Our Ron Royall, Ro Royall and Joy Z attended the MFSA SW Conference in South Padre Island last week. The 2017 conference marks the 52nd year business owners, executives, and sales people from the mailing, printing, fulfillment, and direct marketing industry have been meeting in the Southwest. Both Ron and Joy Z serve on the board and Ron is a “Past President”.
We had a crew working the Printing Industries of the Gulf Coast annual Graphic Excellence Awards on April 5th. Our Diane Bandemer and Angel Wiener-Vierna served as project managers and for the fourth year in a row, our Joy Z emceed the prestigious Awards Gala.
Over 150 printing companies participated in this distinguished regional print competition, as we honored the continued evolution of the print industry by recognizing amazing companies and the exciting work being produced here in the Gulf Coast region. Be sure to check out the conversations using #GCGEA!
Our 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.
Ron, Ro, and Joy Z attended the 2016 Epicomm-SW Conference in The Woodlands from April 29th – May 1st.
Ron and Joy Z are currently serving on the board of this industry association dedicated to the direct mail, printing and fulfillment industries.
This 3-day conference attracts companies from all over Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Speakers from across the country reviewed the latest happenings within the United States Postal Service, new marketing trends and cyber security. Our Joy Z presented Jack
Gressett of Admail with this year’s Helsley Family Award and our Ron was on the winning team for the first ever Epicomm-SW Chili Cook-off. Ro’s team won for best presentation!
The President of Epicomm national quoted our January newsletter during a lecture and highlighted BEB as a progressive and growing multi-channel marketing company.
Robert “Bob” Royall was one of the original founders of the 50-year strong industry organization, and was a previous president. Our Ron served as president of the SW Chapter in 2013.
The RARE Pearls Women of Excellence Awards recognizes the personal and professional achievements of extraordinary women in the Greater Houston area. This year, RARE Pearls honored the accomplishments and service of five women who personify excellence in their diverse roles and who are committed to helping to pave the path to success for other women and girls.
This event raises money for scholarships for participants of the RARE Pearls Program. RARE Pearls are high school girls, grades 11 and 12, who have demonstrated academic skills, leadership abilities, character, and discipline but are at-risk of not living up to their full potential due to extenuating circumstances and challenges. These racially/ethnically diverse students are more likely to not pursue higher education or to not complete college/post-secondary programs due to economic or environmental barriers. They live primarily in poverty, low-income, or otherwise financially challenged households. Many are being raised in single-parent homes or by a relative or other caregiver such as a grandparent or foster parent. Many are potential first generation college students who lack the guidance and support of college educated parents. Additionally, most have limited exposure to educational, social, and cultural experiences typically associated with “well-rounded” youth, and many come from backgrounds and educational environments that made it difficult for them to reach and fully demonstrate their academic potential. Prior to acceptance into the program, girls undergo a screening process involving a written application, interview, and interview with parent(s). This process is intended to ensure that both students and parents are prepared to honor the commitment required by the program.
Our Kathy N. Hall and Joy Zehrbach managed the marketing and Audio Visual portion of the program for a second year in a row This “Sold-Out” event was held at the Houston Junior League in April.
Houston, TX- This marks the 2nd year that we were invited to co-host The Printing Industries of the Gulf Coast (PIGC) annual awards gala, The Graphic Excellence Awards.
Our Joy Z acted as emcee while our Diane Bandemer, Kathy Hall and Angel Wiener-Vierna worked registration and the silent auction. Our partner Anne Swanson worked the show with us as well! The event was a sell out crowd of over 300 people and was held at The Double Tree Hilton – Greenway Plaza. Business Extension Bureau has been active with the PIGC for over 25 years.
This event brings out the best of the best in the Houston market. We were honored to work the show as well as compete in this coveted competition. Read more about our entries and results here!
Patty Eldridge (left) of the Printing Industries of the Gulf Coast and our Joy Zehrbach served as emcees at the 2016 Graphic Excellence Awards.
(L-R) Anne Swanson (Swanson Graphics), Kathy N. Hall, Diane Bandemer, Joy Z, and Angel Vierna (BEB) at the 2016 Graphic Excellence Awards
We are excited to announce that the 2015 Marketing for Small Business Summer Seminars have been scheduled!
Our Basics class is an update of the wildly successful series we presented last year. The seminars cover Blogging (7/16/2015), Social Media (7/23/15), Two Mails: Direct Mail & Email (7/30/15), and Search Engine Optimization (8/6/15).
Guest lecturer Kathy Norris-Hall of the USPS, will conduct the Direct Mail portion of the Two Mails class. Kathy will review some new tools the postal service is using to help businesses determine the return using cross-channel marketing in conjunction with your direct mail campaigns. She’ll also review list options, a wide scope of vehicles to mail, tracking response rates, and how to use your direct mail to drive customers to your website.
Back by popular demand, our guest lecturers, Jeremiah Mohr and John Horrell of Siteboxpro will conduct the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) class. Siteboxpro is a leader in SEO and web marketing and will teach about the process of organically improving the visibility of your website in search engine results. They will review a breakdown of a search and show you ways to take advantage of local searches using free services such as Yelp or Google maps.
Our Angel Wiener is teaching the new and updated social media class. Angel will review the demographics of the most popular social media platforms to help you determine which is best suited for prospecting new business. She’ll review the basics of how to converse within each platform and how to identify results.
Also returning for another season is our Joy Zehrbach. Joy Z is 
conducting the Blogging and e-mail classes. She’ll review reasons why a company should blog and how blogging keeps your website content fresh. We discuss topics for content, where to find content and how to use back links to help your SEO.
The email classes review the minefields surrounding blasts and privacy regulations and how to study and maximize your email list.
Fall and Spring classes sold out, so if you’re interested in attending, register soon! See what previous attendees said about our classes.
Epicomm-Southwest presented it’s lifetime achievement honor, The Helsley Family Award, to Joy Zehrbach, Vice President of BEB-Business Extension Bureau.
The presentation was made at the association’s 2015 annual convention in April. Since its inception in 1971, this award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated a long history of significant and outstanding achievement in the marketing service provider industry. It can only be won once, and past recipients select each new winner. Zehrbach is the third member of BEB to be honored with the award. Ron Royall, President and CEO was given the distinguished honor last year, and his father, Robert “Bob” Royall, founder of BEB-Texas, was presented with the award in 2001.
BEB is a family owned, marketing production company, founded in 1949 and located in the 
museum district of Houston, Texas. Zehrbach was brought on board in June of 2012 to expand Business Extension Bureau’s presence in digital marketing which includes social media, websites, wide format printing, and interactive direct mail marketing.
Now a leader in the digital medium, BEB has won numerous awards for their social media, video, education programs, data, e-mail and direct mail marketing campaigns over the past 3-years.
Joy was also presented with an award of recognition by Epicomm for her contributions during her term on the national board. This prestigious award was presented by Ken Garner, President and CEO of the national Epicomm industry association.
Congratualtions, Joy Z!
We were recently asked to assist a regional industry association with marketing their annual conference. We created a multi-channel marketing campaign strategy that included direct mail, e-mail, tweets & Facebook posts, and video marketing.
Our audience consisted of the association’s current membership, lapsed members from a three-year period, and two targeted lists of prospective companies. Prospects were identified through a partnership with a similar industry association and targeted businesses based on SIC codes within a five-segment, geographic area.
The campaign rendered attendance from over 30 companies, across the nation and Australia. Twenty percent of the companies were first-time attendees and eight percent of the lapsed market was recaptured.
Direct mail brought the largest returns as 57.5% of the total registrations occurred within 10 days after a mailing and 57.1% of first-time registrations occurred within the same time frame. We also saw that 33% of our total webpage traffic occurred within a ten-day period after a mailing.
E-mails that emulated the mail pieces and followed a mailing brought the second highest amount of activity. Within 72-hours after a direct mail/e-mail, 23.1% of our total website hits occurred and 12.1% of attendees registered.
Generic e-mail blasts brought also brought 12.1% of the total registrations and comprised 15.8% of the total website activity within the 120-day campaign.
The social media component brought interesting results as well. Nearly 25% of all website activity (24.7%) occurred on the day of positing on Facebook or Twitter, using a link connected to the website. We noted that 14.6% of registrations occurred on days where social media was the only form of marketing used.
Seven videos were created and uploaded onto YouTube during the 120-day campaign bringing 399 views. One-third of all views came from the inaugural, two-minute, introduction video that outlined location, topics and speakers. Daily, 30-second spots, highlighting schedules for the three-day conference were watched by 18.7% of the registrants and accessed from a QR-Code conveniently placed on the cover of the conference program.
In conclusion, the conference was a profitable and successful venture for the association. Revenues were 13.4% higher than the previous year and first-time attendees were up 3.9% from 2011.