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Easy & Effective Marketing Ideas for PrintersMargie DanaMargiedana.com
November 21, 2013Graphics Canada
@margiedana
Steeped in “print buyer-hood”
o Former print buyer 15+ years
o Founder of Print Buyers International (2006-2012)
o Produced 9 PBI Print & Media Conferences
o Write weekly Print Tips (since 1999)
o Manage buyers-only PBI LinkedIn Group
o Wrote 3 books about print buying & print selling
o New business: content provider
o Conduct market research on print buyers
@margiedana
@margiedana
Don’t be afraid of marketing. Be very afraid of NOT doing any.
@margiedana
Where your focus needs to be
1. Web site2. Email marketing3. Social media4. Direct mail5. Marketing associations
One for all and all for one.
@margiedana
#1: Your web site
www.yourURLhere.com
@margiedana
10 Web site DO’s
1. DO focus on your home page. What you do, who you serve, why you’re different. Your company’s personality is reflected here. Does yours?
2. DO feature people more than heavy metal. Customers like working with people. Show faces, shed a light on personalities. Avoid an excess of equipment, building pictures.
Your URL is the FIRST place a prospect will go. It must
represent you well.
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Web site DO’s3. DO build it with a Content Management System.
It will be easy to maintain & update. Key to have content regularly refreshed on your site.
4. DO make if visually spectacular. Printing is a visual industry. A combination of photos & other graphic imagery, plus a refreshing color palette & contemporary type treatment is expected.
5. DO make it social. There’s no good reason why any printer in 2013 shouldn’t be socially active. More on this later. Show your SM buttons.
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Web site DO’s6. DO feature good customer reviews. Millennials
in particular are influenced by peer reviews (TripAdvisor, Facebook, Yelp, etc.). Make good use of testimonials.
7. DO make it easy to get in touch. Don’t make them hunt for names, emails, phones, addresses. Have these on every page.
8. DO have an easy-to-find equipment list. Savvy print customers pre-qualify their printers by equipment. Make sure it’s current.
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Does equipment really matter?
315 buyers surveyed in July said
73% YES
23% SOMETIMES
4% NO
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Web site DO’s9. DO have a blog. Lose your ‘fear of blogging.’
Collect a list of common customer problems or concerns, turn them into a series. Or build a series on a theme that suits your firm naturally. Ideas: “Did you know that…?” “Featured Customers” “Time-saving Tips”
10. DO make sure it passes proofreading muster. Do it professionally or triple-check spelling, grammar, etc. Print customers are typically crackerjack at proofing.
@margiedana
10 Web site DON’Ts1. DON’T neglect it. The importance of your online
presence will only grow. Put someone in charge of paying attention to your site.
2. DON’T make it anonymous. The more you can feature people, the more personal the reaction. Start building relationships with your site.
3. DON’T start what you can’t finish. A regular customer newsletter that has evidently died on the vine will do more harm than good. Take it down.
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Web site DON’Ts4. DON’T choke it with dense content. More words
don’t make something “better.” Clear, concise copy with plenty of breathing room is more effective. We scan copy on the ‘net, we don’t read.
5. DON’T make it difficult to read. Sites having a dark, solid background and all KO type are impossible to read. Visitors get annoyed & leave. Professional site designers will make sure your site is pleasing to the eye.
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Web site DON’Ts6. DON’T be ashamed to brag. Have you won
awards? Been prominent in your community? Involved in certain charitable efforts? Make room for these ‘trophies’ on your site. Customers want to work with successful printers.
7. DON’T have a ‘split-personality’ site. Some companies have sub-divisions or a separate business that specializes in another vertical. Incorporate these other businesses on your site with the same design, look, and feel.
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Web site DON’Ts8. DON’T assume anyone can build & maintain it.
Your site is too important a marketing tool to put it in the hands of amateurs.
9. DON’T hide your green-ness. Sustainability programs are still mega-important to customers and prospects. Give yours its own tab on your site.
10. DON’T be afraid to have fun. Company sites need not be totally buttoned-up. Prospects will react well to tasteful humor.
@margiedana
#2: Email Marketing
@margiedana
Easiest & best way to keep in touch with every
customer.
@margiedana
How easy is email marketing?Low-cost options: do it yourself or work with a
service (I use Constant Contact.)
If I didn’t market via email, I would’ve failed.
- Print Tip email: weekly since 1999
- About 720 columns in my library
- 4000 followers
- Made me as a subject matter expert and a writer
- I get business regularly from it
@margiedana
Why do it? Here are 10 reasons…1. Keep in regular touch with customers
2. Share news
3. Increase your brand awareness
4. Opportunity to educate & inform
5. Gives customers a reason to interact with you
6. Easily forwarded
7. Cheaper than printed marketing materials
8. Feedback will inspire, inform you
9. You’ll get business
10. You can repurpose the content
@margiedana
Getting started1. Commit to it for the long-term. Establish goals.
2. Set a do-able schedule. Monthly is ideal. Quarterly is not enough; weekly is a lot more work.
3. Put someone in charge. Or it won’t happen.
4. Write an editorial calendar. 12 months = 12 topics: easy!
5. Name your email and decide how long/short it will be. One topic. 400 – 500 words.
6. Ensure your customer database is clean, current and maintained.
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Getting started7. Let your customers know. Send an email
announcing you’ll be doing it monthly.
8. Allow them to opt-in and opt-out.
9. Build it into your web site. Have a section, add new issues as they’re published. Have sign-up forms on every page.
10. Design it in HTML as well as text-based. Test it, have colleagues comment on it, before going live.
11. Make sure it works on all platforms, in all browsers.
@margiedana
Getting started12. Make sure readers can forward it and share on
social media, too.
13. Engage readers. Invite comments in each issue.
14. Repurpose your content! - Post it on your site- Post it on your company FB page- Post a link to the site page on LinkedIn and Twitter, and
other SM channels you have.
Golden rule of email marketing: content must be informational, not promotional.
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#3: Social Media
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Do these numbers grab you?
Where’s the marketing value?
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@margiedana
From therealtimereport.com 11/1Social networking stats for the week, included:
Facebook 1.15 billion monthly active users
YouTube 1 billion+ monthly unique users
Twitter 218+ million monthly active users
LinkedIn238 million active users
Tumblr 144 million blogs
Instagram 150 million users
Vine 40 million registered users
Pinterest 70 million users
@margiedana
SM is here to stay. So jump in! Your competition is there You can (and should) pick one or two that feel right
for your firm. Familiarize yourself with what others in the field are doing. Start slowly, and don’t expect marketing miracles overnight.
Building brand awareness might be #1 advantage Establish yourself as experts Print is a visual industry: lends itself perfectly to
sites like Facebook and Pinterest. The single best way to cast off a dated image.
@margiedana
Twitter Start-up Tips Establish your objectives – as with any marketing
effort Design Twitter page to match your site It’s OK for more than 1 person to tweet for you Tweeting a few times daily is recommended. Inform, use links to interesting news articles/blog
posts – don’t use it to overtly sell. Work in tweets about your services, expertise
Twitter etiquette: RT others’ posts that you find valuable. Thank those who do so for you.
Don’t expect miracles overnight. Building a Twitter base takes a long time. Be patient.
@margiedana
Facebook Start-up Tips Establish your objectives – as with any marketing
effort Facebook page design should match your site It’s a great visual canvas for printers: post images
primarily! You can get more personal on FB than other social
media sites – it’s expected.
@margiedana
LinkedIn Tips We should all be on LinkedIn. It’s your public
resume. Prospects & recruiters will search there. Personal profile should be current and robust. Build
in recommendations. Post links to your blogs, etc. Corporate profile can be very elegant, almost like a
‘mini’ site. Build connections on LinkedIn over time Join a few Groups that you can realistically
participate in. It’s still free – so do it today!
@margiedana
Key for all social media activity Think of them together. Update/post in sync with
each other. Your posts and updates on social media should be integrated with your web site.
If nothing else, get involved to increase brand awareness.
Add social media buttons to every site page, making sure they link to your specific pages/profiles (as opposed to just facebook.com or twitter.com).
Align your social media efforts behind your business goals.
@margiedana
#4: Direct Mail
@margiedana
Printers should market with print Email fatigue makes direct mail a welcome relief. Use postcard campaign to show off your services. Do not feature equipment for equipment sake. Always ask yourself, “What’s in it for my
customers?” - not, why is this press so cool. Send personal thank you notes to customers from
time to time. Send holiday cards to customers. Mailed sales letters have greater impact than a cold
email. Mail samples. Include equipment list. And a letter.
@margiedana
#5: Marketing Associations
Marketers need what you have.
@margiedana
Print customers move to marketing Roles changing within corporations, move from
communications environments to marketing Customers getting closer to decision makers Print customers/marketers crave innovation from
print industry – what’s new, what’s cutting-edge, what can be done with digital/VDP, etc.
Customers want information on how to build multichannel campaigns – and look to print industry for this expertise.
@margiedana
What value-added services did 315 print
buyers vote for in July ‘13 survey?
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76% - ideas about new print concepts, innovation
67% - mailing/fulfillment
44% - personalization
26% - web-to-print
24% - multichannel support
@margiedana
Join the club(s) Marketing associations offer programs and other
events that welcome printers and are a natural for learning and networking.
Programs often include sessions on multichannel, direct mail, integrated print, etc.
Printers can support and sponsor their local marketing groups. Build brand awareness, establish your credentials, learn about marketing trends, influence marketers, network, meet prospects.
@margiedana
Where you’ll find meTwitter:
@margiedana
Facebook:
Margie Dana
Email:
Phone:
617.730.5951
@margiedana
Questions? Thanks!
Margie Dana, Content [email protected] 617.730.5951
Visit www.margiedana.com
Please sign up for my weekly email column.
