Posts Tagged ‘custom-content’
2010: It’s A New Year for Business!
4 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
It’s finally here. The first workday of 2010. Like many of you, I’m not sorry to see that 2009 is gone and behind us. It was a year filled with struggle, fear and doubt for all business executives and owners. Growth strategies were thrown out the window and replaced by a hunker-down mentality that froze most businesses in place.
Some good came out our struggles though. We were forced to trim all the excess out of our organizations, processes and budgets. We looked at things we’ve always done and said “why are we doing this, why do we need it, and what return am I getting on my investment?” This not only helped us survive, but it positioned us to be better prepared to take advantage of opportunities us the economy begins to recover.
Now is time to move forward. To rebuild momentum and implement smart business strategies that will propel us into a new era of profitable growth.
Like all business owners, I’m committed to looking forward and not back and I’ve decided to share my thoughts, failures and triumphs on a daily basis through this blog.
As the founder and CEO of a successful custom content agency, I have the opportunity to interact with the key business executives of major corporations and trade associations across the country on a daily basis. Respecting business confidentiality, I’ll share with you the moods and trends that I see emerging as well as the strategies and tactics that I deal with in running my own company.
I hope that by sharing my businesses experiences with all of you that we will connect and find inspiration together so that 2010 can be a year of growth and success for all of us.
Happy New Year!
They’re Partners, Not Clients
24 Mar 2009
by James Meyers
Over the past several years, Imagination has come to understand the importance of customer relationships to insuring business success. During the early years of our custom publishing business, we successfully grew the company by focusing intensely on driving new business opportunities. While the strategy worked, we too often found ourselves needing to replace lost clients. In the newspaper business, we called it churn. Often times it was because the client’s budget was cut, or a personnel change at the client or they decided to try something new. Like the time a client decided to eliminate their very successful custom magazine in order to pay for sponsoring seat cushions at the Super Bowl. They did it one year and the custom magazine was gone, the Super Bowl sponsorship was gone, the great ROI was gone and soon after the CMO was gone too.
Occasionally, our intense focus on developing new clients caused us to underestimate the opportunities that we had with existing clients. Eventually, we realized that our best opportunities for growth came from clients where we had moved beyond a client/vendor arrangement to a valued partner relationship.
For years, we had used terms like customers and clients to describe our relationships but the reality was that they weren’t really relationships because they were based on “I need something and you can sell it to me” rather than a much more intertwined partnership. And it’s true partnerships with partners who understand, value and are willing to invest in custom content and publishing services that are they key to long-term success for both parties.
Like every company, we began 2009 unsure of the effects that the global recession would have on our business. We’ve seen some losses but we have more than made up for them with new business opportunities from existing partners and new clients who were seeking the full range of strategic custom content strategies that we provide. We take pride in the fact that many of our largest partner relationship have been in place for more than five years and that our business with them has consistently grown. In the end, isn’t that what a successful relationship is all about? The opportunity for both parties to grow by understanding each other’s needs and expectations while working together in a spirit of mutual respect and trust.
Business relationships don’t happen on day one. It takes time to develop and nurture a partnership so that both sides benefit from the relationship over the long run. We’re proud of our partnerships with some of the world’s leading companies and trade associations.
