Welcome to Marketing For Printers!

Colin Dodgson, President of PressReady Marketing

I have helped printowners do better business with marketing programs for printers for over a decade, and here’s what I aim to do for you: I want to make marketing your printing business easier, more effective and more profitable than it has ever been.

My approach to marketing for printers starts with a simple idea: Marketing your printing business, or any organization for that matter, is the engine room of your enterprise – it is what propels the entire business forward.

As the owner or manager of a printing business, you no doubt consider yourself to be in the “ink on paper” business. Actually, I’m going to argue, you are in the business of finding and keeping customers. Printing is the service you offer to accomplish that, but the entire process is driven by marketing.

It doesn’t matter what you make or sell, if you don’t have a steady supply of customers, you don’t have a business.

The excellence of your product and the efficiency of your service are where your marketing begins – they are the mechanisms you use to keep customers coming back. Communicating with people to let them know about you is how you attract customers in the first place.

This switch in thinking can make all the difference to your success, for the simple reason that it forces you to make marketing an absolute top priority, right along with keeping track of the money.

This is important because when your marketing is fully optimized and run regularly and effectively, it can produce the stability and cash flow that makes all the other problems in your business take care of themselves.

A well run marketing program can turn your business into the accumulating asset it was supposed to be, helping you to meet your most optimistic financial goals. It can propel you beyond the struggle to stay afloat, wondering what the future holds, dodging the curve balls the economy throws at you, to a position of confidence and freedom.

But there are persistent problems that make regular, effective marketing for printers an elusive ideal.

Obstacles to effective marketing for printers

Just about every owner of a small printing business I have ever spoken to faces the same set of problems. They are so busy running the shop, supervising employees, keeping the presses rolling, staying on top of paperwork, keeping up with technology, and putting out fires in all departments, that they never get to the marketing. Even if they have a marketing plan and have employees with the talent and resources to do good work, they seldom get to pull all the pieces together and get the marketing out of the door.

Not surprisingly, the result is disappointment and frustration. Marketing becomes haphazard and occasional, the owner is rarely proud of what is sent out, and it doesn’t seem to work well, sapping the motivation to do more marketing.

Set this against the backdrop of a sour economy, shrinking markets and encroachment from commodity oriented competitors, and marketing for printers might look like a losing battle.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, then here’s your take away – marketing, done well, can connect you with your ideal customers, keep a steady supply of new customers in the pipeline, and position your business as a valuable partner, able to command a premium over commodity printers.

What’s more, you can now forget the hassles of creating your own advertising, because we are here to take care of the hardest parts for you.

You don’t have to worry about marketing strategy, research, writing, design concepts, image searches, layout, editing, etc, etc. – we’ve done it all for you, making it a breeze to run effective, professional marketing campaigns for your printing business.

Integration of sales and marketing for printers

Here’s the model in it’s essence: marketing is the process of attracting and keeping customers when you can’t talk face to face, and sales is the process of attracting and keeping customers when you can.

The conversations started by marketing should ideally flow along to a point when sales can take over. The transition happens when you determine the prospect or lead’s degree of engagement justifies the resources needed for face to face communication. Ideally, accurate qualification and timing is built into the system, so no one has to waste time with prospects who are not ready. Sales does not have to beat the bushes for new leads, as systems for contacting and engaging qualified prospects are automated and run month in and month out.

To get a more complete idea of how this system works, please take some time to explore The Printer’s Marketing System site.

The Printer’s Marketing System removes the obstacles that prevent most printowners from doing a good job with their marketing. It will move you from thinking of marketing as something that would probably help, and you should be doing more of if only you could get to it, to an essential, highly automated, systematic process of pumping new customers into your business, and cementing relationships with existing customers.

The Printer’s Marketing System has the potential to transform your business, even in these challenging times of transition to online marketing and commoditization of printing.

Get connected with our marketing resources for printers

If you haven’t already done so, please download my free report, “What Do Print Buyers Really Want? And How You Can Charge A Premium For Giving It To Them.” It’s a good starting point for thinking about marketing specifically for a printing business. It will help you identify the highest value in your service offerings and your ideal customer, and help you position your printing business as an essential resource, not as just another provider of an over-supplied commodity.

When you request the report you can join my PressReady Marketing Insiders Circle. You will receive advance notice of new services and special deals, plus tips and resources on the topic of marketing for printers.

I welcome your comments and suggestions. Please let me know if you would like information on any particular topic, and do consider joining my newsletter list for tips and advice on marketing your printing business.

Find me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn too!

Sincerely,

Colin Dodgson
President, PressReady Marketing

P.S. – Download my free report here: “What Do Print Buyers Really Want? And How You Can Charge A Premium For Giving It To Them.”