up to 3.5 ounces.

o Increase Standard Mail flats piece price weight break from 3.3 to 4.0 ounces

o Standard Mail promotions (sent you the proposed changes about two weeks ago)

o FSS Standard Mail revert to previous structure

 

Also noted at the MTAC meeting was the issue with DSCF letter Mail. There was a change in DSCF pass-through calculation from FY14 to FY15. DSCF letter pass-through went from 57.4% in the FY14 ACD to 225% in FY15 ADC. FY15 discount $.043. The FY15 Cost avoidance – $.02 per piece.  Meaning the USPS is giving us a 4.3 cent discount for drop ship where it should have been 2 cents

The plan instead is to have modest increases over a number of price changes.

Businesses on Social Media – Why it’s so Important

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2 WAY STREET MARKETINGSocial media changed the entire marketing structure for businesses. The ability to reach a large audience in a simple and lightning fast manner leveled the playing field and allowed all businesses the chance to affordably market.

Social media put an end to “One Way Street Marketing”.  Today’s businesses are able to engage with their existing and potential clients and in real time. Positive engagement with customers can lead to improved reputation and referrals which leads to more sales.

As the world is becoming predominantly mobile, social media sites allow your advertising to be seen in a mobile optimized format.  Be sure your website is mobile enhanced too.  The majority of internet access is done on a mobile device today, and the social media landscape is a very strong driver to your company website.

Traffic to your website not only connects your audience to your business, it enhances your organic search engine optimization (SEO) which will make it easier for people to find your business on the web. Social media networks are becoming search engines unto themselves and offer many opportunities to incorporate SEO enhancements such as keywords and back links.

If you aren’t utilizing social media in your marketing strategy today, you’re missing out on new business.

January 2017 Postal Rates – What to Expect

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BEB UP ON THE HILL LOGOThe US Postal Service wants new postal rates to take effect on January 22, 2017.  In order to meet that date, the market dominant pricing filing must be submitted no later than October 22, 2016 (at least 90-days prior to the increase).

The available price cap percentage for First-Class Mail is .382%.  The available price cap percentage for Standard Mail is .507%.  The postal service is allowed to apply previously unused rate adjustments from previous years, (within a 5-year period).  This practice is called Banked Authority.  Adding the available bank authority to the January 2017 figures adds an additional .272% to First-Class Mail and .263% to Standard Mail.

Proposed dates surrounding January 22nd rate increases are as follows:

September/October- Submit final filing with Postal Rate Commission (PRC)

November/December-Publish final prices and standards

January 22, 2017-Rate increase takes effect

A few other highlights to look for include:

  • Change Standard Mail to Marketing Mail
  • FSS (Flat Sequencing System) is going away. It will require OEL (Optional Endorsement Lines) on all flats running on FSS Machines.
  • Flats rates applicable up 4oz for automated mail
  • Standard Letter rates applicable for up to 4oz fir non-automated mail
  • Combine AADC and 3-Digit Automation letters for Standard Mail Presort

We anticipate an overall increase of 1% to take effect in January.  We will publish proposed rates as soon as they are available.

FACEBOOK’S FOUR NEW ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS

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facebook-fLast month, Facebook announced 4 new advertising solutions launching in 2016 during the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes, France.  The focus is on accelerating the shift to mobile advertising as the platform boasts 1.6 billion active users on Facebook and another 500 million on Instagram.  The new solutions include:

  1. Audience Insights Application Program Interface (API)

Facebook partnered with a small group of advertisers, like Mondelez International (an American multinational confectionery, food, and beverage conglomerate based in Illinois which employs about 107,000 people around the world) and Anheuser-Busch InBev (the world’s largest brewer with 25% global market share), to develop insights from composite and unidentified demographics, psychographics, topic data and reports from Facebook IQ. The teams have been able to use these insights to create effective campaigns. The Audience Insights API will be available to partners early next year.

  1. Improvements to Canvas

Introduced last year, Canvas is a post-click, full-screen, immersive mobile ad experience thatartist loads instantaneously.  It is designed to help businesses tell stories and show products on mobile devices in a beautiful way.  Updates include steps to make it easier for marketers to design, create, share and gain insights, the ability to share Canvases with stakeholders to simplify the review process and it will have a new feed unit to help entice people to engage. In addition, Canvas will be available for all Pages to use in a post (even when it’s not promoted as an ad).  Also, marketers will be able to access detailed metrics such as dwell time per component and clicks per component to track performance.

  1. Enhancements to Slideshows

Slideshow ads make it easy for businesses to create videos from photos. It gives the ability to create, edit and promote video ads in seconds and are five times lighter than the average video file, which means they’re ideal to reach people on slow connections.  Audio and text overlay, an easy “video-to-slideshow” creation tool, the ability to create from a mobile device and integration with Pages Photo Library and Shutterstock image library are the latest enhancements.  These tools will be available to all advertisers and can be used however you would use a video.

  1. Introduction of Creative Hub

People consume content on mobile in fundamentally different ways than they do on other channels. Creative Hub is an online interface, a “sandbox” where agencies can test different ad formats for online and mobile and experiment with what works best. In the past, most ad creation happens on desktop, but that is changing fast and Creative Hub’s experience is for a mobile device. The Creative Hub gives ad creators an easy way to preview their work in a dynamic mobile feed. They can also share mock-ups through a preview URL.

The Creative Hub is currently in test mode and should be available to everyone later in the year.

Facebook for small business continues to change almost daily.  We’ll (try) to keep you abreast of the latest updates and opportunities as we learn them.

For more details, be sure to check out our Marketing for Small Business Classes too.  We offer two curriculum, The Basics and Intermediate.

The Basics course was specifically created for business owners and staff that are branching out their marketing to include digital.  The course includes four, 90-minute classes over four weeks.  Classes include Blogging, Social Media, Email Marketing, Direct Mail Marketing and Organic Search Engine Optimization.

The Intermediate courses (also four, 90-minute classes over four weeks) are: HOW TO: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Constant Contact.  Check out details, dates and pricing here.

BEB Wide Format Growing

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2016-06-14 CENTRAL CARE WINDOW SIGNWe are so excited with the growth of our Wide Format Division and are most appreciative to our clients giving us the opportunity fulfill their needs!  Above is a full window sign we created and installed for a new location for Central Care.  2016-06-09 11.02.52

BEB can create your banners, signs and other large format requirements.  We’re even providing barrel wraps for those hard working rodeo folks!2016-06-11 BARREL WRAP

Contact us today!  713-528-5568