The print market isn’t a team sport, but it is very competitive. Success in print is all about winning work by making a connection with customers (and at the same time outsmarting your competitors). It’s all about your sell.
Use the right tools
There are myriad ways to do that. Yes, you need digital technology and the appropriate expertise to deliver the right products, and use effortless communication channels that are always open to your customers. Technologies such as variable data digital print, online customer interaction and e-commerce snaplock together into effective production tools for printers dealing with customers who know what they want.
You can offer original product ideas and target niche customers who want specific skills. You can also re-engineer your customer contacts to include web based channels and social media, which might also drive online sales and provide you with clever information like performance metrics.
They’re great tools to build your business. But every other print business can too. Boiled right down, standing out from the crowd means more than good equipment and good intentions.
Get up close and personal
The greater challenge is developing finely honed skills for a brand new approach to sales and marketing so you can speak convincingly to customers. You need to be a marketing maverick.
Customers want you to get close. Almost invariably the right marketing pitch is personal — each wants a unique response to their problem or desire, from someone they think really understands them.
New markets for print are emerging every day while developed markets are sliding in both popularity and volume. Understanding market shifts and scoping them for new profit-generating product ideas is a vital resource, but having top-flight marketing skills turns those ideas into print jobs from thankful customers.
How do you do that?
You can start by developing a trusted partnership with a technology solutions developer able to provide accurate intelligence on where your print market is headed, and the appropriate technology skills to take it on.
With that kind of market intelligence, you can offer new ideas to customers and begin conversations with potential customers.
They can also provide insights into your own business, pointing out hidden strengths and weaknesses, and provide the expertise to help you broaden your outlook. Tapping into that expertise will give you the tools you’ll need to make intelligent decisions for your future.
That will give you the groundwork to build a marketing solution that makes your business irresistible to print buyers.
Take a stand
The perfect time to start that process is at PacPrint 2017. Why not book a consultation on the Konica Minolta stand to talk with us about your business, where you want to go, and how we can help you get there?
Read more
