The Rise of Bots and the Impact on Your Business

Last year at PPAI Women’s Leadership Conference, I facilitated a session titled “Emerging Technology Trends,” which I also facilitated at the PPAI Expo this year. In this session, I covered the rise of bots, and how they improve our personal lives. I then went on to point out how bots will impact business. It’s a…

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3 Critical Components of Your Web Strategy

Customer shopping expectations are racing ahead at light speed. We are at the point where buying online is often simpler and preferred over talking with a person. When that happens, new value is created and a new buying preferences are formed. To build your business, you must leverage your relationships while participating in the burgeoning…

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Why You Should Avoid Vanity Metrics

Every business has metrics, but too many use vanity metrics that make them feel good about what is being done rather than providing insights to be better. For example, we’ve all suffered from the call center that is so focused on wrapping up the call rather than resolving the problem. Why? Because the more calls,…

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Largest Gathering Ever of Industry Technology Leaders

More than 100 technologists and business leaders will meet next week in San Francisco at the PPAI Technology Summit. This is largest-ever gathering of industry technology leaders. You can view the PPAI Technology Summit agenda here. The summit will include discussions on search engine optimization, security, project management and about a dozen other relevant topics, including industry…

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The Power of A/B Testing

A/B testing is one of the most underutilized opportunities by promotional firms today. It’s also something you need to know about to help your clients succeed online. Fortunately, understanding A/B testing is not that complicated. Implementing it is easy, too. Consider this example: What subject line generates more clicks to your website? “20 percent off…

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Setting Up Items for Blank Goods

Question: How should I set up items for blank goods in QuickBooks? Answer: “Blank goods,” or orders that are then screen printed or embroidered by other vendors, are one of the most complex of orders in our industry. I recommend setting up a blank wearable by its item number and description only—not including color or…

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Are You Smarter than Artificial Intelligence?

What will your role be in the buying and selling of promotional products in 2026? How are you preparing yourself now? We’ve seen some major shifts over the past couple years, and everything points to the fact that change only is going to accelerate. More and more, the buyers of promotional products are digital natives. Those…

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User Experience vs. User Interface

“User experience” is a buzzword, and with buzzwords come overuse. Nevertheless, a great user experience is critical in today’s world, both offline and online. Disney has done user experience offline better than anyone well before anyone started paying attention. Apple brought forward the importance of user experience when it introduced the first iPhone. A great…

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7 Reasons to Switch from Evernote to OneNote

I’ve been a user of Evernote for more than three years, but I’ve become fonder of OneNote lately. In case you don’t use either, both do a great job keeping notes organized without multiple Microsoft Word documents. Most Microsoft Word documents end up cluttering your hard drives and the content is hard to find, especially…

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