The 7-Point Marketing Audit Checklist For Printers

MI4P / July 11th, 2023

Are you struggling to ensure your marketing efforts are on track and optimized for success?

Ineffective marketing strategies waste time and resources without yielding desired results. Imagine investing time and money into marketing efforts that fail to generate the desired outcomes.

Frustrating, isn’t it?

Without a clear understanding of your target market and a cohesive branding strategy, your printing company may struggle to stand out in the competitive printing industry. In addition, an outdated website design, ineffective content marketing, and a lackluster social media presence can hinder your ability to attract and engage potential print buyers.

To help you sell more printing and be more effective in your marketing efforts, check out this 7-Point Marketing Audit Checklist for Printers—a valuable tool to evaluate and enhance your marketing strategies.

7-Point Marketing Audit Checklist for Printers

1. Define your target print buyer and the products they use.

Understanding the specific industries, businesses, or individuals your printing company aims to serve is essential.

Why? Because you can analyze their needs, preferences, and pain points, enabling you to tailor your marketing messages and your website to resonate effectively with your ideal customers.

Here’s an example. If your printing company wants to limit walk-in traffic and small jobs, remove those less profitable products from your website. Pay attention to the featured products on your website and switch them out to align with the target print buyers (and jobs) you’re trying to go after.

2. Assess your branding elements for relevancy and consistency.

Styles are continually changing, and it’s essential your branding image does too.

During your marketing audit, critically assess branding elements such as logos, color palettes, typography, and overall visual identity. Your aim is to make sure that these elements align with your target market and effectively communicate your printing company’s unique value proposition.

For example, if you’re trying to target innovative tech companies, it will weaken the perception that your company can meet their printing needs if your branding is outdated.

Lastly, remember that consistency across your marketing collateral is crucial to establishing a memorable brand presence.

3. Review your website design.

Closely scrutinize the website design, navigation, and user experience.

Can your print buyers find what you want them to see? Try following the process that a print buyer would take on your website to ensure all the pieces are there.

Here’s an example. Tell a family member or friend to head to your website and order a banner or vehicle wrap. Notice where they get stuck or struggle. Have them talk through the process out loud. If they get to your banner page and find great content but no call-to-action to order, you’re leaving an open loop.

Or, maybe you directed them to your blog but forgot to link your blog back to an order form. Look for these open website user experience loops and work to close them.

In addition, evaluate your website for its overall visual appeal (is it time for a new theme update?), intuitiveness, and mobile-friendliness. By optimizing website content and structure, focusing on relevant keywords and compelling calls to action, you’ll generate more leads and drive better conversions.

4. Analyze your content marketing strategy.

Content has unmatched benefits for your print business.

Not only does quality content increase website traffic and help your SEO efforts, but it’s helpful to your print buyers! It positions you as an expert, answers your audience’s questions, and builds trust.

Your marketing audit should comprehensively analyze your printing company’s content marketing efforts. What types of content are you looking for?

• Blogs
• Case studies
• Whitepapers
• Website articles
• Social media presence

Then ask yourself: Is the content informative, engaging, and valuable to the target audience? Your goal in marketing is to ensure the consistent creation of high-quality content, positioning your printing company as an industry thought leader and resource.

5. Evaluate your social media presence.

Access the social media platforms where your print buyers are the most active and analyze engagement levels, post frequency, and the effectiveness of your content.

By leveraging social media, you help showcase your expertise, engage with prospects and customers, and foster meaningful client relationships. And remember, even if it takes a while to increase engagement, your efforts are not wasted. Check out these 9 Reasons Your Print Website Needs Social Media for SEO. 

6. Schedule a FREE SEO audit of your website.

A crucial part of any marketing audit involves assessing your printing company’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

If search engine optimization (SEO) feels like a mystery to you, set up a free SEO audit of your website with us. Here, we’ll examine your website’s visibility and search engine rankings, focusing on using relevant keywords, site structure, meta tags, and URLs.

Enhancing your SEO is vital to increasing organic traffic and ensuring those potential print buyers can easily find your incredible printing services.

In addition to SEO, we’ll also look at your website analytics using tools such as Google Analytics to help measure your website traffic, conversion rates, and customer behavior. Regular review of these metrics aids in identifying areas for improvement and making data-driven decisions.

7. Evaluate your email marketing campaigns.

Many printers are turning more to digital marketing efforts simply because of the rising costs of both the postage and production of direct mail.

While we’ll ALWAYS advocate for direct mail to connect with your print buyers, email marketing is a viable and strategic companion to those efforts.

So, as a part of your marketing audit, evaluate your print company’s email marketing campaigns:

• Are you sending ONLY promotional emails and forgetting the connection piece of marketing, such as an email newsletter sent for their enjoyment rather than your sales?
• Are you using email drip campaigns for lead nurturing and customer retention strategies?
• Are you staying on top of your email list quality, open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates?

Evaluating and optimizing your email content and design will help your print business deliver personalized and compelling messages that drive action.

Say Goodbye to Ineffective Marketing

By conducting the 7-Point Marketing Audit Checklist for Printers, you gain a holistic understanding of your marketing strategies. Identify strengths and areas for improvement, develop actionable recommendations, and enhance your marketing efforts to attract new clients and drive business growth.