Is your printing business customer-focused? Becoming a print-buyer-focused printing firm means focusing on how every interaction helps your print buyer, rather than how it helps your business. While it sounds simple enough in theory, you’d be surprised at the number of business decisions that fail to consider the customer. What is a Print-Buyer-Focused Business? A print-buyer-focused printing firm puts its print buyers at the heart of everything it does, knowing that it will not only help customers but will also help build better relationships, increase loyalty, and ensure overall satisfaction with your business. So, how can you make your printing business more focused on your print buyers? Try these tips to get started. Tips to Make Your Print Business More Print-Buyer Focused 1. Seek to Understand Your Print Buyers’ Perspective The best place to understand someone else’s perspective is to spend some time in their shoes. Empathy is a tremendous gift in business. It will give you insight into the heart of your buyers like nothing else will. And, it doesn’t have to be complicated. You can practice this skill of empathy by simply asking yourself questions as if you’re the print buyer in various circumstances. For example: If a


Do you know “the look”? It’s that look one spouse gives to the other when they need to catch their attention quickly. Or, it’s the look an exasperated parent gives their child when that child is still on YouTube after being told to take out the garbage an hour ago. The look is all about urgency. If you ever get that look, you better move NOW! The Psychology Behind Urgency Urgency plays an essential part in marketing as well. Urgent tasks mean people are more likely to act on them, even more so than important tasks. This means all marketing (including buying printing) needs to have some level of urgency to it. And while you can’t give your print buyers “the look” to get them to take the next action in doing business with you, there are some ways to emphasize urgency that are effective (and won’t get you arrested for creepiness). 3 Ways to Use Urgency in Your Marketing 1. Set Restrictions “If you don’t take out the garbage by 3:00 PM, you won’t be able to go to your friend’s house.” Setting goals and deadlines are a common tactic to trigger urgency to buy. In the e-commerce world, this


What would you do if you saw a young child drowning? Consider this story: You and a friend are having a picnic by the side of a river. Suddenly you hear a shout from the direction of the water—a child is drowning. Without thinking, you both dive in, grab the child, and swim to shore. Before you can recover, you hear another child cry for help. You and your friend jump back in the river to rescue her as well. Then another struggling child drifts into sight…and another…and another. The two of you can barely keep up. Suddenly, you see your friend wading out of the water, seeming to leave you alone. “Where are you going?” you demand. Your friend answers, “I’m going upstream to tackle the guy who’s throwing all these kids into the water.” That story is a public health parable (adapted from the original, which is commonly attributed to Irving Zola), and provides the starting point for Dan Heath’s book, Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen. We’ve all been there, right? The daily fires and emergencies demand attention. They’re all we see. But sometimes these problems are just blinding distractions that keep us from seeing


The impact of COVID-19 has hit the sales efforts of many hard. Every successful salesperson likes to keep score. And there’s nothing quite as deflating as a scorecard that shows you’re not winning. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Here’s an easy trick on how you can keep score to make sure your sales goals hit the mark 100% of the time. An Unexpected Method: Easy as 1-2-3 Instead of focusing on one area, broaden your viewpoint. This score-keeping method is based on keeping the score for three different sales targets: Must, Should, and Could. Set your expectations for these sales targets by answering these three questions prior to each sales call: What must happen for this part of the sales process to be considered a success? What should happen if I do what must be done? What could happen if I do what must be done? Step 1: Must The “Must” target is the foundation for your scorecard. It should represent one single activity that’s completely within your control that must occur for this sales effort to be considered a “win” on the sales scorecard. An example would be “Call prospect for an appointment.” If you made an effort to place


Help your clients win at business and life while you position yourself as a competent, reliable business partner. Here’s a rundown of excellent content to motivate your customers this month: Printer’s Press Does spring fever have your heart pumping? The May edition of Printer’s Press offers helpful articles on how to get ahead in work, family, and life. Featuring car care myths debunked, home remedies that actually work, and vacation destination highlights, this full-color newsletter is refreshing, contemporary and fun. Tip your clients toward postcards with feature articles on incorporating postcard coupons, employing variable-data personalization, or tips on postage-saving oversized options. Encourage them to communicate their next big idea with the power and affordability of postcards! Business Forum Everyone wants to come out on top, and Business Forum motivates your customers to win in LIFE. From personal to professional, the May edition features articles on maximizing family time as a busy entrepreneur, original options for one-of-a-kind brochures, tips for staying recharged while avoiding business burnout, and dos and don’ts when considering a side job. The book review offers a peek at The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky, exploring the turbulence that happens between the launch of a great idea and


In just a few short weeks, hundreds of printers from across the nation will join up in sunny San Diego for the 7th Annual National Print Owners Association (NPOA) Spring Conference. We’ll be there, and we hope you’ll stop by and see us! This conference will be a fantastic opportunity for you to get away from the day to day of your print business and be able to invest the necessary time to work ON your business. If you’re getting ready to go, you can look forward to learning about what’s happening in the print industry as well as take advantage of the chance to connect with other printers in the same daily trenches as you. To make sure you make the most of this incredible networking opportunity, here are five things you can do to pump up the experience. 1. Get Social! Thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, some of your greatest connections might not even need to take place face to face: Don’t miss these social tips: Follow the NPOA Facebook Page to stay up to date on the latest things going on at the conference and to stay connected with others who will be in attendance. Take


Easy design process, tips, Marketing Ideas For Printers

The design process can be extremely fun to be a part of when done right. There are some challenges, however, that will pop up along the way within the design process, and it’s essential that you’re ready for them. Challenges like: Communicating with the customer Understanding the size or orientation of the piece Ensuring that the design layout is successful As simple as these concepts may seem, executing them is a whole different story. Here are three easy tips to help you streamline the design process for your team and your customer. 1. Know What Your Customer Wants Before starting any design, you must fully understand what the customer wants or has envisioned for the piece. Many customers know what they want and aren’t afraid to tell you. When this is the case, your primary job is listening. Once you’ve gathered all of the information from the customer, confirm and confirm again. Not only will it save you precious time and money later by making sure the piece is correct, but it also shows the customer that you are listening and that you care by taking the time to gather the information correctly. Other customers do not know what they want


fresh start, printers, marketing ideas for printers

Two words. Two words are all it takes to put the past behind you and look forward to the new year with optimism. Fresh Start There’s something magical about one year ending and a new one beginning. You get a clean slate, a chance to try new things, and unbridled excitement for what’s to come. As you plan for this next year for your print business, here are five tips to help you make this next year your best year yet. 1. Review and Reflect Without a good, hard look at where you’ve been, you’ll never get a clear path forward. By taking the time to reflect on the past year, you’ll be able to: See what you did well. Reflect on the skills, knowledge, and new tools you’ve acquired. Honestly acknowledge where things didn’t go as planned and use them to make better decisions in the future. Figure out if your unique selling proposition (USP) accurately reflects what you offer and if it’s useful. If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to reviewing and reflecting, consider setting aside a few minutes to ask yourself the following questions: What would my customers say is the number one thing we


What makes a printed piece leap off a page? Some say it’s the dimensions of the designs, the vibrant hues of the ink, or the dazzling gloss finishes. But part of the beauty is the way the layout itself captures your eye. When white space is appropriately utilized (or eliminated completely), the contrast can be breathtaking. But often clients don’t understand the technical details of planning for appropriate margins, through the use of full or partial bleeds. A Common Mistake Worth Correcting One of the most frequent amateur design mistakes is allowing for insufficient bleeds before sending a project to print, causing the effectiveness of the design to be weakened or essential parts of the layout to be cut off unexpectedly. This month’s print tip, added to the Ideas Collection of every website provided by Marketing Ideas For Printers, coaches your clients on the basics of bleed techniques in print. The August print tip article trains your customers on eliminating unwanted white space and understanding trim and fold markings as you build a print proof together. Though today’s software offers default values for creating bleed margins, here are a few tips to coach clients on when to use them: Bleeds


Here's How You Eat An Elephant, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Odyssey, MIS

You’ve started your next big project. It’s the big idea that will leapfrog you past other printers competing with you. It’s the revolutionary change that will usher in your next period of success. And it’s intimidating. You’ve lost your momentum, and you’re stuck. The mighty elephant in the room is your obstacle. It’s easy to see, but at the same time you don’t know how to get past it, so it seems even easier just to ignore. You can beat the elephant! How? You beat an elephant the same way you eat an elephant: one bite at a time. We’ve Been There Our “next big project” is our Print MIS called Odyssey. Building a new Print MIS from the ground up is challenging. It would be nice if we could say that we perfectly executed a plan that took us from concept to launch with no surprises. The truth is much different, of course. There were days we’d have a stare-down with Odyssey as we tried to figure out how to move past the elephant in the room. If you’re stuck on your project, borrow some ideas from us. Here are three ideas the team at Marketing Ideas For Printers


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