Welcome back from the whirlwind adventure that was Printing United in Las Vegas! We trust you had an incredible experience exploring the latest innovations and creating meaningful connections within the vibrant printing industry community. As you settle back into your daily routine, remember that it’s crucial to harness the wealth of knowledge and inspiration you gained at Printing United. Here’s a comprehensive guide to ensure your tradeshow experience fuels continuous growth and innovation in your professional endeavors. Capitalizing on Your Tradeshow Experience Unpack the Knowledge Begin by meticulously reviewing and organizing the wealth of information you gathered. Dive into the brochures, business cards, and session notes you collected. Dedicate ample time to sift through everything, identifying key insights and trends. Consider employing digital tools like a mind map or a project management app to create a comprehensive visual representation of your takeaways. This not only aids in retention but also provides a quick reference for future projects. Share the Wealth Organize a detailed team meeting to present the highlights of your tradeshow experience. Develop a structured presentation or discussion points that cover groundbreaking technologies, innovative strategies, and potential partnerships. Encourage open dialogue, allowing team members to ask questions and offer


Birchbox is a beauty subscription service that revolutionized the way consumers discover and experience cosmetic products. Launched in 2010, Birchbox introduced a unique concept of delivering monthly boxes with a selection of sample-sized beauty products to subscribers for a flat rate of $10. This approach eliminated the need for customers to invest in full-sized products, growing customer confidence in the products and loyalty to the company that delivered them. After realizing its colored outer packaging gets damaged in transit to customers, Birchbox added a pristine internal box with the company name featured in foil print. Recipients loved it, and shared unboxing photos and videos widely on social media. This amplified the Birchbox “experience” of unwrapping  luxury, value, and convenience each month. The momentum certainly paid off: Birchbox grew to 850,000 subscribers in just three and a half years. The Undeniable Power of Packaging As tempting as it is to think of ourselves as rational, logical individuals, the truth is that human beings make snap judgments, and quite often, this is due to packaging. Printers know this, but print buyers may need some reminding about why investing extra resources into packaging is worthwhile. Why is this avenue of marketing so important?


Sustainability. It’s a big word communicating a concept that’s sometimes a bit fuzzy. Sustainability, derived from the Latin word sustinere, is to maintain, support, uphold, or endure over a long period of time. Originally, sustainability referred primarily to the environment – to using resources wisely so that people in the future could rely on them long term. Today this word involves the balance of environmental, social, and economic factors. The question every generation must answer is this: How can we meet the needs of the present without compromising the future? And – in a society that’s increasingly aware of our need to care for this physical world – how does the print industry answer that question?  How to Highlight Your Commitment to Sustainable Printing Sustainability is a hot topic in many industries, and professional printing is no exception. While traditional printing practices have involved resource-intensive processes, our industry becomes more nimble and environmentally conscious each year. Green printing practices reduce waste and conserve resources while simultaneously minimizing carbon emissions. Want to put some of these options into practice or weave this information into your marketing? Here are four “green” tools at our fingertips and some corresponding statistics you can use


If you were given a magic formula for reducing stress and accelerating future success, would you use it? Many people set future business goals based on something they “wish” would happen instead of giving thought to what caused tension or breakthrough in previous years. As you map a fresh course in the new year, new research from the Harvard Business School shows that taking time to reflect is essential. Productivity Hack For Printers: How Reflection Aids Performance In Learning by Thinking: How Reflection Aids Performance, working paper authors Francesca Gino and Gary Pasino demonstrate how reviewing past performance helps people operate more effectively in the future. Through a series of experiments, researchers tested the theory that work outputs would improve when participants added reflective processing to their workflow. One study, based at a tech support call center, divided workers into three groups: a control group, a reflection group, and a reflection plus sharing group. As groups were trained on a specific customer account, each received the same technical training but with a few key differences. While control group employees worked a standard full day, in the reflection group, workers spent the last 15 minutes of each day writing and reflecting


At its core, selling is all about connecting. Printers are professionals who provide a valuable service to someone in need. But a print customer’s need is not the primary reason a person will buy – or keep buying – from you. Relationships are the spark that fuels one sale after another. When you hope to build beneficial relationships with your print customers, where should you begin? Here are five strategies for creating these connections. Break Down Barriers: 5 Strategies for Getting to Know Your Print Buyers 1. Be as Personable as Possible If you want to overcome apathy, drive engagement, and gain lifelong customers, put human connections first. Award-winning sales trainer Patricia Fripp often reminds people that, when seeking to build a successful enterprise, “you don’t close a sale, you open a relationship.” Always seek to view your clients as people, not prospects. Research confirms what many instinctively know – there is something sweet about hearing your name. When you chat with customers through calls, emails, or face-to-face encounters, push yourself to use their names several times. Call out things unique or impressive about a client’s project or personhood. Adding names or details to your interactions helps you acknowledge your


Greetings, Printer Friends! As I recently found myself in front of the camera for a new work headshot (which you’ve probably noticed on the Tip of the Week videos), I couldn’t help but reflect on the changes that life has etched onto my face over the past ten years. As a woman who navigated the challenges of raising three teenagers, confronted numerous health hurdles, and joyfully ticked off items from her bucket list, the person staring back at me in the photograph is undoubtedly not the same individual I was a decade ago. And guess what? That’s perfectly okay. Embracing Change: A Personal Journey The journey of the last ten years has molded me into someone resilient, compassionate, and, dare I say, wiser. It’s been a ride filled with highs and lows, but each experience has contributed to the person I am today. Much like our personal lives, businesses, too, undergo transformative journeys. At Marketing Ideas For Printers, we’re no exception to this evolution. A decade ago, we were a different company with different goals, a smaller (all-local) team, and a vision for the future that was just taking shape. Fast forward to the present, and the growth we’ve experienced


We live in a world that’s saturated with data. Data can be ignored (like, did you really need to see how many new Facebook mentions you received in the last 90 seconds?), or data can be used for productive purposes, such as uncovering new sales opportunities. Today, I have two sales-related data stories to share with you. One is a data failure, and the other is a data success—first, the failure. Sales Data Fail Several years ago, we made a change in our office and installed a new water dispenser with an inline filtration system, replacing the previous dispenser that required us to swap out jugs of fresh water five gallons at a time.     If you look at the picture above, you can see the water lines coming out of the wall. We moved into the modern era and no longer had to carry water! A few of my team joked that it looked like the water was now being delivered by Ethernet! Digital water, who would have guessed?!? After the installation of the new system, I called the original water delivery service and canceled all future deliveries of those five-gallon jugs. The vendor confirmed that they’d cancel


Are you searching for a game-changing boost for your printing business? Look no further! At MI4P, we believe that remarkable partnerships begin with meaningful conversations. If you’re eager to expand your leads, increase profits, and sell more printing, our “Proven Process” is tailored just for you. Join us on a journey towards greater success, backed by over 30 years of hands-on printing expertise and innovation. Your success is our mission! Here are 10 reasons you and your print business should partner with MI4P. 1. A (No Pressure!) Plan for Your Print Business Incredible partnerships begin with great conversations. Curious about expanding leads or growing profits? During our “Proven Process” for helping you sell more printing, we’ll start with an unhurried conversation to learn who you are, your goals and challenges, and work on sharpening your marketing and technology to maximize your success. This personal consultation is convenient, flexible, and totally FREE. 2. Timely Print-Focused Content Updates Want to build trust that converts casual print buyer relationships into tangible returns? Content is one of the most effective ways to turn readers into customers, with companies that blog earning 67 percent more leads per month than brands that don’t. From smart social


Have you ever felt like you can’t do everything on your own? Or maybe you’ve wondered if your team is working as efficiently as possible. Of course, you have! Whether your team is small or large, it has the potential to accomplish much more collectively than you could alone. If you’re leading a team, you might be familiar with various personality assessments like DISC, Kolbe, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, and CliftonStrengths (formally known as StrengthsFinder). In my experience, these assessments don’t always provide the substantial team productivity boost you were hoping for or answer the question, “How does this help me sell more printing?” But don’t worry; there’s a new tool that might just change the game for you: the Working Genius. The Working Genius Model The Working Genius model was created by Pat Lencioni. If you’re not familiar with Pat Lencioni, he’s written classic leadership books such as The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting. Lencioni has an amazing way of revealing business truths in an entertaining and accessible format, and he’s done that with his latest book, The 6 Types of Working Genius. The Working Genius model stands apart from other personality assessments and tools by helping


Did you know that the earliest known form of printing dates back to 200 BC in China, where ink and paper were used to create stamps? Or that one of the oldest existing books, The Diamond Sutra, is printed on a 16-foot-long scroll from 868 AD? Print has come a long way since then – its use now extends far beyond books and scrolls and is used in various forms, from newspapers and magazines to packaging and billboards. The Informed Print Buyer Today’s print buyers are more informed than ever. But how much do they know about the fascinating world of printing? To help you connect with your print buyers on a deeper level, here are a few facts that could come in handy when you need to entertain them. Helvetica: The Unfading Classic Helvetica, the font that appears everywhere, has a remarkable history. Designed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and designer Eduard Hoffmann, it derives its name from “Helvetia,” the Latin term for Switzerland. What’s truly bizarre is that this unassuming font gained a dedicated following, inspiring documentaries, merchandise, and even its day of celebration on April 21st—known as “Helvetica Day.” It shows that a simple font


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