The late Steve Jobs once said, “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”
Although inspiring, Jobs’ charge does create some additional questions, doesn’t it?
For starters, how do you get that close to your customers? And how do you learn to recognize your buyers’ needs well enough that you can have an influential voice in their world?
Those are some of the questions we’ll unpack this week in our email series on “Facing the Giants: How to Compete with Print Industry Giants.” If you’re just joining us, so far, we’ve explored ways you can toe-the-line with your big-box competitors by:
Ready to learn how you can compete by using your superpower of creating strong connections with your print buyers? Read on!
Connecting With Your Audience
When you want to win the affections and sales of potential print buyers, the secret is connection. Without it, you’re simply another faceless brand among the many thousands that will flash before a consumers’ eyes each day.
How do you build connections that last? Here are some dos and don’ts to get you started.
DO: Make Connections More Personal
If you want to see results from your connection attempts, work on making your connections more personal.
Put a name and/or a face to the correspondence you send out.
Consumers, and print buyers alike, like it when businesses engage them on social media or through email. But, they want to see and know the person that they’re engaging with. Here are a couple of ways to do this:
- Change your email “from” address. Instead of “Acme Printing USA,” put a personal name in it, such as “John at Acme Printing USA.”
- Respond to reviews and emails by name.
- Include a personal message from yourself on emails, direct mail pieces, and in your social media posts when posting on your company page.
All of these things together will help establish trust and creating better and stronger connections.
DON’T: Neglect to Embrace Your Print Shop Size
How do you view the size of your print shop?
Too often, small business owners wish to “puff up” the size of their businesses to appear bigger than they are, thinking that the size of their business validates its quality or value.
When it comes to connection, this is an instance where you need to stop looking at your “smallness” as a disadvantage and, instead, view your small business size as your greatest asset.
You have the ability to:
- Engage your audience directly,
- Discover needs for new products and services faster than any big-box competitor can, and
- Enjoy getting to know and serve your clients (all of them!) on a first-name basis.
According to Business News Daily, “Along with consistently good customer service, consumers value the ‘personalized experience, unique products or services and a sense of familiarity’ that small businesses provide.
Use the intimacy of your small-business size to create powerful connections that achieve mutual success!
DO: Have a Plan
French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
How about you? Are you “wishing” to make better connections with your print buyers, or do you have an actual plan in place – a plan that includes your own marketing on your production schedule?
While you probably spend your days helping other businesses succeed, never forget that your own marketing is the most important job you’ll produce each month.
Take your own direct mail marketing, for example. You can make it a priority by:
- Planning ahead and pre-scheduling time in your production area to personalize, print, and mail your own marketing materials.
- Keeping your mailing list current and updated – removing bad addresses and adding new businesses as you go.
- Mailing on time – the same time – every month to create a steady connection and relationship with your prospects and customers.
DON’T: Quit Too Soon
We live in a world of instant gratification, and those instant-result expectations pour over into the world of marketing.
Marketing, and the connections that stem from them, take time. Some marketing strategies can take roughly six to twelve months before you start to see the results you’re looking for. So, if you plan on mailing one direct mail postcard and then sitting back to collect your loot, you’re setting yourself up to most likely be disappointed.
Think of marketing touchpoints as deposits in the customer connection bank. The more you make, the better off you’ll be.
But Wait. There’s More!
The list of connection dos and don’ts could go on and on, but as we bring this week’s message to a close, here’s an overview of some additional ways you can help create lasting connections with your print buyers.
- Respond to the concerns of your customers. No one likes fair-weather friends (or businesses), so prove your dedication to being there in the good and the bad.
- Go the extra mile. As Zig Ziglar used to say, “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” If you want to stand out, be the printing company that goes above and beyond.
- Follow up and communicate. The quickest way to make a client or prospect feel unappreciated or invalidated is to go “radio-silent” when they reach out to you. Good follow-up is an inexpensive and easy way to earn the appreciation of your customers.
Join us again next week as you’ll discover ways to become a knowledge partner to your clients and rise to the top of the competition heap.
