News, Ideas & Commentary on PURLs, Email, SMS Text, QR Codes, Video & More

JFM Concepts, the makers of industry leading cross media marketing package VDP Web, is proud to announce the “How To Bid Cross Media & Effective Sales Strategies” cross media marketing webinar part of the 2012 VDP Cross Media Webinar Series. Join John Fager, Principal of VDP Web® to discuss effective pricing strategies for cross media. Learn how to up-charge and price jobs without the dreaded "scope creep" and maintain a positive cash flow while showing value to your clients.

The webinar will be held twice, once on May 8th at 4:00 Eastern time and once on May 10th at 1:00 Eastern time. Register online at http://webinar1.vdpconcepts.com.

JFM Concepts is a full service cross media marketing technology firm featuring the VDP Complete® marketing system and VDP Web® Online software as a service. JFM specializes in creating variable data cross media marketing technologies with Personalized URLs, Email, SMS Text, QR Codes, Phone Tracking, Video, QR Codes, and more for commercial printers, agencies, and marketing departments of all sizes. The firm knows that technology development and marketing should come together to document both improved response rates and improved return on investment (ROI).

JFM Concepts, the maker of VDP Web, is proud to announce that James Michelson has been featured in a video interview during the PODI AppForum by ChoosePrint.org a project of the Printing Industries Association, Inc. of Southern California (PIASC).   The featured segment is entitled “Print is…A Team Player” and can be seen in its entirety here.

More information of the topic can be found in James’s book, Cross Media Marketing 101: The concise guide to surviving in the C-suite published this year by Schooner Press. It is available online at amazon.com and other retailers or at https://www.createspace.com/3537914.

JFM Concepts is a full service cross media marketing technology firm featuring the VDP Complete® marketing system and VDP Web® Online software as a service. JFM specializes in creating variable data cross media marketing technologies with Personalized URLs, Email, SMS Text, QR Codes, Phone Tracking, Video, QR Codes, and more for commercial printers, agencies, and marketing departments of all sizes. The firm knows that technology development and marketing should come together to document both improved response rates and improved return on investment (ROI).

JFM Concepts, the makers of VDP Web, is proud to announce that Brenda Eichelberger has joined the VDP Web Boulder, CO office as a Web Production Manager.  Brenda comes to VDP Web with seventeen years of experience as a software engineer an web developer.  She has worked for Qwest / US West and several boutique web development firms.  Her expertise includes web development using HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, Wordpress, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Bronto, and Tortoise SVN.  She is also an expert in Adobe’s Creative Suite.

Brenda is a graduate of the Colorado State University and enjoys the outdoors, hiking, biking, skiing, dancing, making jewelry and spending time with her teenage son and cocker spaniel.

Please joing us in giving Brenda a hearty "Welcome Aboard!"

The marketing technology experts at JFM Concepts are proud to announce they have partnered with the Great Lakes Graphics Association, part of the Print Industries Association of America, to provide cross media marketing services.

JFM Concepts has used its industry leading VDP Web® cross media marketing platform to support the Great Lakes Graphics Association in membership development and retention efforts.  The campaign included a multi-channel distribution effort to current and former association members to conduct a highly complex and detailed survey.  The questions were designed to gather detailed feedback from the membership in order to improve services to boost both relevancy and values in a rapidly changing marketplace.

Since 1886, the Great Lakes Graphics Association has represented the printing industry and its allied partners.  The GLGA is a professional trade association representing members in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin that helps businesses achieve powerful results.  JFM Concepts and VDP Web are proud to assist the Association in developing industry leading cross media marketing tools and systems to accomplish their mission.

JFM Concepts is a full service cross media marketing technology firm featuring the VDP Complete® marketing system and VDP Web® Online software as a service. JFM specializes in creating variable data cross media marketing technologies with Personalized URLs, Email, SMS Text, QR Codes, Phone Tracking, Video, QR Codes, and more for commercial printers, agencies, and marketing departments of all sizes. The firm knows that technology development and marketing should come together to document both improved response rates and improved return on investment (ROI).

Special thanks to Steve Anzalone, COO of the Harding Poorman Group for his efforts in this project.

Happy holidays and a great new year to all of our friends from the entire team at VDP Web.

We've dug up a great way to kick off 2012!

Dear friends:

As the holiday season approaches we are reminded that it is warm relationships that have been established over the years that VDP Web continues to be successful.  The entire team at JFM Concepts is thankful for the loyalty of our customers and the hard work and dedication of our staff.

So from all of us, we wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

Pease note our holiday business hours below:

• Wednesday, November 23, 2011 business hours are from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST
• Thursday, November 24, 2011 we will be closed in observance of the Thanksgiving Holiday
• Friday, November 25, 2011 we will be closed in observance of the Thanksgiving Holiday

For emergency assitanance during the holidays, please leave a message and tech support will be paged or email us.

Happy Holidays,

The VDP Web Team

VDP Web founder and principal James Michelson was recently featured on a What They Think video published on October 25th, 2011.  The short is an overview of Cross Media Marketing 101, The concise guide to surviving to surviving in the C-suite.

Click here to watch the video

Order now at: https://www.createspace.com/3537914 or amazon.com!

Susan M LaChance
Vice President Consumer and Industry Affairs

Susan:

I was sorely disappointed to receive the survey request from your department and the follow up post card last week. 

To remain relevant and profitable, the USPS must follow the Service’s own advice to business customers and integrate digital and web elements into the marketing mix.  If you want advertisers to accept the power of direct mail in the digital age the USPS must lead from the front with cutting edge applications that highlight the power of mail.  The web call to action was hidden in the small print in both the letter and the follow up card and required arcane logins and passwords.

The direct marketing solicitation sent by your office was antiquated, ineffective, and counter-productive to growing business customer confidence and utilization of the Post Office and its services.   By not following its own advocated best practices, The USPS is making the process of selling direct mail to marketers that much harder.

I strongly recommend you, your staff, and contractors review "Getting Personal – Direct Marketing Practices that Deliver", published by the USPS in 2008.

Lead or be left behind.

At a minimum, this is what the direct mail piece should have contained to capture attention and increase response and provide a positive example to possible business customers:

• Color & artwork personalized to individual recipients
• Size bigger than 3 x 5 to stand out from bills and junk
• Personalization (name, industry, title, industry graphic & artwork)
• Easy to access online survey without the need for usernames and passwords
• Tracking to measure who visited website but did not take further action by individual

The folks at Campaign Monitor shared the following stats about mobile email marketing that I wanted to pass along to our readers.  They analyzed their data from all email clients and more than 3 billion messages from May 2009.  The chart says it all.

The mix of mobile email clients is no surprise either.

I agree with the author of the original study, that it is time to pay attention to how your emails look on mobile devices, including tablets and to consider this as part of your cross media marketing strategy.