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 sample set, complete with […]
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 is, mail as a medium is untrusted. The reasons are clear: 94% of […]
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 for campaigning and sales wrote themselves. Campaigning […]
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 substrates used to manufacture the envelope. At their last meeting, there were vibrant discussions […]
Anything You Can Do She Can Do Better: 5 reasons to Add Women to your Sales and Mktg. team
Ok people I can see that you can see that I am fired up right now, and with good reason. I just spent all day recently on the #GirlsWhoPrint Day annual conference online (replays here) in which we had nineteen powerful and influential women in the print industry talking strategy, future planning, and thriving in […]
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 QR code an easy way to respond to printed advertising. QR […]
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. Approximately 70% of shoppers are influenced by packaging to some extent. The package […]
Project Peacock: A Resource Playground for Printers and Creatives
These days good information is increasingly difficult to come by. Unless you already know what you’re looking for, you may have to dig through a few google pages to find the “right” information. Sure, my keywords will get me towards what I need…but after filtering through all the sponsored information and the various blogs that […]
Lead Generation and Marketing Considerations For Printers
The other day a client forwarded me an email that was written by the president of a commercial printing company who asked: Does anyone have suggestions for marketing specifically designed for lead generation? I’ve done plenty of work with this client over the years that resulted in generating leads, but most of our focus has […]
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 put some context around the conversations. Sometimes I run […]
The Funnel is Dead. Long Live the Customer Journey!
I remember the first time I read about the marketing funnel and how prospects go through an awareness, consideration, and decision process on their way to becoming a customer. It made so much sense. The other elegant thing about the funnel is it is large on top and small at the bottom. For every 100 […]
Should Your Print Business be Advertising on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn advertising is an expensive form of B2B digital advertising. It’s also one of the most cost-efficient. Wait, how can it be both? The answer arises by looking beyond the cost of placing an ad and the potential ROI. LinkedIn ads aren’t for every print business. But if you sell higher-value print to SMBs and […]