[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:02] DC: Print buying UKvUSA is a series dedicated to helping printers create stronger, more meaningful, and more profitable relationships with print customers on both sides of the pond. I’m Deborah Corn, Founder of Project Peacock and Principal at Print Media Centr.
[0:00:20] MP: I’m Matthew Parker, the Champion of Print at profitableprintrelationships.com.
[0:00:26] DC: We may not always agree, but that’s when it gets interesting. Turn up the volume, get out your notepad, and welcome to the program.
[EPISODE]
[0:00:40] DC: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse. This is Deborah Corn, your Intergalactic Ambassador. More specifically, we are here with the UKvUSA Podcast, which means that I have Matthew Parker from Profitable Print Relationships and the other side of the pond on the other side of this mic. Hello, Matthew.
[0:01:01] MP: Hello, Deborah. How are you today?
[0:01:03] DC: I am wonderful. How are you? I hear it’s pretty hot over in England.
[0:01:08] MP: It is. Yes, just finally, we’ve got some summer heat, so I am sweltering here. Yes, Deborah is looking slightly unenthused at the thought of me sweltering there. Yes, it’s a lovely, sunny day here. I’m in front of a microphone on UK versus USA. What could be better?
[0:01:25] DC: Excellent. Quick survey. Are you pro-aircon or anti-aircon? For everybody who doesn’t live in Europe, that means air-conditioning. Really might get over there.
[0:01:37] MP: Well, you know me, Deborah. I’m definitely trying to help the environment, so I’m absolutely anti-aircon. We have no aircon going here. There’s a little breeze coming through the house because the window is open. Yeah, there’s so many bad chemicals in aircon. I know it’s lovely at times, but I’m anti. I don’t even ride with that often in the car.
[0:01:56] DC: Okay. Well, that explains your shiny exterior on the video right now.
[0:02:02] MP: No, let’s not go there.
[0:02:04] DC: Yeah, let’s not. Look how refreshed and happy I look in my Florida air-conditioning here. Okay, we are going to speak about product launches today. Specifically, how to communicate that with customers and potentially prospective customers. When I first started thinking about this topic, I definitely was thinking about purchases. A printing business bought something new, and now they want to share that thing that they bought with their customers. I have to say that over the years, I’ve seen this done in creative ways. Mostly, I’ve seen it done in completely boring, regurgitating value propositions of why you bought something back at your customers, whether or not that particular benefit has anything to do with them. It really is, I think, a missed opportunity. That is why I wanted to have this conversation. Matthew, I’m going to kick it over to you first and ask how you’re defining products in this conversation.
[0:03:33] MP: Okay, so when we mention product launches, I was actually thinking about the products produced by printing companies for their customers. There’s a very good reason for that because if we followed the new equipment that you’ve just bought at drupa, this would probably be on my side, the shortest podcast that we’ve ever done together. Because you just said, yeah, if you’ve bought something, how do you tell your customers about it? I’ve got one word of advice for that. Don’t. It’s as simple as that. Most of your customers simply do not care that you’ve just invested in a new press, and it runs at 2,000 sheets an hour quicker, all the rest of that sort of thing. They’re just not interested. Don’t tell them you’ve bought a new press.
Now, it may be that the equipment you’ve bought does some really interesting things that allows you to change what you’re offering to your customers. Do tell them not about the product itself generally, but do tell them about how you can now help their business in different ways. Now, I can see Deborah rolling her eyes at me straight away at this. It looks off this might –
[0:04:42] DC: Oh, yeah. We’re going to have a fight today.
[0:04:43] MP: – a humdinger of an episode this time, which is brilliant. I’m going to slam it right back to you. Okay, I’ve got my boxing gloves up in front of my face ready to defend from the blows that you’re going to try and land here and let you going to say about that.
[0:04:56] DC: All right. I agree with you that if you’re just going to – Well, no. I do and I don’t agree with you here. I have learned, I would normally make a blanket statement, like you just did, that print customers do not care about the technical specs of equipment, or how software works and things of that nature. But I have come to learn that there are print customers out there who really do care about that stuff. They’re more geeky. They might have come from a different side. They might have different responsibilities because jobs get merged and stuff.
Let’s assume that maybe you have a few customers who are really geeky. In that case, invite them over, have a geeky talk with them, show them the press. I agree with you that that is not the way to communicate with most print customers. What I always say to people explaining things to me that way is I’m not trying to build one. I just want to use it and I want to understand what I can make with it, or how it benefits me.
Along those lines, I’m skipping emails. I’m skipping calls. I’m skipping texts. I’m skipping all of the, what we would think of as the primary ways of communicating with a customer that you’re already doing. Content to the side. I wanted to offer some more creative ideas around this. One of them is let’s just say, you did buy a new press at drupa. Well, there’s probably really good reasons that you made that investment. Not only can it help your business, but it can help your customers. I would say, that create an exclusive user group of your current customers and invite them to be beta testers for you, and to send files and to help you work out the color management and use of different papers and use of different sizes, or whatever if you’re trying to gang things up on a press, or something like that.
That’s a way of introducing the technology to a group that might end up using the technology, which is the whole purpose of why you bought that piece of equipment. In this case, I’m referring to a press. That press is going to have to start churning out print, create, and grow your own customers. Might I say, that with some of those customers, depending upon who they serve, or if they serve themselves, it might be worth in the beginning to offer a slight discount if they move their job from one technology to another.
Now, yes, we’ve said a million times, the customers don’t care about what press their job is on. They just need it when they need it at the price they need it and what it needs to look for. But this is a different strategy. We’re trying to get people to use this new press. It’s got to start paying off for the printer. Thoughts on that before I move on.
[0:08:24] MP: Okay, this is going to be a real humdinger of an episode, this one. Your user group idea is great for the print geeks. Yeah, and that there always are a group going approach them. I think that’s a lovely way to involve them. For the rest of it, I have to disagree. Because I don’t want me to be sending as a buyer, to be sending files to be testing out your new press. If you have got a new press up and running and running perfectly, then I don’t want to be anywhere near it. The suggestion that you’re going to have to test stuff out and trial different papers, I don’t want to be part of that. You should be doing that. I just want a press that prints me a perfect job.
If you offer me a discount, yup, I’ll have that. Thank you very much. But I will then be questioning why on Earth the price needs to go up after that. The danger with the discount at this point is that I’m going to try and use that early-adopted discount as my permanent discount going forward.
[0:09:21] DC: Okay. You know when printers get new presses that they don’t just turn them on and start selling print off them. There’s a testing process. Sometimes the manufacturers’ representatives have to come and get that press working to the specs and capabilities and speeds and all of that that were promised. There is a testing period. What I’m saying is during that time, before that press is live and ready to go and take the orders in, just like you said, without my involvement, there is a way to create, to start creating users for that press by involving them in the, “Hey, we just got something new. You have really complicated files and we’d like you to come over on a press check and check it out and run this with us and be part of it.” I feel that that is a way to get them interested in the new press and using it eventually.
[0:10:30] MP: Unless, you’re doing a very, very different type of print. If you’re switching over from litho to digital, then the customer doesn’t need to know, unless they’re a print geek. Yeah, chances are that press is replacing an older one anyway and the customer doesn’t get any say about which press they choose if you’re running it.
[0:10:51] DC: Oh, my God. I’m just saying, are you missing my point completely? This is about introducing new technology to people, right? Not, we have a new press and you’re just going to put their work on it.
[0:11:07] MP: Okay, let’s take an analogy. Okay, I’m in a restaurant. Okay, the chef has just bought a new stove to cook the meal on. I don’t want to – yet, all I care is that he’s served me a good meal of good food.
[0:11:21] DC: Okay, but that’s not a good analogy. The better analogy is they’re trying new recipes and they invite over their best customers to taste things and to help them decide if it should go on the menu, or not. I mean, it’s just a way to involve people and make it more personal to them. I’m definitely getting heated. Oh, no.
[0:11:49] MP: I’m heated too because I can comprehensively disagree with what you’re saying.
[0:11:53] DC: I cannot even believe you disagree with what I’m saying.
[0:11:56] MP: Most customers just do not care and don’t want to spend the time on it.
[0:11:59] DC: Do you believe in grassroots marketing?
[0:12:02] MP: Define grassroots marketing.
[0:12:04] DC: You start with a small group of people and then that trickles out into the marketplace. A targeted small group of people.
[0:12:12] MP: If you’ve just bought a new press, you’d better have more than just a few grassroots if you’re going to sell it and then get it out.
[0:12:17] DC: Oh, my God. Okay, everybody out there listening who has comprehended what I have said and how Matthew is missing my point when we share this on social media, please chime in. But we have to move on.
[0:12:31] MP: Please do on both sides. Yeah, those who agree with me –
[0:12:33] DC: Okay. No one’s going to be on your side. Okay, all right. You’re really going to hate my next topic to you.
[0:12:40] MP: Fantastic. I’m loving today’s conversation. We haven’t had a good fight in ages.
[0:12:44] DC: My God. I’m about to fly over there, air-conditioning or not, and have a talk with you. Okay, training sessions. Okay. Here, imagine this, Matthew. You have a new piece of equipment, whether it’s finishing equipment or printing equipment. I’m leaving software out of it, because although we could say a platform with it might have a customer portal or something like that. You invite some customers over and you ask them to bring files and you show them things – the best ways to design for the new embellishments, the best way to design if they’re using an inkjet press now and they’ve never done that, or using a wide-format press, things of that nature.
Then again, create users. You’re telling them that you have a new product without going in and saying, “This B94C33 does this amount and this and can do this.” You’re actually giving them a hands-on demo and best advice. By the way, it doesn’t even have to be you. If you are, for example, let’s say you bought a piece of finishing equipment at drupa and I’m going to use that as an example, because finishing was very topical at drupa. Let’s just say you bought a nice Duplo. Shout out to my friends at Duplo. Now, you need to get your customers to use it, right?
You can ask a designer to come and talk about different techniques for embellishments that obviously, the Duplos can do, and then enable those customers to be able to print stuff out and leave with it, whatever, take it back to their office and utilize the technology, which is the point. You bought a new product. You’re launching it into the market with customers by teaching them how to use it. Go ahead. Tell me why that’s wrong.
[0:14:51] MP: Okay. I’ve got three parts to my answer. Okay.
[0:14:55] DC: Wait. You have three parts to why that’s wrong.
[0:14:59] MP: No, no. Two parts to why that’s wrong and one part to why I actually agree with it.
[0:15:02] DC: Okay, let me get my coffee for this.
[0:15:04] MP: I got to say, yeah, maybe it’s the heat that’s making me grumpy today. If you’ve just been to drupa and you’ve bought yourself a nice new flash bin of equipment unless it’s a tiny fraction of your turnover if you haven’t already got a cast iron business case for buying it and know who’s going to fill it and how then you are absolutely bonkers. That’s number one.
Number two, if it’s a press and you’ve got a new inkjet press, or wide format, I’m a customer, the number – yeah, just getting a customer to provide a PDF that’s vaguely printable is a minor miracle in itself still these days, okay. You still have the ones who expect you to print the Microsoft Word documents and know what half of the platforms for online printers will now accept Microsoft Word because it’s too much hassle to get people to do PDFs. Tell me to design my PDF differently to work for your new press, that’s your problem. Sort it out in your workflow.
However, this is where I agree. When it comes to embellishments, it’s a great way to do it. If you can make something look different and you can give someone samples and go, “Here’s how you design to get the best out of that embellishment, or a fifth color, or whatever it is,” then I totally agree with you.
[MESSAGE]
[0:16:18] DC: Are you looking to elevate your game, take your bottom-line customer relationships and events to the next level? Then I want to work with you. I’m Deborah Corn, the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse. I engage with a vast global audience of print and marketing professionals across all stages of their careers. They are seeking topical information and resources, new ways to serve their customers and connect with them, optimize processes for their communications and operations and they need the products and services and partnership you offer to get to their next level. Print Media Centr offers an array of unique opportunities that amplify your message and support your mission across the Printerverse. Let’s work together, bring the right people together, and move the industry forward together. Link in the show notes. Engage long and prosper.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:17:20] DC: I don’t know what they’re doing to you in England, or what has happened to the print market there, but there is no way that it is not enticing for creative customers to have an exclusive opportunity to play with a press. That’s essentially what they’re doing. Okay. I mean, I’m literally at a loss for words. I think the people –
[0:17:44] MP: I think we have to put –
[0:17:46] DC: I’m just saying, I think the people are going to speak on this one and they’re going to be on my side, Matthew.
[0:17:53] MP: I’m looking forward to speaking. I think it’s important to put some context here. Your background is agency and you’ve worked with more creative people than I have. My background is general purchasing of day-to-day commercial prints. Maybe that’s why we’re coming out so different. Most people haven’t got time to go and spend half a day playing with a press. That’s all I’m saying. Anyway, let’s move on to the next one because I’m enjoying the fight. I’m up for it today. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Deborah speechless before. This is a first.
[0:18:23] DC: I am. I am just so –
[0:18:24] MP: Ladies and gentlemen, has anyone done this before? Has anybody made Deborah speechless before me? Can I take, this as a first?
[0:18:33] DC: It’s definitely a top 10 moment. I just am so shocked that you are not into the collaboration as a sales tool, eventually. I mean, that’s what it’s all about. It’s collaboration for education. It’s collaboration for new business, eventually, when people are like, “Oh, now that I know how to design for this thing, or use it, or the best practices, or what should be on it, it’s really cool. I want to be the first person, or I want to be someone who uses new technology.” It’s about those customers, too. Feeling that they have skin in this game, and also that they’re part of an elite group, which they would be if they were identified to be part of this, I’m still going to say this, beta testing moment, or this beta launch, or a soft launch of a new technology.
Okay. The other way that I have this now is that the points that I just made are for current customers. You obviously have relationships with them. You can talk to them. You’ve identified them as being right for this testing. In some way, if you’re able to get customer testimonials, or make videos, or anything while you’re doing all that testing, these people become influencers for you and help you launch the product with the rest of your customers saying, “Look, they did it. You can do it, too.” Maybe even show some of the work.
I know, it’s not every circumstance that will allow that to happen. But if it can happen, it’s the Holy Grail of product launching without product launching, right? Someone else is doing it for you. The other way I have it is focusing on prospects, people you want to be your customers and using the new technology as a way to communicate with them, or communicate again with them in some manner. Before we get to that, you specifically wanted to speak about launching a product as if you created a box, a kit or something and it has a name and you want to share it with customers. Before we go to prospecting, let’s just get your points and hopefully, I will disagree with every single one of them.
[0:21:00] MP: I’m looking forward to it. If you have a new piece of kit. Let’s freeze it from this, first of all. If you have a new piece of kit, a large number of presses don’t do anything new and exciting for the customer. For you can be absolutely brilliant piece of game-changing efficiency, but it makes no difference to the customer. Deborah, too, that one might – Yes, I’ve got enough there.
[0:21:23] DC: I can’t disagree with that. I mean, if printers are buying equipment to be more efficient and effective, yes, there’s a speed benefit for customers, but it’s not necessarily like, “Come on over and see how fast our press goes.” I agree. I agree with you on that, but I’m still skeptical. Continue, sir.
[0:21:43] MP: Okay. For the presses that do do different things, if you’ve just moved into wide format, if you’ve got a press with a white ink, or a fifth color, those things can make a difference. This is where I think you’ve got to make it easy for your average non-print geek customer to understand. There’s two ways you can do this. Typically, I see a lot of printing companies launching new product as a result of it. Well, there’s three ways you can do it. The first way is they go and go, “We can go and put a fifth color on this. Now, would you like that?” “Well, I managed quite well without it beforehand. Thank you. Why should I want one now?”
[0:22:21] DC: By the way, what’s a fifth color on a digital press, when you don’t think PMS colors?
[0:22:24] MP: Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Number two, then, is to create new products. Have you seen our new range of boxes? Have you seen our hardback books? Whatever it is, yeah, have you seen the fact that we can now create a cover to your brochure, which has a 3D feel to it? Whatever it is, it’s got a new feature to it. As you’ve probably heard me on here before saying, I’m not a massive fan of selling on features and benefits. Products can be really important if you know that a customer has a need for one. But if you’re just going to your customers and going, “By the way, we now do boxes,” I don’t think that’s enough. What you have to do is sell this, and we’ve done something game-changing for your business.
For instance, let’s take the example of e-commerce because that’s a massive market for most people. If you’ve been focusing maybe on the marketing side of things and producing files and leaflets to put into packs and you’ve just moved into wide-format, well, now you can go, “We’ve created a set of new packaging, which we believe will reduce your fulfillment costs by X amount. Here’s how it works.” Now as a customer, I’m interested. I might not be interested in the fact you can do boxes, but I am interested in the fact that you can reduce my fulfillment costs because you’ve engineered a new set of boxes that are smaller, lighter, don’t require in a box, advertise on the outside, whatever it is that those boxes do.
If you have new equipment that does new things that will interest me as a customer, don’t make it about the equipment. Don’t make it about the product. Do make it about how you are helping that customer’s business to improve. That will start off conversations with customers that are very different from where they were before. If you have the right conversation, it may even get the customer collaborating with you to create new products that work specifically to that company. Thoughts on that. I’m waiting for the right hook to come now.
[0:24:37] DC: There’s no right hook. You’re saying the exact same thing I’m saying. You’re just saying it in a different way. You’re saying, we can make a box. I’m saying the same thing too, but I’m saying, “Hey, come make a box with us.” Not just, we can make a box and you should buy boxes from us and here’s how it helps your business. That’s very important. But then there’s the aspect of actually making it, and just like there are holes in print shops, there’s holes on customer ends, too. Maybe they don’t have a designer. Maybe they’re working with an outside agency. They could see that new thing as something beyond them, something too complicated.
We’re saying the same thing. We’re just approaching it from a different angle, but it seems like the end result is we have something you can use and you should come and see it, or you should use it, or you should try it. It’s not about the printing business, which is where they go wrong, usually with these announcements, it’s about the customer. We’re both focused on that, I think is what we’re saying.
The only other thing I would say is that when you said product, I didn’t define it the way that you did it all. To me, you’re just speaking about a new application that you can create. We couldn’t create boxes, or folding cartons last week, now we can, because we have a new piece of kit, as you call it. To me, a product is an event registration or generation campaign. That’s a product. Where it starts with the save-the-date postcard and maybe it moves into a kit, which you’re now showing off your boxes that has a T-shirt from the event. I’m just throwing things out there, but to me, that would be more of a product launch.
[0:26:34] MP: I think we broadly agree on that. The difference is that with a product, you’re taking the specification away from the customer. Whereas before, you used to have people who bought print, who understood specifications and the fact that you couldn’t go above a certain amount above A4 because then it gets expensive and you can’t have a 27-page saddle stitch brochure and all these things. That knowledge has gone now. To me, a product is a pre-specified piece of print. Even if it’s a campaign, it’s rather than, yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people with multi-touch campaigns going, “Here’s the software. You can design exactly what you want.”
At which point, the customer looks confused because they don’t know what they want and they don’t really know how they should use it. What they should be doing is going, not here’s the software, but here’s the campaigns we’re running for people. Do you want option A, B, or C? It makes your estimator a lot happier as well.
[0:27:26] DC: Okay. Well, that’s the same thing I just said. You have a product and it’s, okay, if you’re a realtor and you’re selling a new house, right? There’s a process for selling the new house. You don’t have to think about it. There’s a way to tell the community that there’s a new house on the market. There’s a cell sheet that maybe people pick up here. If you sell a new house, sometimes there’s a QR code that you can scan to get the specs of the house and the information. Or sometimes they leave actually paper printouts in a little box that you can take. There’s a banner on the sign.
There’s a signpost on the lawn. There’s little signs you could put on the street, like open house event today. It’s a product. We sell a house in a box. You don’t want people thinking about it. But that’s another conversation. We could talk about how to launch something like that, that’s more of a product to me.
[MESSAGE]
[0:28:18] MP: Do you need some direction or new ideas for your business? Would sales goals setting and accountability improve your revenues? Or do you have a member of staff who could be performing better? I’m Matthew Parker, the Champion of Print at profitableprintrelationships.com, and I offer a personal mentoring service. Together, we work out exactly what you need. We create a personal mentoring program for you, and then we speak twice a month. You get set goals and action points to make sure you progress. What makes me different is that I’m the buyer. I’ve been approached by over 1,400 different printing companies, so I know what works and I know what doesn’t. If you’d like to find out more, go to profitableprintrelationships.com, click the training tab, and then go to mentoring. Or alternatively, just hit me up on LinkedIn. I look forward to working with you.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:29:13] DC: Okay. Anything else on product launches before we move to speaking to potential prospects about new stuff?
[0:29:22] MP: No. Let’s speak to potential prospects. Or not, because I’ll probably do the thing.
[0:29:28] DC: I’ll speak to them. You won’t speak to them. You’ll just wait for them to, I guess, for my –
[0:29:31] MP: I’ll go speak to them. I’ll just speak to them in a different way. Anyway, let’s do some ideas.
[0:29:37] DC: Okay. Look, these are people who maybe you’re trying to have a relationship. Maybe you’ve gone in their inbox a couple of times, hopefully, appropriately. Maybe you’ve reached out on social media couple of times, hopefully, appropriately. What do I mean by that? I just got a flurry of contacts on LinkedIn, asking me for my direct mail printing business, asking me what I have coming up, telling me all about how they can help me with my printing needs. I actually had somebody today who thought I was a printer and was asking me questions about why they might have some problem with the – if I can help them resolve a specific problem they’re having on a specific press because they think I own one of them. That’s what I mean by inappropriate. Like, not doing your research on it.
[0:30:40] MP: I nearly responded to one today saying, “Have you even read my profile?”
[0:30:43] DC: I know. I don’t even know what to do.
[0:30:46] MP: A little too abrupt for a diplomatic person, but I won’t throw them.
[0:30:50] DC: Yeah, I agree with you. Sometimes I write back and I say, “Why do you think this is an appropriate question to ask me?” I have only been doing that with the younger people now. If I see your photo and you are a “seasoned salesperson,” I’m not even responding anymore. This is what I’m doing. I’m disconnecting with you. I am unfollowing you, because I know, now I spoke about a couple of times. I’m at my 30,000 connection LinkedIn limit. Every new person I connect with, I have to remove somebody. People are making it a little easier for me these days if they don’t – why are we connected? You don’t even know what I do. You’re obviously not paying attention, or care about what I want you to care about. Maybe that’s on me, but I don’t think so.
I mean, I stay in my lane about what I share on LinkedIn, and it is certainly not that I’m a current print buyer of any ways, nor that I own a print shop, or farm. Did I tell you about the person who tried to sell me a tractor, because my last name is Corn? I thought that was a good one.
[0:32:01] MP: Excellent. I like it.
[0:32:02] DC: The long way –
[0:32:03] MP: So, to prospect.
[0:32:04] DC: Yes. Long way back around to say, a virtual tour of your new thing in a cool way, making a video of the new tech, like a sizzle wheel about the new technology you have and how it benefits, specifically the customer. That might mean that the talk track of that video might have more than one talk track. If you’re talking to designers, if you’re talking to procurement people, if you’re talking to, depending upon what their “pain” is. Again, it’s just a hook to get people interested. If you’d like to know more, you’d like to come over and see it, or if we can send you samples, or anything like that. It’s just a way to give them a peek at something, maybe a little teaser. If they’re interested, make contact. If they make contact, you win because the goal here is to get, speaking with prospects on a new level. Now, you’re making faces at me. Go.
[0:33:10] MP: Okay. First of all, different soundtracks to a video you make. I love it. I mean, I think that’s really important and we don’t do enough of that. I’ve always said, have multiple sales messages for different audiences. That bit, I absolutely like. Most people just don’t want to see your press. If you send a video like this to a procurement person –
[0:33:31] DC: You’re sending a technical – Oh, my God. Okay. Do you know what a sizzle reel is? You know how a big event, like a movie trailer. Now in a world of digital printing, we can go faster. I don’t know. I’m just making up the movie guy.
[0:33:49] MP: Okay. The only time, I think, that people have taken a real interest in someone’s press is when they’ve printed a funny color, or done something like that. That will, is different, people like to see that, because it’s a bit unusual. If it’s something really unusual, that’s great. If it’s another picture reel of a press, no matter how sizzly it is, it’s not sexy. Okay, the sizzle is a gentle spatter of cold grease.
[0:34:19] DC: Oh, my God.
[0:34:21] MP: Again, I’m sorry. I fundamentally disagree. The print geeks will love it. They will really like it. Other people won’t.
[0:34:29] DC: I think you were going to get destroyed on LinkedIn comments.
[0:34:33] MP: I think I’m going to get people agreeing with me.
[0:34:35] DC: Oh, my God. Okay, then you’re going to hate this one with a passion.
[0:34:42] MP: Yes.
[0:34:43] DC: Low-hanging fruit, Google ads. What are the targets of the value propositions of your press, if it can go faster, speed to market? What are the things that need to be out fast now? Maybe it’s election mail. You send out targeted Google ads and things to hit those types of people with speed-to-market messages. If it’s a designer, we can help you win awards, things of that nature. Basically, I’m saying to prospect, use Mr. Google in a controlled way, targeting specific people that would 100% have a benefit, fitting into what you said in the beginning about what are all the reasons why somebody would want to use this press, that benefits them? Target those people and do a little AB testing and see if you cannot get any of those people out of the ether and into your communication funnel. Comments.
[0:35:43] MP: Yeah. Why wouldn’t I like that? It’s a targeted message at a target audience. That’s got nothing to do with the press, but more to do with the things that are going to make a difference to their business. Yeah, absolutely like it. The only thing I say, is cost it carefully, because adverts are getting very expensive these days.
[0:35:59] DC: Correct. That’s why I said, very targeted.
[0:36:00] MP: Yeah, I’ve seen popular ones can be $12 these days per hit. That’s a lot of money, unless you’ve got a really good conversion rate from there. Otherwise, I like it.
[0:36:13] DC: I agree. And consult –
[0:36:15] MP: Your face of disappointment when I’m not going to fight with it. It’s lovely.
[0:36:18] DC: No. I mean, you should be agreeing with me on all of my points, so I’m not surprised, or –
[0:36:24] MP: Where would be the fun in that?
[0:36:27] DC: Okay, next one, I think you’re going to like, actually. If I’m visiting your site, there’s immediately something that says, we have something new here and fascinating and click here to learn all about it, which is where you might have your little sizzle wheel about it, some customer testimonials from videos of when you were testing it, you’re hearing from those customers when they were part of your beta program and things of that nature. But it is not hidden on your site. It is a big deal that you have something new and you want to share about it.
[0:37:05] MP: I would make it more about the service, or the difference, the new things that you are offering that are of interest to your customer. I think it’s really good that you’re open on a website and there’s a pop-up that comes and says, “Look here, we’ve got something new.” I wouldn’t make it about the equipment. I would make it about the fact that we can now reduce the packaging costs, or fulfillment costs for the average e-commerce company by X percent. That, I think, will get more click-throughs.
You know what? We should find someone who’s just invested in a press and is going for something like that, and we should AB test the pop-up box and see who’s right. I think that’d be really cool.
[0:37:41] DC: Okay. Well, I’m not saying it has to be a pop-up box. I’m saying, there’s literally something –
[0:37:46] DC: Okay. Your way of doing, whether it’s a pop-up box or –
[0:37:48] DC: Whatever it is, but I would not – Your way, your way is too specific. I want everyone to know I have something new, then we could start segmenting them out after that. You’re automatically segmenting them when you’re saying, “These are the specific benefits of this press.” If I don’t feel that that’s a benefit, then I’m not interested in it. As opposed to getting me interested in the new thing to begin with, just so I know what’s going on. Whether I use it or not, I still understand what the value propositions are. Because I might eventually have a job that requires that.
[0:38:21] MP: Okay. My view on websites is you don’t have a single landing page. You have a different landing page for each of your key target audiences. It’s slightly different. I believe that you segment through your SEO and your adverts first. They come to whichever landing page it is, and then you can be much more specific with your message.
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[0:38:43] DC: News from the Printerverse delivers topical sales and marketing insight along with plenty of printspiration one time a month to inboxes everywhere. Our contributors cover the industry and the future of print media and marketing with strategy for strengthening your customer relationships, better targeting of your prospects, and practical advice for helping your business grow. Printspiration is just a click away. Subscribe to News from the Printerverse at printmediacentr.com. Print long and prosper.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:39:18] DC: Okay. Last two are no-brainers, but go to either local, regional, or national design and marketing shows, shows that are about, if you want to attract meeting planners, go to meeting planner events. If you want to attract people who do graphics for sports stadiums and things like that, wide format things, or electronic shows, go. You can give a little shout-out to your press if you want, but in this case, you are just showing them, you’re showing samples, you’re showing what you can do, you’re explaining the benefits of working with you as a collaborative partner and you move on from there.
Then the last one is obviously, send samples and direct mail to your customers and prospects about, that you have something new to show them, if you’re going to have a, do your own show and tell, maybe have an open house if you’re going to have a design class about it. Not for nothing, but you can also use it as workforce development. We’re hiring at our print shop and look at this amazing new technology that you’ll be working on, state of the art, which takes the print shop out of, “stop the presses,” to a modern communications business. Those are all my points, Matthew.
[0:40:48] MP: Okay. Shows, yeah, totally agree with that. Been doing that. I’ve been banging on about that for a long time. Not enough people go to shows where their customers hang out, and it really winds me up. Completely agree with that. Samples, completely agree with that. There was one printing company, and it must have been about 15 years ago and it still sticks in my mind. They invested in a new press and it’s bigger and they sent me this big presentation folder. It was great. Unfortunately, as soon as you went inside, “We’ve invested in a new Excel 4072P press that does XYZ,” and things like that. But the folder itself was really good. Yeah, if they put a better message in it, they would have probably got more business out of it. But I still remember that, because it was unusual and it was different.
If you’re just going to send – look at our A5 flyers that can I say are – don’t bother, because no one’s that interested. People want good, quality commercial print and nearly everyone produces good quality commercial print. I love the idea about using a new press to try and grow your workforce. That is definitely a time when you should be shouting out that you’ve got this new shiny bit of kit and it’s a GL4073Z and all the things you can do on it. That’s the time when it’s very relevant to the target market, and I would definitely endorse people getting all techy about it at that point. But think print geeks, not apart from that.
[0:42:13] DC: Okay. Well, I’m going to take the win and say, thank you very much for your time, Matthew. Everybody, please. Matthew is the best person to follow on LinkedIn for this because he posts longer conversations about these podcasts that I do. I end up chiming in on his. Our last one had a lot of comments on your post. It was very, very interesting perspectives. This one Matthew, I’m calling upon the Printerverse now to be on my side about this, about at least most of what I said. Look for those posts after. Matthew, thank you so much for your time. You have any eBooks, or classes going on? Use the last two minutes to promote something you’re doing.
[0:42:58] MP: Okay, so I do have an eBook called Done For You Sales Scripts, and it includes letters that you just have to put in the blanks for, or you can adapt to your own style that are all about product launches, as in you have a new printed product that you want to tell customers about. If you’re planning on doing that, you might find that book very useful. We’ll add a link to it in the notes. I’ll do a special offer because I’m feeling generous today. I’ll do a special offer to UK versus USA listeners.
[0:43:27] DC: Thank you, Matthew. That was very kind of you. Okay, everybody, check that out. Make sure you look for the posts about our podcast on Matthew’s LinkedIn. Until next time, print long, product launch long, and prosper.
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[0:43:47] DC: Thanks for listening to Podcasts From the Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com. We’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcasts. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.
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