Starting a new print shop part three - Marketing

Varsity Graphics was about to get underway. The fit-out was in progress and key equipment had been ordered. Next on the agenda was the need to get a marketing campaign underway, to get the news about the new printing business in front of prospective clients before the doors even opened.

I have never been big on Yellow Pages advertising but a presence is necessary. We had applied for telephone lines and been issued with phone numbers but, based on past experience; they are not definite until the phone rings when somebody first calls the number. A problem was looming in that the Yellow Pages deadline for advertising was only days away but the new phone lines were not yet in.

We also came to the realisation that with a name like 'Varsity Graphics' the advert would be located at the end of the category, after 150 other printers. For this reason we decided to only place two small advertisements in order to be listed and for the convenience of those few customers who know of the business but look it up in the Yellow rather than the White Pages. We decided to use an existing home phone number in the advertisements, which would be re-directed to the business number once it was up and running.

After the fact we have learned that quite a few existing customers call the Yellow Pages number. We know because it has a different ring tone.

Direct mail works, and works

In future we will probably increase our presence in the Yellow Pages but I regard the cost of a reasonable size advertisement as too high for our type of business. The reason is that the Yellow Pages covers the whole town - half a million people in our case. Our business however draws the majority of its customers from within a five-kilometre radius and we would rather spend our advertising dollar on marketing to our immediate area.

Direct mail marketing has proven to be one of the most effective advertising mediums for printing companies. Over the years I have studied a number of surveys illustrating that nearly every one of top 100 American quick printers conducts consistent direct mail marketing campaigns. Whilst American style marketing may be regarded with caution, the principle of getting your message in front of your customer on a regular basis works equally well in Australia. Some of the Americans even send out regular mailers every two weeks rather than the more customary monthly mail drop. Even those printers with sales reps on the road still use direct mail to draw enquiries.

The marketing message is important and can be structured to encourage the prospective customer to request that a sales rep call or, as in our case, it is structured to draw the customer into the shop.

One advantage we have over the Americans is the unaddressed mail service (UMD) offered by Australia Post for around 15 cents per piece. A similar service is not available in the USA. UMD can be targeted to specific postcodes and sub-targeted to business P.O. boxes or street deliveries and even domestic letter boxes and street deliveries.


Postcard from Broadbeach


We decided on a postcard marketing campaign to be distributed through Australia Post to business P.O. boxes within the local area. We would also conduct a street mail drop, through an advertising mail distributor, to homes and businesses in the local area. Many within the local area work from home and even set up businesses in apartment buildings - without living in them - simply to have access to the high-speed broadband available. The question was what would our marketing message be?

One tried and trusted marketing strategy is to associate with the leader in your field no matter how small your business. Pepsi Cola do this by organising taste test comparisons with Coca Cola. Apple computer did this brilliantly with their slogan of “Sorry, no beige” when they introduced their brightly coloured iMac range a few years ago to indicate they were competing with the PC world.

One of the most innovative campaigns I have witnessed in recent times was conducted by Océ right here in Australia. They produced a campaign using X and O symbols for their new high end copier/printer releases. Besides the marketing materiel that had gone beforehand, at the release in Sydney and Melbourne, Océ handed out a collectable noughts and crosses 'OXO' game to each attendee. This sent the message that they are seriously challenging the market leader.

We went through all this only to realise that we had no real competitors within our local area. We had to start over, acknowledging that we had to position ourselves as the market leader.

I remember hearing that if you have ten hours to spend creating a marketing piece, you should spend nine hours on the headline. After much head scratching with daughter Sharon, we decided on the slogan that we would be "The FIRST professional print and copy centre" in the area.

With the headline in place the rest of the marketing message was relatively straightforward.

Golden advice from the master

Next was the image to be portrayed on our marketing piece. Our corporate colours of orange and aqua had already been decided and would be carried through on all our printed materials. When it comes to advertising, as you can imagine, I normally write the copy. Sharon's forte is graphic design - catching and keeping their eye. I firmly believe that clarity of the message is all-important - and reverse text is not an option. In fact, research shows that many people do not even see reverse text. Reverse headings however can be effective. Opinions on what does and does not work in marketing vary greatly and are often driven by emotion more than fact. For this reason I often look to examples of what seems to be working. Many years ago I came across an expert mail order copywriter by the name of Gary Halbert.

He produced a newsletter full of unusual marketing ideas and sold it throughout the world. One of the most interesting aspects of his newsletter was that it was printed in black ink on double-sided A3 white bond. Amazingly the typeface he used was Courier and he also claimed that the most successful marketing letters should have a hand addressed envelope and a genuine sticky back postage stamp.

He claimed that the letter should look like it was typed on an old typewriter and even more amazing, the longer the letter, even up to 16 pages, the more successful it would be. I found this hard to agree with but he has much to offer and all of his past newsletters are now available for free off the Internet. He claims that his site is the most valuable on the entire Internet and well worth a visit. Go to www.thegaryhalbertletter.com.

After a while Sharon and I arrived at a compromise with her patience wearing a bit thin at times but the end result turned out to be highly effective.

We had 10,000 full colour postcards printed by a local trade printer and distribution was arranged for a week before opening. At the same time we arranged for two more drops each of the following two months.

The marketing was and continues to be effective and customers started walking in as soon as we opened the doors. We continue to do mail drops through the local deliverer as well as Australia Post every month.

We chose postcards as the most effective medium. They are inexpensive to produce as compared to folded materials but more importantly, the recipient has to glance at the headline before casting it aside. If they have a need for the product or service advertised then there is a good chance they will keep it and call for more information.

The five advertising essentials

Most people have an opinion on marketing but here are five basic components required of every advertisement or marketing piece. They comprise a headline to draw attention, an offer, a call to action, hours of business and contact details.

Another item that should be included if at all possible, is something to add value so that the recipient wants to keep the item on their desk. We discovered that most who walked into the shop would take one of our double-sided A4 price lists from the front desk. We therefore decided to print portions of the price lists on the back of the postcards. Some may argue that this will give away our pricing to our competitors and they can then undercut us. That may happen but my experience is that it also brings some lower prices up to the same level as ours. In future we will also introduce a direct mail letter personally addressed to our regular customers.

Marketing has many facets and everybody has an opinion on what works and what doesn't. The only thing I know for sure is that, in our industry, if you keep putting out mail drops or direct mail on a regular basis your sales will increase. I have tested the concept in the past by putting a regular monthly campaign on hold only to see the sales graph decline. Start the campaign again and sales rise. For this reason we simply consider a regular monthly mail drop an essential part of doing business.

Bio:
Harry Brelsford works in, writes and speaks on the printing industry in Australia. He is a recipient of the Honorary Lifetime Membership award from PrintImage International and his services are available as a consultant.

Ph: 0415 760 109

Email: harry@varsitygraphics.com.au