The penultimate day of 2013 sitting at my office desk reflecting on the year that has been. 
How quickly we seem to slip from one year to the next.
A time to be melancholic or a time to be reflective?
Looking back on this time last year and my final blog for 2012, I can recall putting it together and what I was thinking at the time.
Shame that the short-term memory isn’t quite as good as the long term one!
Philosophical yes.
The economy is shifting marginally and there is some optimism but we still have some way to go.
Irrespective of how good or bad the year has been it’s always a good thing to look forward with optimism.
It’s a time to plan. I don’t do new year’s resolutions I think they are waste of time I prefer setting some goals broken down into personal – family and health goals, business and company goals, family and friends and finally house goals – what I want to get sorted in the house for 2013.
That way I can attribute dates with a realistic time line and do my best to achieve them.
For my final blog, the best of 2013 I wanted to continue the theme I started at the end of 2012 with a summary of the various articles written throughout 2013.
This year’s articles have been focussed on helping companies get the best from outsourcing whether it is print and mailing services , hybrid mail solutions, cheque printing and payroll processing and printing.
In May, I introduced you to 3D printing, used extensively in motor manufacturing and F1 Motor Racing R & D, it has some way to go before it becomes mainstream.
It will become increasingly useful to organisations over the next 3-5 years. The difficulty for organisations will be understanding how and what applications 3D printing can be used for.
The benefits will be unprecedented. Being able to print 1 of anything or a prototype of a new product, think direct mail applications, mailings to your customers demonstrating a new product.
Remember when digital print first hit the mainstream? Then apply the same thought process to 3D printing!
Cross media marketing what is it and where does it fit in with social media and print?
The growing phenomenon of cross media marketing personalisation is having a positive impact on print. It has been mainstream for some 2-3 years but companies are uncertain how to implement it alongside a marketing plan.
Paper is becoming the first touch point of engagement with the customer before taking them on to a digital or social platform.
Marketing personalisation and social media will become increasingly important to a companies’ marketing and strategic planning process when it comes to personalised engagement with it’s targeted audience.
If you click on the link you can read why it will be important to you:
What is marketing personalisation & what does it have to do with social media?
Mailing out a direct mail piece to your customers with no thought or personalisation will be ineffective in seeking customer engagement.
The cross media marketing mix has to be strategic, personalised on a level the audience can relate to and be part of your social media activity. If you hit the button below I discuss it in more detail:
Please click here to read more
I’ve extolled the virtues of multi-channel distribution – using both paper and electronic means of delivering an item to your customer.
The paperless office?
I think we still have some way to go to get there and I cannot be an advocate of a paperless office, paper has an intrinsic value in our everyday lives and you can read my opinion here:
It is foolhardy to perpetuate the myth that electronic delivery methods save organisations time and money – it does not.
The important thing is to develop and understand the reasons for moving to electronic means of delivering messages to your customers.
A well thought out plan and strategy will see that paper and electronic are essential to maintaining good relations with your customers.
You can read why here:
Print, digital and the cross media marketing mix
If there is one thing I try to convey to customers and readers alike is to make sure you research and evaluate suppliers.
Your relationship should be a marriage and not a relationship based on convenience.
Adopting a “get the cheapest supplier” attitude is doomed to failure so why bother with the headache.
This article sums it up:
Top tips for choosing the right print supplier
So that’s it. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the best of the rest.
Thank you for visiting Digital Print Management’s blog and for reading and sharing the content through Linkedin, twitter, facebook and Google+, for taking the time to add your comments.
I hope that 2014 will be a successful year and may you continue to prosper financially and spiritually.
My final note for the year:
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” Winston Churchill
A good mantra to adopt for 2014, don’t you think?
Happy New Year.
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Thanks for the round-up of articles, Caroline! I’m looking forward to reading more of your articles in the future. I’m quite sad that I didn’t get to follow these posts of yours last year… but I’m glad that I did find this round-up. Outsourcing helps a lot of businesses these days. It’s just right that you have covered tips for them for the whole 2013… I wish you’ll do the same this year. Speaking of which, what articles are you going to cover for this year, I mean what are the main topics? I hope you could check out our blog, too. 😀 Thanks!!