For me, the answer is…at about half my normal speed. Thankfully, no one near and dear to me was affected by this week’s attack in Copley Square. It remains a crime scene. Ugly words like “pressure cooker bomb” and “shrapnel,” “bomb-sniffing dogs” and “IEDs” come at you from every medium imaginable, and no matter how often you hear the details, you cannot believe it has happened.

For me, it was a workday unlike any other since the days following 9-11. Everything was subdued. Reasons to laugh didn’t exist.

I worked as well as I could, getting organized for launching my new business. It was not a day for inane Facebook posts or wry tweets.

Business and family friends from all over the globe got in touch at the height of the tragedy, by phone, by email, by Facebook posts and concerned tweets. I was so touched.

My thoughts and prayers are with victims of the attack on Boylston Street and their families and friends. I have a heart filled with gratitude and respect for all of the emergency responders, the race personnel, the medical professionals, the runners and the bystanders who bravely and immediately came to the aid of those injured at the scene.

Slowly, things will return to business as usual, but never the same as the day before the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon.

Larry Zusman

This is a column to share with your marketers.

Have you ever wondered how you could track a print campaign so that you could measure the response and gauge its effectiveness? I have.

An innocent query from a marketer on this very topic had me post the question in my professional network, and two experts replied with information too good not to share.

Larry Zusman is Director of Video Personalization at XMPie^®, a Xerox Company. I’ve heard Larry speak about personalization several times – he’s terrific, and clearly an authority on this subject (so if you need an expert to present, hint, hint…).

I also heard from Andreas Weber, the CEO of Value Communication AG, in Mainz, Germany. Andreas is widely recognized as Germany’s leading business communications analyst and innovation expert, with a focus on state-of-the-art graphic communications concepts and solutions for variable business/brand communication.

These experts taught me about two software solutions that marketers – and print providers – should be aware of, when developing cross media campaigns.

This week, I’ll share what I learned from Larry about the XMPie solution. In two weeks, I’ll share Andreas’ information about DirectSmile^®.

XMPie^®

I spoke with Larry Zusman over the phone to learn more about XMPie’s solution for tracking and analyzing multi-channel campaigns. He focused on a particular tool: PersonalEffect® Analytics (PEA). According to their web site, it is “the industry’s first Web-based tracking and reporting tool that monitors each phase of a multi-channel, one-to-one marketing campaign, including print, email and the Web.” (Visit www.xmpie.com for details.)

PEA is a tool that lets you track the success of a print campaign. It has a unique capability, said Larry, something called ADOR, which stands for Automatic Dynamic Object Replacement. The ADOR is the ID of a specific variable content object that is being referenced in a print or electronic document as a variable component. For example, it could be the name of a person, or it could be a graphic, image, audio file or movie. The ADOR object represents something in the database that could change for each recipient in a campaign – across all media. By linking these ADOR objects to the design document, based on business rules, you create communications to the recipient that are highly targeted and relevant. Why is this important? He explained that when you start the PE Analytics process, you determine what you want to track. Let’s say you’re doing a New Moms marketing campaign. You’re going to get photography and determine what photos might be appropriate for a new mom, an older mom, or a mom of a boy, etc. You, the marketer, can track and test down to the level of the specific image used for each recipient in the XMPie campaign.

Imagine you get a printed piece in the mail, advertising the New Moms promotion from a major retailer. Maybe you redeem the offer by calling the call center or visiting the personal website or scanning the QR code in the mailer. The response mechanism that you used and your response to that particular piece can be tracked and analyzed for recipients, groups of recipients or larger populations.

Keep in mind you don’t track everything in a campaign. You have to ask, what’s relevant? What do I want to track? The marketer in that Moms campaign might want to know if the cover image is strong enough for new moms.

Here’s another scenario: a marketer might do a PURL that is included within a concurrent print and email campaign. Analytics can show if print pulled better than email, and vice versa. And you can also determine which content used for each one of these components did better.

The software can ask some very complicated questions, in addition to basic ones. For example, these can relate to geographic difference in component responses among different populations or tell you, for example, the characteristics of respondents in relation to their response to variable offers. ADORs let you track content at a very deep level, tracking and measuring every action and reaction within your campaign.

Marketers want to know the analytics, and with the XMPie solution, it’s easy. They’ve created some cool gauges, said Larry, “like a good, better, best rating” on the ROI in a campaign. This can be generated using PEA and can also be accessed via XMPie Circle™, an SaaS solution that provides an interactive digital storyboard for multichannel campaigns.

With XMPie Circle, the customer has a view of the whole campaign and can roll over the various components to see the measurement online. (For details, visit www.xmpie.com/Circle.) Larry noted that XMPie integrated with Exact Target on the email side, so that emails are tied-in with PE Analytics.

Who buys these solutions? Typically marketing solutions providers and print providers, though Larry mentioned that many end customers, including universities, financial services and hospitality companies, do as well.

I know I learned a ton about tracking campaigns from my conversation with Larry Zusman, and I hope this information serves you well. Do visit their web site at www.xmpie.com. Should you have questions, please contact Sandra.morris@us.xmpie.com.

© 2013 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

The Sunday Globe is a treat – as is the Sunday New York Times. We share them both, my husband and I.  Certain sections get read first, such as the Arts, the Regional or Metro, the Sunday Styles in the Times, and Metro West in the Globe. We work up to the magazine in each Sunday paper, because this content is usually good enough to savor. Certainly, the crossword puzzle in the Sunday Times is a keeper, and one reason that the magazine is saved all week long.

I can’t say the same for the magazine in the Boston Globe. This little fellow has not only shrunk in size and heft, but it’s printed on some flimsy newsprint that has no weight to it at all. Often, I mistake it for one of those shopping circulars that’s lurking inside the newspaper, and which I promptly pull out and toss without glancing at the copy.

The New York Times still prints its Sunday magazine on heavier coated stock. I can spot it fast. I can sense the value of its content when I pluck it from the folded news sections. It’s one of the main reasons we subscribe to this newspaper. It’s our reward. Most of the articles are fabulous. And the paper stock is just as fine.

The Globe’s magazine is a disappointment in the paper department. I know it’s saving them money, but I never save it once the day is done.

Don’t kid yourself. Paper matters.

It brought me back to my corporate print buying days at Boston University in their publications department and at MFS, when I handled financial printing in their communications department. In each position, I dealt with dozens of internal “clients” who worked with our buying pros in order to get something printed.

We were the inside printing experts in both cases. We were required to know how to help clients shape their projects. Our task was to determine what they wanted; advise them on details, pricing, and schedule; get estimates; place orders with the appropriate printer; set and oversee the production schedules; and help ensure that clients ultimately got the jobs they expected. This included writing job specs.

Of course we’d work closely with clients to learn what they had in mind. Discussions included such things as quantity, format, inks, images, paper, finishing techniques – and anything else related to a job.

It was our responsibility to develop detailed job specs to send to printers for price estimates. Our internal clients lacked the industry experience, for the most part, and frankly, I wouldn’t trust any job specs they might attempt to write, especially if I was the one responsible for getting something printed.

So if you’re in a print buying role for your organization, this means it’s your job to develop detailed specs for every project. It presumes you have the knowledge and skill to do so. If not, you have to acquire it. Start by asking your printers for a lesson. Also, buy a copy of Pocket Pal and a copy of Getting It Printed. Terrific books, both of them.

© 2013 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

1. Add your URL to your email’s digital signature. Then everyone you email can click onto your site, easy as pie.
2. Reuse good content. Let’s assume you have a regular blog – daily, weekly, monthly, whatever. Good content deserves to be shared. Every time you publish a new post, share it across the social media in which you’re active – and where your target market is.
3. 3. Ask for recommendations and testimonials. You have ecstatic clients, right? Don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials or recommendations – in writing or on your LinkedIn profile page. Use these on your web site and in other prospecting efforts.
4. 4. Share your knowledge in social media. You’re the expert in your field. Using the social media of your choice/s, post comments or start discussions that illustrate you’re that specialist. Make just one point at a time. Inform; don’t sell.
5. 5. Maintain a current, robust LinkedIn profile. It’s amazing to me how many business owners neglect LinkedIn. Other than your web site, it’s where I go to find out about you and your background. I check my own profile regularly, tweaking as necessary. Add your photo, please!

What do you think? I’d love your two cents.

(c) 2013 Margie Dana. All rights reserved.

I often wonder what laypeople think about print. Most of them associate “printer” with a personal desktop printer. That’s not likely to change.

But recent efforts by the print industry to champion print tend to focus on the obvious, like how print is a tactile and lasting medium. Pretty much everyone knows that – don’t they?

What’s making the news – and a much bigger impression – are things like 3D printing, and even 4D printing, which was recently demonstrated by those smart people just down the road a bit, at MIT. (Don’t ask me to explain it; I’m still stuck at 3D.)

I don’t totally accept the notion that these new technologies are “printing,” except for the fact that inkjet printers are used, but the word “printing” is attached to them as sure as jelly is to peanut butter. My Google news section on printing is 99.9% all about 3D printing. It has been for months.

Another cool technology is the QR code. More and more consumers know what these codes are and how they work. And then there are AR codes. (If there’s anything cooler in this industry right now then augmented reality inside of a magazine or on other printed matter, I’d like to know about it.)

To me, these are the attention-getting examples about print today. I want to throw printed electronics in there, but I haven’t read much about it in the trade lately.

I spoke to an audience of high schoolers last week at a career day event and asked if anyone had a relative or friend in the print industry. No one in the group of about 80 students raised a hand.

So I told them about how this industry is dying for youthful employees. I mentioned 3D printing (they’d heard of it) and QR codes (ditto). I talked about opportunities for anyone in love with visual arts, graphic design, paper, typography, and being part of a unique manufacturing industry that thrives on teamwork. I held up a ton of samples, including magazines and menus, boxes of Band Aids and packaged rice dishes, books and posters. I tried to make the point that print is everywhere, and that people just don’t give a thought to where it comes from.

I hope I planted a seed in a young mind or two that there are opportunities in printing for them. If nothing else, they learned something about this industry and how print has touched their lives from day one.

© 2013 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

Last week I got another postcard altogether. It, too, is a jumbo (6 x 9). This time, whoever was behind it got it right. I’m sharing photos (front and back) to show you why I’m singling it out. It’s from AMSP (Association of Marketing Service Providers), who sent out this card to promote their annual conference in June, in San Diego.

The key message is simple and direct (TWO THUMBS UP, GUYS!). The copy on side one is short and intriguing: “What’s Next? Find out June 25 – 28, 2013. At the bottom is the event info (name, dates, venue, city and state) and the marketer’s logo.

One thing in particular works really well on this side of the postcard: the main type is reversed out of the full-color photo. Really attention-grabbing.

The flip side (address side) also keeps it clean and simple – with jumbo type that’s laid out in an atypical, quirky manner: the type is flush against the top and left edge of the card. Intentional or not, it works. I noticed.

The colors are pleasing and fresh (navy blue and an aqua blue, with bold black text for the “Be Ready for What’s Next” line on this side of the card.

And there, nestled below this copy is a 1” square QR code with these red instructions: Scan for a chance to win a free registration!

So I did! I wanted to test this code and see what it offered. It brings you to a page asking for basic contact information. Short, sweet and simple. I filled it in and am crossing my fingers I win the free registration. (I was in San Diego once, speaking to an audience of print customers. What a gorgeous place!)

This postcard is a terrific example of how to do it right: a handsome direct mail campaign designed to do one thing: get me to scan the QR code to win a ticket to an annual conference. Had it been a mess of a postcard, or had the QR code not been designed well, I wouldn’t have bothered.

Congrats, AMSP! Hope this postcard is a huge success for you. Their website, BTW, is http://amsp.org.

© 2013 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

I’m fairly choosy about signing up and actually “attending” webinars. Sure, there are plenty that interest me. Somehow when the time comes, I’m in the middle of an assignment that I don’t want to interrupt.

But when Frank Romano speaks, I always listen. Recently he was the star of a webinar sponsored by Techkon, in which he shared his print industry predictions. (I must say, he looked relaxed and quite professorial in that big leather chair. Nice touch!)

“Printing does have a future,” Frank opined. And…..he was off!

Here’s what I learned from Frank Romano that day:

The year 1995 was key for the U.S. printing industry. It was when we had the most printing companies – 65,000. We began to lose printers as the Internet came about. Today we have about one half that number of printers – about 31,000, and Frank predicts that number will sink another thousand or two over the next few years and will then level off.

What will this streamlined printing industry look like? It will comprise more automated and technologically advanced firms. It’s what Frank called the “new world of print.”

I noted the most interesting questions from webinar attendees (I want to mash these two words into “webinees”). Here they are.

1. What can printers do to stay competitive?

Frank’s answer was direct and rather simple (though not easy):

1. Change. Be very efficient. Automate to the highest possible degree.
2. Do things that are different. For instance, you need advanced finishing equipment. You can’t just offer to sell print anymore. Sell programs! Wide-format inkjet was an example he gave here, noting that more customers are looking for it, and more printers should be offering it.

2. Where do you see the industry in 2023?

Frank: A lot depends on the global economy. It’s going to be a tough decade, and a lot of marketing people currently have no concept about print. Many marketing schools are still teaching marketing the old way. We need to bring them up to speed.

Old timers in the industry understand how to buy print. The new businesspeople? Not so much.

3. What’s the outlook for offset vs. digital?

Frank: Offset will go down to 40% (of all print produced) in North America. Digital will be a bit more. We’ll still have flexo, gravure and screen, though that’s being replaced by inkjet. The biggest problem with offset is make ready. New presses take care of this, though many printers can’t afford to replace old equipment. Most offset press manufacturers are looking to partner with digital in some way.

4. What’s your take on the paperless debate?

Frank: It’s not a debate. You’re not going to stop the forces of electronic communications. Wang said offices would be paperless in the early 1970s. Offices today are Wangless, not paperless. It’s foolhardy to fight the paperless sayers. We have to find a way to get paper into the mix. We should help printers understand where new markets are. But some markets are going away – Variety just announced its print edition is going to weekly, not daily.

The print industry should be fighting the postal service instead! We have some serious problems out there, starting with this one.

We need to help printers find new markets. The future is going to be in new markets on lots of substrates.

5. Where would you look to find new markets?

Frank: I’d buy a wide-format inkjet printer. Printing on paper has become a commodity. Another market that’s evolving is printing on fabric. If you can print on tons of substrates, you can still print on paper.

He also touched on packaging. “The packaging market can only be a growth market. It will always be an analog market.” Run lengths in packaging are getting smaller. There will continue to be more localized brands, more specialized brands, and the look of packaging is changing more often now, too. “Packaging will engender all kinds of opportunities for printing  - and I mean offset and gravure and digital and inkjet.”

This webinar was fast moving, chock full of facts, predictions, and new ideas for companies in the print industry. I hope it was well attended by printers.

And I hope they took good notes.

© 2013 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

Stephen Fowler owns the Monkey’s Paw bookshop in a tiny row of buildings on a commercial strip a few miles from downtown Toronto. He doesn’t sell the typical books; they are decidedly atypical. The NYT article says, “the Monkey’s Paw is like someone’s idea of a bookshop.” It’s a throwback to the days of Dickens, with dark-lined bookshelves, Oriental rugs, and gently whirring ceiling fans overhead.

I want to visit.

Fowler specializes in selling books on interesting and unusual subjects – like a ‘70s book about holograms and a monograph on Elizabethan toll roads in Kent. Most of the books are nonfiction. His rule of thumb for deciding which books to acquire and sell is the acronym “BAMA” for beautiful, arcane, macabre and absurd.

Another draw (for me) is the presence of the Biblio-Mat: a refrigerator-sized book vending machine. This was created for the shop by Craig Small. For $2 Canadian, a buyer can purchase a book from the big green hulk.

If you’re in Toronto, the shop’s at 1229 Dundas St. West. Their email address is wish@monkeyspaw.com.

They have neither the background nor the interest in learning about print manufacturing. They just want some solid advice about finding printers for this or that project. I think this sort of customer is becoming more common. And no wonder: print volumes are down. Employees new to print (dare I call them “print virgins”?) are handling various other responsibilities, and adding print sourcing to that mix can be 1) stressful, 2) a pain in the neck, or 3) a mystery. Usually, it’s all three.

So for all of you print virgins out there, this secret is for you.

I could write about the importance of due diligence and plant tours and three peer recommendations and interviewing sales reps like it was the Spanish Inquisition. I could lecture you about getting detailed estimates and scrutinizing printed samples with a printer’s loupe to find the tiniest, most insignificant flaw not seen by the naked eye.

But I won’t. All of that research is important and makes sense in some circumstances. I have written about it and will continue to write about it, but at the end of the day, there’s one particular thing you should look for in a printer. And that one thing is trust. Make that Trust, with a capital “T.”

If you can find a printer whom you like and whom you trust, you’re golden. Pick someone who will get your work produced no matter what. Let this printer bear the headaches as well as your stress over getting something done well, when you need it, and within your budget.

I’ve yet to find a printer who can do EVERYTHING you need. And yet – a printer you trust can get everything you need done. He or she may outsource some of it – so be it! It happens all the time, and many customers don’t even know. Or he may refer you to another trusty source.

When you find a printer you trust, you’ll know your work will get done as expected. You won’t worry about deadlines or problems creeping up on press. To me, that’s the epitome of a perfect partnership. No surprises, no excuses….just competence and great communication skills.

That’s it! Find printers you trust as individuals. They should have integrity. They should have a great reputation for these qualities. They should be people whom you can imagine yourself working with for a long time. They should inspire confidence.

They’ll get the job done for you, come what may. Then you can get on with the rest of your responsibilities, and stop worrying about this part at least.

© 2013 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.