More than ink on paper: how should printers be selling print?

06 May 2010

As if times were not hard enough for print providers........reducing volumes, reducing revenues, lack of profitability, cash running out, banks not lending money and now the latest crisis is a major hike in paper prices. Just the news they want to give customers who are already considering cheaper online communication channels.

The result of the recent earthquake in Chile and strike of transport workers in Finland has meant that pulp stocks are at their lowest for many years; global pulp prices are heading towards record highs, which in turn will send paper and packaging costs spiraling upwards. We have recently seen price increases from all the major suppliers, citing among other things transport cost and exchange rates (£/E and £/$) and now as the paper mills try to make up the shortfall it is inevitable that further significant price increases on top of the 15%+ announced by suppliers for April will be unavoidable if pulp prices continue to rise.

It seems that recent futurist predictions about paper becoming a luxury item only being used in high value products may well become a reality in the not too distant future. With the seemingly unstoppable growth of e-media coupled with the uncompetitive nature of commoditized print on paper, integrated marketing solutions are going to play a more prominent role in the business decision making process. As much as we would all defend ink on paper, reality shows that the market is driven by price and financial results, so finding new ways to compete has to be the number one priority for print providers.
In today's recession and the emerging globalized economy of the future printers will continually be expected to do more with less, working to extremes they have never experienced before. For companies of all sizes, resources are shrinking and customer expectations are growing. Smaller teams with tighter budgets are being asked to deliver better targeted results with quantifiable ROI, which provides a powerful rationale for funding future programs.
So how do printers make a bigger impact with fewer resources and less time? The answer lies in automation and workflow optimization for every facet of the business, to reduce cost and improve the customer experience. The future is about harnessing a range of digital platforms from digital printing, web to print systems, email marketing and taking the first steps into the world of Social Media to provide a new set of powerful sales and marketing tools.

A lot of printers still haven't got on board with new print and marketing channels, while consumers are already finding direct smile type personalisation passé. The real added value for the future is going to be derived from relevancy to customers and not from clever personalisation. In order to provide relevant information on demand that drives customer decision making and purchasing requires a completely new level of interaction and profiling based on real time information as opposed to historical data analytics. This is where social media platforms used as part of a social media strategy can provide:

Global Exposure
Can create a Viral Effect
Is an inexpensive way to promote your company to targeted audiences
Gives people a choice to learn more about your company, it's products and services
Can reduce the cost of sales
It can create a new revenue stream

As with all things in business, in order to be successful you have to clearly define what you are trying to achieve and have a strategy and discipline to carry it through. The first thing to realize is that Social Media is not free.... it has time, technology and resource implications which need to be quantified and financially accounted for.

In order to measure the effectiveness of Social Media and understand if it is generating a return on investment you have to combine production and transactional information with analysis of click throughs, web traffic, Twitter and blog comments to understand if this activity led to an increase in enquiries, print sales or new customers.

In a recent Social Media Marketing Industry Report by Michael Stelzner sponsored by Social Media Examiner 900 survey respondents were asked to rate their experience using social media marketing for their businesses, a significant 72% of marketers have either just started or have been using social media for only a few months. The largest group just getting underway with social media marketing was sole proprietors (30.2% reported just getting started) and owners of 2- to 100-employee businesses were the most experienced (29.3% reporting doing social media marketing for years)

A significant 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week and 39% for 10 or more hours weekly. It is interesting to note that 9.6% spend more than 20 hours each week with social media. There is a direct relationship between how long marketers have been using social media and their weekly time commitment.

Printers need to invest time and resources to command sufficient authority with their customers and provide better advice on the use of a variety of communication platforms. At the root of the problem lies the fact that printers simply aren't getting on board with their customers as partners and trusted suppliers of expertise. There's still a strong historic printer mentality of do the work, issue the invoice and keep your head down.

The market for traditional print is going to change dramatically, a lot of what used to cost money is now free; interruption marketing is dying on its feet and captive audiences are a thing of the past. If we track these developments they haven't happened overnight, we have come full circle from living all our life in local communities and talking over the garden fence, through the industrial revolution, the mass marketing bubble, the digital revolution and now we have arrived back at 1-1communications but in a global community through Twitter, Facebook, blogs and websites.

Print has to find new ways of staying relevant and personal as the internet grows at an astonishing rate and morphs into all kinds of innovative new channels. In order to survive printers have to widen their horizons and look beyond ink on paper. We are only just beginning to understand the consequences of shifting from Disconnected to Connected and the profound impact this is going to have on the entire print supply chain.

This topic - More than ink on paper: how should printers be selling print? - will be debated at IPEX as part of the Great Print Debates.

The Pira/Ipex Great Print Debates take expert commentary, lively debate and audience interactivity to a completely new level.

Each panel of experts - thought leaders and high-profile industry representatives - will debate the most pressing questions facing the printing industry today.

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Audience participation and interaction using simple polling technology will allow real-time feedback and drive the questioning of the panel moderator and push the experts out of their comfort zone.

- Be at the forefront of the drivers and trends changing your industry
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- Takeaway an exclusive study with scenarios and forecasts to 2020

Where?
The Printers Profit Zone in Hall 9 (9F 333)

When?
13.00-14.00 every day of IPEX.