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Print Solutions Pre-Show Review

If you have not made plans to attend the PSDA Print Solutions conference and exposition I would like to encourage you to do so. This year's show holds true value for distributors wanting to find new ways to improve their sales, retention, marketing and organization. The combination of a great educational conference with exhibits by the leading manufacturers in our association makes Print Solutions one of the best meetings you can attend. Then add-in the incredible networking that takes place and you can't ignore the value of participation. Here are just a few highlights.

Tuesday has a special 3 hour session by Peter Winters on How to Position your business as a Marketing Service Provider. This is a great opportunity to learn how to take the role of the CMO with your clients. Producing promotional color and variable data projects is just touching the sales and profit potential within your accounts. By entering into a deeper relationship with your clients, learning their customer segmentation, assisting in demographic analysis you can bring new value to the table. You can take the information from this presentation and visit with PSDA vendors on the show floor to find out how they can further assist you.

If you have been wondering how social networking can help your business, you will have several opportunities to hear various ideas on how this process works. Tuesday you can hear Dave Kerpen of TheKBuzz educate you on setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts to drive referrals. Wednesday on the show floor you can hear Joe Walkup of Innovative Business Products, LLC and Randy Eubanks of Suncoast Marketing, Inc. help you understand how using these networks plus others like Linkedin can affect Google search, online ranking and reach beyond your prospect base.

More and more we see business forms decline while color and promotional print (including transpromo) grow. Not only do we need to learn how to use these color products to promote our companies, we need to learn how to sell them effectively to our clients. In addition, we are being asked by our clients to provide other media marketing such as email, list acquisition, SEO and others. Fortunately the PSDA has brought several presentations to this year's conference to help us understand these opportunities. Tuesday at 3:00 PM check out Peter Ebner of Ebner Seminars on Selling Direct Marketing Applications then Wednesday catch Larry Mersereau for a presentation of Successful Advertising Strategies. On the show floor, Wednesday, you can hear Goldstein Group Communication discuss providing email services for your clients marketing. And later hear Ray McCabe of CMFI speak about Inexpensive Self-Promotion Techniques.

During the exhibits you will find various educational sessions provided by your PSDA manufacturers. On Wednesday, John Loftis of Innovative Business Products, will present the Fundamentals of Viral/Word of Mouth marketing. Thursday - look for Lindsay Gray from AccuLink, speaking about QR codes one of the newest methods to link print with cell phone technology to drive business. If you don't know what QR codes are you NEED to attend this session and then hang around to hear Ken Spurling from Printco, discuss multi-channel program sales. These are only a few of the great presentations you can access on the show floor.

This year we have several new, first time exhibitors; Colortree, Foster Printing Service, LT1 Printing and RISO to name a few. What do these new exhibitors and PSDA member exhibitors offer? There's one sure way to find out and that's by coming to the party! Check out the conference programs, floor education and exhibit times so you can plan each day to be the most productive for your goals. Don't miss any networking opportunity!

Naturally stop to visit our mutual friends at Madison Forms at booth 1025! You won't have ANY trouble finding the booth. John and his team have taken extra steps to rescue you from that "lost" feeling. You may know them for their unit set, continuous and cut sheet quality but don't miss learning more about their Jumbo Roll, UV and 6 COLOR capabilities! Stop by and see what's new at Madison Forms in booth 1025.

Roger Buck, CDC, is the President of Emerging Solutions Now, LLC and a 40 year veteran of the printing industry. ESN offers new innovative equipment solutions to printers and print converters. They also provide marketing consulting and list acquisition services to their clients. Buck is a frequent contributor to various magazines and newsletters. He can be reached at Roger.Buck@EmergingSolutionsNow.com. You can follow Roger on Twitter, LinkedIn or his marketing blog.

10/12/2009 /articles Link to this Entry

Document Destruction Services

By Roger Buck, CDC

Could you find a new revenue stream by providing secure document destruction services? Identity theft, counterfeiting and intellectual property theft continue to rise. Protecting confidential information requires not only a secure storage system but also a secure system for document and digital storage device destruction.

Companies handling confidential information should consider the following:

Could an altered document allow someone un-authorized access to other secure information?
If any secure document was removed what damage or liability could occur?
If a stolen document was counterfeited what is the potential loss to the company?
Would the removal of secure document open the door for other types of counterfeit attack?
What is your current means of destroying confidential documents?
Is off site document destruction verified?

Many distributors have built strong reputations with their clients by providing efficient business documents to improve the customer's information flow. Consider these questions.

Could you leverage that relationship to offer document destruction services to those same clients?
If you currently offer warehousing and storage of your client's documents could this add a higher level of trust when offering document destruction services?
If you offered secure document destruction services could you engage new corporate print customers?
With identity theft the number one form of fraud would homeowners retain monthly document destruction services?
Would offering a document destruction service set you apart from your competition?
If you had 100 residential customers and 100 corporate customers what monthly revenue could be gained?
What type of referral program could be offered to push sales growth?

Identity and intellectual property theft is a growing concern to individuals and business owners. Secure document destruction may be a means for distributors to increase their value to current clients while attracting new business by offering a high value service.

Roger Buck is the President of Emerging Solutions Now, LLC and a 40 year veteran of the printing industry. ESN offers a full line of document security shredders for office and industrial applications. They also provide marketing consulting and list acquisition services to their clients. Buck is a frequent contributor to various magazines and newsletters. He can be reached at Roger.Buck@EmergingSolutionsNow.com.

10/12/2009 /articles Link to this Entry

Thinking Back And Planning Ahead

By Roger Buck, CDC

The last few years have seen incredible changes in the forms market place. Similar to the projections of the past PSDA FormTrak reports, both manufacturers and distributors have seen mergers and acquisitions change the landscape of our industry. There are many challenges in the future to both segments as well as opportunities. The one consistent issue all will agree on is we have to change and adapt to survive

Challenges and opportunities for the distributor

Distributors have watched as the forms market continues to erode. Multiple part documents become laser cut sheets and cut sheets become electronic forms or blank paper imaged by the client's laser. To offset the decline, many have moved into new and higher profit arenas such as promotional products, digital color, direct mail, posters, plastic cards, book publication and other full color products. These opportunities also provide some new challenges as distributors learn to sell marketing solutions as opposed to products. Sales representatives who have many years in the business may be reluctant to learn the tactics necessary to sell full promotional programs. New sales representatives may be willing and able to sell full color print. However, they may miss the subsequent opportunities that lie in data analysis, customer profile building, list acquisition, mailing and graphic design.

Distributor owners and sales managers are challenged to educate themselves and their sales team to think like a marketer. What is the purpose and goal of the marketing piece? Is it the right media for the project? Where is the database coming from and how old is it? What other print projects (including forms) can be secured? Can you assist in segmenting your client's customer base for better targeting? As mentioned before, distributors have had many years of success selling business documents. You are experts in the design of documents to transfer business information within and external to an organization. You sold solutions to improve the capture and transmission of data in an efficient manner. That same mantra applies in promotional print and products. Information must be transferred efficiently and to the right person at the right time. The message merely changes to a marketing or branding tactic as opposed to business data.

Distributors have long term relationships with current vendors and so one of the best scenarios would be for that valued manufacturer(s) to add the new capabilities to support their distributors. Having these types of conversations with their printing plants is a win/win for both parties. The distributor will be able to keep the same vendor they have trusted for years and who may be very in tune with their top clients. The manufacturer will be shown new directions they can move knowing that's where their customers are headed.

Challenges and opportunities for the manufacturer

Manufacturers have seen a huge change in the market. Many small to mid-sized plants have been acquired and this has even spawned some new independent plants. Independent printers now face several new challenges. They must compete with the large multi-location players who may have better buying power and offer more services. However the independent manufacturer often has the ability to provide higher levels of customer service. This is a huge advantage as the consolidators may not be able to maintain this personal touch. Another challenge for the manufacturer is their sales channel. Many independents are trade only shops although their distributor base is moving away from business forms. Distributors also find traditional forms offer lower profit and push their suppliers for lower prices. This affects the plants' profitability which may eventually reduce the distributor's vendor options. A presentation by Clemson University to the PSDA several years ago suggested that the distributors should work closely with their traditional plants and share margins to ensure their suppliers' stability. Plants are looking at new ways to handle and process orders to save the distributor time in order to earn more of the margin. Distributors may want to consider new processes for handling re-orders which include less of their time and more of the plants' time. This could be more efficient for all and a benefit to the end user as well.

New channels are opening for independent manufacturers such as ad specialty resellers and advertising agencies. Many marketing companies are learning that they can supply forms along with promotional products. Printing plants have the opportunity to begin exploring these new channels.

Manufacturers may choose to poll their clients to determine what direction they are moving and at what pace. Though traditional plants are often reluctant to move into B&W or full color digital, there are opportunities in wide format, plastic cards and security labels that are less of a light speed jump in technology and learning. Interacting with their current distributor base can help them plan for adding products and technologies. In some cases, plants can add new capabilities by outsourcing their products for additional value add services.

Both distributors and manufacturers may benefit from running a S.W.O.T. analysis on their company. Taking a serious look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can help you lay out a plan of action. Review the past, pay attention to industry shifts, and look forward to see how technology will impact your clients as well as your business. We should all become more effective at promoting our strengths and exploiting opportunities.

For a FREE S.W.O.T. grid contact Madison Forms!

Roger D. Buck, CDC, is the President of Emerging Solutions Now, LLC and a 40 year veteran of the printing industry. ESN offers new innovative equipment solutions to printers and print converters. They also provide marketing consulting and list acquisition services to their clients. Buck is a frequent contributor to various magazines and newsletters. He can be reached at Roger.Buck@EmergingSolutionsNow.com.

09/14/2009 /articles Link to this Entry

Document Security

By Roger Buck, CDC

Document security continues to be a growing market for distributors and printers. Many people see checks as the primary "security" document. However, the check market is declining at a rate of 8% - 10% per year. New players in the person to person payment world will continue to reduce the use of paper checks. However security printing can be a strong growth area for distributors. In 2007 Identity Theft replaced check fraud as the number one form of financial loss in the United States. Brand protection fraud is close behind. Both of these markets offer print opportunities where document security features can be applied.

The key to finding these documents is in performing a Risk Assessment with your customers. Each document and label they use should be reviewed with the mind of a criminal.

If the document was altered is there a potential for financial gain?
If the document is forged could someone gain access to confidential data?
If the document is counterfeited what is the potential liability to the company?
If counterfeit products are offered under a counterfeit brand label what impact could that have on sales?
What effect could counterfeit products have on brand reputation?
How does the client authenticate a document or label?

After reviewing the client's documents and labels for risks, the client should be able to assign a risk value (hard and soft dollars) to the document. The level of risk qualifies the level of security protection needed. At this point the distributor can use their design skills to layer security into the document. The layering should incorporate covert and overt features within the paper and inks forming a four layer protection system. Additional security can be applied during imaging and post-imaging if necessary. Keep in mind that the technology available to criminals far surpasses many of the traditional security features of the past. Typical offerings such as micro print, VOID pantographs, bleed through numbering and warning bands are far less effective than in the past. Distributors need to work with their manufacturers to stay in touch with what new security systems can be implemented. Custom designed paper can be used to both protect and authenticate documents. Print features such as intaglio, thermochromic, foil and color shifting inks can be used to enhance the security.

Document security printing can be a viable growth area for distributors and printers willing to learn more about the various applications. Working with the customer to perform a Risk Analysis can pave the way to secure document designs. Educating the customer in this fashion can also help them understand the costs and benefits involved in providing new and substantial security solutions.

Roger Buck is the President of Emerging Solutions Now, LLC and a 40 year veteran of the printing industry. ESN offers new innovative equipment solutions to printers and print converters. They also provide marketing consulting and list acquisition services to their clients. Buck is a frequent contributor to various magazines and newsletters. He can be reached at Roger.Buck@EmergingSolutionsNow.com.

04/27/2009 /articles Link to this Entry

Use the poor economy to sell more color!

By Roger Buck, CDC

In today’s economy, many companies are considering reducing their marketing and sales budget dollars. Under normal conditions, marketing departments spend more on prospecting than on customer retention. However the current business environment has caused many marketing managers to shift their primary dollars to customer retention to keep clients from moving to competitors.

Your clients send business communication to their customers daily, weekly and monthly in the form of statements, invoices, packing slips, letterhead, envelopes and other documents used in the normal course of business. These same documents can be re-formatted using more color to become powerful marketing tools. As your clients pull dollars in from their sales and marketing programs, they should be educated on how to use a portion of these dollars to increase current customer mindshare.

How do you determine what documents to utilize and how? First, gather all the business documents that are used as communication tools. This should include standard documents as previously mentioned, as well as fax, catalog envelopes, newsletters and even email. Next, consider who receives the document at the end user location. With your customer’s input, determine if the receiver is a candidate for additional sales. Use color, coupons, short term specials, RPN’s and other "push sales" tactics to increase the frequency of purchase or up sell to a higher value product.

Here are a few tips:

Overprint current statement envelopes with marketing messages.
Use a "post-it" like image to increase the read rate.
Add card inserts or coupons for discounts if the next purchase is made within a designated period of time.
Include a referral card with each invoice which can be passed to other business owners and friends. (Offer a small gift card for any referral who become a client)
Add marketing campaigns to outgoing fax documents using a cover sheet.
Add high color images to statements, invoices and other documents to draw attention to products and services.
Consider extending any 8 ½" x 11" document to 14" to create a removable advertisement which can be saved or returned with the next order for some benefit.
Extend your marketing suggestions to their email system to include branding and marketing messages on all out going emails to customers.

2009 will be a tough year; however that means most companies will be trying to do more marketing with less money. This is an opportunity to design color into current documents to help support customer retention.

04/24/2009 /articles Link to this Entry