2015 was a year of tremendous change at BEB. As many of you already know, my father and former President Emeritus Robert “Bob” Royall passed away in November. We are a family owned business.  My brother Ro (Executive Vice President) and I had the pleasure of running the operation alongside my father for over 20 years. His passing has had a profound and lasting impact on all of us, and his legacy remains strong. Thank you to everyone that reached out to us regarding our loss. We are deeply moved by the outpouring of condolences, and appreciated hearing so many stories about how my father touched so many lives. As we sustain the solid foundation of the company he cultivated, we face the coming year with confidence and clear direction. He is deeply missed.

Our business continued to transform during 2015. Existing clients required a deeper, more comprehensive relationship and demanded broader service offerings to meet their needs. Data acquisition and mining increased over the past year, as did our digital fronts including, website design, email marketing and social media services. We saw a steady growth in printing (digital, offset and large format), and direct mail climbed doubled digits as our clients continue to see the value of direct mail marketing.

Based on the current political and economic climate, we anticipate the coming year to be a challenge on many levels. We believe that marketing dollars will be scrutinized, campaigns will be more closely monitored, and higher returns expected. As a result, our goal for 2016 is to continue expansion of our service offerings while strengthening our core competency as a marketing production company. Because we believe that companies will expect more from fewer people, the need for a partnership with our clientele is more valuable than ever. We will continue to be extremely agile and promise to develop stronger connections with you, our valued clients and partners.

This marks our 4th year of the annual “Year in Review” edition of The Bureau. In this issue, we’ll introduce you to our newest Business Development Manager, Kathy N. Hall, formerly with the United Postal Service, we’ll reveal some new service offerings and review highlights from the past year. We included updates on postal rate increases, and changing marketing patterns within the social media world as well as information on our upcoming Marketing for Small Business Seminar Series- The Basics (blogging, social media, email marketing and SEO) that started in February.  In April we offer three new intermediate classes that focus on social media for business on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

We hope your 2016 is a great year, and thank you for your business and partnership.

Sincerely,