The primary aim of our customers is to fill the presses. Some of our customers are full service marketing providers, combining their printing activities with a whole new set of offerings. But even in those cases, the core activity remains printing. One way of promoting this is to add additional value to the services. Providing marketing tools for the end customers, for example.
Tools to create print
Many of the tools are even aimed directly at generating additional print orders. Database publishing tools for the marketing department, for example. Allowing them to create their own catalogs. Or complete web2print solutions for the corporate end users. Large audiences then have very direct access to the printing presses, and can submit orders on a continuous basis.
Some of the tools may be aimed at a wide audience. For example by automating the public website of the printing company, and making it include quoting or web2print functionalities. But in many cases it is aimed at a specific corporate audience. A large account, or maybe a group of similar companies.
Tools to gain customers
One one side, our customers use DMP FLO Suite to create their own sales tools. A nice sample of this is the DMP website itself, generated and hosted in the software. But once the contact has been made, the end customer needs to be convinced. Pricing will always be an issue, obviously. But more and more of our customers try to add additional value instead of provide the cheapest print. Offering tools for the marketing department to automate their communication workflow, for example. This way, the people in the marketing department gain time for other initiatives.
But in some cases, the tools are not even implemented for this to be accomplished. It is not uncommon for an end customer to be convinced by a technology demo. It demonstrates that the printing company is growing. And once the end customer is ready to grow as well, they know they have a partner to assist them.
Tools to retain customers
Once the customers are in, you will want to keep them. Especially the large accounts, generating consistent weekly orders. An old way of doing this was by keeping hold of their content. Artwork, images, and so on. But building customized tools for the end customer works at least as well. By providing solutions that no other printing company has, it is much harder for the end customer to take his orders someplace else next week. And this is even more the case when the tool is used by more people in the organization.
Traditionally a printing company would have a very limited amount of contacts at the corporate end user. Some people in marketing or purchasing, for example. By providing a web2print solution for the employees of the customer, there might not be direct contact, but it is there nonetheless. And rather than having to change a few price sheets and telephone numbers to change the business relationship, the end customer would have to explain to all users why the tool changed. Which is a much bigger step to take.