The Hidden Cost of Not Marketing Your Print Business

“Marketing your business does not guarantee success, but the failure to market your business will guarantee your demise.”

That quote comes from our late founder, Mike Stevens.

Mike knew and understood the importance of marketing a print business. As a printer himself, Mike also knew that printers are highly likely to push their own marketing to the back burner in favor of helping other companies work on theirs.

The Doom Loop

In late 2010, Mike wrote about what he called “The Doom Loop,” a sort of twisted marketing logic that ultimately leads to business failure.

“The marketing doom loop happens when you allow yourself to think that you do not need marketing when business is good and cannot afford marketing when business is bad… If you allow yourself to think like that, either way, you lose.”

The truth is, there is a cost to not marketing your business — some of which can be pretty substantial.

The Hidden Costs of Not Marketing Your Printing Business

1. You lose opportunities.

Although one of the most apparent downfalls of not marketing is missed sales opportunities, the not-so-obvious downfall is the enormous impact this could be having on your business.

Why? Because there’s no way to measure how much you’re actually missing out on.

Think of it like this fishing metaphor. (Everybody loves a fishing metaphor, right?) If your fish finder says there’s a ton of fish under your boat, you don’t just stop your boat, stare at the finder, and watch all those opportunities for fish fillets pass you by.

You get your bait in the water!

Sure, you might snag a little seaweed now and then or miss out on some of the catch, but you’re most definitely guaranteed a big ole’ ZERO when you do nothing.

2. You let others define your print business.

Another hidden cost of not marketing comes when you let others decide or define your print business.

Does your target audience have to guess to figure out what your print business is all about? While some might guess correctly, you can be sure that others are making some wrong assumptions about your printing firm.

False assumptions don’t necessarily mean scandalous assumptions. Instead, it often looks like is, “Oh, you do large format printing? I didn’t know that,” or “Oh, you offer subscription marketing services? I wouldn’t have even considered that.”

When you market to your print buyers, you get to tell your story and display and present your printing firm the way you want. How many pieces of the story is your audience missing because you haven’t told them yet?

3. You get lost in the shuffle.

Did you know that there are currently over 46,000 printing companies in the United States?

To make a connection and influence a potential prospect to choose your printing company over another, you have to highlight what makes you unique. Or, in other words, determine and market your unique value proposition.

Value propositions can be just about anything, including outstanding outcomes from previous clients, unique features of complementary add-ons, industry expertise, a unique combination of services, customer service, location, an exceptional promise or guarantee, price, or more.

So, why should you market your printing firm? Well, it’s not just for marketing’s sake. Marketing brings with it a wealth of benefits, such as:

Building brand awareness,
Increasing sales (and profits),
Improving your business reputation,
Helping you to remain competitive, and
Showcasing your value to others

3 Easy Marketing Tips to Get You Started

Ready to break free of the Marketing Doom Loop? Ask yourself these three questions to see if your marketing strategy could use an upgrade.

1. Are you providing omnichannel marketing content to your prospects and print buyers?

Members of your target audience digest information in different ways and require multiple marketing touchpoints to be effective.

This is where omnichannel marketing comes in.

Print marketing: Are you consistently sending out a direct mail piece?
Email marketing: Can your clients and prospects find you in their digital mailbox as well as their physical one?
Social media marketing: Are you striking up conversations and getting to know your audience better through social media?

2. Can you accept that results come with consistency?

Two of the biggest missteps in marketing are putting out content on a willy-nilly timeframe and giving up too soon.

It’s consistency that will help you win at the marketing game. Think of it as building your marketing wall. Your clients and prospects might not see the first brick or two you lay, but each brick makes your wall bigger, stronger, and more noticeable. In fact, so noticeable that your audience will start coming to you and saying, “Hey, how come you didn’t add another brick last week?”

3. Does your business need help?

The best thing you can do for marketing your print business is to recognize where you need help.

If you’re unable to consistently design, write, and create content each month, find help with those that can.

Take a hard look at solutions, such as:

A monthly direct mail for printers program. You can find direct mail providers anywhere. But a direct mail service that offers content specifically for the printing industry is a much taller order. This direct mail subscription offers six different monthly direct mail packages to choose from and is delivered straight to your inbox each and every month.

Get Free Direct Mail Samples

A bi-monthly email newsletter. Nobody likes to be spammed with email, including your print buyers. Instead, offer a newsletter focused on connection and education, one that brings value to your readers. This email newsletter subscription provides a customizable, ready-to-send email newsletter twice each month and features marketing tips, tech tips, a print product of the month, and fun extras that create smiles. You can even have it sent to your subscriber list on your behalf and never have to worry about it.
A social media marketing subscription service. Creating or finding content to start conversations and keep your audience interested on social media is no small feat. If social media isn’t your thing, find someone you can leave the foundation of it to and then pop in and out when you please. This social media subscription service (again, for printers) even offers a free, 30-day subscription.

Don’t Wait. Seriously.

You can do many things to build a better marketing plan for your printing firm, so please don’t wait. Improve your marketing plan now.

No one knows what’s coming in the new year. This is a great time to make positive changes that will increase your sales now and in the new year ahead.

Marketing Ideas For Printers has been recognized as one of Top 5 Fargo Digital Marketing agencies by DesignRush