How Printers Can Get Better Marketing Results

Better marketing results should be the goal of every printer to improve and grow. Printing companies can improve results by using three time-centric tactics: review and refer to your master plan every year, execute campaigns on a scheduled cadence, and incorporate lessons from the previous campaign right away, rather than waiting.

As a consultant, I often work with product development teams in printing companies. Using a common framework called Scrum, we can quickly create marketing programs that are attractive to target customers, and can help top generate better marketing results.

I’m going to detail the three elements of this time-centric approach so you can borrow the features and get better marketing results for your endeavors.

REVIEWING MARKETING PLANS

An essential part of getting better marketing results is reviewing what you’ve done in the past and strengthening your plan for the coming year.

Even though printers try to review their plans annually, many don’t do it in enough detail. Instead of treating it as a budget exercise, we need to dig deep, analyze the elements, make improvements and updates, and construct a program for the coming year that will truly deliver results.

Here are questions printers should ask themselves every year:

Did our marketing plan help us achieve department and company-wide goals? Did the campaigns work the way we expected? Did we measure the right things? Are there better ways to get the same results? Can we make our marketing program more affordable? Are there techniques, tools, or new platforms we should consider in the coming year? Can we do a better job of using print to highlight our capabilities?

And finally, printers need to ask their teams: How can we help you stay unstuck and keep marketing campaigns flowing?

EXECUTING SWIFTLY

Many marketing teams get stuck due to money or program complexity. Maybe there’s no dedicated marketing budget. Or, perhaps the marketing program is hampered by too many moving parts or too many fingers in the pot.

The best thing to do in this situation is to keep it simple so you can keep things moving and focus on better marketing results.

Generally, when printers simplify their marketing, they get good results. There’s a visible tie between action and outcomes. You can maintain quality. And, you can make regular course corrections.

Let’s talk more about that.

ACTING ON FEEDBACK

Here’s something I learned as a Certified Scrum Master: marketing teams do better work when they get prompt feedback on the effectiveness of their campaigns.

While individuals in a print company might be able to weather disappointment and frustration, when you work with a group, it’s different. Teams lose the wind beneath their wings if too much time passes between a launch and the results.

Setting smaller, close-in milestones helps. Designing campaigns to measure one single thing is strategic. Keep quality in mind, yes, but keep it straightforward.

BUILDING A CADENCE

I recommend time boxing. If you can design, execute, and review within a very short period, it keeps teams stoked for the next phase.

Two-week cycles are a typical time frame for creating and testing in the product development world. That cadence works well for printing companies as well.

If you design your marketing campaigns to fit inside a “time box,” it may take more time at first as you get used to the process. However, as you get acclimated, you’ll soon be able to design, launch, gather feedback, and improve your marketing campaigns every two weeks, aiming for 26 launches per year. Each of these two-week marketing capsules is laser-focused on better marketing results with continuous improvement.

This approach demonstrates to management that the marketing department can iterate quickly, manage program risk effectively, justify departmental expenditures, and contribute to the company’s growth.

NEXT STEPS FOR BETTER MARKETING RESULTS

My three recommendations – (1) review your annual marketing plan, (2) execute faster, and (3) use campaign feedback to make improvements on the fly – will help you amplify and get better marketing results.

As we head into the new year, I invite you to start with a review of your current program. I’d love to show you how printers can get better marketing results to propel your growth.