Is TikTok Marketing Right for Your Print Business?

Is TikTok Marketing Right for Your Print Business?

“TikTok is just a fad for kids. Kids don’t buy print, so I shouldn’t waste my time thinking about TikTok.” ~ Old-fashioned printing company executive Wrong, wrong, wrong. First of all, TikTok may or may not be appropriate for your print business, but if it isn’t, the...

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Should You Email People Who Didn’t Ask You To?

Should You Email People Who Didn’t Ask You To?

Print business owners and marketers: Raise your hand if you have ever sent email marketing to a prospect database “that you acquired somewhere.” Be honest. (OK, everyone can put their hands down now). Email marketing is a natural complement to direct mail marketing....

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Reality Check: The Perception of Printing

Reality Check: The Perception of Printing

I record and produce a significant number of episodes for Podcasts from The Printerverse. Discussions about printing, print business, print sales, and print marketing are often playing through my computer, earbuds, car speakers, and voice assistants like Alexa. When I...

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Is Your Print Sales Team Holding You Back?

Is Your Print Sales Team Holding You Back?

In my work consulting with sales and marketing teams in printing companies, I hear a common refrain from the marketing side: “Sales reps want more print sales from leads, but they’re not converting the ones they have.” Sales managers agree that “lead burning,” as I...

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How to Break Through the Creativity Block

How to Break Through the Creativity Block

You can have all the right people in the room and still have a creative block when you do marketing for a printing company. Here’s my perspective on how to get the creativity flowing when you do print-digital-media marketing in the printing industry.  This story is...

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Busting the Hustle-Bro Marketing Myth

Busting the Hustle-Bro Marketing Myth

What does it take to succeed at marketing in today’s printing business? I’ll tell you what it doesn’t take. Buying into the hustle-bro marketing mythology. What is hustle-bro mythology? If you watch YouTube, you see snippets of pre-roll advertising that feature...

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2022 Packaging Wrap Up

2022 Packaging Wrap Up

It’s hard to believe the year is almost over! Here’s a quick recap of the exciting packaging topics covered this year. Overall, several interesting packaging topics were covered in 2022. The blog series began the year with the topic of fast-food packaging. The very...

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2022: A Year in Flux for Marketers

2022: A Year in Flux for Marketers

What a year in flux and uncertainty 2022 has been. COVID has receded, and life got back to some semblance of normal, but cases are up 50% over the past two weeks. Americans are as divided as ever, and the major political parties still have a winner-take-all attitude....

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Print Samples: Before You Ring in the New Year…

Print Samples: Before You Ring in the New Year…

  At the end of every year, it is good to take some time and look back at where you’ve been. The world of print samples became vibrant again this year as many trade shows fired up their engines, attracting creativity that was remarkable. From Print4All in Milan...

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Twitter Advertising is Dead. Long Live Print!

Twitter Advertising is Dead. Long Live Print!

Print has always been a potent channel for direct marketing and communication, and one of the safest. This is not new information to us. But recent events on Twitter including the image above sent out by 'Nintendo America' have sent shockwaves through the socialverse....

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Are You Getting Noticed by Print Customers?

Are You Getting Noticed by Print Customers?

Are you getting noticed by your print customers? Do you know how they found you? I recently sat in on a client’s sales call with a prospect. When asked the proverbial “how did you hear about us?” question, the prospect answered, “I don’t know. You guys are...

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Print Samples: What DO YOUR Business Cards Say?

Print Samples: What DO YOUR Business Cards Say?

Before every trade show, event, or customer meeting, look at your business cards. What do they say about you and your company? Do they give your company, name, title, and contact details? Perfect! They should. But if you stop there you miss an opportunity to create a...

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How to Get Your Marketing Program Unstuck

How to Get Your Marketing Program Unstuck

Whether you are marketing yourself or marketing your printing company, it can be challenging to get rolling again if you’ve gotten off track. Here are some easy ways to get your marketing program unstuck and on the road to success. WHAT’S REALLY HOLDING YOU BACK? When...

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How to Attract the Best Print Customers

How to Attract the Best Print Customers

“Nobody ever asked me what customers I wanted before.” This was told to me by the VP of Sales at a $25 million revenue commercial print business a few years back. Throughout his career, new print customers came in seemingly randomly by referrals, leads from the...

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Print Samples Sell Your Association

Print Samples Sell Your Association

Every print association has had the same problem – how do you keep members engaged and interested in your events? Over the pandemic years, we were confined to online meetings, and some organizations found that sending out boxes with cups, hats, pins, and buttons to...

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Print Samples Sell Packaging

Print Samples Sell Packaging

The hot topic this year is packaging and all of the things you can do with it. It’s the most common billboard available and it isn’t used to its full capability. Think about it, every package can carry a logo and a tagline, but what about an invitation to buy an...

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Print Samples: Add Dimensionality to Your Print

Print Samples: Add Dimensionality to Your Print

This is the story of dimensionality. Textures, shine, matte, and a host of other print embellishment options can take print to a new level. The differentiation that texture brings is something you can test for yourself. Think about the last handful of business cards...

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Building the Future with Print

Building the Future with Print

The viable future of print business is dependent upon how print is used, and what it’s used for. We saw this firsthand in 2020. If printing wasn’t essential, it wasn’t produced. And when things started to open, ‘essential‘ was applied to the spending, not the...

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A Printer’s Road Map to Marketing Clarity 

A Printer’s Road Map to Marketing Clarity 

A clear marketing message is a challenge for most printers. We write and write and write, thinking that print customers care.  They don’t.  I’ve talked about brevity and simplicity – and now I want to focus on clarity. When I perform Marketing Reviews, I see printers...

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Print Samples: Everything Needs a Label

Print Samples: Everything Needs a Label

There are dozens of ways you might create a label. You might do it on your desktop printer using label stock bought online or at the office supply store. If you need more volume, you may look to find a provider who can meet your needs. There are online label printers...

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A Coffee Table Book for Your Company? Do Tell!

A Coffee Table Book for Your Company? Do Tell!

Your business deserves the very best treatment in telling its story. Elevate it with print! Here's why, and I believe this with all my heart: Print makes stories memorable. It gives ideas stature.  Statistically, most of us have written carefully-crafted information...

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Is This the Decade of Branding?

Is This the Decade of Branding?

The wide range of marketing skills and talents fall into two categories of people, Marketing Creatives and Marketing Technologists. Marketing creatives include branding specialists, designers, creative directors, content writers, and copywriters. While the creative...

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Print Samples: Why You Need Your Own Magazine

Print Samples: Why You Need Your Own Magazine

Many years ago, as we were getting ready for Drupa in 2012 one of the sales team members I was working with in Europe arrived with boxes of a very cool magazine, But it wasn’t just any magazine – it was one that had versions based on the target recipient. That...

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ISA Sign Expo Delivers Thrills and Stills

ISA Sign Expo Delivers Thrills and Stills

Printing innovation and possibilities were plentiful at the International Sign Association’s (ISA) signature annual event, Sign Expo, in Atlanta May 4-6. Even my heightened industry event optimism from attending Dscoop Edge Rockies in March (Dscoop’s Edge Rockies...

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Is Your Website Meeting Your Goals?

Is Your Website Meeting Your Goals?

Over the past few months, I’ve written about the changes in Google search results pages and how they impact companys’ search performance. There are many ways people may learn about suppliers. Ranking high in search results may not be essential for every company. But a...

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Marketing to the Lucrative SaaS Sector

Marketing to the Lucrative SaaS Sector

Marketing to the SaaS sector starts by understanding the everyday challenges of this type of business. Today let’s learn about Software as a Service – SaaS, and how they can solve their most significant problem with print. Why should SaaS care about print? To get in...

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Print Samples: Create Your Own Magazine

Print Samples: Create Your Own Magazine

When was the last time you told someone about a great magazine article you read online? For many, reading online is done in snippets between other activities, and the content seems more fleeting. And, then there are printed magazines. Those lovely to-touch pieces of...

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BYOB – Beverage Packaging Gets Personal

BYOB – Beverage Packaging Gets Personal

It is estimated that the global digital print market for packaging will reach $28 billion by 2024. This segment has grown by leaps and bounds over the last ten years. Packaged beverages have been a significant driver of growth. Beverage manufacturers made digital...

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Is Empathy in Your Marketing Toolkit?

Is Empathy in Your Marketing Toolkit?

I was brought in as an expert by another marketing consultant. He was working with an international company, and one of their tried-and-true lead gen programs was not doing the job anymore.  We met with the corporate marketing people, and they explained the program....

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Print Samples: The Wonderful VIGC Member Package

Print Samples: The Wonderful VIGC Member Package

Do you belong to an association? A bowling league? Intramural golf? What about a print association? Is that association keeping you educated? Are they helping you lift your business? One group that I love does this. It’s the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic...

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Build Back Better Brings Print Customers

Build Back Better Brings Print Customers

This is not a political post. It’s a financial one for design, print, and marketing pros. At the end of 2020, the United States Construction Industry was valued at $1.36 Trillion Dollars. Even with the pandemic, private residential and non-residential construction had...

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The Real Cost of Print Customer Acquisition

The Real Cost of Print Customer Acquisition

What does it cost you to get a new lead to your website from your digital marketing campaigns? The cost equation depends on a list of variables, such as your timing, your offer, your target audience, your competition, and your unique value proposition. Success also...

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Build Trust to Grow Your Business

Build Trust to Grow Your Business

Edelman PR consultancy recently released their annual Edelman Trust Barometer report. They surveyed over 36,000 people in 28 last November to gauge trust in institutions. A recent survey shows that people trust businesses more than NGOs, governments, and media. Trust...

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Print Samples Danish Style

Print Samples Danish Style

Print shows in Europe often bring out displays of amazing print samples gathered by passionate people who want to share and educate. One of those passionate people is Janne Høgshøj, the Danish Connection. At the 2019 Danish Sign, Print & Pack, Janne brought her...

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2022 CMYK Manifesto: Know, Show, Do, Share

2022 CMYK Manifesto: Know, Show, Do, Share

This annual post has traditionally focused on what is in front of us in order to help customers generate business results with print. While there is still some uncertainty when it comes to planning meetings and events and when/if there will be a return to offices, we...

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This is Your Brain on Marketing

This is Your Brain on Marketing

Remember the 1980s public service announcement: “This is your brain on drugs. (Egg sizzles in a hot frying pan.) Any questions?” As kids, we all made fun of the ad, and it became the meme of its time. But it made an impression. It had a short, simple message with a...

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Wrapping Up 2021 with Bullish Thoughts for 2022

Wrapping Up 2021 with Bullish Thoughts for 2022

This year has, in many ways been one giant blur. It was January, yada-yada-yada, and here is my year-end wrap-up post. What did I do? What did I accomplish? What did I learn? I took a look back at 2021...  Project Peacock morphed into a resource and education platform...

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Being a Better You is a Marketing Advantage

Being a Better You is a Marketing Advantage

How do you create the kind of business that people want to work for, sell for, and advocate for? You have to start with people.  In my experience, when my clients work on improving themselves, the ripple effect creates a distinct marketing advantage for the business...

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The Four Words That Define 2021

The Four Words That Define 2021

As I reflect on 2021, I almost feel a little guilty about stating publicly what a great year it was for me. I was busy. I won new clients. I traveled. I spoke. In public. And I know from dozens of print companies that I work with that many feel that it was an...

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Explore Print Sample TV: Even More Print Samples!

Explore Print Sample TV: Even More Print Samples!

A few weeks ago, we had a chance to create a bucket of new episodes of Print Sample TV! We have some cool things coming, including a look at some new options for enhancing print with foil, new inkjet technologies, and some great ideas for how to create your own print...

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Where, Oh Where Did the Print Customers Go?

Where, Oh Where Did the Print Customers Go?

I have had vast conversations with big-budget buyers and print buyers buying on a budget over the last two years. I have spoken to designers, marketers, and decision-makers on all levels. One thing most have in common – uncertainly regarding their futures, and where...

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Top Ten Tips for Email Marketing Best Practices

Top Ten Tips for Email Marketing Best Practices

Many printing companies rely on email as their primary communications tool for reaching customers and prospects. Generally, email is used more than phone calls and face-to-face meetings combined. But email is hard and it’s getting harder. As old and omnipresent as it...

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Sales Notes from a Campaign Trail

Sales Notes from a Campaign Trail

Sales Notes from a Campaign Trail  Having just run for a seat on my town council, campaigning for two solid months, and having not only won but having received the most votes of anyone in my district, including two popular incumbents, I can tell you that the metaphors...

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Print Samples: Pushing the Envelope

Print Samples: Pushing the Envelope

The folks at the Envelope Manufacturer’s Association have a mission – envelopes. But it is more than that! They share ideas, compare notes on things like keeping staff motivated, finding staff, and finding that all-too-precious commodity – the paper and other...

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Now Playing at a Theater Near You: PRINT!

Now Playing at a Theater Near You: PRINT!

I recently wrote an article about the return of the theater experience for the Ricoh Business Booster site where I am an active contributor, providing info and intel for developing long-term relationships with print customers and sharing creative ideas for generating...

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Packaging Design Meets Graphic Design

Packaging Design Meets Graphic Design

Startups juggle many things when launching products. It is a combination of taking care of business and a labor of love to make sure every detail is just right. While there is a great deal of excitement around tweaking the product, finding customers, marketing, and...

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3 Productive Ways to Follow Up on Following Up

3 Productive Ways to Follow Up on Following Up

Printers say the craziest things. While that isn’t the name of a new Podcast From The Printerverse series, it might as well be. I have heard some doozies as of late and they are worth sharing for two reasons. The first so I am not alone in the horror, and the second...

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Have QR Codes Finally Reached Their Glory Days?

Have QR Codes Finally Reached Their Glory Days?

QR codes have been used by marketers since early 2010. As smartphone adoption increased, phone manufacturers and marketers realized the camera on the phones could be used to scan the codes. The hope was that response rates would increase as consumers find scanning a...

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The Intersection of Branding and Packaging

The Intersection of Branding and Packaging

Packaging is designed to contain, protect, and transport products.  Packaging provides a fourth purpose – to inform the consumer.  The information on a package can be a deciding factor during the 7 seconds an average consumer spends to make a purchase decision. ...

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Print Samples: Why You Should Use Postcards

Print Samples: Why You Should Use Postcards

Postcards are the lingua franca of communication. Even in today’s Instagram world, people send postcards when they travel. Businesses use them to find new customers and stay visible with current clients. Retailers use them to make offers and politicians use them to...

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How to Win a Gold Medal for Company Culture

How to Win a Gold Medal for Company Culture

If you watched any of the ‘2020’ Olympics you may have drawn the same conclusion that I did… the world has really changed. I am not referring to adjusting for Covid, I am speaking about humans – more specifically humans in their mid 20's and younger... Gen-Z. For 17...

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Does Your Print Business Really Have a PR Plan?

Does Your Print Business Really Have a PR Plan?

The truth is that most businesses (print or otherwise) do not have a public relations (PR) plan. We are all busy and the idea of creating and structuring a formal PR plan gets deprioritized below operations, sales, and even marketing. Most businesses only think of PR...

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Print Samples: Let’s Play with Playing Cards!

Print Samples: Let’s Play with Playing Cards!

When was the last time you played with a deck of cards? Real cards, not the online solitaire version?  Over the last couple of years, I’ve found myself with decks of cards in my hands – real ones – that aren’t the traditional hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, but...

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10 Things To Do When Updating Your Website

10 Things To Do When Updating Your Website

Whether you bring in a pro to help you update your website -- or do it yourself -- there are 10 things to do before you hit the publish button.  But first! I’d like to talk about one of my early clients. Mike Hasson was the founder of the Hasson Company, a luxury real...

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Print Samples! Tell a Story with YOUR Business Card

Print Samples! Tell a Story with YOUR Business Card

Do you carry business cards? Some people have started to avoid them and exchange phone bumps to transfer contact details. Others take pictures of the card but don’t accept it to transport home. I’m an avid business card collector. They help me remember the contact and...

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The ABCs of Packaging Design

The ABCs of Packaging Design

Here are some tips I want to share to ensure you have the best packaging for your product. The buzz around sustainability, online shopping, shortages sparked by COVID-19, and the unboxing experience means that packaging has received a lot of attention lately. These...

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Print Samples! The Jazz Fest Vibe

Print Samples! The Jazz Fest Vibe

Print-on-Demand has a certain vibe. It’s immediate. It’s vibrant. But it’s also not the way many printers work. In this episode of Print Sample TV, we had a chance to talk about a print that we’ve been sitting on since last year. It’s the 202nd edition of the amazing...

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Beat the Summertime Blues One Week at a Time

Beat the Summertime Blues One Week at a Time

I’ve been there and I’ve done it. Summer comes. You take your foot off the gas pedal a bit. You tell yourself that people are on vacation. Things are “slow”. And you’re not wrong. People ARE on vacation. Things DO slow down. But this is 2021. This is a different year,...

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How to Sell Print to the Real Estate Industry

How to Sell Print to the Real Estate Industry

No matter what’s going on in the economy, there’s money to be made for printers who can get in the door with real estate brokers.  To sell deeply and profitably, you must develop relationships and earn a seat at the project planning table. To do that, you need to work...

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How To Remain Relevant By Embracing Change

How To Remain Relevant By Embracing Change

I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to write about lessons learned a year into our shared COVID-19 experience. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the pandemic is a continuation of the constant change we experience. Technology increases the...

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Equality, Technology, and HERstory

Equality, Technology, and HERstory

Happy Women’s Print HERstory Month to one and all! Of course, this print-centered initiative occurs alongside Women’s History Month, marked throughout March each year to celebrate women’s accomplishments and highlight women’s issues. Unfortunately, here in the UK...

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The Shocking Power of Surprise

The Shocking Power of Surprise

Can you think of a time when you were so surprised that you literally fell off your chair, or spit out your coffee, or (insert terrible cliché about being shocked here)? Well, it turns out that being surprised can often leave a big impression. In fact, those moments...

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Print Samples: 19 Crimes Taught Us AR with Story

Print Samples: 19 Crimes Taught Us AR with Story

When you have really great Australian wine to bring to market you face some challenges. Australian vineyards produce a pantheon of fabulous wines. To get noticed in the market you need a great story, and that is where the combination of great wine, an Augmented...

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The Rewards of Collecting Community ‘Vig’

The Rewards of Collecting Community ‘Vig’

If you have watched as many movies and TV series as I have since March of last year, ‘vig’ may be a term you are familiar with. Vig ... is slang for vigorish. Vig is the juice, the squeeze, the charge that a businessperson gets for helping broker a transaction or...

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Print Samples: Menus Make a Difference!

Print Samples: Menus Make a Difference!

One of the early segments of PrintSampleTV featured an important marriage of content and paper embodied in a restaurant menus. Full disclosure! Our family owns three restaurants and because we are also in the print industry, we wanted to balance our needs with what...

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Offer Direct Mail Retargeting to Your Clients

Offer Direct Mail Retargeting to Your Clients

Most visitors to come, view one or a few pages, and go away. These website visitors are anonymous - their identities are unknown. For a business-to-business website, it is common for <1% of website visitors to fill out a form and reach out. 3% would be considered a...

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Print Samples! Let’s Get Started!

Print Samples! Let’s Get Started!

Over the decades I’ve developed a love affair with print samples. It started back in high school when I worked in a print shop that had been in business since the 1700s. We ran a web press in house, though the newspapers were done over at Princeton Packet. Promotional...

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It Takes Two: Digital Twins in Print and Beyond

It Takes Two: Digital Twins in Print and Beyond

Happy New Year, Printerverse! Certainly here in the UK we still find ourselves at home, living our lives through screens. I’m sure all of us have friends, family, and colleagues that we haven’t seen from below the shoulders for the best part of a year, if not longer....

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How to Automate Direct Mail For Your Customers

How to Automate Direct Mail For Your Customers

Last year I wrote about how print technologies are integrating with other digital marketing technology tools. While these technologies are becoming more mature and easier to implement, they still are not commonly used. There are two primary ways that digital marketing...

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Getting Creative with a $20 Marketing Budget

Getting Creative with a $20 Marketing Budget

Doing a small project -- even one with a ridiculously cheap budget -- can be a way to show customers that creative marketing gets direct, measurable results. Having some fun in the process makes you endearing and spotlights you as a preferred vendor. Helping customers...

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Setting Communication Goals for 2021 and Beyond

Setting Communication Goals for 2021 and Beyond

The year that seemed it would never end, and that most people said was the worst they have ever experienced, is ending. Let’s take a moment to sit with that. Let it wash over you. It’s almost over. And now, it is time to start making plans for 2021 and beyond. Don’t...

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Three Ideas for Prospecting Print Sales in 2021

Three Ideas for Prospecting Print Sales in 2021

Imagine having to drive 45 minutes for a haircut, or to get clothing altered. Imagine no malls or shopping centers to stroll through on a rainy Sunday. Imagine no family-owned restaurants to bring out of town guests, no local bars to watch the big game, no local small...

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