The Growing Community of Coronavirus Resources For Printers

Dave Hultin / May 5th, 2020

Do you remember when you first realized that COVID-19 was not just “some other continent’s problem,” but was indeed something that would hit close to home?

When you felt that impact coming, did you lose sleep? I think most small business owners did. All of a sudden, we found ourselves wide awake at night running through a checklist of things to do to keep our companies surviving and brainstorming ways to ensure we could help others during this time.

A New, Bigger Team Focus

For us, those sleepless nights led to the rapid creation of the Coronavirus Resources For Printers webinar series. This webinar series was launched to provide help and hope to printers during these unique times.

As this series has grown, not only have the core values of Others First and Positive Attitude had the opportunity to shine, but Team-Focused has branched out to include a whole community of printers that have rallied together to share ideas for the benefit of ALL printers.

This community continues to expand to include other industry vendors and consultants who share that same desire to provide help and hope. (And there are a lot of them! There are a lot of good people in the printing industry.)

I’ve been blessed to see firsthand plenty of evidence that we will get through this. Together. I’m absolutely convinced that there’s a huge silver lining behind this cloud of coronavirus “ick.” The lessons we learn during this pandemic shutdown will serve to make us stronger than ever once we emerge!

That’s the type of message that I desire to share with print owners and that they (and you) would then pass the same help and hope along to your print buyers. As we recently wrote about in How Can We Convince Our Print Buyers to Lean into Marketing When Many are Fearful and Don’t Want to Spend Money?,

Printers like you and Marketing Ideas For Printers have something in common: we market on two levels.

Not only do we both need to focus on marketing our own companies, but we also have to look at marketing on a different level, through the lens of how we help our customers market themselves as well.

The best way you can do that is to become a marketing sieve. Put yourself underneath a faucet of valuable marketing information. Hang on to that good stuff that sticks and then rework it into pieces that will work best to be caught in the sieves of your audience.

The Coronavirus Resources For Printers webinar series is one-such “faucet” of information for you. Every single webinar has been packed with information you can use to help your print business survive now and thrive later. Here are some highlights you shouldn’t miss:

Episode 001: How to Craft Messaging That’s Well-Received by Focusing on O.T.H.E.R.S.

The O.T.H.E.R.S. acronym stands for One, Transparency, Helpful, Empathetic, Relevant, and Sincere.

An O.T.H.E.R.S.-focused message is always important, but it’s especially important when you’re trying to communicate during this pandemic. A heartfelt email sent by Felipe Martinez served as the inspiration for this first webinar topic.

Episode 005: OnSIP Phone Solution

In Episode 005, we took a look at how so many teams (including our own) had to switch over to remote work very quickly.

Fortunately, they were able to do so in a matter of minutes and without skipping a beat. One of the reasons this happened easily was because our Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system, powered by OnSIP, made it super-easy to transition to remote work. Let me encourage you that if you haven’t already made the switch to VoIP, it’s time. You’ll not only experience an amazing feature set, but you’ll save your company money, time, and hassle.

While Marketing Ideas For Printers is an OnSIP channel partner, we’ve found the OnSIP service to be of such great value that it just made sense to spread the word so printers like you could benefit as well. If you’re using old technology, now is the perfect time to explore making the move to OnSIP. To learn more, visit OnSIP.com. 

Episode 006: Mike Jensen’s Business Reference Guide

Mike was a webinar attendee that raised his hand and said, “I have an idea to share that could benefit others.”

Mike joined us on Episode 006 to share the story behind his desire to bring the community together with his Business Reference Guide. It’s an incredible story that you’re sure to gain inspiration from.

More Helpful Resources Requested by Printers Like You

Content just for content’s sake isn’t helpful. That’s why each webinar episode ends with a chance for you to share your ideas on the resources that you are looking for to survive and thrive during these times.

Your feedback and ideas have led to things such as a ready-to-print postcard and banners to remind your print-buying customers that you’re here to help during times of crisis, and that you’ll be here after the pandemic passes to help propel “business as usual.” Both the postcard and banners continue to be available as (free) downloads at CoronavirusResourcesForPrinters.com.

Other resources include helpful blog posts like these:

• A Coronavirus Survival Guide for Printers
• 5 Considerations for Leading Your Print Business Through the Coronavirus Chaos

And relevant FAQs like these:

• How Can We Let Our Customers Know that We Are Still Open and Can Help Them?
• Do You Have Any Tips for Handling Payables and Receivables During This Time?
• How Can We Help Our Clients and Community During This Time?
• How Can We Convince Our Print Buyers to Lean Into Marketing When Many Are Fearful and Don’t Want To Spend Money?

We Will Get Through This. Together.

This webinar series, along with other COVID-19 resources, will be available as long as there are printers needing help and hope. I hope to see you at an upcoming webinar!

Visit Coronavirus Resources For Printers