GrayMatter

Do you Web 2.0 With Your Customers?

I wrote about the importance of drinking your own “kool-aid” or more fondly, eating your own dog-food. The message was and still is to leverage the technology you have at your disposal to promote, sell and communicate your ideas. Help your customers, much like I try to with this newsletter, give away ideas, make it easy to offer feedback and keep it going, never stop.

Print companies send promotional mailers once in a while but don’t’ do it consistently, staying in the font of the customer’s eye. Hey it’s expensive to put paper through the mailstream and generates low ROI. One way to differentiate is to combine this “traditional” effort with all the cool web technologies. Promote your business like you’ve never done before. Now you are a real MSP: Marketing Services Provider….not just a printer. It’s also a great way to showcase how you help your customers market beyond print; email + PURLS + variable data + direct mail.

You’re in the graphic communication business, right? You have the design, creativity, print technology and sales know how to communicate in a very effective manner. The good news is you have real expertise in print marketing. The better news is you can combine this with e-marketing to extend your brand and reach. The bad news is your probably not doing it.

Web 2.0 is all about sharing, collaboration, looking for feedback and diversity. There are so many ways to promote your company: print mail, email newsletters, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, etc. I saw a great example of this recently by a printer in North Carolina who setup their own company profile on FaceBook, of all places. Check out Keiger Direct’s page.

Does your company have a FaceBook page? Do you have a blog? The real question is….why not?

I welcome your comments and encourage that you adopt Web 2.0 ASAP.

Wetjen's Review of the Industry for 2008

In the latest Year In Review issue of Digital Publishing Solutions Magazine, Tom Wetjen adds some excellent words to where we are and where this business is heading:

According to the PIA/GATF 2006 Print Atlas, only about 23 percent of the 23,500 commercial printers in the U.S. offer digital printing. However, that number continues to grow and many in the industry expect it will rise dramatically in the next two to three years.

Print providers who haven’t yet addressed the digital opportunity are likely seeing their operations become less relevant to some of their customers and prospects. Digital offerings can be a true business differentiator that translate into growth and the ability to produce revenue-generating jobs.

Looking to 2008, there will continue to be demand for high-value monochrome jobs while the growth in color will keep accelerating. Specific print applications that will continue to drive page volume and profit will be digital books and manuals including full-color photo specialty books, TransPromo documents, marketing collateral on demand, and personalized direct mail.

Improvements in workflow have also eased the transition to digital and increased the profitability of hot applications—a trend that will continue in 2008. For example, the production of these applications can be driven by a Web-to-print system, where clients can log on to submit orders over the internet and print providers can move jobs into production quicker and streamline the fulfillment process.

Xerox differentiates itself with end-to-end turnkey solutions spanning the entire process. In this competitive market, it is important for print vendors to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Xerox focuses on helping print providers implement the right business model, the right workflow, and the right technology to drive success. Success doesn’t hinge on any one of these individually; you need all three, and Xerox prides itself on having the broadest portfolio of digital printing products, workflow software, and business development tools.

Digital-Offset....Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point has become an industry jargon for that "magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips and spreads like wildfire."   It's a trend that we are also starting to really see in the printing business between offset and digital.  I'm not here to say digital will outweigh or overtake offset but I am here to spread the word ... digital print is tipping towards a must have and a crucial part of your operation.  Your customers are more accustomed to it, creatives and designers praise the image quality and marketers are looking for new applications, personalization and fresh ideas.  Digital print is opening a lot of new avenues for printers.

 

Thanks to Heidi Tolliver-Nigro and the folks at Digital Publishing Solutions for giving this timely topic a cover story.  In this lead article Heidi outlines three factors to consider between offset and digital: 1.) Technical aspects of each press, 2.) Applications to be produced and 3. ) Total job cost (including prepress and bindery).

Some of the key takeaways from this read emphasize "Digital printers are becoming more and more like marketing services providers"; "Adding these services (1-to1 marketing, customization, where offset doesn't play) requires a fundamental shift in emphasis from manufacturing to business development...it involves becoming a different kind of company, one in which the method of print production is actually secondary."

Printers that recognize this tipping point may have already embraced digital or understand the need to offer a balance of both.  The difference is doing this now instead of waiting for your competitors to do it first.

Digital Print Shop In A Box

We're officially announcing this exciting offering at Graph Expo next week but here's a preview.

New From Xerox: Digital Print Shop In A Box
Xerox Develops New Resource for Commercial Printers to Quickly Build a Successful Digital Business. Digital Print Shop in a Box makes it easier to start a digital business, generate revenue.

ROCHESTER, NY, August 27, 2007 - Commercial printers can start and quickly build a successful, revenue-generating digital printing business by using a comprehensive set of tools and services now available from Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX).

Available to Xerox Customers
The Xerox Digital Print Shop in a Box, provided at no charge to customers, is an easy-to-use, interactive CD and Web-based collection that provides step-by-step guides, business resources, application software and associated services to get commercial printers up and running quickly.

Xerox believes there is a huge opportunity for printers to provide digital printing and services. According to the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation's (PIA/GATF) 2006 Print Atlas, about 77 percent of the 23,500 commercial printers in the United States have not yet made the move to digital printing.

"This is a single resource that removes the barriers identified by customers to enter the digital print market," said Quincy Allen, president, Xerox Production Systems Group. "It opens the door to new opportunities for commercial printers to complement their offset businesses and capture everything from simple short-run, on-demand digital jobs to more complex and lucrative one-to-one marketing pieces and Web-to-print collaterals. Digital Print Shop in a Box is another valuable tool to help our customers succeed in The New Business of Printing™."

Read the full Press Release here.

Digital Book Printing

Short Run Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

What's hot in printing and publishing these days? Digital Book Printing is VERY HOT today. The market for self-publishing, re-prints, custom books, catalogs and manuals has seen incredible growth recently.

Offering your clients the ability to produce small quantities of a book (static or versioned), fully finished and shipped in a tight window is a huge advantage.

Book Applications include:

- Catalogs/Manuals
- Reference Books
- Children's Books (think personalization)
- Scientific, Medical and Technical Journals
- Self-Publishing

Companies like Offset Paperback Manufacturers, Lulu and Lightning Source have built great businesses with short run digital books. Xerox has a lot of experience building customized workflows and equipment configurations that meet this kind of demand. Take a look at what Xerox is doing in this space. Click here for more info.

Balancing Digital and Offset - Compliments Your Workflow

The argument for merging digital into a workflow dominated by offset has gained real credibility in the marketplace. Printing companies embracing this co-existent philosophy are the ones moving into new revenues streams and building stronger relationships with their traditional clients. Xerox has helped a lot of companies build their print volumes with digital production. Whether it is a mid-range device to compliment your operations or a robust Digital Production Press, we have a solution that can help you. I read a great article recently in Digital Publishing Solutions Magazine that talks about this topic in more detail. There is a lot written about this topic these days. Many companies are fully embracing this strategy.  Read the full article...here.