R and R Images: News and Updates

Meet Rupert, our unofficial mascot who literally walked into our lives!!

From any location within our building, you can hear Rupert’s occasional crowing. When he crows, we all smile and someone will blurt out a “Hello Rupert!!” We get a chuckle from this little guy. It’s kind of amazing that a farm animal brings us so much  joy!! Who knew?

He’s not shy at all. You can walk up to him and he’ll look you right in the eye for a stare-down. We really need to put him on the payroll..we could pay him chicken feed!! (Ha ha.)

My favorite recollection of Rupert is the part he has played in the lives of a long distance relationship between a loving daughter, Lynn Embry and her mother, Vera, who is losing the battle with cancer. Vera is 90, fiesty (just like her daughter) and still living on her own–in Texas.  I hear Lynn on the phone with her mom, trying not to let the c-word invade their conversation. They both know of the inevitability of the near future, but try not to dwell on that. Instead, a little Rhode Island Red Rooster named Rupert has brought them together on a new level. When Lynn told her mom about Rupert, Vera got excited and asked a million questions before she determined he was a Rhode Island Red. It was almost as though Rupert took Vera back to a time and place in her life that included memories on a farm. Lynn is leaving Wednesday to go see her mom and she’ll be taking a framed picture of Rupert with her.

Who knew that a red rooster could play such noble roles in the lives of R and R images’ employees?

R and R Images

We’re growing! We need a print sales pro who wants to make a great living with a great company. Please pass this job description along to anyone you might know who would be interested.

Print Sales Executive

The primary responsibility for this position is to acquire, retain and grow new customers that align with the digital printing, direct mail and cross media direct marketing solutions we offer.

This is an opportunity to advance your career with a company that thrives on blending technology with creativity while rewarding its employees with a vibrant work environment, a strong sense of teamwork and the ability to earn a great living.

Successful candidate will have strong competencies in:

• researching and qualifying leads
• cold calling a minimum of 10+ potential clients per day
• managing the entire sales cycle
• uncovering new business
• growing existing business
• conducting sales presentations

Minimum of 2 years of print sales REQUIRED to be considered for this position. Digital print experience is a plus.

Skills / Requirements
Qualified candidates will possess a thorough knowledge and understanding of the digital printing industry, a minimum of 2 years experience, and be highly motivated to succeed.​ Variable Data Printing, One-to-One Marketing, Solutions Selling a plus.

Benefits
Base Salary $40k plus commissions up to $150k per year
Health / Dental / Life / Paid Holidays
We value diversity!

R and R Images, Inc. located in Phoenix, Arizona, is a privately owned, State-of-the-art, Marketing Solutions Company. Operating for over 21 years, R and R Images strives for success through a forward-thinking philosophy that includes environmentally friendly policies in our operations. We are focused on one thing – Growing businesses through creativity and technology. We market and produce a variety of online automated workflows, including custom books, marketing materials, personalized print products, and direct mail. Like our customers, R and R Images has an industry proven reputation for quality and customer focus.

VW's Piano keyboard staircase

by Jackie Eldridge

I’m not sure if any of us can fathom just how enormous (and growing) the social media world really is. Seriously, how big is it? What we do know is, if Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest. That’s big. And it’s only one in a myriad of social media platforms!

Let’s just agree to agree that it’s huge and more people than ever before are connecting and reconnecting with friends and favorites. Just as you never thought in your adult life you’d “friend” that cute little red haired kid that sat next to you in 2nd grade, how could it be possible that Pepsi passed on Super Bowl 2010?

You can thank social media for both. Congratulations on rekindling a school-days crush. And Pepsi, a big kudos to you for trading in the coveted Super Bowl annual advertising frenzy for a social media push that actually gives back to the world.

Pepsi has a hard act to follow after VW’s innovative social media initiative, TheFunTheory.com, that holds an altruistic bent, just as Pepsi intends to convey. TheFunTheory.com is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better–and I can almost guarantee you’ve seen the piano staircase video, where a staircase into a subway has been made into a piano keyboard. This was a fun way to get people to take the stairs instead of the escalator (putting the fun back into walking!)! The video went viral in what seemed like a nanosecond. There are two other similar videos on the site; one about bottle recycling and one about littering. They’re just as innovative as the staircase.

Good luck Pepsi. And good luck with your rekindled childhood friendship! Yep. Social media is growing faster than dandelions in Grandma’s yard…and if big brands keep incorporating altruism into their online initiaves, they just may make the world a better place to live, too.

Ashley Key

by Jackie Eldridge

Our creative team just had a brainstorming session for new marketing ideas that will help build our clients’ businesses. We came up with a dozen ideas or more—all really good ideas that would add revenue to any business. Unanimously, we decided these great ideas wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the gold.

We think advertising used to be relatively easy. You put an ad in the local paper and maybe bought a radio spot or two, and you’d touch your target market. It doesn’t work that way any more.  Media saturation has done that for us. Too many choices; too expensive. Today, advertisers are spending more money on advertising, garnering fewer results.

So, what do you do for marketing now, that’s cost effective and reaches your target market? Well, think about it…the reason print media reigned as the primary medium for so many decades is their carefully manicured subscription bases. These bases were their gold…the same gold you need today.

What’s the gold we’re talking about?  The gold we’re talking about is a list. Your targeted list. Your fine-tuned, always up to date list. It can be an email list or a mailing list; preferably both. It’s the list that has been tuned and manicured for you to reach your most likely prospects—a no-waste, highly targeted piece of gold. This gold is your greatest asset. With strategically planned marketing campaigns, these lists will land an ROI that you can take to the bank, time and again.

Make sense? We create, build and manage these lists. We have a highly sophisticated system that “nurtures your leads” into clients, keeping your list fresh and targeted. It is truly the best, most cost-efficient marketing tool since they heyday of print. It’s called iDirect.

Coupled with an amazing creative team that concepts targeted campaigns that will turn the heads of your prospects, it’s efficient and it works.

We decided we can create the greatest creative ideas, but without the right media vehicle, even the best idea can bring less than desired results.

Call Holly Sanger at 602.437.4545 for information about your greatest asset…your list. Don’t have a list? No worries, we’ll build one for you.

By Jackie Eldridge

Great question! It’s the hottest buzz in business today, changing the way we communicate while enabling us to build and maintain relationships with friends, family, colleagues, existing and potential customers. It’s also the newest trend in business marketing—a proven branding weapon as well as a customer loyalty and traffic builder.

Most businesses realize they need to participate in social media, but don’t quite understand how Twitter, Facebook and the myriad of other platforms can increase their visibility and revenue. Nor do they know how to initiate and maintain a social media marketing effort. Should they outsource the initiative, assign it to a staff member or make a new hire to manage social media efforts?

The free use of the social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to name a few, contributes to the intrigue of social media marketing. If it’s free, then why not give it a try? What’s there to lose? Sounds fairly easy, right? Quite the contrary! Free is a relative term. True, most social networks are free in terms of a platform, but there are costs involved in maintaining them in a manner that ensures your efforts will engage your audience appropriately. Entering the social media realm without a strategy and a talented designated driver could cause more harm than one might fathom. The Reader’s Digest version of why use social media marketing is to establish yourself and/or your company as the expert in your industry or vertical. Launching into social media marketing without a plan could negate this goal and damage your reputation.

There’s more about social marketing to consider than you might imagine! Here are just a few of the questions to consider when creating a social media marketing strategy.

• How do we know what strategy to create? What are the guidelines? • Who will create our social media strategy?
• Will we use it for branding, information sharing, public relations, understanding customers, lead generation, internal communications, sales support or all of the above??? (By the way, branding and public relations are the top two uses, with lead generation nipping at their heels.)
• Who will post strategic messages on each network every day?
• Who will respond to comments made about our posts?
• Who is in charge of information dissemination?
• Who is in charge of creating the messaging from this information?
• Who will monitor site traffic?
• Who will determine and measure goals?
• Who will monitor the competition?
• Who will shoot our videos? Photos?
• Who will maintain our blog?
• How many networks should we have? Which ones should we use?
• Should key employees have their own networks?
• What is our employee posting policy?
• How much time should we devote to social media marketing?
• How do we keep up with trends and technology?

Whew, that is a lot to think about…and it’s just the tip of the iceberg! It can be overwhelming to consider creating your own social media network. Bottom line is that you must have a dedicated person(s) to manage your social media marketing efforts. This person needs to have an excellent grasp of your business and its objectives and goals—inside and out. Must be an excellent writer with a keen understanding of grammar (this person is representing your business and IS the online face of your business). This person must understand social media and how it works. Keep in mind that maintaining a network takes 8 to 10 hours per week, per network.

Make sense? Probably starting to. Now, let’s look at reasons (beyond free platforms) why you want to jump into the social media marketing phenomenon.

• Opportunity to connect with passionate users.
• Build and maintain relationships; establish customer loyalty by offering a personal face to customers.
• Learn what people are saying about you/your company; get feedback.
• Fully measurable metrics.
• Opportunity to experiment with different/new campaigns.
• Generate website traffic.
• Target specific audiences.
• Create niche groups to target and address.
• Ability to interact with the press.
• Save money on other marketing efforts by replacing them with social media.
• Promote products and services organically.
• Monitor trends among customers.
• Research/test new product ideas.
• Provide ways for customers to interact with your company.
• Able to share breaking news.
• Flexibility of message.
• Facebook has more than 200 million active users; more than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day. And that’s only Facebook—add Twitter with 55 million users and LinkedIn with 40 million.
• Dozens of free platforms and tools to expand your exposure and visibility.
• Create a new revenue stream.

Once you decide to take the plunge, understand you are creating new relationships with potentially millions of people, which will take time, and it’s really no different than making new friends. You have to establish your credibility and make friends via common interests. Your goal is to be seen as an expert in your industry while building relationships with existing customers and courting new ones.

If there is one secret to success with social media marketing, it’s honest, transparent communication. It’s all about having thoughtful, integrity-based conversations with others who share an interest or passion in what you have to say. And that’s contagious…pass it on!

Should you manage your social media internally, hire a new employee or outsource it?

They are all viable solutions.

You can try to manage your social media networks in house, if you have someone on your staff who understands how it works and whom you trust to be the face of your company. Some businesses are hiring staff specifically for social media management.

There’s an alternative to hiring an extra employee or stretching an existing employee’s already-compromised schedule. You can outsource your entire social media initiative to a proven and reputable digital marketing company. Typically, you are charged a one-time set-up charge plus a monthly maintenance fee. The great thing about hiring a digital marketing expert is that your social media initiative is in the hands of experts and you can focus on what you do best! It’s like having another employee who you don’t have to pay benefits to!

What should you expect from an outsourced digital marketing company?

Developing a strategy
They should create a social media strategy based upon an extensive review of your company, identifying goals and understanding your business as though they were a stakeholder. You can expect a project manager who is an expert in your vertical to manage your social media as if it were his/her own.

How your new social media network is created
They spend a day at your location to learn your business, meet key contacts, and gather company information including any written information/documents that could be used or reworked for online content.
They research and identify key social networks and online communities that will best align with your core business and social media objectives.
From this information, they create effective strategies for building and optimizing your social network profiles.

Social media networking is measurable?
They set measurable and attainable social media goals (i.e.: increase sales by x amount Q1).
They track and evaluate social media marketing progress on an ongoing basis (i.e.: comparing month by month messaging volume, interaction and sales).

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn marketing
They employ powerful business uses for the top three social network communities, et al.
They nurture relationships and engage target audiences.
They generate website traffic by using the big three networks.
They build strategic friend networks.
They monitor groups consistently for messaging.
They build powerful profiles and target specific audiences.

Online video marketing
They conduct effective video market research.
They create a video marketing strategy based upon research to build traffic and improve search listings.
They use video sharing tools such as YouTube and other top video sharing sites via TubeMogul.

Preserving and improving your online reputation
They track, report on, engage in, enhance and analyze your online reputation.
They monitor your company, your brand, your products, your services and your key employees.

Messaging
They research key social network sites to understand your competition’s social media posture.
They implement an effective web content strategy–what message do you want to convey and how to convey it for maximum exposure? Where do you post it? And when?
Their professional copywriters represent your business by posting appropriate written conversations online to achieve your marketing objectives.
They use tracking tools for reporting and evaluating social media content distribution.
They engage in SMO (social media optimization) to garner more traffic.
They conduct ongoing research and tracking in your blogs and social networking sites to ensure your messaging is on target and objectives are being met.
They can engage in additional peripheral online opportunities such as forums, wikis, communities, and groups on an ala cart basis to promote your business.
Integrity must be their mantra for all online conversations, as their reputation is only as credible as the online reputation they build for you.

Sold on social media marketing? Final thoughts
Social media for business owners and managers is a little bit like learning a new language. Basically, it’s all about having conversations in dozens of online stops such as blogs, wikis, forums, discussions and news groups, etc. These conversations can be about anything and everything—from your dog’s birthday to where to get the best sushi and everything in between. The availability of these conversations has changed the way consumers think; they’d rather have a conversation than be marketed to. They want to have a voice too. Expressing their thoughts, opinions, recommendations and complaints is very important to them, as well as to you, the marketer. The better you know and understand your market, the better you can market to them.

Engaging in social media is similar to online “word of mouth.” We begin word of mouth communication by joining an existing group or creating our own group, or micro-community, that shares similar beliefs, ideas, practices, values, etc. By building relationships within these communities, we establish ourselves as experts in our industries. This is the ultimate goal for marketers to achieve—to transparently blend in with consumers based upon shared values, creating a positive relationship.

The most important aspect of online communication is simply being authentic. Don’t worry. It will take some time for you to earn credibility with others—just be real in your conversations or you could get the Wal-Mart curse! (Wal-Mart staged a cross-country motor home trip by an older couple who stopped at every Wal-Mart and blogged about each stop. The couple posted fake photos and fabricated stories at each stop to make Wal-Marts across the land seem like the Disneyland of retailers. Wal-Mart employees caught on to the scam and the couple ended their trip. And Wal-Mart ended their credibility.)

Remember the secret to social media success…you can control an online conversation by talking communicating in an honest, transparent, conversational way. For more information on how we can manage your social media initiative, call Holly Sanger at R and R Images Digital Marketing at 602.437.4545.

Keith Forsten, Asst. Production manager

What an achievement! In November, lead pressman Keith Forsten celebrated 10 years of employment with R and R Images. His first job was as a pressman for R and R’s new Heidelberg DI press. Fast forward to today, where there are now four presses to run, Forsten reminisced about the day the first digital press was installed and how he and Rod Key stayed up all night to get the first job off the press!

When asked if he had anything to say about about his tenure, he responded, ” I just want to thank Rod for the opportunity. I truly enjoy working here and for Rod.”

Keith received a keepsake award, a gift and a wonderful thank you from Rob Seaver at a staff meeting. He also got lots of hugs and handshakes from his peers.

Congratulations, Keith!

TASER Foundation's "Hold'em for Heroes"

The TASER Foundation’s fifth annual “Hold’em for Heroes” charity poker tournament to benefit the families of fallen officers was a heart-felt success this year, held at Fort McDowell Casino November 21 and 22. R and R  Images is proud to be a sponsor of an organization whose mission is to remember the families left behind by fallen officers.

The TASER Foundation for Families of Fallen Officers was established in November 2004. The initial endowment of $1,000,000 came from TASER International, Inc. and the direct contributions from TASER International employees. To date the TASER Foundation has awarded over $2.29 million to the families of fallen law enforcement officers in the United States and Canada.

Chris Myers is the man with a great attitude and work ethic

Every month at R and R Images, the staff votes for a peer who has gone the extra mile to made the workplace a more productive environment.

Here’s one of the comments a peer voter made about Chris: “Chris works his tail off to make sure that things get done and get done right. He is easy to talk to and manages expectations. He usually under promises and over delivers and handles rush jobs with a good attitude and there were many in September.”

That’s a good summary of Chris. He has a great attitude and manages a very complex production division that requires being “on” at all times. With Chris at the wheel, we know we’re in good hands.

Congratulations Chris! And thank you!!