How Do You Measure Success?

As part of PPAI, Promotional Products Association International, access to tips, training an inspiration are provided to distributors. Here is a blog post from Cassandra Johnson, writer for Promotional Consultant Today.

If you own your business, do you consider yourself to be a successful entrepreneur? How do you measure this success? Promotional Consultant Today shares these key metrics for success as defined by members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC).

1. Cash on Hand. Cash is the life-blood of any startup, and you should always have a pulse on how much of it you have left and how long it’s going to last. It is incredibly easy to let this slip by the wayside. – James Simpson, GoldFire Studios
2. Lifetime Customer Value. While everything having to do with your income and expenses is important for any entrepreneur to understand and monitor, the most important number to know by heart at any given time is your LTV: Lifetime Customer Value. How much do you earn per customer? Per lead? If you know that, you will know how much you can spend to find them. – Cody McKibben, Thrilling Heroics
3. ROI Per Marketing Channel. It’s crucial to keep a handle on ROI per marketing channel in order to optimize marketing spending. It’s not enough to check this every quarter. You should check it monthly or weekly. – Josh Weiss, Bluegala
4. Renewal Rates. If you’re selling anything, understanding renewal rates is absolutely critical. If, for some reason, you’re not getting repeat customers, that’s a major problem and you need to spend as much of your time on it as possible. – Mitch Gordon, Go Overseas
5. Gross Margin. It is crucial for entrepreneurs to understand their costs of goods and services. Keeping track of gross margin assures you know the value of each additional sale. Keeping track of gross margin by product offering will help you determine what balance of products and services will be best for your business. – Doreen Bloch, Poshly, Inc.
6. Profitability Date. Knowing when you expect to be profitable will influence every other business decision you make. You need to know when your company will start making money to know how to manage the money you have in the bank. This impacts every decision related to your business, from hiring more staff to expanding product offerings to investing in marketing. – Ben Rubenstein, Yodle
7. Burn Rate. This is the rate at which a company uses up its capital to finance overhead before generating positive cash flow from operations. As a measurement of negative cash flow, the burn rate is what you need to compare all your forecasts to so you don’t run out of money prematurely, and by lowering operating costs appropriately. – Phil Chen, Systems Watch
8. Income to Expenses Ratio. All other metrics eventually lead back to this one. Are you earning more than you spend? All other decisions hinge on whether or not you’re in the black or in the red. – Colin Wright, Asymmetrical Press

Source: Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs.
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Compiled by Cassandra Johnson

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Stand Out All Year Long

There will be many celebrations in the coming month, but now is a great time to tuck away ideas for standing out, creating goodwill and adding some spice to your marketing efforts in 2015. When asked about company events, most respondents will say a little fun in the office builds friendship, improves office culture and improves team building. Events for your client base are held for similar reasons. Besides demonstrating new products or services, fun events or promotions help develop relationships and shows off your personality!  

Here are some tips for planning your next event:

1.   When planning an event, build excitement. - invitations, references on social media, photos behind the scenes for what to expect; approach promotions the same way. Incorporate a theme for the event, tease attendees with images, videos or clues about what to expect for the upcoming promotion. 

2.   Record the memory– take photos during your event to share on social media as well as to print and frame for employees or clients.

3.   Make events interactive to allow for team building. For example if you are hosting an ice cream party, have a variety of bowls, spoons, toppings and flavors to allow attendees to be creative and “judge” the best presentations, the most unique toppings, etc. 

4.   Plan for a “take away” from the event that ties into the theme, but promotes your brand or your message after the event is over. 

Quirky Dates for Fun in 2015- Ask us for ideas for every month! 

Jan 15– National Hat Day– Give out a custom cap to business partners. Maybe beanies or ear wraps for employees or clients who are into fitness, or make it crazy hat day at work with donations to a favored charity for those that want to wear a hat for the day. 

The 5th of April is Tweed Day– best office “Tweed Twins” could be a winner, or offer a discount to customers that come into the business in tweed that day. 

Go Fishing on the 18 of June for new sales with an internal fishing contest among the sales team. Post fishing results on a white board to track the most caught and the largest catch.  

Did you know the 13th of July is Embrace your Geekness Day? Post and share stories of employee or clients geeky side; capture photos in frames to remember long after the day for office morale or as part of a morning office open house with your best clients. 

November 17– take a hike day– a great way to promote fitness, at work or invite customers out for an evening event; tie the hike into a fundraiser for a local charity. 

Dec 13– ice cream day or Dec 28 is playing card day– custom playing cards can be educational and fun with custom faces showcasing images of your companies history or products. 

It's never too early to jump start your plan of interaction and brand building for 2015! 

Order Accuracy

How can you help with order accuracy? Reviewing documents carefully and understanding what you are viewing.

While many consider a virtual, a mockup and a proof the same– they are actually very different. 

When your company supplies us a vectored form of your logo, we can provide a virtual image. 

 Supplier virtual images can be very realistic, some suppliers utilize technology that will show an object etched or embroidered. Virtual images, however, can be inaccurate. The virtual may be larger or placed slightly “off” from the actual imprint area; don’t rely on a virtual only as final proof.  

By sharing your EPS file prior to an actual order, we are able to provide a summary of the details for  review. 

When client's don't have an EPS or vectored file, we have to create one- that's when spelling errors or inverted numbers can come into play as the new file needed to be reviewed carefully for content. 

We provide a “mock up” for how the logo is to be imprinted prior to ordering. If it’s white imprint on a black object your mock up will show black because we are denoting imprint size, the summary will say– using white imprint.  Sized mock ups are to scale, the PDF you review will show your logo or additional content such as a website, taglines or phone number sized to the imprint area; scaled to the correct size. This “proofing process” allows for the “back and forth” of maximizing the content and placement of information prior to placing the order, which keeps the approval process with the supplier quick.  

The supplier, given time within the production time line, will send us a template or schematic version of the logo showing the exact placement on the promotional piece which is scaled to size for that imprint area and called a proof. We in turn share proofs on standard production orders to add a final layer of  approval to the order process. 

The summary  process is provided to reduce errors and questions, which we are happy to report 99% accuracy on orders each year!

Are USA made products important to consumers?

How important is purchasing USA made products to consumers? 

According to Perception Research Services International, 4 out of 5 consumers noticed Made in USA labels on packaging. Seeing the USA made label reports an impressive response, making consumers three   quarters more likely to purchase that product over a non USA made product. Additionally, 78% of those making purchases for USA made goods will still make the purchase even if the products cost as much as 10% more.  

How do these statistics cross over into the promotional realm? 

As a distributor, unfortunately price often becomes more important than USA made goods. 

How can consumers help to change promotional marketing? Ask for USA made products. Acknowledge and purchase from businesses that maintain a  consistent pledge to purchase USA made goods.   

How can USA made products help grow business? Educate your customer base that your products are USA made and incorporate your company’s commitment to USA made products into your marketing collateral. 

What are 5 reasons to buy American?

1- Production time– Rapid delivery for custom development is not an issue. 

2- Representing core values of your customer base– Brand association for industries and organizations operating in areas such as political, governmental, automotive, military, union, university or privately held company’s seeking to increase value in those partnerships. 

3- Strict safety standards

4- Reliable and available inventory

5- Fair treatment & compensation of labor

What does the label really mean? 

Did you know that imported products must identify the country where products were manufactured? Increasingly point of origin branding is on the actual products, rather than packaging. Products entirely made in the USA must denote made in USA. Many products use the certified Made in USA emblem registered trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office. In 2008 USA Certification Inc became he leading independent source for Made in USA certification. Companies with the USA-C seal have adhered to a rigorous supply chain. 

Who's looking? What will they say?

As we considered names for our business seven years ago, we kept coming back to Promotional Partners. It was not the most creative choice on the list or quickest to type, but as we considered the meaning behind the words- PARTNERS kept coming to the top.  The last seven posts have illustrated reasons some of our partners choose to work with our company. Branding is a little like clothing one's kid.  Products need to be safe, make folks want to get to know and interact with the person and send the right message about who they are as a individual.  When parents ask the question, "Are you planning to wear that to school", they are really saying, "If you go out like that someone will think I don't care and there is no one to guide you".

 

Sending your brand out into the world for everyone to see is a big step; take your steps with a partner. Make sure you are branding on safe, quality products that get your brand the interaction and awareness it deserves.

 

“When I joined GFI Software,  our tradeshow and promotional items were searched for and bought from untested sources on the web- with mixed and unpredictable results.  A co-worker suggested I contact Olivia at Promotional Partners and since then, she has made me appear to be very good at my job.  Now I can focus on my marketing responsibilities and the bigger picture, and I let the gang at Promotional Partners handle the details of our tradeshow booth- and our brand has never looked better.”

C Johnson- GFI Software

What is the secret to results? Collaboration

   

Part of proper product selection is creating the best imprint on your branded pieces. For example, too much information in a small imprint space can crowd the message and reduce the impact. Products with a large digital area allow for photos to replace words; telling stories visually. 

A large imprint area allows space for check list of services if you have several distinguishing features to promote or a slogan that hooks in the consumer. QR codes and watermarks can do more than go to your website. Use these shortcuts to take prospects to a blog, a video or client testimonials. If you are using tech components such as a QR code, track whether you have the type of clientele that is “tech” oriented; know your results. 

Having just completed 7 years, we understand how a small business owner thinks; every dollar is precious. Brainstorming and discussing your goals and objectives are part of every “first visit” to our showroom location. In a collaborative environment our team considers all variables for how your products will be kept and used long term, creating tangible pieces that reflect your marketing plan and yields results.

The owners of Mosquito Wizard of NC have a great product adding value for those that would like more enjoyment in their outdoor spaces during summer months. In our initial meeting we focused on learning the events or distribution methods they planned to use for promoting their brand. The products selected fit indoor and outdoor venues for quick display signage and the hand fans were an economical way to chase away pests and heat at the outdoor events they had lined up as a business sponsor. 

Owner Art Church had this to say after working with our company.

"I cannot say enough about the work Olivia and her team at promotional partners did to help us get ready for our first major event. They completely understood our company, our budget and what we envisioned for our booth. It is a great feeling to know that we have found our long-term partner for all of our promotional needs!!"