Freshman year in college, a friend “willed” me her work-study job in a library. Located in a beautiful white marble building, the library was a simple room with glass-front barrister bookcases, glossy wood tables, and clerestory windows. In the afternoons, the sun...
“Marilee is distraught,” said my friend. “I gave her your name.” My friend’s boss, Marilee, published a beautiful printed magazine. Marilee had not raised her rates, even though all of her costs had gone up. “She’s losing money,” my friend said. “There’s no place...
My client, King, sold new and used videos, games and fan collectibles. He printed a newsletter every month. When I started working with him, King’s newsletter was mostly canned, with syndicated reviews. He wanted to produce something original, distributed in-store to...
There are lessons printers can learn from other people’s businesses…. especially when those businesses fail. Start-up companies are a good source of research because the timeline is short, the mistakes stand out, and the founders are often willing to talk about...
Does everyone on your marketing team know what success means? Does the owner know? Here’s an example of the disconnect between the owner and the marketing department. I asked a printing company owner to give me an example of a marketing campaign that was...
Print, text, and email are a delicious mix in this restaurant marketing campaign. To gain new customers (and keep them coming back), ask for permission to interact in all the places where they spend time and pay attention — and then reward them lavishly. I’d...
My husband’s parents are known for taking us on memorable family vacations. One year, all the adults and grandkids navigated down Oregon’s breathtaking McKenzie River in drift boats. We learned to fly fish like they do in the movie A River Runs Through It,...
Did you take a gap year with your email marketing program? You’re not alone. Printing businesses often launch their email marketing with an ambitious schedule and then settle down to a reasonable pace once they see the discipline it requires. When the program stalls...
Over the years I have designed very successful cold email campaigns that converted in the double digits. I’m not against them. However, when we think of cold emails, we are more likely think of this poor example: “Do you have any printing we can bid on? We have very...
Believe it or not, there are people in the U.S. and the world who don’t have regular or continuous access to the internet. In these places, the people have a much closer relationship to print, printed media and mail. These folks interact with print in the way we did...
Whether you attend one trade show a year or ride the wave of many print-related events, it’s important to capture details while they are fresh. Over my years as a magazine publisher and marketing strategist, I’ve expanded my post-show arsenal to the three must-do...
Google loves to reward local businesses. And, Google wants to deliver accurate local results to those doing online searches. For that reason, printing businesses should take advantage of an easy and effective way to be found online: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! ...
