DesignEdit Archives - Marketing, content, & technology to help printers sell more printing

Every print business has its strengths and its weaknesses. To ensure you’re meeting your print buyers’ needs, it’s a great idea to take stock of the areas where your company is performing well and other areas where improvements can be made. This careful attention to your printshop’s performance not only benefits your existing clientele, but it also attracts new print buyers. Since some of those print buyers can’t put into words what they are looking for, and others simply won’t tell you, it’s up to you to figure out the little extras you can offer to ensure the ultimate customer satisfaction. Here is our list of 15 things your print buyers want but can’t (or won’t) tell you: 1. To receive good value Print buyers are like customers of any business. They’re willing to spend their hard-earned money, but they want to know they’re getting excellent value for every dollar they spend. 2. To be kept informed When an order is placed with your company, your print buyer appreciates being kept informed of the status of their order. Simple website-generated emails that keep them in the loop regarding production schedules, deadline adherence, problems encountered, and shipping dates all help promote

“Ugh. Marketing. Why does it have to be so hard? Why can’t people just know my product or service is awesome and come bursting through my doors to buy it?” If you’ve ever felt like this when trying to get the word out about a new product, you’re not alone. Except for a select group of people (like those who do marketing for a living), marketing can feel a lot like exercising or flossing your teeth. You know you’ll ultimately be better for it, but it takes time and work and can feel like one more thing you “have to do.” Wouldn’t it be great if you could outsource exercising – as in, hire someone to do it for you and get all of the benefits? (Uh… yes, please!) Or, what about flossing? (Eww. Nevermind.) You get the idea, though. Marketing doesn’t have to be hard, and you don’t have to go it alone. There’s no rule that says you have to write, design, and create all of your own genius marketing campaigns. You can call in reinforcements for help! Added Marketing Help Coming Your Way! From monthly direct mail packages to social media marketing delivered right to your inbox

A successful Print 17 is in the history books, and all the activity surrounding the event has now been assigned the status of “memory.” To help keep those memories alive, here are my Top 10 takeaways, reflections, and observations of Print 17, which ran from September 10-14, 2017 in the south hall of Chicago’s McCormick Place. #1: The show’s footprint is much smaller. One of my very first experiences as an exhibitor was “way back when” at Print 01. That show filled up both sides of McCormick Place. Of course, that show was overshadowed by the events of the original 9/11, so there’s no way at all to make a fair “then” and “now” comparison. However, excluding the events of 9/11, it’s easy to see that the current version of the show is much different than it was back in 2001. The footprint of today’s show doesn’t fill both halls, it fills just two-thirds of one of the halls. Things change. For the Print show, that’s not necessarily better or worse, it’s just different. Don’t ever count on today being the same as yesterday. Be prepared to adapt to a changing environment and an unknown future. #2: Chicago-style pizza tastes best

DesignEdit, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Websites, Printers

There’s a new DesignEdit in the works, and you’re gonna love it! What’s DesignEdit? DesignEdit is an online design tool available on websites from Marketing Ideas For Printers. It offers your prospects and customers the ability to create ready-to-print online design projects starting with either a blank canvas or from one of 20,000+ pre-built templates. From changing colors to cropping images, your website visitors will be able to quickly produce a design worth printing, with no involvement from you! What’s New? Savvy readers will already recognize the name DesignEdit. It’s been a feature available on websites from Marketing Ideas For Printers for quite a while now. But, it’s about to get a makeover. A big makeover! Here are just some of the improvements you’ll see in the upgraded DesignEdit: More Templates For Your Customers The library of templates has been expanded to include over 20,000 ready-to-use templates. That’s twice as many as before! Your customers will be sure to find something that will quickly get them designing and printing with you! More Relevant Templates The template collection is now more in line with what a North American audience would expect to see. Searching for “football”? You’ll see a brown, oblong object with white stripes on the

Scheduled Maintenance We’ve received word from our technology partner that the DesignEdit servers will be getting an operating system update. Therefore, the DesignEdit tool will be temporarily unavailable March 15th, beginning at 6 AM GMT (that’s 1 AM Eastern, Midnight Central, 11 PM Mountain, 10 PM Pacific). The technicians anticipate the updates will take around 4 hours. Thank You For Your Patience We know it can be an inconvenience to have software unavailable for any length of time, and would like to thank you in advance for your patience.

Scheduled Maintenance We’ve received word from our technology partner that the DesignEdit system will be undergoing some significant updates to the database. They have managed to perform nearly all of the updates while still keeping the system active, but there are some processes that much be installed while the system is inaccessible. Therefore, the DesignEdit tool will be unavailable on Febrary 1st, beginning at 8 AM GMT (that’s 3 AM Eastern, 2 AM Central, 1 AM Mountain, Midnight Pacific). The technicians anticipate the updates will take around 6 hours. Thank You For Your Patience We know it can be an inconvenience to have software unavailable for any length of time, and would like to thank you in advance for your patience. Fortunately, these kinds of updates are a once-every-5-years kind of thing.

The Power of “Us” One of our favorite things about the DesignEdit product is that most of its content is crowdsourced. The images and template designs that you see are developed by a global team of content providers, all competing to produce the best designs for you and your customers. But here’s where the true power of crowdsourced content can be seen… Earlier this month, during a discussion with our DesignEdit technology partner, we mentioned that there was an unacceptably low number of templates available for banners. (By “low” we meant next to nothing!) And now, after only a few weeks, DesignEdit is flooded with new banner designs! There are already over 200 banner designs online, and the number continues to grow! Time To Dive In If you haven’t tested DesignEdit yet, now is the perfect time to give it a try. We have a Knowledgebase article that can help you start off on the right foot, and our helpful support team will be happy to work with you directly to answer any questions you might have, as always. Just call us at 1-800-736-0688, or send your question to CustomerCare@MarketingIdeasForPrinters.com.

Well, here we are: we’ve been talking about DesignEdit for a couple of months now, and given you several peeks behind the curtain at the ongoing development. Yesterday, we officially launched DesignEdit for your use (or more importantly, for your customers to use). This is going to be fun! There isn’t really much more to say, other than get in there and sell some printing! DesignEdit is a BIG deal, and we want to make sure it’s one of the most effective selling tools you have available to you on your Level 3 website. So while you’re in there, can we ask a favor? If you come up with any ideas for making DesignEdit even better than it is while you’re using it, please let us know. You can get a hold of us at 1-800-736-0688, or at CustomerCare@MarketingIdeasForPrinters.com. Enjoy!

DesignEdit’s Ready! Here Are Your Next Steps DesignEdit, the online design tool businesses and consumers love to use to create print-ready design online launches today! Now that DesignEdit is ready for use, here’s what you need to do to make it ready for your customers: Kick the tires on our demo site It wouldn’t hurt to know what the fuss is all about. So first, be sure to check out our own demo to see DesignEdit in action. Just scroll down to the middle of www.websitesforprinters.com/optional-features/designedit/ to view a live sample of what your customers can do with DesignEdit. Skim the documentation Now would be a good time to skim through our Knowledgebase document, How To Use DesignEdit. There are lots of step-by-step instructions in there that guide you through activating the DesignEdit functionality to an order form. No need to actually follow the steps yet (unless you’re feeling adventurous). For now, just get a sense of what the instructions cover. That way, you’ll know where to go if you need them later. Activate DesignEdit on a System order form Okay, now that you know the territory, it’s time to get started. Do you still have “How To Use DesignEdit” open?

The Marketing Ideas For Printers LinkedIn Group Our Chief Marketing Officer (and printing rock-star) Mike Stevens is moderating a marketing users group for print owners on LinkedIn.com. The group is called Marketing Ideas for Printers, and membership is free! All you have to do is go to the LinkedIn group page and click the yellow “Join” button. Get in on the conversation right away to discover fresh, new ideas that will help you sell more printing — or share your own time-tested success tips. DesignEdit Information Page Now Online On the DesignEdit front, the house is built, and we’re adding the final trim. We’ll be opening the doors imminently! In the meantime, we’ve added the DesignEdit information page to WebsitesForPrinters.com. If you’ve been following our DesignEdit news from day 1, it may just re-iterate what you already know. But if this is the first time you’ve heard of our DesignEdit product, be sure to check it out — it even includes a live demo!