Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Porter.
Mike is President of Print/Mail Consultants and an expert in document operations workflow. His career includes print and mail service bureau production and management, hardware vendor technical support, managing outsourced print and mail operations, and independent consulting. He has consistently improved document operations for his employers and clients.
Few consultants with expertise in documents and communications are more widely recognized for their industry knowledge and straightforward advice. Mike Porter literally “wrote the book” when in 2008 he published the only guide for document operations managers, “Take This Job and Stuff It! – A Practical Guide for Document Operations Managers”. Since 2010 he’s authored a column called “In the Trenches” for Mailing Systems Technology magazine, a major trade publication circulated to over 40,000 subscribers.
Today, Mike specializes in working with organizations that produce highly personalized mail pieces or digitally delivered content such as bills, statements, notices, direct mail, or other critical business documents. He helps companies save money, improve quality, and fully exploit their investments in hardware, software, and people.
Print/Mail Consultants (PMC) opened in Tacoma, Washington in 2006. In 2008 the company moved operations to the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas where it operates today. The company serves customers in the US and Canada from this central location.
For the first four years of operations, Print/Mail Consultants advised and assisted companies engaged in high-volume document production and distribution. Most consulting clients are interested in lowering costs, regulatory compliance, improving productivity, and integrating new technology. PMC clients include utilities, insurance companies, and print/mail service providers.
PMC initiated a content marketing strategy soon after it began operations. A single monthly email newsletter eventually grew to two newsletters, blogs, a podcast, videos, a magazine column, eBooks, and social media. The objective was to raise awareness of company services and establish a reputation for industry knowledge.
The strategy worked. PMC booked several consulting engagements with consumers of their informational content. Consistent publishing prompts customers to reach out to PMC when they need a consultant. Recognition spurred by PMC’s publishing efforts has also generated opportunities to expand the audience. Industry conferences have invited Porter to speak live at their events. Blogs, trade publications, and webinars have featured him as a guest writer or participant.
Beginning in 2010, Print/Mail Consultants added PMC Content Services to create custom informational content for clients in the document industry, helping them to reap the benefits of content marketing. Content Services clients are vendors of hardware, software, services, and materials in addition to service providers. This business has steadily grown and expanded to include custom content such as case studies, white papers, reports, newsletters, eBooks, interactive calculators, webinars, and articles.
To the average businessperson, mailed communications and printed documents may seem old school, but that isn’t the case at all. Tremendous advancements in document composition, full color digital printing, and tracking continue to deliver superior response rates compared to digital channels. The print and mail business has changed, but remains a vital component of most organization’s omni-channel communications strategies. Print/Mail Consultants continues to help their clients meet the challenges of current and future communications environments.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Postal rates and regulations, uncertainty about future developments within the US Postal Service, and a decline in First Class mail volumes caused organizations to be cautious about investing in mail production facilities. These trends have at times had a depressing effect on consulting opportunities in document operations.
Changes, even negative ones, are usually good for consultants, however. Companies with in-house document centers are considering outsourcing the work and need help to weigh the pros and cons of such a move. Service providers are competing for a share of shrinking markets and are therefore seeking ways to differentiate themselves and add services to make up for the lost volume. Digital marketing has become riddled with spam and unwanted ads, making intelligently created and personalized direct mail even more effective. Forbes expects, customer experience, which includes the paper and electronic customer communications, to eclipse price and product as the most influential differentiator by 2020. Helping clients address these challenges continues to be a source of opportunity for Print/Mail Consultants.
Print/Mail Consultants – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Print/Mail Consultants works with companies in the customer communications business. Some of our clients create physical and digital documents themselves, either as an in-house operation or as a print and mail service provider. Other clients support those companies creating the documents with hardware, software, materials, or services.
Unlike consulting firms that concentrate only on printing or on mailing, we work with the entire production and distribution workflow. This gives an advantage as we can spot weak points in the workflow and recommend the most effective improvements or corrective actions. Sometimes mailing issues are best solved upstream, where the documents are composed or even where the data is extracted.
Our content services clients receive much more from PMC than they can get from a freelance writer or even an advertising/marketing agency. Because we understand the industry so well, we routinely suggest topics or opportunities to exploit based on the interests of each client’s audience. Every client has a different plan. Clients need not spend their time educating us about their business or the issues relevant to their audience. We can produce high-quality content based on our own knowledge and experience.
We develop a content plan for each client, describing the content elements to be produced and setting the schedule. This ensures clients benefit from the regular publication of content. Those who commission projects separately frequently find themselves repeatedly restarting their content marketing strategies instead of building on the material they’ve already produced.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Some of my proudest moments as a consultant came while working with a utility company. I added structure, tracking, and quality control to inefficient processes which were causing them to delay product launches and lose a competitive edge. I also initiated a project to redesign printed documents, cutting production expenses in half.
Postage savings alone on these documents amounted to a quarter million dollars per year. For the same client, we also modified an annual mailing job, reducing the volume by approximately 60% with no negative impact on regulatory compliance or customer experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.printmailconsultants.com
- Email: info@printmailconsultants.com
- Twitter: PMCmike
- Other: http://mailingsystemstechnology.com/by-author-5-1 ALSO LINKEDIN http://www.linkedin.com/in/pmcmikeporter
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