Effective marketing for printers

Jacky Hobson Shire Marketing Services Ltd

Up Marketing Ltd

Effective marketing for printers

• Marketing background

• Always a “print buyer”

• A consultant since 2002 – 1st client a printer

• A “specialist” by accident

• No web, e-marketing, social media, SMS, etc.

• Print virtually the only medium

• The printer was my MSP

• Passionate about print!

A marketing dinosaur

Effective marketing for printers

“Marketing is understanding what customers want – and

then helping the organisation to deliver exactly that.”

Edwina Dunn

Effective marketing for printers

• It’s not just about NEW customers.

• Your existing customers are under attack!

• A regular programme keeps you “front of mind”

• Not just when you have something to sell

• Do they actually know everything you do?

• A warning….what’s your data like?

Keep your customers close

Effective marketing for printers

• Constant and planned programme

• Raise awareness

• Keep them informed

• Seasonal touches / ones that endure

• What do they think?

Make them feel valued

Effective marketing for printers

• Geography

• Market sector

• Business size

• Discipline (job function)

• Specialist knowledge or product

• Industry body or trade association

• Helps you find more that “look like” them

• Established pedigree

• Produce meaningful collateral (case studies,

etc.)

Profile your ideal customer

Effective marketing for printers

• Touch them at least 5 times

• 1 off unlikely to give a response

• Use all means/channels available

• Don’t be lazy about it!

• Telemarketing doubles responses to DM

• Mix and match the media used

• Language has to be right – they’re not printers!

The power of the “touches”

Effective marketing for printers

• Generation Y “digital native”

• Grown up in a digital world

• Lives online and is “digital-focussed”

• 55% have a degree, 18% a post-graduate

diploma and 10% a CIM qualification

• Knows virtually nothing about print!

Today’s typical marketer

Effective marketing for printers

How not to do it…

Effective marketing for printers

• Practice what you preach

• Showing vs telling

• Printers collateral should be the best

• What will appeal to the recipient?

• A printing press may be a thing of

beauty to you!

• Sell ‘em the benefits

Use print

Effective marketing for printers

The facts speak for themselves…

On average 91% of prospect direct mail is opened compared to open rates for acquisition email 11% which have fallen from 21% to 11% since 2007

DMA 2010

Direct mail enjoying a rise in response rates, from 4% in 2004 to 5% in 2010 Royal Mail Consumer Panel, 2011

53% of European B2B companies believe that removing print from their marketing mix would substantially damage business lead generation

Pitney Bowes 2011

Consumers brand recall of door drop campaigns is 33% compared to TV advertising at 19%

Metrixlab, 2011

38% of consumers look first at products in catalogues before purchasing the product online

E-Commerce in the Nordics, 2011

Effective marketing for printers

• What about?…

– QR codes

– MS Tags

– NFC

– Documobi

– Augmented Reality

• How print innovation is feeding “online”

Let’s make print “sexy”

Effective marketing for printers

• An old adage that still holds true

• To “catch” a marketer, where do

you go?

• If you’re dealing with marketers,

Social Media and Twitter has to be

on your radar.

Go fishing where the fish swim…

Effective marketing for printers

• Use all the tools available

• “Can I give you a quote for that?” – is lazy

• Planned campaigns, multiple touches

• Using conventional/cross media

• Understand the weaknesses of other channels

• Where print supports and beats these

Our marketing “toolbox”

Effective marketing for printers

•Get Found — tweets, blogs, video and

SEO get visitors to your website

•Convert — give them content that

engages them to become customers

•Analyse — what worked and when to

improve the process

“Content marketing is about bonding, not

branding. It is a way to engage with your

community, establish credibility and

expand the conversation. “

Inbound marketing - “The magnet vs the hammer”

Effective marketing for printers

• The new print buyer isn’t “print savvy”

• Create training / knowledge sharing content

that makes you indispensable

– “How to” videos

– Downloadable guides

– File preparation workshops

– Innovation workshops

– Checklists and 101s

• “Stuff” that is of use, of benefit and aligns you

with the marketing community

Spread the love and share the knowledge

Effective marketing for printers

Where I’d go “fishing”

• Twitter’s a networking “venue”

• Where I’d go to to talk to marketers

• And, even more importantly, where I’d go if I

wanted to LISTEN to them

• Perfect for promoting content

• Drive them to a website, blog…to you

• Is effective, cost-effective, immediate

• Is online and useful for online business

(W2P)

Effective marketing for printers

• “Would you like fries with that?”

• An unlikely analogy?

• Is up-selling but not HARD selling

• People buy for a reason and rarely in isolation

• Sales people and account handlers need to

“question” and not just “take” a brief

Selling ‘em more

Effective marketing for printers

• New technology and services

• The vendors will tell us that’s what we need

• Do we? How do we know?

• We could ask our customers – radical!

• BEFORE any investment

• Investigate the appetite or stimulate a demand

If you build it, will they come?

Effective marketing for printers

1. Keep your customers close

2. Profile your ideal customer

3. The power of the “touches”

4. Use PRINT

5. Don’t overestimate the other channels

6. Go fishing where the fish swim

7. Spread the love and share the knowledge

8. Ask ‘em what they want.

The 8 top tips

Effective marketing for printers

Thank you for listening