What Printers Need to Grow and Transform Their Business

“Clearly, if you have heavy investments in printing equipment…you don’t want to abandon your heritage in transition to becoming a marketing service provider. Rather, you want to build on the knowledge and expertise you already have about your customers and their communications needs in order to deliver a broader portfolio of products and services that will make you a trusted partner and them a loyal customer.”

By building on the services you already offer as a printer—and let me say it again, focusing on the solutions your services provide—you are already much closer than you think to the key behind transforming your business from an average, run-of-the-mill printer, to a full-blown marketing service provider.

Here’s a Hint
If you’re still stuck on what kind of solutions your customers are looking for, consider multi-channel. Adding multi-channel offerings to the marketing solutions of any service provider is critical in this age of information accessibility. Focus on how your print products can carry, if not support, a variety of messages throughout multiple channels. The traditional industries of communications are changing daily and an endless introduction of new technologies have made the job of marketing more complex than ever. If you’re not sure what multi-channel marketing entails, stay tuned for my next post.

Keep in Mind
The important thing to keep in mind as a printer transforming into a marketing service provider, is that many of the tools and offerings you need to make the transformation are already in your arsenal. Think of print as your roots—where you came from, and all the ways your printed materials can tie into other channels, as the future—where your business is going. Change is never easy, but as far as business is concerned, it is necessary. Consider print and the services you have always provided as the nourishment your business needs to transform successfully in this brave new world of communications.