Dave Hultin Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Marketing, content, & technology to help printers sell more printing

Welcome back to another edition of Sell More Printing, where we explore real-world sales and marketing strategies that you, as a printer, can adapt to boost your business. This month, we’re tackling a topic close to home – my own klutzy coffee mishap and how it can be adapted to create a recurring revenue stream for you. Cleaning up Spilled Coffee with a Subscription Picture my not-so-graceful departure on a recent family road trip. My poorly secured cup of coffee led to an unfortunate spill on my iPhone. The panicked moments that followed, marked by a “Liquid Detected” warning, led me to an impromptu subscription to iCloud+. I hastily subscribed to iCloud+ before we drove away, and this subscription allowed me to back up my iPhone on the go. My hope? Salvage my data before the coffee-induced demise of my phone. How This Helps You Sell More Printing In my chaotic coffee episode, iCloud+ became my data lifeline. That got me thinking, as a printer, you can consider something similar for your printing business – offering a File Storage subscription akin to iCloud+. Offering this service as a subscription not only secures your clients’ precious files but also provides a

Each month’s Sell More Printing feature aims to highlight the exceptional sales and marketing efforts of others so you can adapt them to help you sell more printing. Last month, we explored a unique way to strengthen relationships with high-value clients by sending a physical Money Tree plant to symbolize mutual growth and your commitment to their success. Let’s take this concept one step further with two simple ice cubes! Watering the Money Tree with Ice If you followed the QR code from last month’s article to the ongoing conversation on LinkedIn, you know that our preferred vendor for the Money Tree is a company called Just Add Ice. It’s a clever name, but what does it mean? Well, when you order a Money Tree from Just Add Ice, it comes with a tag in the plant’s soil with clear and concise instructions: It’s a visual reminder that’s hard to miss, making the care process foolproof. Make it Easy and Memorable What could be easier than watering with ice cubes? But Just Add Ice doesn’t stop there. They go the extra mile to ensure that customers never forget to water their Money Trees by offering to send them friendly email

Welcome to the start of a new feature to help you Sell More Printing! This article aims to highlight the exceptional sales and marketing efforts of others so you can adapt them to help you sell more printing. First in our sights is the Money Tree, which provides a creative and clever way to show appreciation to your best customers. The Money Tree The Money Tree is an actual plant. (Its fancy name is “Pachira aquatica” if you need proof!) The name makes it sound like it has a centuries-old legend attached to it, but its story is just a few decades old. Its popularity started in the 1980s when a Taiwanese truck driver braided the trunks of five small trees in a single flowerpot. Here’s a picture of the Money Tree I keep sitting on my desk: Send a Money Tree to High-Value Print Buyers Here at Marketing Ideas For Printers, I now send a Money Tree to subscribers purchasing a premium subscription service by following this simple process. First, I make an informal YouTube video that shows my Money Tree and mentions how we’ll both be able to fertilize our Money Trees and grow together. We then have

We live in a world that’s saturated with data. Data can be ignored (like, did you really need to see how many new Facebook mentions you received in the last 90 seconds?), or data can be used for productive purposes, such as uncovering new sales opportunities. Today, I have two sales-related data stories to share with you. One is a data failure, and the other is a data success—first, the failure. Sales Data Fail Several years ago, we made a change in our office and installed a new water dispenser with an inline filtration system, replacing the previous dispenser that required us to swap out jugs of fresh water five gallons at a time. If you look at the picture above, you can see the water lines coming out of the wall. We moved into the modern era and no longer had to carry water! A few of my team joked that it looked like the water was now being delivered by Ethernet! Digital water, who would have guessed?!? After the installation of the new system, I called the original water delivery service and canceled all future deliveries of those five-gallon jugs. The vendor confirmed that they’d cancel

If we were like every other business, we’d be offering you a year-end review right about now. But, you know what? Here at Marketing Ideas For Printers, we like to do things a little differently to allow for a greater vision. It looks like this. We follow a quarterly rhythm for working on the bigger projects that bring content and online ordering solutions together by asking ourselves, “What are the most important things we need to accomplish in the next 90 days?” We then create that list and get to work on those most important projects. Often, one of the first things I do when starting a project like that is to write a press release announcing the completed project. That press release is used for vision casting and for internal use only; its purpose is to help everyone involved understand what the project’s end result is supposed to look like. That, in turn, helps everyone get pointed in the right direction immediately. In the spirit of those “predictive press releases,” I thought you’d enjoy my perspective on the coming year here at Marketing Ideas For Printers and what’s coming your way to help you sell more printing. 2023: A

Owning a business can bring about a fantastic journey. Last year, my wife, Judy, decided to begin this entrepreneurial journey herself when she launched Fargo Glamping, a business built on the idea of Glamour + Camping = Glamping. So far, it’s been a successful journey for Judy, and it’s been fun to see her idea take shape. But watching my wife’s business grow from the ground up has reminded me that relying only on the products or services a business provides isn’t going to make her company grow roots as successfully as she wants or needs. In today’s online world, it’s social proof and reviews that are the new currency. For example, I can show you a pretty picture of the tent she provides for a one-of-a-kind glamping event, but it doesn’t become real until you hear about the experience and imagine what the experience could be for yourself by reading a review, such as: Thank you so much for the wonderful experience! My daughter had the best birthday and she can’t wait to do it all again next year. The tent was more than we ever expected and was absolutely beautiful! The small details that you all do make

I’m not even sure when it happened. At some point, Fargo, North Dakota, the city in which Marketing Ideas For Printers calls its home, changed from a big little city into a little big city. And that means dealing with big-city challenges, which lately, haven’t been pleasant. An Upside-Down World A few nights ago, I watched a live stream video showing violence and destruction in downtown Fargo as visiting insurrectionists used the tension associated with the death of George Floyd to bring their dangerous message to our little big city. I know we’re not the only city wrestling with this kind of violence, and I pray you’re all safe. Along with this topsy-turvy violence, our society as a whole continues to adapt to the twists and turns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Again, I know we’re not the only city wrestling with coronavirus, and I pray you’re all safe. So, how do you handle the challenges brought to your doorstep? How are you adapting to lead others well in such tumultuous times? Here are three things I like to keep in mind. 3 Things to Remember When Embracing the Challenge of Change 1. Perspective is Everything There’s currently some internet wisdom

At the time I’m writing this article, our country is adjusting to a new normal forced upon us by the Coronavirus. We’re all calibrating to this new normal by the day (if not by the hour), so by the time you read this there may be even a different version of the new normal. Here are some tips to help you survive (and even thrive!) in the new normal. Empathize with Your Message The Coronavirus update email faucet turned on wide-open once it became clear that the Coronavirus would be sticking around for a while. There are the obligatory emails from our kids’ schools and our church; those get an automatic pass through my personal “pay attention” filter. Then there are the emails that are nothing other than a disingenuous series of sanitized words carefully crafted to show the reader that a company was actually able to implement the common-sense virus-fighting suggestions and best practices. I’m sure you’ve received these emails too. The subject line is almost always a tip-off. Here are some examples of those email subjects, fresh from my inbox: A Message to Our Clients COVID-19 Action Plan Coronavirus: What you need to know Account Update: ____’s Response to COVID-19 COVID-19 and our commitment to you I understand that these messages are important (at least to the sender!) and may indeed even be necessary, but they sure are impersonal. They’re almost always

Next week, you might be one of the many printers passing through the Houston airport as you arrive for the 8th Annual Spring Conference for the National Print Owners Association (NPOA). I thought you might find it interesting to know that as you head over to claim your luggage at the baggage claim, you’re experiencing the result of some creative problem-solving. The Problem With Waiting Several years ago, passengers passing through the Houston airport often complained about how much time they had to wait to claim their bags. Airport management was concerned that the number of complaints was excessive, and as any good customer-focused business would do, executives at the Houston airport addressed the issue head-on. The Conventional Solution Additional baggage handlers were added, and the average time to wait for passengers to claim their luggage fell to eight minutes, which was a wait time well within accepted airport benchmarks. Problem solved! Or was it? Even with the reduced wait time, the complaints kept coming. The airport executives found they needed to explore the problem from a completely different angle. So, they zoomed out their perspective on the wait-time issue and learned that while the baggage typically arrived at the

It seems a day rarely goes by without our team here at Marketing Ideas For Printers fielding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) questions from our customers and prospects. I recently found myself answering one of those questions with one of our newest customers and found myself remembering the advice of Sal, the SEO Expert. Sal offered good advice almost two years ago, and it’s still relevant today. So, I thought it time to reintroduce you to Sal’s tips and expand on Sal’s recommendation to approach your website’s SEO strategy the same way you approach a book. It All Starts with the Title When you enter a bookstore, whether the physical or virtual version, what do you notice first? Of course, it’s the book covers, and the same is true with search engines. That’s because the title is what appears in your website’s home page tab or window bar, and it’s the equivalent of a book’s title. Books are known by their titles, so it’s essential to ask yourself: How do you want your website to be known? How do you want to be known to the search engines? Then, make sure the answer to those questions reflects in your website’s title.

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