And this little printer went to market … magazine article

Nearly every printer I know believes they should be doing more marketing yet few do anything beyond a Yellow Pages advertisement. There is a vast amount of good information available on how to promote your business and, whilst many business owners study the available options, most never put any marketing plans into action. Perhaps there is just too much information or it is not specific enough to the individual's unique business or market place.

Even the experts are confused. David Ogilvy, head of one of the world's largest advertising agencies, Ogilvy and Mather, claimed that half the money spent on advertising was wasted, he just did not know which half. No wonder we are sceptical when spending our hard earned on promotion.

I have tried just about every form of advertising to sell printing in the mass media over the years yet the only time I had any real success is when we only had one radio station in our town. We would run three 30 second commercials during the morning drive time on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These slots cost a premium but were worth it. One week we took $5,000 in invoice book orders after a special radio promotion. We gave up radio advertising as more radio stations came to town and right now we have over five radio broadcasters on the Gold Coast.

I had to find other ways to reach our customers and over the years have experimented, tested, fine tuned, had successes and made mistakes but still relentlessly market our business every month without fail. It seems obvious to me now but it took a long time to conclude that the best way for a printer to promote their business is through their own printing.

Beyond the Yellow Pages


As I see it, the vast majority of printers start and end their marketing campaign with an advertisement in the Yellow Pages. There is nothing wrong with that but there is a group of independent printers and just about all of the franchised operations that conduct consistent mail marketing campaigns in addition to having a presence in the major directories.

Most independent printers will reluctantly agree that franchised operations seem more successful than many of their independent counterparts even though it is logical to assume that they need to charge a premium in order to cover marketing costs. This would suggest that their marketing is paying off. Many will argue that this is because there is strength in numbers with shared marketing costs. Well, I disagree and have proven that a single independent operation can market itself to advantage over its larger counterparts.

At Varsity Graphics we limit our directory advertising to the bare minimum. Our advertising budget is spent on mail marketing. Interestingly, I have the Yellow Pages to thank for this state of affairs.

Many years ago, even though we used to do some mail marketing, we still depended heavily on our Yellow Pages advert to draw new customers but, one year, our advertisement was nothing like the proof we had seen. I withheld payment and even though we placed an advertisement the following year, they did not publish it.

Needless to say I was not pleased and for a while there was silence at the dinner table, but I always strive to turn adversity into advantage and once learned that the Chinese have a single word for both problem and opportunity. Having recently returned from a printing conference in the USA but not paying much attention to brash American marketing, I recalled them being enthusiastic about direct mail so decided to see if we could do something similar but more suited to local conditions.

Interestingly, I discovered that Australia Post offer a service that the Americans would be envious of. It is called UMD - Unaddressed Mail Delivery - a service that delivers marketing mail at around one third the cost of the normal rate. In the US, all mail has to be addressed and stamped. UMD looked like a good idea so we soon created some marketing material, had Australia Post deliver it, and have never looked back.

In fact, turning the problem to our advantage was achieved by creating a large Yellow Pages style advertisement printed in red ink on yellow bond paper. This was mailed to our market area and it asked the recipient to place it in their new Yellow Pages at the appropriate page under 'Printers - General' because we had 'missed out on our advertisement'. In effect it was a bookmark with our advertisement much larger than we could ever afford had we advertised, and it worked a treat.

Since then we have conducted regular monthly mailings, year in and year out, and simply consider it an essential part of doing business, the same as unlocking the door in the morning and paying the bills at the end of the month. Don't ask me for numbers or measured returns but what I can confirm is that while we continue the mailings, the sales graph keeps going up. Stop because of too much work or laziness and the sales graph takes a turn for the worse.

Successful ad advice


The Yellow Pages works well for many printers because of market factors, the structure or size of their advertisement or even unique services offered. Through offering graphic design services at Varsity Graphics we are often asked by our clients to create their Yellow Pages advertisements. When they know exactly what they want we follow their instructions but others rely on us to provide creativity. We hold the philosophy that if we can help our customer succeed then we succeed too and want their advertisement to be the most effective. For this reason, we have a number of basic guidelines to help achieve the best possible response.

Based on overseas research, small directory advertisements achieve a higher response when printed in colour rather than black only, but if you want to get noticed, bigger is simply better. I have known some printers who jump the queue by listing under the category ahead of 'Printers - General' which in our case is 'Printers - Continues'. You run the risk though of appearing on the previous page and not being seen at all. What you say is critical too, even if you have the biggest ad.

Do not to copy your competitors' advertisements. When advertising in a directory, you are putting yourself on the same page as your competition so you need to set yourself apart. The traditional ad has the company logo or name in bold across the top. Unless you are a well-known printer or your name states clearly what you do, it won't mean much to a prospective customer.

The same rules apply as for any other advertisement; the prospect wants to know how they will benefit by choosing your company over your competition or how you will solve their problem. For this you need a headline. An example, even though it is increasingly being used is: 'Three good reasons to order from ABC Printing'. And then briefly spell out the reasons. Fast turnaround, design and printing all under one roof, complete range from short run digital to premium offset; some unique service is good but please don't say lowest price.

It is also important to remember that the majority of your customers are from the local area and highlighting your location may be a key feature. Remember to state your street address and mention a landmark if appropriate. Include hours of business and phone number big enough to read but there is no reason to use expensive space for a massive number.

Digital now on its own


Getting the most from your advertisement is one thing but deciding where to place it is another. The most common category is 'Printers - General', and one or two of the other categories such as 'Designers Graphic', 'Typesetting', 'Desktop Publishing', 'Scanning Services', 'Photocopying Services', 'Plan Printing', 'Posters', 'Laminating', 'Labels', 'Bookbinding', 'Advertising - Direct Mail' and more, and now you can advertise additionally under 'Printers - Digital'.

It is a new category and all for our benefit of course, following consultation by Sensis, owner of the Yellow Pages, with our industry. I spoke to a printer who had been contacted by Sensis for his view on the proposed new category for digital printers. He objected but was later advised that the majority surveyed had said they wanted the new category. It would be great to see the results of this survey.

One of the problems now is that if you are a traditional printer and do not list under 'Digital' it could send a message that you are not up to speed with the latest technology. If you are a digital shop which invariably also sells offset printing but only advertise under 'Digital', it excludes you from offset. This means if you want to be equally positioned under both 'Printers - General' and 'Printers - Digital', your YP advertising spend has just doubled, but I doubt your sales will.

Directory advertising is expensive because it covers a wide geographical area yet only a small percentage of readers will ever consider using your services simply because most printing customers are situated within close proximity. Then there is the quality of inquiry to consider. If you suspect that most directory enquiries are from price shoppers then install a special phone line and advertise only that number to measure the response and value of the orders received.

Mail superiority


So why do mail marketing?

The difference between sales and marketing is that marketing is the act of persuading a prospective customer to contact your business in order to make further enquiries about your products or services. Sales is the art of persuading the prospect to actually buy once they have made contact with your business.

Printers are generally good at making the sale but not as good at attracting new customers. This is ironic when considering that we have one of the most effective marketing tools at our disposal - printing. Mail marketing comes in two basic forms - direct mail which has an address and a stamp, and unaddressed mail such as Australia Post's UMD service.

Most printing business owners will tell you that they don't have time to do any marketing; it costs too much, the customers work comes first or - the big one - they tried it once and it did not work. That is the problem right there. Unless you are selling something at half price or in limited supply, a one-time mailer will have very little effect. Repetition is the key when selling something that is never in short supply, such as printing.

One of the biggest barriers though is creating the content for a marketing piece. Most people think that if they can't come up with some killer slogan then it won't work. Then when they do devise a half reasonable concept, they ask their mates for their opinion or Uncle George the fisherman on how to hook the big one. The reality is that, even though well-meaning, most people will provide negative feedback. Ask somebody to proof read your piece but only take advice or criticism from people who have been more successful at marketing than you are.

I often get asked if email marketing is a good idea. I used to think it had merit but almost any email marketing now gets perceived as spam which lowers the prospect's perception. It is printing that we are selling and a printed piece is also much more tangible than an email.

Repeat after me


At Varsity Graphics we mail out around 5,000 full colour postcards every month through Australia Post and independent delivery services as well as a letter to existing customers. We create the content ourselves and prefer it not to be too professional. When first trying to uncover the Holy Grail of marketing many years ago, I read a book called Guerrilla Marketing Attack by Jay Conrad Levinson. His research indicated that your marketing message has to reach a new prospect nine times in order for them to consider using your services.

The problem is that only one in three of your messages gets through. To me, this means that repetition is the most critical factor of all and it is the main reason why we get our message out every month without fail even when there are times that we are not 100% happy with the content or design.

What is important though is the headline. If your headline does not grab the prospect instantly they will consign the piece to the bin. One of the problems is that we try to appeal to everybody but the fact is we only want to appeal to people who are in the market to buy printing or one of our other services. To me, your headline should say what it is you are trying to sell and then lead to the rest of the copy.

Don't forget to include your location, hours of business, phone number, email and web address. No need for a fax number. Few people will want to fax you from your marketing piece.

It is fine by me that so few printers want to do any serious marketing because it is one way that we set ourselves apart from our competition. There is a huge fringe benefit too. Our customers constantly seek our advice on how to improve their marketing material, which we are happy to do. It adds value to their printing at almost zero cost to ourselves. I believe that we will see the need for marketing advice continue to grow.

Another seldom considered factor is that marketing adds value to your business if ever you want to sell it. Quite simply the more people who are familiar with your brand, the larger your potential market and the more saleable your business is.

If you think you should be doing more marketing you are probably right. And the best medium to do it with is exactly what you do every day - putting ink or toner on paper.

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