2023 CMYK Manifesto: Disrupt, Disclose, Do Better

Greetings Citizens of the Printerverse and welcome to a New Year! For the first time in 3 years, it feels like an actual NEW year and not a continuation of what I refer to as the uni-year. The uni-year covers anything that happened between March 2020 and December 31, 2022. All the maintaining status quo […]

Busting the Hustle-Bro Marketing Myth

salesman with beard holding money

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 earnest, fast-talking “hustle bros.” These dudes talk about how their program made them millions […]

Twitter Advertising is Dead. Long Live Print!

mario gives the finger from fake Nintendo Twitter account

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. The reputation and stock prices of brands caught up in the […]

Are You Getting Noticed by Print Customers?

a spotlight to shine on your business to get noticed

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 everywhere.” Well, they’re not actually everywhere. But they […]

How to Tell if You Are Considered a Print Vendor or a Print Partner

a purple image of a climber offering a helping hand to another climber

If print customers are thinking of you as a print vendor and not as a print partner, you are in serious trouble. You are interchangeable. You are competing on price. You are a number on a spreadsheet. You aren’t top of mind for recommendations or referrals. You are on the way out and you probably […]

How to Attract the Best Print Customers

a multi color illustration of standing out in a crowd

“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 website and the phone, and hunting sales reps. So […]

3 Ways to Earn Trust Through Collaboration with Print Customers

creative collaboration

The secret to earning referrals and long-term loyalty with print customers for their printing and print marketing needs is really no secret. Creative collaboration is the key to success. Collaboration can take many forms. On the lowest end, we have information exchange and administrative collaboration: emails, calls, job status, pricing, billing, and so on. The […]

A Printer’s Road Map to Marketing Clarity 

road map for success

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 struggling to speak to their customers. Too many complicated […]

But Wait, There’s More: 3 New Business Ideas for Print Businesses

launching new business ideas

The summer is approaching and that typically means a little slow down for most print businesses, but honestly who knows anymore. We will collect metrics as we live through it and reflect on this and past years, like most situations since Covid kicked off. So, I’ll adjust. If you find yourself with a little extra […]

A Coffee Table Book for Your Company? Do Tell!

blue hardcover books stacked

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 about our companies. Yet it resides only on our websites!  Why? What if you […]

How to Help Overworked Print Customers Buy From You

overworked employee in dark office

Making print sales isn’t easy these days. Supply chain issues are disrupting the process and the ability to promise everything will be ok with 100% certainty. This situation can make even the most seasoned print customers nervous especially if they work as a print producer at advertising agencies, brands, or corporations that plan their print […]