Digital Original: Marketing is the New Frontier of Print

That is where the new tools come in. They are designed to capture the information of a person who might actually want to buy your product or service. The tools can also be used to qualify the lead and help you find out if they really are a prospect. Not wasting time with the wrong customer is critical in this competitive market.

If a printer is going to be successful using the market service provider tools, he has to understand the basics of lead generation and the sales process. The only way you can learn this is to actually do it. A printer must know how to develop a pool of prospects. He must know how to engage those prospects on a regular basis so they can learn about the print company and the benefits of using it. The more the printer communicates and learns about the prospect, the easier it will become to identify the customer’s needs and close the sale. If a printer can do this for his own company, then he can add marketing services.

If a printer has never done direct mail for himself, can he do it effectively for his customer? If the printer isn’t using QR codes or PURLs, can he provide the information needed to make it successful for the customer? If printer doesn’t have a website that engages customers, how can he create one that will engage his customers’ prospects?

There are marketing service providers out there who specialize in working with printers to move them to the next level of communication services. For printers to have these services available to their customers may be critical to their future success.

Printing is no longer about the equipment. It is about how print will benefit the customer. The top need of most customers is to sell something to someone and print is still a critical part of the process. It is up to the printer to understand how the print part fits into the sales process and how to explain it to the customer. A printer who can demonstrate the benefits of print among the other marketing channels is no longer selling a commodity product because he is bringing value to the customer.

Gone Mobile?

More people are accessing websites through their smartphones. This means any business with a website needs to have a special mobile site that is optimized for the small screen. A business must have a mobile friendly alternative to its primary website so smartphone users can have a better experience.

You need to have your website optimized. This requires changes in layout, design, and construction. This means the most important information will have to be at the top of the page. Minimize left/right navigation and arrange content in a single column. You might be losing leads because you don’t have a mobile site.

Facebook Rules for Promotions

A lot of printers now have a Facebook business page to communicate with their customers and fans. If you plan to use Facebook to run a promotion for yourself or a customer, make sure you know the rules. Facebook has rigorous rules governing what campaigns you can and cannot administer and promote on their platform.

If you don’t follow the rules you can be removed from Facebook. Facebook is providing businesses with instructions that outline what you can and can’t do when running a promotion on Facebook. You need to be sure that you are following Facebook’s terms and conditions when you are using their service. Go to http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php for the complete details.

QR Codes Get Smarter

If you are looking for a QR generator that offers more advanced features, you should check out www.QRJumps.com. The easy-to-use, free online QR code generator can create QR codes with redirection, ability to change the destination URL without changing the QR code, password protection, and the ability to have your QR codes expire on a certain date.

John Giles is the author of “12 Secrets for Digital Success” and “The DTP PriceList”. He is technology director and a consultant for CPrint International. Contact him at 954-224-1942 or john@cprint.org. His blogs can be found at http://johngilesiii.blogspot.com/ and at www.MyPrintResource.com. To order John’s books, visit www.crouser.com.