"Buying printing on the internet is like buying fast food. It's cheap and convenient... but you can't live on it."   Mike Corridori

It is OK to Print Out an E-mail

It has become commonplace to say that not printing an email can "save a tree." But the truth is a little more complicated than that.

More than half the forests in the USA are under private ownership. Many of these forests are under sustainable management that provides jobs and income to the property owners. If the demand for forest products disappears, the economic incentive to maintain the forest disappears with it and forest lands could conceivably be sold for development. The result would be a genuine loss of forests that provide wildlife habitat and protect watersheds and air quality. Today's savvy environmentalists are working with the forest products industry to insure viable forests and sustainable harvesting.


As a result, there are more trees on paper industry forest lands today than there were 70 years ago. Of the 873 million acres that supply commercial forest products, only 2% are harvested each year. Today's responsible companies recognize that forests are a sustainable resource that can supply us with wood and wood products, like paper, indefinitely if they are properly managed. Forest stewardship in America has grown increasing more responsible to environmental concerns. So there is no need to feel guilty over printing something because you want a paper copy. However, if you fail to recycle paper when you are through using it, go ahead and feel guilty! 

The Metafore Fiber Cycle Project provides a wealth of information about forests in North America.

Is it Time to End Saturday Mail Delivery?

It is no secret that the Postal Service has been hard hit by the precipitous decline in mail volume. From  a peak of 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006, mail volume has declined to a projected 167 billion pieces for 2010, and is expected to level off at about 150 billion beyond this year. That represents a nearly 30% decline in revenue. The Postal Service has been scrambling to find places to cut to make up the shortfall. Post Offices have been closed and some 300, 000 "under performing" mail drop boxes have been eliminated. A slew of new mailing specifications have been put into place to further automate bulk mail.  But approximately 80% of costs for the Postal Service is in employee pay and benefits. Short of reductions in work hours, there is no way to achieve savings that will make up for the shortfall. Eliminating Saturday delivery is estimated to save the postal service over $3 billion.  

The Postal Service has requested that they be allowed to discontinue Saturday service, and have been working on operational changes that will have to be made if and when that happens. So far, Congress and the Obama administration have been reluctant to allow the change. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, says that Saturday delivery gives U.S. businesses a competitive advantage. Cutting Saturday delivery on the day before Mother's Day or Christmas, he says, is "Probably not a good idea."  Chaffetz suggests adding 12 more non-delivery holidays to the postal calendar, whether they fall on Saturday or not.

Clearly, the Postal Service is important to the economy of this country. Printed communications have unique value that is not matched by email which can be easily lost, ignored, or deleted in the surge of electronic data we are subjected to every day. And with today's reduced mail volume, mailed communications get more attention than ever before. But does that mean we should require mail delivery on Saturday, and at what cost? Polls suggest that most Americans do not object to elimination of Saturday mail. What do you think?

E-mail Marketing

Most emails get deleted faster than you can say “twitter,” but people still read personal letters. Okay, so maybe they toss out the semi-personalized form letter after reading the first few lines. But it still gets opened and scanned over, and if the letter appears to be meant specifically for them, it gets plenty of attention. This is very different than the reaction given an email even though emails always have a name on them. Why?

I think it has to do with a perception of value. It takes very little effort to send an email. My inbox is full of them every morning. Unless I already have a relationship with the person who sent the email, I don’t give it much thought before hitting the delete button. It doesn’t have enough perceived value to justify my time. The media downplays the value of the message.

Unsolicited emails are like junk faxes. They remind me of the recorded message I sometimes get: “Your call is very important to us; please stay on the line and someone will assist you shortly.” Five minutes later I am saying: “Hey, if my call is important to you, answer the d… phone!” The action, or rather inaction, tells me exactly how important my call is. So it is with emails. You can blast out emails by the thousands, but that won’t give the recipient the idea that his needs are important to you.

If you want your message to get attention, pay more attention to the people you are sending it to. That doesn’t mean you should never send emails. By all means, use every tool in your toolbox. Just don’t expect the screwdriver to be a very good hammer. Your online marketing effort should be teamed with direct mail. How important is that? It is so important, even Google uses direct mail. Give your prospects something they can hold in their hand.

Marketing as Education

It is not really a new concept, but more and more companies today are adopting a marketing approach that incorporates education for customers and potential customers. Today’s newsletters are less about self promotion and more about providing useful information. More and more companies are providing free seminars. These efforts aim at building relationships and establishing value in the community, not just selling products and services. Small businesses are often uniquely positioned to take advantage of this kind of marketing.

One such business that has become a great source of information for clients and potential clients is Westlake Village’s AXICOM. AXICOM, a provider of technology services since 1996, specializes in computer and network support services for businesses in the Los Angeles and Ventura counties. I asked AXICOM CEO, Jake Nonnemaker, about his marketing philosophy.

Q. Jake, how did you decide to provide education as a key part of your marketing program?

A. The decision to offer free technology education came about because we wanted a new way to provide value to our customers. After talking to some of our customers and asking them what else we can do for them, quite a few asked how they can get the most out of their tools like Microsoft Office and mobile phones. So we started to deliver exactly that to our customers. Our seminars and workshops help differentiate us from other computer support professionals. As you can imagine, there isn't much barrier to entry in the IT support arena. A guy can get laid off from his corporate job at 9am and be Joe the Computer Tech LLC by noon. And with the economy the way it is, a lot of people have done just that. So the field is pretty crowded and I've found that educating our clients on technology really sets us apart. Our education seminars can introduce new products to our existing customers but also give prospects an opportunity to check us out and see that we are people they will want to do business with. We also show our customers how to get the most out of their technology and in today's economic environment that is crucial.

Q. What kinds of education programs has AXICOM provided or sponsored?

A. We recently upgraded to a larger office in Westlake Village after 9 years in Agoura Hills. With our new office, we opened the AXICOM Technology Learning Center. We hold free seminars and workshops which are generally about an hour long and cover topics such as social networking, Windows 7, Microsoft Office products, Blackberry and iPhone, mobile computing, PC maintenance, and cloud computing. We also bring in other expert speakers to talk about things like email marketing, paperless office and simplifying your office.

Q. What has been the response?

A. The topics have been very well received so much so that we've been maxing out the capacity of our Learning Center which holds about 12 people. So we've started doing online webinars as well to accomodate more people and also provide reach to people who live outside the immediate area.

Q. What would you recommend for other businesses who might be considering education as part of their marketing efforts?

A. I would recommend staying committed to an education program for at least 6 months if you decide to do one. That's when our customers seemed to have realized that we were serious and it wasn't just a passing marketing scheme. Don't be discouraged after the first couple of seminars because those are the ones that you are going to cut your teeth on. It becomes much easier once you develop a system of doing seminars or webinars.Don't just use seminars as a platform to hawk your products. You really need to make sure people go away with valuable information that they can use. Also, don't make it all about "you." Bring in guest speakers that complement your product or service. You will find that your customer will value you more as a resource and it will solidify your relationship.


For more information about AXICOM, you can reach Jake at (818) 865-9865 or jake@axicom.net.