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

There’s something powerful about being the local printer. You’re not just another vendor; you’re a familiar face in the community. You print the school programs, the restaurant menus, the nonprofit flyers. You probably know the people behind at least half of the businesses you serve. That connection is your competitive advantage. The challenge? Making sure your customers see it, remember it, and feel it, especially online. Here’s how to turn “local” from a tagline into a marketing engine that helps you sell more printing. Make Local Obvious “Local” isn’t something to mention once on your About page. It should show up in the way your brand feels, looks, and communicates. When people visit your website, they should immediately know you’re nearby and part of their world. Use real photos, not stock ones. Showcase your shop, your team, and your town. Talk about the people you serve and the causes you support. You don’t need to say “we’re local” if your story already proves it. MI4P’s Base Website design helps bring this authenticity to life. The built-in photo galleries and homepage sliders make it simple to feature your community, not just your products. The goal: when someone lands on your site,

Have you ever heard of “Bacon’s Law” or “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”? This popular trivia game is based on the idea of six degrees of separation, or in other words, that “any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart.” After 30+ years in business, six degrees of separation for me has become more like two degrees of separation, where friends (or contacts of friends) have become clients, and customers have become friends. This two-degree network has never been as noticeable to me as it is now in my local area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Even though the population of Pittsburgh and the surrounding metro area reaches over 2.3 million people, every day I get to foster the connections that earn me the label “local printer.” The Mixing of Business and Personal After many years of building these relationships, I’ve begun to notice personal and business getting closer together and harder to differentiate. But, in my opinion, that is a good thing! It makes our professional lives as printers more enjoyable when our customers become our friends, and the people from our lives outside of work begin to ask us to help with their printing needs. Here’s