Sell More Printing by Proactively Wooing Prospects

Meet Joe.

Joe owns a professional printing company with a solid website and room to grow his capacity. But Joe has a problem. He’s not getting new customers. Joe is actively advertising and eagerly seeking new leads, but his efforts continue to fall flat. He wonders:

Why am I not getting more orders? Why can’t I make more sales?

Meet Jolene.

Jolene works for a healthcare clinic that has recently tasked her with ordering various print marketing pieces.

Jolene feels nervous, uncertain, and intimidated. Through an online search, she locates several printers in her area, but when she visits their websites, she finds cumbersome product menus and sterile ordering pages. Though she’d like a local printing partner, she’s confused about what to order and how to succeed in the process. She’s not even close to pulling the trigger on a purchase and finds these list-style pages overwhelming.

She decides ordering from a national big-box printer might be best.

Moving Prospects to Commitment

Joe wants to sell printing. Jolene wants to buy from a local printer.

So, what went wrong? Why is it so difficult for printers and print buyers to connect and succeed?

While the process is complicated, the answer is simple: marketing is everything.

Marketing, in a nutshell, is helping people buy your product or service. Think of marketing as a conversation between a company and a consumer that ultimately leads to brand recall, preference, and purchase. Like a romantic courtship, this process takes time.

Before a prospective customer commits to date or even “marry” your printing company, they need to notice and consider what you’re offering.

Prospects need to be wooed.

Up Your “Wooage” and Gain More Customers

Sales are more than just transactions; they involve a journey of decision.

Push too hard, and prospects will run. Keep it too casual, and they put off decisions. What is the ideal balance?

This question becomes clearer when you focus less on sales and more on relationships. Marketing builds value-based relationships that cause people to consider, purchase, and develop long-term brand loyalty. Your print marketing goal is not to make one sale; your goal is to woo prospects so they go from knowing your name to considering you their go-to printer every time.

While 81% of print buyers will head to Google when shopping, most struggle to tell one print company from another. Though they’re interested in purchasing, they’re not ready to buy. They need a partner to walk them through the process. And the burden of building that relationship is on you.

As a printer, you need to know:

• Who your ideal print buyers are
• How to capture their attention
• What it will take to move them to action

What industries or market sectors is your company positioned to serve? What will get their attention or motivate them to engage with your firm? Before drafting a marketing plan, identify pain points your prospects may be facing and outline how your company can be the solution to these problems.

Then build a strategy around this question: “How can I get my ideal print buyers to take action by partnering with me?” Wooing clients moves prospects from the emotional to the rational as you meet them in their struggle and offer clear solutions that put them at ease.

The Magic of Woo: From Interest to Irresistible

Wooing customers is a relational dance.

There are several stages in this process – like brand positioning, engagement, conversion, and delight. Like a romantic partnership, this dance takes time and care. Great marketing helps people buy into you before they buy from you.

Here’s a “romantic” description of that journey:

• Brand Positioning: Hi
• Engagement: We should connect – I have some things that might interest you
• Conversion: It’s a date
• Customer Delight: There’s no one else but you!!!

Printers struggling to capture new clients often fast-forward from “Hi,” to “Will you marry me?” while leap-frogging over the trust-building stage of this relationship.

Why does this happen? Typically because there’s no connectional content or relationship-building touchpoints along the way. Printers launch a website, cross their fingers, and hope for the best. But prospects rarely have a reason to visit printer websites, and—if they do—they’re pressed to make a decision with zero pre-purchase “wooage.”

Relationships can’t get off the ground this way. So here’s where you need to turn on the charm! Make it easy for prospects to purchase by flooding them with a steady stream of content that puts them at ease and builds their confidence.

That might look something like this:

• Brand Positioning Goal: Attract Attention (“Hey, look at me! Take notice!”)
  • Content Examples: Brand stories, client testimonials, concept videos, attention-grabbing ads
• Engagement Goal: Nuture Trust (“I have some things that might interest you…”)
  • Content Examples: Product inspiration samples, FAQs, thought leadership pieces, design guides, bingeable content
• Conversion Goal: Create Sales Tipping Points (“You know you can’t resist…”)
  • Content Examples: Product demos, walk throughs, sell sheets, objection handling, CTA incentives
• Customer Delight Goal: Reinforce Positive Client Experiences (“Happily ever after!”)
  • Content Examples: Thank yous, onboarding helps, loyalty programs, milestone markers, advice/encouragement/tipsheets, private label websites, referral incentives

Why Content Marketing is Worthwhile

Sound overwhelming? While content marketing takes work, the return on investment is staggering:

• 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers
• 77% of consumers have been loyal to one brand for 10 years or longer
• Happy millennials share their positive experience with 17 people on average
• Companies have a 5-20% chance of selling to a new customer but a 60-70% chance of selling to an existing customer
• Upselling to current clients can yield up to 25 times more profit

When you woo new prospects and give white glove service to your loyal clients, you’ll find orders growing and profit flowing!

But busy humans are not always super-wooers. If wooing isn’t your specialty – we get it. And we’re happy to provide tips, tools, or just an hour of free advice. (Really – it’s free.)

Curious? Contact us today for a free marketing audit or a website optimization consult.