You’re a Printer. Stop Denying It!
I've had it with printing companies masquerading as marketing solutions providers. Lately, when I go online to find out more about a particular firm, I have to dig deeper into a Website than just the home page (Mistake #1: obscure the truth about your services on the home page.) to find out what a company really does.
If the Web content is clear and direct, I shouldn't have to scour the site to see if a company really is a "marketing solutions provider" as it claims—or a print manufacturer, which is more and more likely.
Who's the cluck behind this movement, anyway? Do you really think that print customers, creatives and corporate marketing managers won’t eventually find out that you're a manufacturer? Why are you hiding it, anyway?
You’re not ashamed of being a printer, are you?
In this business, if you have a manufacturing facility, you’re a printer.
If you have an equipment list on your site (well hidden, often), you're a printer.
If terms like "prepress," "commercial printing," "1-to-1 communications," "packaging" and "warehousing" are used here and there to describe some of your offerings, you're a printer.
You can redo your Website, hire a writer (sorry, "content creator") to scrub your site of traditional print company lingo, and pepper it liberally with cool new snapshots, but anyone who knows better will peel back the pixilated pages and see that you are, indeed, a printer.
You may be a printer who offers Web-to-print solutions to your customers. Or, a printer who is an expert in cross-media marketing solutions. Perhaps you have creatives on staff. Maybe you are one of those exceptional companies known for innovation, and for helping customers conceive of, create, produce and distribute real knock-yer-socks-off campaigns.
Just come out and say so, in plain English, on your Website...please! The obfuscation on so many sites is killing me. Eventually I realize that I'm visiting the Website of a printer who's pretending to be otherwise.
It’s no fun being duped.
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Long regarded as a print buyer expert and trade writer, Margie Dana launched a new business as a marketing communications strategist with a specialty in printing and print buying. She is as comfortable working in social media as she is in traditional media, and now she’s on a mission to help clients build customer communities through carefully crafted content. Dana was the producer of the annual Print & Media Conference.
Although she has exited the event business, Dana is still publishing her Print Tips newsletter each week. For more details and to sign up for her newsletter and marketing blog, visit www.margiedana.com
