Anne Brandt, of Benton Harbor, Michigan, started Spectacled Bear Publishing this year, and its first book, Philip & Phoebe has come off the press at 色情论坛 Inc., and is currently being shipped. Brandt, who wrote the book 40 years ago, discovered it at the bottom of a cardboard box. The original 1,500-word manuscript was turned into a 450-word illustrated children鈥檚 book, with an inviting soft-touch matte lamination hard cover that is 7 inches square.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a read-aloud story but I think children, parents, and grandparents can relate to the story,鈥� Brandt said.

Brandt has been a life-long writer, working for corporations and non-profit groups while composing essays and poems for magazines and contests. Her blog, , contains contemporary essays, opinion pieces and fiction.

She plans for her own company to fill a niche, explained by the tag line for Spectacled Bear 鈥� 鈥淪aving gentle reads from extinction.鈥� The primary focus will be children鈥檚 literature. Many of today鈥檚 literary works for children are intense and focus on topics such as the paranormal, she said.

鈥淢y publishing company is looking for gentle reads, but not boring reads,鈥� Brandt said. 鈥淚n addition, I want to pick and choose others that appeal to me.鈥�

To start Spectacled Bear, Brandt took an online course on the topic. While getting Philip & Phoebe edited, illustrated and printed, she has been working on the legal aspects of the company and getting the website 鈥� 鈥� up and running to promote her company.

鈥淭he greatest challenge has been getting the website live and timing it so the books are in stock,鈥� Brandt said. Magazines currently are putting their holiday gift guides together and she has been contacted about the book, which she hopes will be the first of at least a three-book series.

Among the decisions for Brandt has been who should print the books. Brandt鈥檚 husband once owned a printing company in Chicago. He advised her that if she wanted quality printing, go with an offset printer, not a print-on-demand company. In her search for printers, she found 色情论坛 in nearby St. Joseph, Michigan.

Working with her sales representative, Bob Guthrie, 色情论坛 is printing the book and providing fulfillment, setting it up so orders from her website will go to 色情论坛.

鈥淚 have never, ever come across a company that is so committed to customer service,鈥� Brandt said. 鈥淓verybody I have met seems to be enthusiastic about me and the book, whether they have seen it or not.

鈥淚鈥檓 just a little bitty client but I feel that I鈥檓 being treated as your biggest client.鈥�

As she promotes Spectacled Bear and Philip and Phoebe, she wants to make the southwest Michigan news outlets aware that 色情论坛 is a local vendor, even though the book was printed in 色情论坛鈥檚 Printing and Bindery Facility in Marceline, Missouri.

鈥淭he best price and the best service are right here,鈥� she said of the company and its employees she worked with in Michigan.

Spectacled Bear Publishing鈥檚 tagline, 鈥淪aving gentle reads from extinction鈥� has a double meaning. Research on 鈥渟pectacled bear鈥� for other companies by that name or any other legal issues uncovered a that lives in South America that is currently vulnerable to extinction.

In her quest to save gentle reads, one of Brandt鈥檚 goals is for additional print runs of Philip & Phoebe above the original run of 2,000 copies. And, there is reason to believe the future is bright for a publisher of children鈥檚 books, as Brandt pointed out that the 2016 Newbery Award winner was a children鈥檚 illustrated book, 鈥淭he Last Stop on Market Street鈥� by Matt de la Pe帽a.

The post Gentle, Not Boring: How One Publisher Is Carving A Niche For Pleasant Reads appeared first on 色情论坛.

Because of this, your association or business can benefit by creating your own as a reference to answer those questions. A style guide will:

• Ensure your brand’s look is consistent
• Ensure sure all copy is written consistently
• Ensure copy is proofread consistently
• Help train new writers in your organization
• Avoid common punctuation mistakes

A style guide, also called a 鈥渕anual of style,鈥� isn鈥檛 meant to crimp a writer鈥檚 voice. Instead it helps maintain consistency for your readers.

For that reason, your organization鈥檚 style guide should be more than a dictionary. It should almost be a how-to guide. If you need to , start with the tips below. If you already have one, take some time to review it with these items in mind.

Decide on writing style
Consider what style your association should follow. For the most part, journalism-based writers use . It dictates spelling of certain words, like spelling out the numbers zero to nine and using numerals for the rest, how to handle professional titles, and when and how to abbreviate certain words. It also aids with spelling and punctuation of possessives, and detailing what information needs to be included when you publish poll or survey results.

Many journalistic media outlets have created their own style guides based on the AP Stylebook and then add local spellings, acronyms and abbreviations. You can do the same by generating a list of words that are unique to your association or the industry you represent, and add them to your manual with definitions and usage examples.

For instance, if your association has a yearly meeting with a really long formal name, do you use the entire name for every reference? Or do you have an acronym you use? You might even decide to refer to it as 鈥渢he convention.鈥� As mentioned before, documenting these usage decisions in your style guide maintains consistency for your readers.

There are other style guides to consider if the AP Stylebook isn鈥檛 a good fit for your organization. The two most prevalent options are the and . You can also search online for , and model yours after theirs.

Whichever style guide your association chooses as the basis for your wordsmiths, have at least one hard copy of it in the office or make sure everyone can access it online. Note that some online guides are free and some are subscription-based.

Add helpful information
In addition to definitions and usage tips, it is valuable to include production information. Think about proofreading. Is it policy at your association to print articles and items and route them for proofreading? If so, add details to your style guide describing your proofreading requirements, such as how many proofreaders need to review a piece and examples of the you use. You may want to include the entire workflow for production, such as writing, proofreading and deadlines for all work along the process. If you have calendars for sending emails and social posts, include those also.

This section of your style guide should include the fonts, design elements and colors your organization has selected for its branding. A short tip sheet on writing good headlines, body copy, blog posts, social media posts and captions may also be in order.

Add contact information of the people who speak for your association, with their titles, phone numbers and email addresses.

If you have a magazine, editorial policies need to be included, starting with how to handle letters to the editor, submitted articles, and possibly advertising.

Putting it together
Place your association鈥檚 mission statement and vision statement at the beginning of your style guide. This keeps these statements handy for quick reference and may actually influence some of your style decisions.

For ease of use, state which style guide your organization will follow 鈥� AP, MLA or Chicago Manual of Style 鈥� and then list your in alphabetical order. Next should come your proofreading, editorial and production policies. And once all of that is established, create a table of contents to assist staff members in finding what they need to know.

Once complete, your style guide can be stored on your computer network where everyone can access it, but also consider printing reference copies in case of computer network issues or accidental deletion.

Lastly, consider assigning a staff person to be responsible for periodic reviews and updates of your style guide. This will help ensure that your style guide is a living document that stays in sync with changes in your industry and helps you project an organizational brand that is in touch with your market and your readers.

The post Strengthen Your Association Brand with a Style Guide appeared first on 色情论坛.

Chad Beatty, business development manager for 色情论坛鈥檚 Commercial Division, assists with digital opportunities for publishers. To help business and organizations get the most from their print and digital communications, he uses 色情论坛鈥檚 Digital Presence Assessment (DPA) to measure overall performance of their digital assets.

In this interview, Chad discusses the DPA process and the value of doing a 色情论坛 DPA.

色情论坛 Blog: What does a Digital Presence Assessment provide to businesses and organizations?

Chad Beatty: A digital presence assessment provides a pulse on where you鈥檙e performing, where you鈥檙e not performing, where your competitors are performing, and where you should focus energies and try to enhance in certain areas to get your digital where it needs to be.

A lot of printers offer digital services, but we can offer more detailed digital strategic guidance. So often, publishers are kind of filling in the boxes from a digital perspective for their channels, and then they鈥檙e executing. But do they really know why they have a Facebook page, how should they maximize it and optimize it? These are organizations that can benefit by requesting a Digital Presense Assessment.

Also, the DPA is a great validating tool. Their metrics are telling them one thing but it鈥檚 sometimes good to get an objective view. Or, we can tell them they鈥檙e doing great in such-and-such a channel, but just this little change would make it that much better.

WB: What value does the DPA bring to businesses and organizations?

CB: The ultimate goal of this is educating the client, and educating publishers on exactly how they can make their digital integrated experience better. When you can leverage your print and digital together to work in conjunction, you鈥檝e got a much better impact.

So often, people see digital as cannibalizing their print. But think of it this way, there鈥檚 three types of people when it comes to digital and print: there are print-only readers, there are digital-only readers, and there are people who do a little bit of both, like me. So, if you have a print magazine you are taking care of your print-onlys, and you鈥檙e covering the people who do a little of both, but you are ignoring your digital readers. So you can do one or the other: you can ignore them or embrace them and bring them into the fold with everyone else.

WB: What does the DPA assess?

CB: We do an assessment of the five major channels, which are website, email, social media, digital edition and paid search. We give a numeric grade on each and then an overall grade. Each has different weights depending on which has more pull than the other. Obviously the website would have more pull than an app.

For a website, the parameters we seek out are discoverability, authority on a certain subject, mobile readiness, search optimization, traffic and audience.

The DPA for social media is based on the level of activity, such as how many likes you have and how engaged your followers are. For Twitter, for example, how many times you Tweet a day is very important. I鈥檝e seen so many companies that develop a Twitter handle and they鈥檒l put out a tweet once a week. You鈥檝e got to keep engaging with little snippets of content otherwise it may actually be detrimental to your brand.

With email, because we work with publishers, it鈥檚 a lot about the email-to-print-subscriber ratio. One-to-one is your dream. We check the sign-up rate, frequency of sends, open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, to name a few. We even go into template design to make sure it鈥檚 optimized.

With apps, digital editions and paid search, it鈥檚 about viewer sessions, page views, basically how engaged people are with them, and what can you do to make them better.

WB: What does a business or organization learn about their digital assets from a DPA?

CB: We take all this data and run it through a series of equations. It comes back with scoring, which brings to the surface some key insights around their digital presence, whether good or bad. We create a Top 10 Insights list, and our Top 10 Recommendations come out of those insights.

The nice part about the digital assessment is that it provides an objective viewpoint of their digital communications based on web best practices. This is not based on opinion. It鈥檚 not based on where 色情论坛 can help the most so we can get their business. It鈥檚 very neutral. 听

WB: And then does someone at 色情论坛 help them implement those recommendations?

CB: The assessment is a standalone with recommendations, ideas and insights that anyone can execute. Every time I sell a DPA I say to them, if you want to just do this with us and walk away, be our guest. We鈥檇 love to do it, but if there are things you know you need to get done and you want to use your current vendor, then by all means use your current vendor.

So often what clients do is take a long time digesting it, trying to figure out what they can take on themselves, and when and where they want to engage us to make the improvements.

WB: What about businesses or organizations that don鈥檛 think they would benefit from a DPA?

CB: Some people may look at the list of tools we use and say, 鈥淚 can do that, that鈥檚 not hard.鈥� But we sit down and organize it and know exactly how to push it through an entire process by which you come to conclusions. We help you piece it all together. And we鈥檝e become quite good at it; we鈥檝e done tons of them. And once we鈥檝e accumulated data and produced the numbers, we develop not only the insights, which are fact-based on the numbers, but then also we develop our recommendations.

If your organization would benefit from clearer understanding of where you should focus your digital efforts and where you stand versus your competitors, please contact us to request more information about a Digital Presence Assessment today.

The post How Digital Presence Assessments Impact Business Priorities appeared first on 色情论坛.

色情论坛 is here to help with its Content Assessment, which is a thorough assessment of how well your content is organized, distributed and presented across the all potential print and digital channels. The Content Assessment typically builds upon the insights and recommendations that were provided through our Digital Presence Assessment, which is a quick X-ray of how well your website, email, social media, app or digital edition and any paid content or promotions are performing.

In this interview, John Burgess, Director of Strategy and Innovation, explains the Content Assessment and why publishers should consider going through this process.

Q: What is the Content Assessment?

A: The Content Assessment is a review process that looks at every channel a publisher uses to disseminate content 鈥� print, website, email, social media and/or digital apps 鈥� and looks at what content is being distributed across these channels and how their audience wants to consume that content. Further, the assessment identifies opportunities to expand free content and paid or premium content to complement core paid content subscriptions. Lastly, the assessment identifies how to best organize and present that content in each channel.

Q: What is the purpose of the Content Assessment?

A: Not only do we want to help people build websites, set up email, set up social media and create apps, but we want to help them implement the right tools for their audience and situation. More importantly, we want to help people think through how to use those tools to grow their business. If a publisher integrates these tools successfully and thinks through how to use the right tools to deliver the best content experience for their members or subscribers, then you have the beginnings of a recipe for content to strengthen existing revenue streams and create new ones.

There are a lot of people who are still stuck in the mindset that print and digital are an either-or proposition. We are trying to help publishers realize that their audience trusts them as the expert resource on the content they are publishing. So it is the publisher鈥檚 responsibility to make that content readily available in any way their audience wants it. The assessment gives us an audience鈥檚 preferences for how they want to consume a publisher鈥檚 content.

Further, the assessment identifies what content their audience likes versus what it doesn鈥檛 like, and additional content they would like the publisher to provide and where the audience is going to for that content.

Lastly, the assessment evaluates all of this in the context of what a publisher鈥檚 identified competitors are doing, so potential differentiation or opportunity can be capitalized on.

Q: What is involved in the Content Assessment?

A: First we talk to the publisher to understand their business and learn more about their competitors. We interview other stakeholders identified by the publisher, such as the writers, so we get a feel for the strategic content view from the publication鈥檚 key people.

Then we conduct qualitative interviews with some of their subscribers or members to understand what content they like from that publisher, what content would they like to see, how they are accessing that content, and where they are going for similar content.

From that information we create a quantitative survey that is sent to the publisher鈥檚 entire subscriber or member base. That gives us data such as demographics, mobile preferences, content consumption preferences, what features, articles or writers are more popular than others and why, and where else are they going for that information.

We review navigation of the publisher鈥檚 website, known as taxonomy, because when someone comes to your website, you have five seconds to engage them. We also examine each competitor鈥檚 website using 色情论坛鈥檚 Digital Presence Assessment, looking to see what they are doing in five areas 鈥� website, e-newsletter or email, social media, apps, and any sort of paid promotion.

Our 色情论坛 team then reviews the gathered information and discusses our recommendations for how that publisher could use their content more effectively to bring in more subscribers and advertisers.

Q: From the Content Assessment, what types of recommendations are made?

A: We create a publishing model that helps publishers become more discoverable and engaging with a combination of free and premium content that is packaged precisely for each of the available channels used for distribution.

For their website, we help them determine how to better present their content. When readers or viewers see that home page, it鈥檚 got to be crystal clear what this publisher鈥檚 content is about within the first two to three seconds.

In a Content Assessment for one of our trade magazine customers, one of the key things we learned that, of the three major publishers around this content topic, our client is the oldest, most respected and most technical because of their writers. So now their writers are showcased.

People also have to be able to find your content online. For example, another national magazine customer never published any articles from their magazine on their website. With their articles online, with key words indexed by Google, the number of keywords ranking in the top 20 search engine results has quadrupled in less than six months. As a result, many pages are returning higher in the search results for high value, target keywords. This discoverability results in more clicks to their website.

Another way we help increase website traffic is through email. Our national magazine customer was sending emails to subscribers with all of the content in the email. Now their emails only contain a compelling title and an excerpt of the first sentence or two with a link to the website. And this is increasing email open rates and click-through rates to the website. More importantly, those readers are staying and reading more pages on the website. In a six-month period, this client has gone from 10,000 website visits a month with zero referral traffic from email to 36,000 website visits a month, with 15,000 of those coming from email. Further, the pages per visit have increased significantly. That鈥檚 quite a growth.

We also discuss with publishers the need to present website visitors with a high-value offer, such as an e-newsletter, white paper, online event pass or subscription promo. We have found that people will provide their email address for what they consider to be high-value content. Once the publisher has those email addresses, they can remarket additional content to that subscriber or member. Now, our national magazine client is capturing around 700 email addresses a month, up from 70 a month. You can see how all of these efforts working together create exponential results.

So once you get readers coming to the site, and they view that publisher as a trusted source and they want access to the premium content, there鈥檚 a tipping point where they want to subscribe to the magazine, digital magazine and other paid or premium offerings.

In addition, a digital app that is optimized for reading on a mobile phone is a good fit to reach an ever-increasing mobile audience. We have a magazine client that has seen a 600 percent increase in sessions on the app optimized for mobile and a web edition.

As mentioned earlier, all of these efforts together create exponential results and a tipping point to pay for content. For our national magazine client, in the six months following their Content Assessment and implementation of the recommendations from the assessment, their subscriber base has increased 11 percent and the momentum is just getting going.

Once the key building blocks are in place, we look at other ways to boost subscribers. For example, based on the national magazine customer鈥檚 Content Assessment, we learned their editor is very approachable, so we are recommending creation of a paid-access monthly webinar series that is a Q&A with a special guest. We have helped them video-produce key events to be used as curriculum, with slides, transcription of the presentation and video, and made available online.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of opportunities that assessments have identified to help customers.

Q: What types of publishers does 色情论坛 help?

A: We see a lot of opportunity with niche publications, national or regional, lifestyle or hobby, and with trade and B2B magazines.

We see many niche publishers that have really great magazines and great subscriber bases, but their digital doesn鈥檛 match the magazine. They are spending 99 percent of their time focusing on getting the print magazine out every month, and while they are doing the website, social media and email, none of it is coordinated with the magazine. Many niche publishers don鈥檛 see how they can make money with digital so they are not making that investment. That鈥檚 how we establish ourselves as a trusted partner with our publishers. This helps us establish a different conversation, from a publisher asking their sales rep about better print pricing to us asking the publisher how can we help grow their business.

Send me more information on how a Content Assessment can benefit my organization.

听

The post Help Your Publication Score with a Content Assessment appeared first on 色情论坛.

色情论坛, however, is the exception.

Now in its third generation of ownership, 色情论坛 is positioning itself to continue offering value to its customers for many more years to come. Don 色情论坛, president, represents the third generation and draws on his family roots to continue steering the company in a positive direction.

In this interview, Don explains how 色情论坛 helps customers be successful, the advantages the company offers and its goals.

色情论坛 Blog: What should businesses looking for a printer know about 色情论坛?

Don 色情论坛: As our vision statement says, we want to help customers succeed by delivering content through print and integrated channels. First, it鈥檚 important for us to continue to be a world-class printer, because that鈥檚 really who we are and what we鈥檙e about.

In this day and age, a lot of printers have been struggling and some have gone out of business. We, on the other hand, have been thriving and have been able to continue investing in the most state-of-the-art equipment that provides the best print quality. In this market, not many companies can say they are investing the way we have been investing. 听

Second, it鈥檚 important to continue to keep up on the ever-changing world that we live in, especially from a digital standpoint, and to be able to help our customers make choices and decisions that enable them to be successful.

WB: How does 色情论坛 help customers be successful?

DW: Our sales reps sit down with our new customers and find out exactly what their needs are, and that process continues in production meetings with them. It鈥檚 just open communication and listening and asking questions, and then being there for them. A lot of those conversations lead them into wants and needs they don鈥檛 even know about yet.

WB: How does 色情论坛 help customers determine their needs?

DW: Our customers are no longer just print buyers, they are content buyers, and they need to get their content pushed out to their constituents in different ways, through different channels. We have a digital solutions page on our website where we show our digital publishing apps, our digital presence assessment and content marketing services. These are products and services that our customers need and want right now, but don鈥檛 really know how to go about getting them. We are here to be their print and digital products provider.

WB: What are the advantages for customers who work with 色情论坛?

DW: We want to help their business succeed. That鈥檚 not by just handing them a printed product. That鈥檚 by evaluating their business and becoming a partner with them to help them to grow.

Whether our customers call on us for book printing, catalog printing or magazine printing, our digital solutions are good examples of how we help our customers grow. Our digital publishing apps, which we have been providing for almost three years, have allowed our customers to take their printed product and expand the content they push out to their customers.

With our digital presence assessment, we evaluate what they currently have and come up with a solid plan for them to grow their business using an increased digital presence. As more customers go through the assessment process, we have more prove-its to show other businesses. The assessment ties right into our content marketing services and how we can help them market their products and services through social media.

We have a lot of knowledge in the digital arena, and we can help our customers obtain their goals.

Also, what we really provide for our customers, and always have, is top-quality customer service along with great communication. We鈥檙e the same company we鈥檝e always been, but we have that plus with our digital solutions.

WB: How is 色情论坛 working to attract new business?

DW: We are trying to gain customers through our digital assessments. But mainly it鈥檚 still the old-fashioned way of sales reps building relationships with prospects and customers. And we鈥檝e seen a big surge recently in increased business with our current customers. Most of our customers print different materials with a lot of different printers. Where we used to do $200,000 worth of offset听printing for a customer, we may now be doing $300,000 or $400,000. And that鈥檚 because they are seeing us as a valuable resource, not just in printing but adding value to their overall business.

WB: What should people know about the company culture?

DW: Our culture is a very helpful, very teamwork-type culture. Our people want everyone to succeed and are willing to help to that end. 色情论坛 is going to be around, and for most employees it鈥檚 not a short gig. It鈥檚 a long-term employment, and with that I think people view working here differently. Their attitude is: let鈥檚 help each other and make sure we succeed now for the future.

WB: What feedback have you received that you are most proud of?

DW: When I look at surveys or I get notes or emails from customers, I鈥檓 most proud when they talk about our people and how well they helped them. And I鈥檓 proud of how well our employees solve problems. That鈥檚 what sets us apart 鈥� our people. Our people really do make a difference. And I get that type of feedback all the time, and typically it鈥檚 not only that the product looks great, but it鈥檚 always about the good experience our people provide while getting that product out.

The post Q&A with Don 色情论坛, president, 色情论坛, Inc. appeared first on 色情论坛.