by Sandy Hubbard, Print Futurist
There are new opportunities everywhere for printers. Diving into growth areas can be risky, though, so I recommend partnering with trusted experts or trade providers until it makes sense to pull services in house or buy new equipment
Here are ideas for services to add in the new year:
Printed items for retailers who are using geo-local mobile offers
Consider selling permanent and temporary signage (interior and exterior), point of purchase offers, in-store coupons and coupon books. Retailers are targeting time of day, small geographic areas, seasonal offers and more, so their in-store printed items should be changing all the time to appeal to these target audiences. If they don’t know this already, you should educate them.
To get into this area:
• Understand mobile offers and what retailers are trying to accomplish.
• Hold classes in your facility for this target audience with a presenter from the mobile sales sector.
• Create a product package of the above goods that retailers can buy all at once, rather than piece by piece. Your profits will be greater and you will get less pushback on price.
Deluxe packaging for small and start-up businesses
There can be profit in small, custom packaging runs. Approach businesses with the understanding that you will probably need to create many prototypes until you are both satisfied, but my experience is that this market will happily pay for packaging that will help them differentiate. Look for companies that are competing for on-shelf space or who want to be picked up by dealers. They will be motivated to make their packaging pop.
To get into this area:
• Find reliable trade partners.
• Cultivate relationships with brilliantly creative designers.
• Research off-the-shelf packaging products from your vendors. These can be pre-printed shells, pre-converted printable flats, or fully printed and converted packages that you can assemble and resell.
• Learn how to use your digital presses and finishing department to create full prototypes for customers. It’s much easier to sell a concept when the customer can hold a sample and compare it to other options.
• Look at prospects in the food and luxury goods sector.
Print collections of content for marketers
I believe that social media will change in the next few years so that marketers are not able to share their content as easily as they can now. The ability to post links may become metered, say 10 per day per account, or you will have to pay to post/broadcast links. For content marketers who rely on links to drive traffic to websites, this will change the game. Marketers will need to repurpose content and get it into prospects hands in new ways. Guess what’s new? Print and email! Think about ways to help marketers aggregate their content into books, magazines, digests and newsletters.
To get into this area:
• Partner with publications printers.
• Talk to your equipment vendors about creative ways to build custom books from the equipment you have.
• Add new equipment from manufacturers who will let you add piece by piece in a modular fashion so you can what makes sense and not over buy.
Window displays and wall art
Retailers and businesses who want to keep things fresh are looking to print as a way to bring color and images to their storefronts, windows and walls. I have seen many businesses changing up their lobbies with fantastic large format prints that change monthly. In chic shopping districts, the window displays are changed weekly so shoppers always have something new to see. Signage is interactive with mobile phones, to add richness to the customer experience.
I just attended an open house that featured a sensible mid-sized hybrid that is larger than most digital presses but can still output quickly with reasonably high quality. If you are already doing large format printing, get your high quality samples into customers’ hands. Seeing is believing when it comes to selling in this category.
To get into this area:
• Focus on impeccable color.
• Train operators to get the best quality out of customer files.
• Focus on fast output speed to win sales based on turnaround.
Low cost, long run printing
Inkjet quality has gotten better. Way better, in fact. Inkjet is becoming an option for your long-run offset jobs that don’t need offset quality.
To get into this area:
• If you are considering another digital press for your shop, calculate if those jobs could be produced more quickly and with acceptable quality on an inkjet.
• Think back to when you moved jobs from offset to digital and repeat the thought process for moving digital to inkjet.
• Don’t choose to do transpromo printing unless you have the infrastructure in training and data to support it.
Finally, keep your eye on trends and developments. You can open new doors with customers when you stay up to date on ideas that will help them be successful or stimulate them to be more creative.
I wish you the best in the coming year. As you know, it’s my heart’s deepest wish that print be a strong and profitable industry and that future generations of printers will be proud to have chosen this career. Be wise, be strategic, and continue to #HelpPrintThrive.
Sandy Hubbard is Print Futurist for Print Media Centr. She helps small and large printing companies position themselves strategically using new and existing tools in their arsenal, including social sales, email newsletters, and content marketing.
