Graphic Monthly
Canada’s Premier Printing Magazine
To read Mike’s article:
“Mike’s Best Ever
Marketing Tip”
Click Here
Graphic Monthly
Canada’s Premier Printing Magazine
To read Mike’s article:
“Three Unusual
Marketing Ideas”
Click Here
Graphic Monthly
Canada’s Premier Printing Magazine
To read Mike’s article:
“Mistakes I’ve Made, Lessons I’ve Learned”
Click Here
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There are few topics in the printing industry that generate more buzz than whether or not printers should embrace a website as the greatest marketing opportunity ever—or avoid it as an over-hyped “empty bucket” that really doesn’t do much to generate sales.
Well ... to set the record straight, I’d like everybody to know I’m in the group that believes a printer’s website represents a marketing opportunity of almost unimaginable size. But, I will also say that it took me a long time to arrive at that conclusion. I was a slow starter on the whole website/Internet thing, and I’ll admit that in the beginning I just didn’t believe the Internet would catch on all that much because I simply couldn’t envision millions of people buying computers for their homes, and then learning how to operate them—when most people can’t even figure out how to program their VCRs. Well ... I was wrong. Even my parents, who are in their mid-seventies, can surf the Internet and send e-mails.
The vast majority of today's print buyers are computer dependent at their workplace. It is very rare to find an executive, sales rep, or office manager who doesn't spend most of their time focused on the computer on their desk. If most business people see the computer as a necessary tool to do their jobs, wouldn't it seem logical to think they would want to use their computer to order their printing, too? The question we have to ask ourselves as printers is, "How do we best tap into this gigantic sales opportunity?" The answer is to create and develop a website that makes it easy for printers to do business with us.
Insert Your Website Here: A Guideline to Determine if Your Website is Good Enough
The obvious place to begin when you set out to examine your website is to ask yourself the question, “Is my print shop’s website as good as it needs to be?” Since that question is subject to a lot of different opinions, may I offer a guideline to help you evaluate if your website is “good enough”? Here’s how you do it: Imagine one of your customers is surfing the Internet. Imagine they are going to visit five different websites. The first website they visit is EddieBauer.com. The next is Ford.com. The third website they visit is your print shop’s website. Number four is Apple.com. And the fifth and final website your customer will visit is McDonalds.com.
Now the big question you have to ask yourself is, “Does my print shop’s website fit-in and look as good as the other four websites?” The bad news is that if it doesn’t, you have a lot of work to do. The good news is this article will help you determine exactly where to begin.
What are the Four Essential Elements?
There is one basic, inescapable truth about your print shop’s website appearance, and this is it: if your website doesn’t look as good as the average website your customers see as they surf the Internet, your website isn’t an asset, it’s a liability. On the other hand, if your website does look as good as the average website they see when they surf the Internet, it will not guarantee success for your company if it doesn’t have supporting content and helpful utilities. To convert your website visitors into prospects and then into real customers requires much more than just an attractive, professional-looking website.
Just for a moment, imagine that you are contemplating changing to a different vendor. Imagine that you've grown unhappy with the service you've been getting from your current vendor - even though you've used them for many years. As you begin your search for a new vendor, think about the questions you have in your mind. You want to know how long they've been in business ... how skilled and well-trained their service reps are ... are they attentive to detail ... will they return your phone calls promptly?
Those are exactly the same questions your potential new customers will ask about you before they'll consider switching printers. You must understand that in their minds, there is some risk associated with switching to your printing firm. Your website can be a tremendous education tool to inform print buyers about your capabilities and a wonderful sales tool to build that trust and confidence in your printing firm's ability to be dependable and reliable.
In fact, there are four essential elements of website success that must be included in your printing firm’s website. Without these four elements, you’re sunk. With them, you have a high chance of success. As I sat down to consider how to best achieve each objective, I came up with 25 different pieces I felt needed to be a part of my print shop’s website to make it as effective as possible in drawing and keeping customers. Those 25 elements have woven their way into the websites that we create for other printers as well. The information that follows details the ways in which I have made each of the four essential elements a reality on my print shop’s website as an example of how you can make them work for you, too.
#1 The Online Brochure Element – The most basic purpose of your printing firm's website is to become a good online brochure. Your website needs to effectively communicate what kind of printing you do, what your customer service philosophy is, and provide a glimpse of your printing firm's creative abilities. To accomplish this, you'll need to have a lot of well-thought out content that answers the basic questions print buyers will ask before considering a new vendor. As you create a website that functions as an effective online brochure, you may want to include some of the features that I've included on my print shop's website. They are:
- Design excellence: we’ve hired the best graphic designers we could afford to design our website;
- Thought-provoking content: I’ve spent countless hours writing and editing our website content so it rewards our visitors with meaningful and helpful information;
- Our Printing Product Spotlight: is a clever little animated blinking picture of different printed products like carbonless forms, newsletters, and color copies;
- “What’s New?”: a fun little news blurb that links to a bigger story that will be of interest to website visitors. We update this twice a week to keep it fresh;
- Employment Opportunities: showing job openings may seem a little odd, but over 50% of the visitors to our website click on this section. It creates a lot of curiosity, and I like it when visitors stay longer and keep clicking;
- Our Printing Products and Services: our big feature item in the online brochure category. We have descriptions and graphics for 58 different printed products and services we provide at my print shop;
- Our Site Map: demonstrates how to take one of the more underrated and often overlooked website sales tools and transform it into a well-liked and popular customer destination. Our Site Map is so intriguing it increases the length of time visitors stay on our site and expands click-through traffic to other pages on our website.
#2 The Confidence, Trust, and Credibility Element – Not everyone who visits your website will know you, or your firm’s reputation. Developing trust is critical in turning website visitors into paying customers.
Your customers need to be able to trust you, period. The best way to build trust is to introduce them (online) to some of the many fine attributes, qualities, values, and abilities of your team. By providing a glimpse of how they can expect to be treated when they do business with you, you create a comfort level that makes it less risky for them to leave their current printer. There are six ways you can do this through your website:
- A Message from the Owner: provides a platform to tell your story, and to outline your printing firm’s standards and business strategies. Most of your prospects want to do business locally, and your message is a powerful way to connect yourself to your local business community;
- A Guarantee: details exactly what you will do for your customers, giving them the security they need to place their first order with your print shop;
- Staff Info and Biographies: let your prospective customers see the real people behind the front counter and printing press. Including this information will decrease anxiety about dealing with a new vendor;
- Tech Tips & Support: a great way to show visitors to your website the expertise you have in the field of printing;
- A Samples Gallery: showcases the high-quality work your print shop does on a regular basis;
- References & Testimonials: these words from satisfied customers will let your prospective customers see the effect your print shop’s products and services have on the lives of real business people in your community.
#3 The E-commerce Functions Element – You’ll also need an online print center with the latest in cutting edge utilities that will allow your customers a user-friendly way to interact with your print shop online.
Giving your customers what they need before they ask for it is good management. Here is a list of E-commerce functions that every printer needs to start providing soon to prevent their customers from shopping elsewhere:
- Online Estimating: saves time for your customers and your customer service reps. A double win. Once customers use this function, they realize what an invaluable service it is. No more phone calls or trips to your print shop to request an estimate, customers can simply do it online;
- Online Ordering: once a customer decides to go ahead with a job you have estimated, or simply needs to reorder existing forms, they can place their order online;
- Send a file: you need to make sure you have capabilities to handle jobs that are too big to be sent as e-mail attachments;
- Online Proofing: providing a place for customers to view a proof of their project online has become an immediate necessity. This is a great time-saver for many people.
- Jaws PDF Courier: makes sure that all the fonts and images for a job are correct as it travels to the designers’ computers. This feature will dramatically increase your profits;
- uDesignIT!: why not give customers the option of designing their own forms?;
- Document Library: a fabulous way for customers to view graphic images of all their previously printed documents;
- Customer Portals: use portals to provide a secure, password-protected gateway into a customer’s private pages on your website.
#4 The Loyalty Building Element – Finally, you’ll need to build loyalty by taking steps to ensure that every visit to your website is a positive one.
The final step lies in making sure your customers have a positive experience when they visit your website. Here are four of the ways I have done that on my print shop’s website:
- The Ideas Collection: exists to get our customer’s gears turning when it comes to their printing projects. Regularly updated, this is a very valuable resource for our customers;
- Printer@Work: an online e-newsletter that is sent every two weeks to customers that have agreed to be put on our mailing list. It is full of fun information and printing tips, and aids in creating a positive impression of our print shop;
- The Business Resources: simply our way of saying we care about the whole customer by providing them an extensive list of resources to aid in their travel planning;
- Our Technological Advantage: it’s surprising how many businesses are requiring that their vendors be able to do commerce online. The trend in business is towards the Internet. If your printing firm, like mine, is ahead of the curve in this area, why not make it a selling feature on your website?
If you would like to visit my printing firm's website, simply go to:
www.ExpressPressUSA.com
I hope you have found this article helpful.
Kindest Regards and Happy Printing!
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