If You’re Not Already Blogging, Now Would Be an Excellent Time to Start.

Many people fail to realize just how important blogs are to a successful business because they still think about what blogs used to be. In the early days of the internet, many blogs were essentially “live journals.” If you wanted to read about what a trendy high school girl was having for lunch with her friends, she probably had a Blogspot blog that would let you do just that.

But today, blogging has become much more powerful and is one of the best ways to connect with your target audience.

The Power of Blogging: Breaking It Down

It’s been said that an incredible 79% of shoppers spend half of their shopping time researching products on the internet. While it’s true that product pages, technical specifications sheets, and other resources are important, users are also gravitating towards something much more human and valuable – blogs.

Think about the things that the right blog allows you to accomplish. First, it lets you dive deeper into certain topics, products, and services more than you ever could on a traditional product page.

Blogging is also a great way to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, regardless of what that industry happens to be. It’s a chance for you to show that you really can walk the walk in addition to talking the talk, which ultimately helps build brand loyalty over the long-term.

Blogging, in general, also has a number of clear advantages over other forms of communication when it comes to engaging with your audience, as illustrated by these stats:

• According to The West Program, 77% of all internet users said that they actively read blogs on a regular basis.
• Worldwide, an estimated 346 million people read blogs. The fact that your website has one allows you to attract as many of these people as possible.
• Most importantly, a whopping 61% of all online consumers in the United States said that they had made at least one purchase based on information they read on a blog.

An Easy Way to Expand Your Reach

Remember, your blog is not a silo. The content that begins on your blog will ultimately make its way across social media as your users begin to share it, thus bringing more people back to your website over time.

Blogging can also help tremendously with SEO and search engine visibility. One of the factors that Google’s algorithm looks for when determining rankings comes down to how often a website is updated. If you publish one high-quality piece of content to your site every day, guess what? That counts.

Nobody is saying that blogging is the ONLY technique you should be using to connect with your audience. In truth, your long-term success will come down to you employing as many techniques as you can in order to further your quest of reaching the right people at the right point in their purchasing journey.

 

 

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5 Meeting Rules You’ll Actually Want to Adopt.

Are meetings something that you would consider magical at your organization? No? Why not? Aren’t meetings a place to collaborate, share ideas, dream big dreams and then make things happen?

Few business people would describe meetings using terms like actionable, positive, critical and focused . . . yet those are the terms that help define success in moving the organization forward.

Communication methods are imperfect as a whole. While you can create a business plan via a series of emails, it’s inefficient and the plan will often lack creativity. The same goes for one-on-one meetings. Team meetings are the ideal way to build energy and enthusiasm for a new idea and generate actionable outcomes, but without the proper structure, even these meetings can be considered wasted time.

Here are 5 rules that will help keep your meetings on pace, on target, and provide you with the successful outcomes that you need from your time together.

1. Start With An Agenda

No, you shouldn’t begin with ‘What will it take to fill an hour of team meeting time this week?’, because if that’s your first thought then you’re already sunk. Request that team members send agenda items at least 24 hours before the meeting time and consolidate them to form your agenda. Keep in mind the flow of topics, and be sure you’re leaving time for strategic conversations. Leave items that may fall into deep tactical minutiae to the end of your agenda.

2. Plan for Takeaways 

Consider the consensus that you’re attempting to build with your meeting, or what your takeaway should be. Perhaps you need someone to volunteer for a new project, or you just need to inform a group about a direction that will impact their work. If you feel that there may be some pushback to your ideas within the room, look for a partner who will be in the meeting who can help support your point. If an item that was on your agenda doesn’t have a clear actionable, add it to a parking lot for a later date.

3. Keep Time Sacred 

Time is money, and never is that more true than when you have 3-15 individuals in a room together meeting without a timeline or agenda. Based on your agenda, break down how long each portion of the conversation should take and allot time accordingly. If your meeting should only need 23 minutes, then schedule that much time — perhaps plus a few minutes extra. Be a stickler about keeping conversations in check and moving the agenda along to hit key points in your list.

4. Consider a Drive-By 

Just need to chat with a few people about a simple topic? Instead of finding space and time for a full-fledged meeting, consider a 5-minute drive-by or stand up meeting. Grab a few people and huddle around a desk or common area, hash through your questions or concerns and let everyone get back to their day. In the same amount of time that you might take to walk and get a cup of coffee, you’ve made a decision, kept others updated on important points, and reduced the overall inefficiency of the day. The time for small talk can be over lunch; use these drive-bys to distill your ideas into the length of an elevator pitch. This may be uncomfortable for some people as it requires checking your ego at the door, but teams that are able to adopt these policies can become much more agile.

5. Keep it Moving

Always focus on the end result and what you need to keep your projects moving. This could be anything from an approval by a superior, someone agreeing to take on a task, or even consensus that you’re heading in the right direction. Capture takeaways and next steps, and most importantly — the name of the responsible party and when the result should be delivered. This will keep your meetings on task and team focused.

The word ‘meeting’ doesn’t have to be a negative concept. Instead, use these 5 meeting rules to adopt a culture of forward motion, positivity, and respect within the organization that will drive success both now and in the future. This isn’t a one-time change to how you approach meetings, but an organization-wide initiative to take back your time and productivity.

 

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Print Advertising Feels Like Printing Money.

 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could print your own money? Life would be so much easier, right? Well, maybe not, but here’s a little secret that feels like printing money: print advertising.

Print Advertising is Like Printing Money

Good advertising can go a long way for your business. Sometimes it’s hard to explain what good advertising is, but you know it when you’ve seen it. Whether it’s a heartfelt image or a tagline that makes you think, there’s just something about incredible advertising that has a way to move and motivate you.

Good print advertising can inspire you to make a change, donate to a cause, or purchase that cool, new tech device. It provides everyone who passes it, holds it, or takes it out of a mailbox the chance to see that printed information. And, since print advertising is often locally targeted, it means that you can create a far more personal connection to your community than you can with digital ads.

Every time someone sees your printed advertisement and, in turn, goes in and buys a product or service from you, you’re essentially printing your own money! These customers may have never come to your business and purchased your product or service without seeing the advertisement.

You Like What You See, You Buy What You Like

Picture this: You’re walking down the street. Maybe you just finished grabbing a coffee with a friend, and you’re heading back to your car. You check your watch to make sure you’re still on time to pick up the kids from school. You look up and there, on the side of a building, is a poster for a brand new product one of the local boutiques is offering. It stops you in your tracks as you gaze up at it. It’s incredible! How come nobody else ever thought of that before! You pull out your phone and snap a picture, so you remember to pick up the item later.

All of this is the power of print advertisement. People pay little mind to online advertisements, and TV ads are often on while the viewer is off grabbing another beverage from the kitchen. Print ads, however, are there regardless of what a person is doing and how often they pass a certain intersection. And every time someone sees the advertisement and buys something, you’ve just printed more of your own money.

So, what are you waiting for? Now is the time to start printing your own money in the form of print advertising!

 

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Print It Plus education, part 1: a series about vehicle wraps, and what you should look for in a quality wrap in south Florida

One of the most important things that we do with our clients is share our knowledge with them. Not only what products and services we offer, but also how we create them. We want our clients to understand the high quality of workmanship that goes into their finished products.

The Print It Plus commitment to high quality starts from the moment you contact us. It starts with your initial interaction with our sales team, continues as you work with our design team, and right through the work of our production team (and installation team, if it is a vehicle wrap, decal or signage you have purchased from us). Even after your product has been delivered, our customer service people are here to work with you and continue to build on our client/vendor relationship with you.

We apply these same high standards to any new products or services that we consider adding to our arsenal. For example, when we decided to add Vehicle Wraps, Truck Wraps, Car Wraps, Decals and to the Print It Plus product line a few years ago, we did not just buy the vinyl print machine, obtain the materials and say “here we go!” and start rolling out vehicles with wraps on them. Not by a long shot.

We do an extensive amount of research – not only to determine if it is a viable market for us to enter but also what is required to offer the finest finished product in the market. In the case of vehicle wraps and decals, we determined they were strong compliments to our current product lines. Furthermore, we determined that we already possessed the capability to do the work in house with printing machines we were already considering adding and some additional training. That is how we decided to add vehicle wraps, truck wraps, car wraps, boat wraps, decals and decorations to our product line a few years ago.

Then you add the most important element to the mix – how do we make sure to create and install a top-quality vehicle wrap or decal each and every time we do one. We strive to always deliver the highest quality of finished product. An integral part of our research into whether or not we would add these or any other product or service to our product line is whether we could deliver the best quality product available on the market.

Part 2 of this 5-part series will give you the details about what goes into making the highest quality, longest lasting vehicle wraps and decals available to you on the market today. Why is this important? Because when you drive off in your newly-wrapped vehicle we want you to know unequivocally your vehicle has the highest quality wrap that will still look great and be intact years down the road.

At Print It Plus we only offer the highest quality printing, marketing, advertising and branding products and services available to our clients. In addition to offering the best vehicle wraps in the industry, we offer custom design and production for all of your marketing pieces including on posters, banners, signs, brochures and all printed materials.

We also offer direct mail, banners, business stationery and business cards, invitations, marketing collateral, variable data printing, promotional products, banners and website development.  It is our pleasure to service the entire Palm Beach County, Florida area and beyond including Royal Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Jupiter and Boca Raton. Ask about our free pick-up and delivery for your commercial address throughout the county on your order, as well!

To talk with our account team or to place an order, contact us today by calling us at (561) 790-0884. You can also visit our website at HTTPS://PRINTITPLUS.COM or email us at info@printitplus.com. We look forward to helping you CREATE INFINITE POSSIBILITIES throughout this new year of 2018 and well into the future!

Motivation Matters

Motivation matters. Why? Because without it we fail to thrive. Lack of motivation is linked to lethargy, depression, and higher employee turnover. In contrast, studies show goal setting (even goals WITHOUT attached financial incentives) improved worker performance by 12 to 15%.
How well you can motivate yourself or others can have a substantial effect on the pleasure and profit you experience.

Drive and Thrive: Kicking Motivation into High Gear

How do you increase motivation, especially for tasks that aren’t always fun? Dan Pink, the author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, says recognizing what types of motivation work in varying situations can be helpful. For example, while simple extrinsic motivators (bonuses, team incentives, public recognition) are often helpful for linear, task-oriented projects, these “carrot and stick,” conditions are not always best:

“The trouble is . . . that for work that is non-routine, for work that isn’t algorithmic but is more conceptual, that requires big-picture thinking, that requires a greater degree of creativity, that requires solving more complicated, complex challenges, the if-then motivators don’t work very well at all. And that’s not even a close call in the science. The behavioral science is very, very clear that– give people those kinds of motivators for creative, conceptual, complex tasks, and they will often underperform.”

Pink says it is an intrinsic motivation that prompts people to do a creative activity, working not for incentives but because something is interesting and worthwhile. In the long run, intrinsic inspiration produces greater positivity and more imaginative, enduring results. Researchers identify three keys for building intrinsic motivation:

1. Autonomy. Autonomy is a sense of authority over our projects or time management. It may involve options like working remotely, flex scheduling, or creative workspaces. While autonomy allows greater independence, it can be guided in an accountable manner. For example, people are more successful in self-managing when they have goals that are S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, relative, and time-bound).
2. Mastery. We all desire to improve, and mastery equips people for continual development. Whether it’s on-going education, professional networking, or increased responsibility, we are typically happier when we are growing. How can we equip our team with fresh training or more challenging responsibilities? Is increased mastery giving way to bigger projects or the chance to teach others?
3. Purpose. Often productivity stems from personal satisfaction; we work from the heart when we’re connected to a sense of community, impact, or big picture vision. While not all mundane tasks can infuse passion, typically we underestimate the power of celebrating small wins each day. Teresa Amabile, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Progress Principle, found that the biggest motivator at work was the sense of measurable progress.3 When we believe we’re making a considerable contribution, it’s almost impossible NOT to be motivated.

What can you do to grow a sense of autonomy or mastery in your workplace? How can your public recognition or team incentives create a greater sense of passion at work? We have many creative ideas and visible tracking options to help you recognize, celebrate, and help your team stay on a path toward motivating fruitful progress. Give us a call to talk more!

 

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A Blockhead Digital Character Shows 4 Ways to Do Marketing Right

Stampy Longnose.

It’s not the kind of name that immediately translates visions of millionaire status or successful CEO personas leading fast-moving, highly successful companies. However, this moniker represents one of the most prolific and successful YouTube operations based on the concept of entertaining kids with Minecraft stories and humor all while generating real-time dollars in advertising income monthly. The marketing approach is one of the most effective used online today.

Simple Equals Incredible

Stampy Longnose, otherwise known as Joseph Garrett of Portsmouth, U.K., in real life is a young fellow in England at the ripe age of 23 years. He currently brings in a respectable gross income of 200,000 British pounds a month creating cartoons of his video game adventures in the world of Minecraft. The game itself is extremely simple to play, like an electronic world of toy building blocks, and the tools used to make the videos don’t require rocket science either. However, Mr. Garrett has managed to generate an incredible following online which in turn has created a viable advertising channel that he then monetizes for access to Mr. Garrett’s audience.

The marketing approach is grassroots and simplistic as well and can be broken down into four steps.

1) Have a recognizable and distinct voice that people remember.

Mr. Garrett’s online voice as he moves across the screen with his character is so different from his normal conversation that he easily translates into a memory-sticking character that then makes it easy to attach a brand to. Mental stickiness is a key factor in customer reception of brand development.

2) Have lots of content and be a good storyteller.

If you can’t tell good stories, find someone who can. Particularly for online marketing, a library of content is a must. Viewers don’t stop with one video; they want to consume and consume a lot. In fact, many of Mr. Garrett’s young viewers are so enamored with his Minecraft stories, they would rather watch his videos than play the game (shocking!).

3) Don’t do it alone.

As soon as the Stampy Longnose idea became a hit, Garrett built a solid team of helpers who provided additional characters to work with as well as give hands-on support with production. It’s not easy to write a 20-minute humor dialog that will appeal to a 9-year-old, but that’s the goal and to do it 100 times or more each month.

4) Don’t stop with a good thing; diversify!

The various characters of Stampy Longnose have also included Stampy the Cat, Stampy, Stampylonghead and so on. Each one of them is now fertile ground for additional merchandising for Mr. Garrett. The production potential is so big, he has now branched across the pond and set up shop in Los Angeles to partner with additional revenue ideas based on the original online Minecraft characters Garrett created. Subscribing to the maxim that good ideas don’t stay good or unique for long, Mr. Garrett is actively seeking new venues for his entertainment product and audiences not yet familiar with his funny way that makes kids laugh.

What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up?

So, when you ask your young child tonight what they want to be when they grow up, don’t be surprised if he or she says a YouTuber instead of an astronaut or scientist. Given Mr. Garrett’s example above, more up and coming business owners should be looking at what worked for the online star and why they aren’t doing the same things to achieve marketing success with their customers.

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Vehicle wraps from Print It Plus – an eye-catching yet inexpensive way to gain significant ongoing positive marketing for your business in 2018 and beyond

One of the most important jobs we do for our clients at Print It Plus is to utilize our 30 years of expertise to guide you to the marketing, advertising and branding ideas that afford you the greatest return on investment. We realize that each and every one of you has a limited budget – and you need that limited budget to produce the maximum results possible. This desire to help you maximize your return on investment (ROI) is why we offer the wide range of products and services that we do.

This desire is also why we add products and services to our already impressive array of offerings when we see the potential for significant ROI for you. And this is why we added vehicle wraps to our product line several years ago.

Vehicle wraps allow you to continually advertise your business – every day for years – to your current and potential customers while just incurring cost one time. Done well, vehicle wraps can be one of the most productive pieces of your marketing plan and budget in 2018, and beyond.

At Print It Plus we offer you that rare combination of expertise in all phases of the vehicle wrap, from conception through design to the actual application and finished product. Our clients that have already gotten their cars, trucks or vans wrapped have not only been amazed with the combination of visual appeal and durability of their wraps (of course we only use the best wrapping material AND we guarantee our work, as always), but also by the response from their current AND potential customers.

A great example of the positive results vehicle wraps can have for your business happened recently to our local restaurant client Tree’s Wings & Ribs.

General Manager Erin Townsend related a story highlighting this exact point: “Just last week we had a long-time customer call in and remark that they did not realize that we delivered to their neighborhood until they saw our delivery vehicle going by their house.”

“They booked a party tray for the next weekend. And that is by far not the only example,” She said. “Without question, the new vehicle wraps have increased our visibility, our brand and our business far more than we would have thought possible. Print It Plus did a wonderful job!”

An eye-catching, professional-looking vehicle wrap designed and installed by Print It Plus can have that same impact on your business, too.

If you have not incorporated vehicle wraps and/or decals into the marketing of your business, then you are missing out on opportunities to grow your brand and more importantly your profits. And now at the beginning of a new year is a great time to work with our professionals at Print It Plus to create a wrap for one vehicle, or your whole fleet.

At Print It Plus we can help you with all of your promotional ideas now, and throughout the whole year. In addition to our custom design on vehicle wraps, we offer design and production of posters, banners, signs and all printed materials. We also offer mailing, direct mail campaigns, marketing collateral, variable data printing, promotional products, websites and secure web form services for medical offices.  It is our pleasure to service the entire Palm Beach County, Florida area and beyond including Royal Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Jupiter and Boca Raton. Ask about our free pick-up and delivery throughout the county on your order, as well!

To talk with our account team, one of our designers or to place an order, contact us today by calling us at (561) 790-0884. You can also visit our website at HTTP://WWW.PRINTITPLUS.COM or email us at info@printitplus.com. We look forward to helping you CREATE INFINITE POSSIBILITIES throughout 2018 and for many years to come!