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

Have you adapted your sales cycle to accommodate the Digital Dialog? It used to be that your customers ordered printing from you either by a voice-to-voice conversation on the phone or a face-to-face conversation at your front counter. That still happens, of course, but with the Internet being at everyone’s fingertips, the conversations about ordering printing often start with social media, email, and the use of your website’s order forms. The Online Version of You Is the online version of you able to sell printing as effectively as the real you? It’s worth taking some time to study the answer to that question, considering how often the print ordering process starts online in the digital world. You need to think about the Digital Dialog when you’re ready to answer that question. The Digital Dialog is, very simply, conversation facilitated online. The Digital Dialog is the online version of you that starts conversations, builds trust, and develops relationships online, so you can sell more printing. The Dialog of a Printing Order Before we get into the details of the Digital Dialog, let’s pull back the focus and look at the dialog of a printing order. To sell printing effectively you have to manage this dialog, whether it happens voice-to-voice,

Think back to a time before the Internet. (My kids always give me a puzzled look when I tell them that such a time actually existed!) Print buyers ordered printing face-to-face over a front counter or voice-to-voice over a phone. That still happens, but today’s print buyers order printing from your website, too! It’s easy to be friendly face-to-face, but are you being friendly online? Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression. That’s why your online communication has to be clear, accurate, and friendly. Your online conversation, whether human or automated, is your digital dialog. Here are some tips to make your digital dialog as effective as possible. Say Goodbye to The Geek Your digital dialog shouldn’t be too geeky. Instead, it should be friendly … just like the face-to-face conversations you had before the Internet. Tips For Humans: Just because the conversation is happening online is enough to get some people talking geeky. Don’t. Imagine the conversation as if it was happening face-to-face, and then transfer that conversation into the digital dialog. Tips For Computers: This is where the geek-talk can really show up. Just because the message is automated doesn’t mean it can’t be warm and friendly. Use normal talk with real words. Put