Document Professionals: Do you have a personal brand? 
 
Yes, you do! Regardless of what you believe you may have or have not done to affect your reputation in your company or in the industry, people have an opinion of you. You've got a personal brand whether you want one or not. It's up to you to decide if you want to exert some control over that brand or you prefer to let fate control your destiny.
 
Print and mail center managers, and other professionals in this industry, know a lot of stuff. They are the company experts on the best way to create, produce, and distribute all sorts of valuable information. They understand the myriad of details that go into the production of a successful document production run - from data formatting to mail piece regulations.
 
Unfortunately in a lot of organizations the Document Center is viewed as some kind of dumb terminal - no intelligence, just a way to get things to and from the Post Office. The convenient provider of a common commodity. If the document operation is your responsibility, allowing this image to continue is bad for your department and bad for you. It's time for a change!
 
An easy way to manage the image
I'm a big fan of outreach programs and education. This tactic works for in-house operations, managed services, or outsource service providers. If you help people in your organization or your outside customers understand how your department works, and explain how so many separate company operations come together in the documents you create, you can help others do their jobs better. For that, you gain trust and respect.
 
Wouldn't you rather be known throughout the company as a source of valuable customer communications knowledge than the person who "manages the mail room in the basement"? I sure would. Especially during times when companies may be considering layoffs or thinking about outsourcing the document operation!
 
There are just a few keys to creating a positive personal brand for yourself. These are pretty much the same tactics a company would use to establish a brand identity for a product:

1. Get started! - Don't let this be another one of those "when I get around to it" projects that never seems to happen.
2. Be consistent - The downfall of many a manager who starts on a plan to improve their image is the inability to consistently take the actions that reinforce the image they want to communicate.
3. Provide useful information - Just as in product marketing, people don't want to be bombarded with self-promotional material all the time. Give them some hints or tips they can use to make their jobs easier, or provide some interesting information that is connected with customer communications.

I want to improve my image, but I don't want to brag
You might be thinking that managing your personal brand is too selfish. Or that your superiors will frown on such an activity.
 
But there are a number of benefits that the company would be pleased to enjoy:

* Being more visible and becoming known as a trusted resource can encourage departments in your company to seek your help solving a document or communications problem they may have been tackling on their own. This frequently results in lower cost and higher quality solutions.
* Highlighting the capabilities of your equipment and your staff, and emphasizing how important the documents are to the company, improves morale, which leads to higher productivity, lowered absenteeism, and reduced turnover.
* Talking about your techniques with your peers at other companies or in publications can lead to positive publicity about your own operation and uncover additional opportunities. Recognition can attract quality employees and even help to attract new business.

There will never be a better time to embark upon an educational outreach program than now. There are many issues in our industry that are of great interest to business people such as increasing postage rates, five-day delivery, quick response codes, variable data printing, coordinated multi-channel communications, and environmental sustainability. I'm sure you can think of other topics of interest to your intended audience.

But if you're stuck on how to get started or what to do, give me a call. I'd be happy to give you a few tips.

Mike Porter
Print/Mail Consultants
www.printmailconsultants.com