What Do Print Buyers Really Want

: What Do Print Buyers Really Want?
What Do Print Buyers Really Want?

and how can you charge a premium for
providing it to them?
Contents
Challenges facing small, independent printing businesses
Marketing as the engine of the small printing business
Laying a foundation for effective print marketing
Finding your ideal customers
Identifying what print buyers want and need with the
Print Buyer Priority Matrix
Priority: Low cost High performance
Specification: Simple format Complex specifications
Guidance: Minimal assistance High demand for guidance
Summary of print buyer priorities
Strategies for successful print marketing: Next actions
Make a marketing plan
Position your business, state your value
2012 PressReady Marketing | www.PressReadyMarketing.com | 8888967216
This report aims

to give the owner/
manager of a small
printing business
a framework to
develop marketing
strategies which will
drive the success of
the business.
Challenges facing small, independent printing businesses

This report is written with the owners and managers of small printing businesses in mind. These businesses include those with less than about $1 to
$1.5 million in revenue, and fewer than about 25 employees. Shops on the
smaller end of this scale are widely thought to be on the edge in the current industry climate, or at least closer to it. They have fewer resources to
compete with, are more vulnerable to business swings or events, and more
vulnerable to competition from larger, more technologically capable firms.
I speak regularly with print owners in different parts of the

world, and find several major concerns repeated again and again.
Many feel threatened by trends in the printing industry such as consolidation, the trend toward larger players in a mature industry, and growing
offshore sourcing both by large competitors and by print buyers.
They worry about the growth of the internet as a sales channel, along with
large office chains getting further into the printing business. They are concerned that print is increasingly thought of as a commodity by print buyers who see no substantial difference among print providers, and who buy
printing by price alone.
In some cases small printers are unable to compete on price, and in others
they find that buyers mistakenly believe the large chain store suppliers offer
the lowest prices and look no further.
Many sense that future success depends on embracing new technology, but
that the costs involved, the difficulty of evaluating choices and steep learning curves are significant barriers.
While all of these challenges have profound implications for the operational side of printing businesses, they can all be approached as marketing problems.
Of course, marketing cannot compensate for poor performance, or allow
you to continue obsolete practices. But the process of figuring out what
print buyers find valuable, and how you can do business with those who
value what you can offer, is the beginning of creating a business that does
Almost any
business
challenge can be
overcome with
better marketing.
not need to compete on price, and has the resources to adapt its capabilities
to meet the evolving needs of the print marketplace.
This report aims to give the owner/manager of a small printing business a
framework to develop marketing strategies which will drive the success of
the business, no matter how small the starting point.
I hope you will find specific actionable items in this report, and that it will
spur new thinking about the role of marketing in helping you achieve greater profitability and more enjoyment in owning and running your business.
Marketing as the engine of the small printing business

In addition to having common concerns, many owners also approach their
businesses in similar ways. The most important example, as it relates to the
topic of building a profitable printing business, is that print owners generally
think that the primary activity of their business is to put ink or toner on paper. I believe this is a fundamental problem, because it places a choke hold
on the potential for growth and success. I believe this commonly held idea
is the single most significant difference between smaller printing businesses
that struggle to succeed, and those that achieve growth and profitability in
any business environment.
If you take nothing else away from this report I urge you to consider
this: the primary activity of your printing business is marketing. This is
so important that I will repeat it in other words and come back to it.
Nothing that the owner or managers of a printing business can
do has more impact on revenue than marketing.
This doesnt mean that operational excellence is unimportant. Rather it
means that by focusing on finding and keeping customers as the primary
activity of the business, the owner can generate a stream of business which
supports investment in operational optimization, and is able to hire staff to
handle operational activities.
The reverse case is the harried owner who is constantly racing to stay on
top of operational activities (working in the business, rather than on it),
never quite manages to get to marketing projects, and is constantly frustrated by the obstacles to growth and profitability. This owner is also likely
Consider this:
the primary
activity of your
printing business is
marketing.
to think of marketing as among the first expenses to trim when business

slows down.
Thinking of marketing as an additional, desirable but non-essential activity is
to give up control of your businesss destiny.
The most successful entrepreneurs, CEOs and managers recognize that successful marketing drives growth, while successful operations give a company something to market. They also know that marketing done well is an
investment which produces a profitable return.
This is a good place to consider what marketing is and what it
can achieve.
I see marketing and sales as two ends of a continuum rather than completely distinct activities. The whole process encompasses identifying, qualifying,
and engaging prospective customers, then converting them into buyers.
Marketing activity is everything you do to speak to many prospects at
once; sales is everything you do one to one.
Well planned and executed marketing activity makes the sales forces job
easier and more efficient, as it will already have established the value and
uniqueness of your services.
Sales becomes a process of clarifying value, eliminating doubt, establishing
credibility for individuals who require it, and facilitating transactions.
Laying a foundation for effective print marketing

The fundamental issues involved in running a successful printing business are actually identical to those of any other business. It doesnt matter
whether you are selling printing, food, insurance or bicycles, a business is
built on three essential steps:

1 acquiring customers
2 providing something they value, and
3 collecting a profit for doing so.
It is significant that acquiring customers, or marketing, comes first in this

sequence, but the steps are interdependent. Being able to offer the highest
5
Marketing activity
is everything you
do to speak to many
prospects at once;
sales is everything
you do one to one.
precision imaging, with absolute color fidelity and the shortest turnaround,
would be of no use without a steady stream of customers to support the
capital outlay necessary to provide the service.
At the same time, without the ability to produce value there would be no
basis to acquire customers, and without a return of profit there would be no
basis for the other steps. However, beginning with the needs and wants of
customers makes the whole process more efficient and effective.
By identifying what customers find most valuable which is also in limited supply, you can adapt what you sell to cater to the most profitable
needs.
You can then define your target audience very precisely, which allows you
to do two things: you can create tightly focused messages that address their
concerns directly, and you can get those messages in front of them cost effectively.
The marketing process itself begins with knowing who your potential customers are.
Finding your ideal customers

If we think of print buyers as anyone who purchases enough print services
to have some value as a customer, we have a large and diverse group to
consider.
This group would not include consumers, unless we specialized in wedding
invitations, for example. It would be made up of businesses, and the people
who own, manage, and perform purchasing for them, whether they are
enormous conglomerates or home-based sole proprietorships. The array of
concerns and priorities this group encompasses makes efficient targeting
impossible, and identifying profitable needs hopeless.
We must break the universe of print buyers down into subsets and eliminate
those whose needs do not match our capabilities, or to whom we cannot
provide services profitably. In preparing for direct marketing campaigns this
is often done with filtering strategies.
First, you can limit targets to a convenient geographical area. Informal
polling (1) reveals that among subscribers to a web-based service for print
6
By identifying what
customers find most
valuable which is
also in limited supply, you can adapt
what you sell to
cater to the most
profitable needs.
buyers, 40 miles is about the farthest the majority will travel to a printer.
This is based on two factors: shipping costs and the convenience of visiting
for press checks and so on.
The area you target will depend on the region you are in. For example, in
a densely populated city you may find all the prospects you can afford to
contact within a radius of only a mile or two.
Next, you can select by industry category. It is routine to filter mailing lists
by SIC or NAICS code, and this will allow you to eliminate industrial sectors which do not use much printed literature, but which would be numerous enough to waste a significant amount of your mailing budget, such
as restaurants. You could also concentrate on categories that you know to
purchase a lot of printing, such as financial and professional services.
Other ways of refining your pool of targets might include filtering by the
number of employees or revenue, or concentrating on members of particular trade associations.
Applying all these limiting factors will create a much smaller list, but there
are still problems with qualification as buyers. Even within narrowly defined
groups of businesses there is room for a wide array of priorities, which could
mean that companies who purchase products that you can produce still
might not be a profitable match.
A more reliable way to identify good prospects is to use information about
their purchasing priorities and behavior. For a small printing business, this
kind of data can be prohibitively expensive, if it is even available. A practical
alternative is to work in reverse, by defining the behaviors and priorities
that match up with the capabilities you can offer, then using your marketing
messages to make prospects self-identify with those priorities.
Essential to this process is a way of categorizing and quantifying print buying priorities.
Define behaviors
and priorities that
match up with your
capabilities, then
use your marketing
messages to make
prospects selfidentify with those
priorities.
Identifying what print buyers want and need

with the Print Buyer Priority Matrix
In developing marketing resources for printers it is my aim to understand
the motivations and fears of print buyers, so that the materials I produce for
clients are as effective as possible. From my research I have formulated a
core set of purchasing dynamics that can be plotted in a three dimensional
matrix.
The result is a visual tool that allows printers to easily identify profitable
customers according to key characteristics of the jobs they order and their
priorities for choosing a printer.
EXTENSIVE
GUIDANCE
GUIDANCE
MINIMAL
ASSISTANCE
HI
PE GH
RF
OR
M
EX
PL
M IONS
O
C AT
C
IFI
EC
SP
EC
SP
IO
AT
C
IFI
AN
PR
NS
CE
IO
E
PL T
SIM MA
R
FO
RIT
IES
LO
CO
ST
You can use this matrix to compare your past and present customers, and to
think about the profile of your ideal customers those in the sweet spot
where you can offer excellent performance and return a good profit.
Introducing
the Print Buyer
Priority Matrix, a
tool to help printers
evaluate their
marketing options
The critical purchasing dynamics I identified are described by three continuums, or sets of opposing attributes. These are:

Guidance: Minimal assistance High demand for guidance
Each of these continuums can be used to pinpoint a customer, prospect or

job. Each has implications for profitability that will depend on your operational capabilities, so you can also use the matrix to think about how you
can differentiate your business from competitors and how you can position
your services.

Of all print buyer priorities, the demand for low cost causes the most
trouble for small printing businesses.
The ability to deliver lowest prices and thrive depends on eliminating human
effort from the workflow with automated systems at every possible stage,
and to maintain a high volume of orders. The internet has made this possible for a number of very large printing businesses, and to some extent print
buyers have become conditioned to expect low prices and fast turns.
Few small printers can compete effectively head on. However, there are
answers to the problem, and opportunities for small providers to carve out a
lucrative niche.
Very low prices are only possible when the job fits a predetermined format
and the customer requires no guidance. When cost is the driving consideration, a buyer is likely to compare vendors extensively, will take risks regarding an unknown performance record, will accept lower standards of quality
and service, and will be prepared to switch vendors for even a small reduction in price.
This does not make a price motivated buyer an attractive prospect, but
there are opportunities here, including educating inexperienced print buyers about the pitfalls of apparently cheap printing options. For example,
Customers are more

likely to value your
suggestions for
improvement to
the quality of the
end product or the
efficiency of the
work process, and
for ideas to produce
a better return on
investment.
although the ordering process is extremely fast for online printers, turnarounds are rarely particularly speedy, and when shipping is factored in can
be fairly slow. Shipping costs can also erode the low cost advantage. Creating awareness of the risks associated with unknown vendors can also help
keep print jobs local.
When confidence in the outcome is the priority, a buyer will select a printer
who offers a high assurance of performance, and will be resistant to change
as long as performance is good.
High performance can encompass rapid turns, high precision imaging, or
unusual capabilities. Print buyers who value high performance will judge
printing in terms of the results it returns to them. They may see superior
print quality as reflective of the quality of their own services, or as more
likely to create the marketing results they desire.
Because of this focus, such customers are more likely to value your suggestions for improvement to the quality of the end product or the efficiency
of the work process, and for alternate ideas to produce a better return on
investment.

Just about all low cost internet and mail order printers offer an array of
standard formats at standard prices, often with a premium for faster delivery. Any deviation from the standard specifications is expensive and inconvenient.
An obvious competitive advantage is to be able to produce complex custom
orders efficiently. From a marketing point of view it makes sense to demonstrate your unique capabilities, and show print buyers how they can achieve
their communication goals more effectively with custom work.
This idea extends to technological capabilities, such as multi-channel marketing resources and variable data printing. The harder it is to compare an
estimate for such work to other vendors, the greater the premium you can
charge.
On the other hand, work that fits standard formats optimized for your
equipment and workflow can be very profitable, and may be worth market-
10
The harder it is
to compare an
estimate for such
work to other
vendors, the greater
the premium you
can charge.
ing aggressively if you can find the volume to make it worthwhile.
Guidance: Minimal assistance High demand for

guidance
In some cases print buyers will accept a low level of assistance simply because they lack experience and are unaware of potential difficulties they
dont yet know enough to ask for help.
On the other hand, experienced print buyers may be knowledgeable
enough not to need much help. However, the ability to offer guidance to
customers can be one of the strongest points of differentiation a printer can
use.
Most people have a certain amount of fear based resistance to any purchase, whether it is fear of making an expensive mistake or fear that problems will cause missed deadlines. A proactive campaign based on providing
guidance to print buyers can be especially effective in removing doubt and
establishing trust.
People also value information that helps them do their jobs better or otherwise meets their needs. By positioning your company as a source of such
information, you can establish relationships that translate into premium
priced services and long term loyalty.
Summary of print buyer priorities

To summarize, the most profitable print buyers are those who:
11
want it fast
want it to look absolutely perfect
want it to perform better
want to do something unusual
want guidance to get better results
By positioning
your company as a
source of such information, you can
establish relationships that translate
into premium priced
services and long
term loyalty.
In all these cases, your services can command a premium price, especially
if you can make it easy and enjoyable for the buyer to do business with you.
The strongest relationships come from customers who see your contribution
as part of their success.
Loyalty can also come from inertia when assets are placed under your
control, such as data, or materials for frequently updated or distributed jobs,
there is greater resistance to changing vendors.
Part of the value you offer in these cases is a smooth and easy workflow.
Whenever you are able to make your customers lives easier you have potential to charge a premium for it.
Strategies for successful print marketing:

Next actions
Make a marketing plan
If you havent already prepared a written marketing plan, make it a priority
to sketch one out. Keep it rough in outline at first and refine it as you go.
The important thing is to create an awareness of your current situation and
to detail action steps you can take to move toward specific goals.
Your marketing plan is a living document. You will adjust it in response to
the results form marketing activities, and to the changing competitive landscape of your business.
Start by mapping out the kinds of customers you have now, and the kinds
of jobs you do for them. Group them according to two dynamics: the profitability of the work, and the smoothness of the workflow. Are these related?
Look for patterns that show where your energy is wasted, and where your
profits lie. From this will emerge a picture of your sweet spots the categories of customers and jobs where you can achieve profitable work efficiently
and profitably.
Now start brainstorming ideas for how to identify, reach, talk to and convert
12
The strongest
relationships come
from customers
who see your
contribution as part
of their success.
more of the customers in your sweet spot. Where can you find them? What
are their most difficult problems? What messages would they respond to?
How can you engage their interest?
From these ideas you can start to create plans, which are distinct projects
with defined steps to move toward clearly defined goals.
Include the steps you will take to measure results, evaluate both performance and goals, and test your strategies.
Position your business, state your value
Use the resources in this report to begin shaping your competitive position,
and your unique value proposition.
It is good practice to generate a variety of messages stating the distinct
value you offer to customers, and the ways you are different from all the
other options available.
Remember to focus strictly on the benefits you offer, phrased from your
customers point of view. Prepare messages from a dozen or so words to a
couple of paragraphs, and keep them on hand for use in all your marketing
communications.
The Print Buyer Priority Matrix is a useful tool for pinning down the specific
points of differentiation that you can use to develop your positioning statements.
As a final recommendation, let me suggest that you do not wait for
things to fall into place before you make marketing the main priority of
your printing business.
Begin marketing with the capabilities you have now. The emphasis of intelligent direct marketing is on building your herd those who have responded
to the value you offer, and with whom you can develop a relationship.
Once you have a receptive audience, you can maintain the relationship
relatively cheaply with a steady flow of valuable information and assistance,
and sell new services as they come online.
Apply the same marketing principles to promote your new capabilities as
you did to win leads originally: use relatively inexpensive communications
13
The emphasis of
intelligent direct
marketing is on
building your herd
those who have
responded to the
value you offer,
and with whom
you can develop a
relationship.
to qualify interest, following up with more involved communication to bring

respondents along to the purchase stage.
Marketing activity brings your prospects along the pipeline until they signal
readiness to purchase, and then person to person sales activity takes over.
Call to set up your

30 minute Printing
Business Marketing
Review
8888967216
What to do next
PressReady Marketing has developed a 30 Minute Printing Business Marketing Review which we conduct over the telephone with you. Here is
what we accomplish together in this fast-paced, zero-nonsense session:
C
ompetitive positioning: Identify oppportunities to establish your value
proposition and differentiate your offering from competitors.
G
oal setting: review key marketing metrics, establish goals for your marketing program, outline potential return on marketing investments.
M
arketing opportunities: Outline marketing initiatives that fit your resources and will help meet your goals.
The 30 Minute Printing Business Marketing review is conducted by the principal of our company, Colin Dodgson.
Please be assured that this consultation will not be a thinly disguised sales
presentation; it will consist of the best intelligence Mr. Dodgson can supply
in a thirty minute time span. There is no charge for this call, but please be
advised that the call must be strictly limited to 30 minutes.
This consult will typically take place within 1-2 weeks of your call.
To secure a time for this consultation, please call Colin Dodgson at
(888)896-7216 or email admin@pressreadymarketing.com.
You will also be asked to complete a pre-consultation questionnaire.
14

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