News Archives - Page 2 of 10 - Marketing, content, & technology to help printers sell more printing

Websites, Ecommerce Suite, Sell Printing While You Sleep, Marketing Ideas For Printers

We’ve all been there. You hear about a fantastic new product on the radio or read about it in an article, and you decide you must get one for yourself. Within minutes, you’ve found a store online that sells that product, chosen the best shipping option for your needs, and even paid for it. Within days, it’s going to be on your front step. From the instant you first thought about buying the item to the moment you’ve hit the checkout button in the online store, your order can’t have taken more than ten minutes! Wouldn’t it be great if you could offer your own customers that kind of accessibility and convenience? With the Ecommerce Suite, available in the Conquer Bundle for your Marketing Ideas For Printers’ website, you can. Be Ready Any Time Let’s face it; your customers can get an idea for their next printing purchase at any time of the day or night. But, if you’re like most printshops, your sales team probably isn’t working around the clock. It would be ideal if you were able to not only take orders but also complete the sale right when they want it, instead of waiting until morning when their

Direct Mail, Business Forum, Increase Interest and Productivity This Summer, Marketing Ideas For Printers

Summer is on its way, and we couldn’t be more excited. The June 2017 issue of the Business Forum has us just as pumped! We’ve gathered some of the most helpful information to increase KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and get the most out of your team by finding their strengths and minimizing weaknesses. Strike the Perfect Work/Family Balance This month you can increase customer knowledge on useful tools that will increase productivity through a few of the best apps on the market. We’re not all work and no play this month. Many of the articles straddle both personal and professional life and the importance of family. You’ll find this month’s book review of “Grit” by Angela Duckworth to be a bridge between thinking of success in the professional sense and looking at your kids’ potential to discover how you can take steps toward influencing success in either situation. Another article this month gives your customers a few ideas on how to make their customer rewards programs more successful with a few simple ways to increase customer interest in signing up and increasing the return on any rewards efforts. Boost Interest With Print Call us today to get access to one of

Direct Mail, Local Edge, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Where Corners are Never Cut

On February 6, 2016, the city of Tainan, Taiwan, was slammed with a magnitude 6.4 earthquake (and sixty-eight aftershocks!). A day later, examinations of a toppled 17-story high-rise apartment building showed horrific structural problems including pillars reinforced with Styrofoam and empty tin cans. Similar quality control issues were exposed in Japan when seven massive hotels were forced to close after a prominent architect was found cheating earthquake building codes. The issue at hand? Corner cutting at its worst. You’re the Security They’re Looking For The June 2017 edition of our Local Edge direct mail postcard highlights the significance and security of local printing. Your customers have invested tirelessly in bringing their vision to life, and print production completes the work they’ve patiently, carefully crafted. While big-box online print can bring hassle, headaches, and generic, substandard products, trustworthy local service ensures a flawless finishing touch. Printing locally assures clients a seamless match of color, brand, and professional materials EVERY time they print. A Flawless Finishing Touch Show your customers how local print pairs two winning elements: a wholehearted commitment to excellent craftsmanship, and the matchless service that comes from fully invested relationships. We’ll encourage prospects to find security and confidence with

Direct Mail, FastStart, Marketing Ideas For Printers, A Productivity Push

The Industrial Revolution (beginning around 1760) was one of the most spectacularly fruitful periods in history. Almost every aspect of life was transformed as people harnessed electricity, expanded transportation, and streamlined industrial processes with new machines. Output multiplied exponentially: while previously one daily laborer could clean a pound of seeds from cotton, the mechanized cotton gin could remove fifty pounds per day! Productivity. In our personal and professional realm, it is something we all long to master. But increased productivity takes imaginative, personal, upfront investment, and that can be an overwhelming obstacle. Give prospects the creative boost they need with the FastStart mailer, our product-of-the-month marketing piece that showcases universal, high-frequency items aimed at energizing client interest and activating your sales. Sweeten the Season with Fresh, Creative Menus Our June FastStart mailer showcases menus and lists of services, persuading your customers to overhaul the ordinary in three key areas: Atmosphere. Guests deserve more than good food or service, they’ve come for an EXPERIENCE. Fabulous list of services displays and food menus craft a brand expression that excites atmosphere and heightens curiosity. Creativity. Attention-grabbing, alluring menus and lists of services take consistent research, updating, and imagination. Updated menus can bolster revenues

Marketing Ideas For Printers, Double Color Management: An Extraterrestrial Experience, Tip

Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses sounds like a good thing, right? It sure can be, except in print. When your printed images start taking on an extraterrestrial hue, it’s time to take the glasses off and see where this mystical glow is coming from. Recently, one of our customers experienced a rather “rosy” view of the images in our Direct Mail For Printers’ Business Forum newsletter package. Frustrated with the magenta casts and poor quality images, they contacted us looking for a solution. Our team suspected that double color management was to blame for the less-than-great print quality images our customer was experiencing. So, what is double color management? Simply put, double color management occurs when both the software and the output device are trying to control the color output values assigned to your document as it goes through the production cycle. This often causes hiccups and frustrations along the way. Double color management is a silent killer of good print quality because the settings are incredibly easy to miss and no error message is produced when the settings are incorrectly applied, The telltale sign of double color management is an unnatural pink or magenta cast to your print, in addition to very

Odyssey, MIS, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Can I Import My Existing Print MIS Data Into Odyssey?

Sometimes Odyssey prospects fall in love with Odyssey (our new Print MIS) when they see it, then second-guess their new-found affection by letting this thought rattle around in their brain: What will I do with all my customer history and existing Print MIS data? I’d make the move if that were easier to deal with. Respectfully, if you’re thinking that thought, then you do not see Odyssey’s true potential, and you might be acting lazy and a little selfish. Don’t Be Selfish Remember, your Print MIS isn’t about you; it’s about your customers. Which MIS solution is going to serve their needs best? A modern, cloud-based Print MIS that puts them on the same platform as you and your team, or a legacy MIS that puts a digital wall of separation between you and your customers? Sure, it’s easier to stay with your current Print MIS, but is it better? If you think about what’s easiest for you without thinking about what’s best for your customers, selfishness is creeping in. Someday, maybe even today, you’ll be vulnerable to losing your customers to another printer that does see how a cloud-based Print MIS allows their customers to do business more efficiently. When that happens, it’ll

If you’re looking for a creative way to grow your business with a loyal following of print customers, you’ll want to check out the Printer@Work email newsletter! The Choice is Yours The Printer@Work newsletter is emailed on your behalf on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month, and contains ten minutes of fun, engaging content that your audience will look forward to reading. Each issue includes an inspirational letter from the owner, a humorous business cartoon, marketing tips, useful ideas, tech tips, and unique print products. Have your own content you want to include? No problem. You have the control to completely customize the Printer@Work newsletter to suit you, or you can use the quality content provided and take more of a hands-off approach. Great Content and More Printer@Work also increases traffic to your website with links to your homepage and “sticky” areas, such as the Ideas Collection and Fun@Work. Check out this example of a recent inspirational article, “The Boots.” Here’s a comical story that anyone who has taken care of small children can relate to… One day, a kindergarten teacher was helping a student who was struggling to put his winter boots on. The teacher was pulling and the

MIS, Odyssey, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Odyssey is a Print MIS for Online and Legacy Success

As I’ve visited with printers about Odyssey and told them that Odyssey is a Print MIS that directly connects to their website, it’s easy for them to see that Odyssey easily manages online print orders. Because of Odyssey’s seamless connection to websites from Marketing Ideas For Printers, printers can sometimes overlook how well Odyssey handles legacy orders too, which leads to printers asking this question: How does Odyssey handle legacy orders? Here are three of the entry points for print orders in Odyssey. Self-Serve Online Orders These are the online orders placed by your customers with no assistance from you. Your customers sit at their desk at work (or at home in their pajamas, for that matter), fill out an order form on your website, and click the Place an Order button. Just a fraction of a second later, there’s an order in Odyssey (your Print MIS), and everyone on your team is alerted that print production can start. Guided Orders Guided orders are like self-serve orders because they also use an order form found on your website. But, these order forms are intended to be used by your team to guide your customers through the process of ordering printing. Your team will want to

Direct Mail, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Course Corrections Keep Direct Mail Pointing the Right Direction

When you’re on your next airplane trip, think about this: Over 90% of the flight is spent making in-flight course corrections. Those course corrections are what helps to ensure that when we leave Fargo on a flight bound for Chicago, we’ll actually end up in Chicago and not some corn field in Nebraska! Just like a flight, design benefits from mid-course corrections too. To continue with the flight analogy, the ground crew spent a lot of time last year redesigning all direct mail packages from Marketing Ideas For Printers. The packages were all cleared for takeoff and are now “in the air.” That means there have recently been more opportunities for mid-course design corrections. After all, we want to make sure your direct mail subscriptions are all pointing in the right direction. We want to see these direct mail pieces land properly with you so that you can connect with your prospects and customers! Survey Says The trigger for our most recent mid-course corrections was the direct mail customer satisfaction survey. Each and every month, we follow up the delivery of the latest direct mail content from Marketing Ideas For Printers with that survey. We want you to know that when you submit those customer satisfaction surveys, we listen!

Odyssey, MIS, Marketing Ideas For Printers, NO-DATA-CUSTODY-BATTLES-HERE

Recently, I published a blog post to make the case that Odyssey and Marketing Ideas For Printers are built for the long haul. You’d expect to hear nothing less, right? But what if you’re not using Odyssey for the long haul? Smart businesspeople make decisions influenced not only by the adoption of new software, but also by the departure options provided by that software. That’s why a question like this comes up sometimes: I like what I see in Odyssey. What if I get started now, but in a few years decide I want to move on? How do I get my data? Let me first start by saying we have no intention of running some “data extortion ring” here. We’re not going to hold your data hostage; that’s just not who we are. It’s your data, and we’re honored you entrust us with it! If, for some unknown reason, you find it necessary to part ways in the future, it’s still your data, and you’re entitled to it. Export Your Data That’s why you’ll see plenty of export buttons in Odyssey. As long as you’re a subscriber, you’ll always have the opportunity to export data from Odyssey’s reports. How About a Different Format? In a perfect world, software

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