How a Printer Broke My Heart

We sat next to each other at an industry event, just a small meeting with maybe 30 people. Speakers took the microphone one after the other as we sat at the same round table, he and I, enjoying a nice dinner and learning about cross-media marketing. It was something like the 20th time I’d listened to such a presentation, with a speaker imploring us all to jump on board the Multichannel Train and not be left behind.

I’ve been riding this train for years now and presumed that most everyone in our business was right alongside of me. What do I know?

Anyway, in the interest of learning about my dinner mate that night, I asked about his company—where it was located, what the shop did, and so on. Then I got around to the one question I was dying to ask: How do you promote your services?

“Word of mouth, mostly,” he replied.

Not known for having a poker face, I forced myself to nod, utter a gentle, “Really?” and carry on with dinner. He was with the company owner, and I had never met either of them before. It seemed rather inappropriate to challenge strangers over a plate of chicken and rice. I was too shocked, honest to Pete.

But my heart sank at his words. I so want to believe that service providers in this industry are branching out of pure WOM marketing. To me, getting involved in Web marketing is a no brainer.

You’ve got a website (I hope), right? It’s got a blog or two—or should have.

You have an email newsletter and/or a traditional customer newsletter that you send on a regular basis?

Please, PLEASE say yes.

You take part in LinkedIN Groups, surely—or at the very least, you snoop around a few key ones, seeing what your competition and prospects/customers might be saying.