Tips Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Marketing, content, & technology to help printers sell more printing

Websites, Ideas Collections, Marketing Ideas For Printers, The Perfect Score

To score or not to score? This question faces anyone creating a printed piece that must be folded before mailing, display, or delivery. Your customers may not realize the importance of scoring paper or preparing printed materials so that they fold cleanly. Our latest print tip, added to the Ideas Collection of every website provided by Marketing Ideas For Printers, gives your clients a basic tutorial on the criteria and methods to consider when weighing the benefits of including this step in the print process. To Score or Not to Score? Educating your customers regarding scoring is easy with this latest print tip. Here’s a sample from the article: While in some cases folding without scoring is sufficient, often scoring will eliminate unsightly creases and buckling in the printed material. The primary consideration in whether or not to score a printed piece is the thickness of the paper being used for the project. As a general rule, paper that is 100 lbs. or heavier should be scored before folding. Other instances where scoring the paper is recommended would include: There is heavy ink coverage across the folded area. You will be folding against the grain of the sheet. A critical

White Paper, Websites, 6 Tips to Master Networking, Marketing Ideas For Printers

Networking can be the lifeblood of business, especially for businesses that find it difficult to advertise in traditional ways. Our latest white paper “How to Master Networking” takes the guesswork out of the right approach to using networking as a strong part of building a successful business. Become A Master Networker Included in this whitepaper are tips to help networkers understand the difference between networking and selling, as well as: How networking builds future sales Building trust-based relationships Choosing the right networking opportunities Making the most of your circle of contacts Creating power networking partners Building a lifelong sales funnel through the people you already know With this guide on “How to Become A Master Networker,” you can help your customers with great advice on how to build their sales funnel with networking and prove your value as part of their success! Read the complete white paper here on one of our public demo websites, or get started creating your own free demo website from Marketing Ideas For Printers today. GET NETWORKING

Each week we present two webinars to talk about Odyssey, the new Print MIS from Marketing Ideas For Printers. Last week’s webinar was one of the best because Cindy Heitman and Don Jones joined me. (That means you don’t have to listen to me drone on and on!) Cindy and Don both have a unique perspective on Odyssey, and you’ll find it helpful to learn more about Odyssey from a different viewpoint. Cindy is on our sales team and helps printers see the benefits Odyssey offers. Don is Odyssey’s lead developer and shares his excitement of Odyssey from the perspective of all the technical details that make it work. A New Print MIS: The Odyssey Live Event Web Meeting Enough of my words, let’s get you watching and listening. Here’s a recording of the Thursday, March 16, 2017, Odyssey webinar: Table of Contents Miss a spot? Here’s a convenient table of contents for you to get to the exact right place, along with links to pages referenced in the webinar: 0:45 – Book: The Influence of “Hooked” on Odyssey (Blog post: http://on.mi4p.com/hooked-blog) 3:55 – Odyssey from Cindy’s Perspective 8:53 – Meet Don Jones (Blog post: http://on.mi4p.com/meet-don-jones) 9:22 – Odyssey from Don’s Perspective 12:40 – Demo of

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

What turns customers away from a website, advertisement, or company? Perhaps it’s the message itself or the way a brand is presented. Sometimes the information is just too scattered, time-consuming, or confusing! Today’s consumers face a barrage of competing messages, so helping your customers learn to evaluate and understand each intersection between a customer and their business is critical. A Critical Crossroad These intersections, or touch points, are the focus of the latest marketing tip added to the Ideas Collection of every website provided by Marketing Ideas For Printers. Touch points are anything your customers come in “touch” with before, during, or after a sale. These can include such things as a company’s advertisements, flyers, business cards, blogs, tradeshow presence, or even their customer service and voicemail manners. Each touch point represents an entry into the sales funnel where a visitor either continues forward or turns away. Every Touch Point Matters In this new tip, your customers will learn that simply having a touch point in place is no longer an option. Rather, each touch point must perfectly represent their brand, offering a cohesive, captivating message. To help with this, there’s a simple three-step formula to consider: LIST: List all current touch

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

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

Odyssey, MIS, Marketing Ideas For Printers, How Do I Know You're Print MIS Will Be Around

For those discovering Odyssey (our new Print MIS) and learning about Marketing Ideas For Printers for the very first time, it’s not surprising to have questions like this: How do I know Marketing Ideas For Printers will be around for the long haul? How can I be assured that Odyssey will be viable in the future if I choose Odyssey as my Print MIS? Those are good questions, and not too difficult to answer. It Starts with Our History The answer actually starts in the late 1980s with the birth of Ink Inc., which at that time was the name of the company that started the direct mail service provided by Marketing Ideas For Printers. Just click the history link at the bottom of any page on our Direct Mail For Printers website and you’ll see the story of how Ink Inc. began. Over time, we’ve added Websites For Printers (2001), Social Media Marketing For Printers (2009), and Email Marketing For Printers (2009) to the services offered by Marketing Ideas For Printers. Each service was quickly embraced by both new and existing customers, and each service quickly achieved sustained profitability. Each service has stood the test of time, and each service has adapted to continue to be relevant.

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