The E.F. Group Transforms Traditional Marketing through Cross-Media Solutions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) January 25, 2012 -- Accu-Print, one of the nation’s leading state-of-the-art print shops, has launched a full-service marketing communications group specializing in state-of-the-art cross-media marketing solutions – The E.F. Group.

The E.F. Group has been working exclusively with Accu-Print clients for about a year, specializing in an array of cross-media marketing services from direct mail to sophisticated electronic marketing solutions, including e-mail blasts, text messaging, personalized response URLs, and more.

"Our motto, cross-media that clicks, indicates our commitment to creating measurable campaigns that get noticed and get results," said Jason Ellis, Vice President of Business Development for The E.F. Group. "We have invested heavily in technology and offer a complete turnkey operation that takes a concept to completion and puts it into action that works for our clients."

The E.F. Group shares space with the award-winning Accu-Print at 3503 Crosspoint in Northeast San Antonio. Founded more than 20 years ago, Accu-Print has been rated among the top 100 print shops in the nation by Quick Printing magazine.

By partnering with sister company Accu-Print, The E.F. Group aims to provide one-stop shopping from concept and program development to printing, technical and fulfillment services. Accu-Print will be the printing firm and technology company of choice for The E.F. Group.

The "E.F." in The E.F. Group stands for Ellis Family, the owners and operators of Accu-Print. Jason Ellis, who holds a business degree in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University, says the impetus for The E.F. Group came from Accu-Print clients who were looking for marketing services.

"Many regular Accu-Print customers knew they trusted our company to provide quality printing and graphic design and wanted to know if we could do more to serve them,” Ellis said. “So we developed The E.F. Group to work with clients in developing marketing strategies for new products, trade shows, advertising campaigns and other communication needs."

"The E.F. Group was formed specifically with a focus on cross-media marketing strategies that help clients define relevant communications to reach target audiences," says Lori Ivy, Strategic Marketing Manager for The E.F. Group.

"If you plan to send an e-mail blast to 50,000 people, do you know who you’re sending it to?” Ivy asked. “We believe in targeting the audience so our client’s message is relevant and reaches people who want to read it, and further want to click into a personalized website created to pique their interest in a specific product, service, or event that is being marketed."

For example, if you have a portrait studio that specializes in children’s photos, it makes little sense to conduct a mass marketing campaign that reaches households without children. Using detailed databases combined with the latest technology, The E.F. Group can help you reach families with young children. The result is a more technologically advanced, targeted marketing effort that yields better results.

One popular and powerful service of The E.F. Group is the development of Response URLs. The customized URLs lead prospects to personalized web landing pages that provide information relevant to the prospects and provides an opportunity to begin an information-rich dialogue with potential customers through a variety of media, including mailers, e-mail, and text messages. Implemented effectively, this tool allows clients of The E.F. Group to hone their marketing messages and increase response rates by 30 percent or more.

"We developed a targeted direct mail campaign for a startup company that resulted in a 58 percent response rate,” Ivy said. “Most direct mail campaigns are considered wildly successful if they receive a response of 2 percent."

"We developed a targeted direct mail campaign for a startup company that resulted in a 58 percent response rate,” Ivy said. “Most direct mail campaigns are considered wildly successful if they receive a response of 2 percent."

"Having the technology to measure the quality of a marketing campaign 24/7 has been critical to the early success of The E.F. Group,” says Ivy, a veteran marketing manager who has worked with Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. “That’s why the company invested in cutting-edge technology that can provide real-time reporting on online marketing efforts – everything from who is responding, to what pages they visited."

But The E.F. Group also has a proven track record when it comes to direct mail campaigns. "The owners of Thousand Oaks Automotive came to us for help with their postcard mailings. The auto repair shop was sending thousands of postcards monthly and received a minimal response," Ivy said. "We created a personalized postcard making it more relevant to households. The walk-in business intensified to the point where they asked us to stop mailing the postcards."

"We did one of those customized mail-outs recently. People got them in the mail Friday afternoon and I probably had 8 customers walk in with them on Saturday, and another 20 or 30 came in the following week," said David Harris, coowner of Thousand Oaks Automotive. "I wasn’t sure how this customized approach would work out when we first tried it. I wouldn’t go back to the other way now. We’ve had a real good response."

Tim Bruce, owner of General Air Conditioning Inc., said he has been so pleased that he shifted advertising dollars into the customized mailers. "We nearly eliminated Yellow Pages advertising. We saw way better results than Yellow Pages." Bruce said the customized mail-outs targeted past customers of General Air Conditioning, reminding them to have a semi-annual checkup done on their heating and air conditioning unit or units. Calls came in the next day after General Air postcards reached customers. On the two most recent campaigns, Bruce said General Air experienced an 8-1 return on the marketing investment. As a result, General Air planned to distribute a third mailer before the end of 2008. "We're going to see if we can pick up anybody we missed the last time around," he said.

About the e.f. group
The E.F. Group specializes in Personalized Direct Marketing and Cross-Media Marketing solutions. Providing seamless integration for print to web applications, The E.F. Group offers full-service capabilities from program development to implementation. The E.F. Group is a division of Accu-Print, San Antonio’s Total Print and Creative Firm. For more information contact them at 3503 Crosspoint, San Antonio, TX 78217, 210-492-1921 or visit www.theefgroup.com.

The E.F. Group
3503 Crosspoint
San Antonio, Texas
78217

210-492-1921
http://www.theefgroup.com

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