Make Your Customers the Stars of Your Marketing

Published May 6, 2015

Your marketing should talk more about your customers than about you. Compelling marketing content is about telling customer success stories to teach and attract more customers who find your content relevant to their current challenges.

Launching Additional Brands Online

Published April 24, 2015

What’s more costly, opening up a new successful retail location or a new successful online brand/store? The answer is “it depends”. Just because making a new e-commerce site is “cheap” doesn’t take into consideration all the costs of driving traffic and getting conversions.

Print Estimating & Quoting System Product Spotlight: arifiQ

Published April 15, 2015

Self-service is a growing preference among customers, pricing transparency is a feature of our online world, and speed is a growing differentiator in all aspects of our business. arifiQ has focused on a pivotal function of print – estimating/quoting; enabling printers to adapt to the new realities of our increasingly digital, online, and fast-paced business environment.

Print’s Representation at the MarTech Conference

Published April 14, 2015

MarTech – the Marketing Technology Conference took place March 31, 2015 in San Francisco. I attended to see how print is being represented within the modern marketing mix.

Online Marketing for Printers

Published April 10, 2015

You haven’t updated your website in over two years. You don’t remember if you have a LinkedIn page, you thought someone once tweeted something, and you recently had a customer complain about not being able to find you online.

Data-Driven: Thriving Print Business in 2020

Published April 6, 2015

A data-driven print business starts with a trusted system of record and then as selected meaningful metrics that influence your business decisions and your staff’s daily behavior.

Online Engagement: Thriving Print Business in 2020

Published March 30, 2015

The online channel is in the language of the customer and you have to compete to be found. These fundamental characteristics of this channel should drive your online presence at every level.

Thriving Print Business in 2020: Diversified, Online, and Data-Driven

Published March 23, 2015

Expand your thinking in many directions, beyond the four walls of your manufacturing operations, beyond your business into your customer’s business, and beyond print to the other communication methods that are complimentary to print.

The Role of Marketing in Your Print Business

Published March 16, 2015

Marketing is about delivering qualified leads to your sales team. The online world has converted marketing into a role that can be precisely measured. Start thinking of marketing as a role with a quote (# of qualified leads delivered), stop thinking of marketing as your brand colors or business card design.

As a Print Owner, Where is Your Focus?

Published March 9, 2015

If your focus is all internal, you are missing the broader context of how your products and services are utilized within your customer’s business. Loyal customers are created when you help them achieve their business results, that means engaging with customers in the broader context of their business.

Now What Are You Trying to Sell Me?

Published March 2, 2015

The first impressions of your business will be online. How does your online presence compare to you offline presence? Can prospects understand your business and what you can do for them from your website, your blog, and your social media channels? Your online presence sets up your sales team for success.

Radical vs. Incremental Change with Web-to-Print and Print MIS

Published February 16, 2015

Do you approach change as an incremental, keep everyone comfortable manner? Or do you see how much the external conditions have changed while your company has stayed still? Is your print software able to support your current and future business needs?

Own Your Print Software: Web-to-Print and Print MIS

Published February 9, 2015

Let’s get one thing perfectly clear, you DO NOT invest in print software to run your business as it is today. The whole point of software is to enable you to run your business differently - creating more efficiency.

Web-to-Print Product Spotlight: MarcomCentral

Published February 4, 2015

Twenty years ago when we described the function of marketing we would have started with terms like “creative” and “messaging.” Then we would have talked about distribution channels for getting these creative assets and messages out to the target audiences, primarily consisting of print, TV, and radio.

From the Yellow Pages to Google

Published February 4, 2015

When local businesses moved from “getting found” via the yellow pages to internet search so much changed.

The Role of the Project Manager in Print Software

Published February 2, 2015

Every business owner has ideas, plans, and a vision for what they want their company to become. There is never a shortage of ideas; there is a severe lack of execution. Good project management can convert more of your ideas to reality through a disciplined execution process that annoys most people involved (especially impatient, attention deficit prone business owners).

Table Service at McDonald’s

Published January 28, 2015

The dining experience at fast food restaurants isn’t about the dining experience at all. It’s about the price, the availability, and the consistency no matter where you are in the world. The value proposition is clear, you serve yourself, you’re encouraged to clean up after yourself, and clearly by the comfort of the seats, you aren’t encouraged to linger.

Focus on Solutions in Print Software

Published January 26, 2015

Frustration happens, especially with print software projects like Print MIS and web-to-print. When frustration happens do you flex, adjust, look for a solution or do you stay in that frustrated state? Find evidence of the behavior you want more of and reward that behavior, in your people, in your vendors, in your partners – that will accomplish more than yelling, escalating, and threatening will ever do.

Industry Events, Peer Recommendations, and Print Software Decisions

Published January 19, 2015

EFI Connect, Dscoop X, AMPS Executive Leadership, NPOA, and PODI, the upcoming industry events where you have an excellent opportunity to connect and collaborate with peers. Do you want to do everything in your power to assure your next print software decision is a good one? Get the whole story from a peer who has already implemented the solution.

Jacob Aizikowitz on Integration, Mobile, and Helping Printers Find Success Online

Published January 19, 2015

Jennifer Matt sat down with Jacob Aizikowitz to find out how XMPie approaches integration with other systems. What XMPie is doing to support mobile. And how they help printing companies find success with online services.

The False Security of the Print Software RFP

Published January 12, 2015

The checklist RFP (Request For Proposal) fails to deliver the best purchasing decision. Your peers (the voice of current customers) are your most trusted source of information about how print software products perform in live environments and how print software companies support their customers after the sales process.

Print MIS Product Spotlight: PrintVis

Published January 7, 2015

The PrintVis MIS solution has a phenomenal product span, meaning the ability to “flex” in both directions, respond to growth and decline. In this Product Spotlight, Jen Matt reviews the PrintVis MIS solution.

We Have Always Done it This Way

Published January 5, 2015

Change is viewed as risky because we want to believe that past success guarantees our future success. Your customers are changing, technology is changing, and your competitors are changing, why would you think that maintaining the status quo is anything but the riskiest thing you can do? Standing still is the only way to assure your business’ decline

Increase Print Software User Adoption by Showing Less

Published December 15, 2014

Often the best way to drive a print software solution’s adoption rate is to eliminate the complexity. How ironic is this? We buy print software products based on extensive feature lists and then we drive adoption of the software by turning most of the features off so people will actually use the tool. Isn’t that an awesome irrational cycle we put ourselves into?

Print MIS Product Spotlight: PressWise

Published December 10, 2014

The online channel is vital to the future of your print business. The online channel includes all the ways you engage with your customers online. Every new channel you open up with a customer increases the overall loyalty of that customer, creates barriers to entry for your competitors, and has the potential to decrease the customer burden of doing business with you by offering self-service access to your business.

Embrace Print Software as Complimentary to Your People

Published December 1, 2014

Your people have the power to resist print software technology changes by focusing on the challenges instead of finding solutions. Your job as a leader is to portray technology as a complimentary tool for your people to work more effectively.

Collaborative Commerce: The Necessary Evolution of Web-to-Print

Published November 24, 2014

Web-to-print technology and the customer facing resources working in print today need to evolve together so we can support online “collaborative commerce”: a procurement process that requires collaboration between the buyer and the seller.

Print MIS Product Spotlight: CoreBridge

Published November 19, 2014

CoreBridge is a cloud based, multi-tenant software solution whose business model is subscription based. Like pure technology startups, CoreBridge’s pricing model is easy to understand, available on their website, and allows you to start small and grow with CoreBridge through volume and/or functionality.

Teaching and Telling Stories Online

Published November 17, 2014

First impressions of your business matter, especially to new prospects. More and more first impressions are online. How does your online presence compare to your offline one?

Marketing Equals Lead Generation – Give them a Quota

Published November 13, 2014

Unless you are a large public company who needs to “protect their brand” and produce appropriate messaging for Wall Street (otherwise known as corporate marketing), the primary role of marketing in your organization should be lead generation.

Print Software: Dreaming vs. Executing

Published November 10, 2014

The raw potential of what technology can do for our business is unlimited, like a book a matches there is great possibility. Execution is about determining which match (project, goal, objective) you are going to put your energy into to ignite and then sustain your focus to create real change. Dreaming helps you think big, executing forces you to act within the constraints of your environment (resources, market, customers, and budget).

Define the Problem First

Published October 31, 2014

I am involved in a lot of conversations where companies and people are trying to solve a business challenge with software. Communication is so compressed nowadays, people’s time is limited, and we are almost always communicating across multiple time zones and frequently across cultures. This makes a common understanding difficult and opens up lots of opportunity for confusion.

Getting Found: Yellow Pages to Online Search

Published October 27, 2014

Online search has replaced the Yellow Pages as the primary way local businesses get found. This change requires a very different approach by businesses and a steep learning curve. The online world requires you to compete to be “found” for a lion share of the search traffic. The competition is constantly changing, therefore local businesses need to make a sustained investment.

What Does “Change” Mean to You?

Published October 24, 2014

Change evokes fear in some, excitement in others, and dread in many. What we can all agree on, change is picking up the pace.

Why Most Technology Demonstrations Suck!

Published October 22, 2014

Jennifer Matt rants about what she hates about software technology demonstrations.

Every Print Job Doesn’t Deserve an Estimate

Published October 20, 2014

Efficiency requires the segmentation of your workflow into at least three different workflows: self-service, light-service, and full-service. Each workflow applies the appropriate amount of labor and technology to deliver on the promise to the customer in the most efficient manner possible.

How Printers Should Think About Marketing

Published October 8, 2014

Jennifer Matt talks about how to think about marketing for printers. Start with the very simple premise - who are you going to market to? Don't skip over this critical step because its required for everything else you do in marketing.

Print Software Project or Emotional Roller Coaster?

Published September 29, 2014

Change is difficult for most people; everyone travels at their own pace through a process that starts with resistance and for most finishes in acceptance. You can improve your chances of success by communicating a lot in the beginning, providing emotional support in the middle and then becoming more of a coach once people are starting to accept there is really only one option – adapt or leave.

Print Software at Graph Expo

Published September 29, 2014

Web-to-Print and Print MIS vendors have always been represented at Graph Expo mostly hidden amongst the presses, wide format devices, and finishing gear. The trend we are seeing is less heavy equipment at the show, hence more room for software solutions to get the air time they deserve.

Web-to-Print Product Spotlight: PageDNA

Published September 26, 2014

This product spotlight focuses on three areas of the PageDNA offering: the store building wizard and project management approach to configuring new storefronts, their open approach to integrations, and the flexibility of their services model.

Stop Focusing on the Tools - Focus on Your Customers!

Published September 24, 2014

Jennifer Matt talks about redirecting your marketing focus on your customers first, then use the social media tools that your customers use.

Digital Darwinism - Adapting to the new realities of our digital world

Published September 19, 2014

Adapting to the new realities of our digital world is a challenge for all industries. Digital Darwinism impacts all of us because the rate of change in technology and society is outpacing our organizations. Change is inevitable; the pace of change has to accelerate if you’re going to be on the survivor side of Digital Darwinism.

I Keep Buying New Web-to-Print Solutions, They All Stink!

Published September 19, 2014

Jennifer Matt talks about what might be the cause of your repeated failure with web-to-print solutions.

Simplify Online Marketing

Published September 17, 2014

Jennifer Matt simplifies and defines the topic of online marketing in terms of two very simple ideas; driving traffic and converting the visitors who show up.

Print MIS Product Spotlight: EPMS

Published September 17, 2014

This product spotlight focuses on three areas of the EPMS Print MIS offering: the continuous expansion of Print MIS direct users, the support for an industry that is aggressively diversifying, and the ability to make EPMS work uniquely for your business through customization and integration.

3 Top Reasons Web-to-Print Projects Fail

Published September 8, 2014

The three top reasons web-to-print projects fail; the lack of business leadership, the sales team fails to sell the solution, and the customer fails to adopt the solution.

Print Software is a Tool (like a Hammer)

Published September 2, 2014

We confuse tools for solutions. Print software is a required tool that is part of an overall investment in making your business more productive, profitable, and competitive. The business results come from your vision, your plan, and the deployment of your labor who utilize the tool to deliver the business results you desire.

More Print Industry Shelfware: CRM Systems

Published August 28, 2014

Lots of Print MIS systems have added CRM modules to their offering. This makes sense, the Print MIS should be your system of record for all the interactions you have with current customers, adding a layer on top of your Print MIS would give you access to all the business the customer transacts with you.

3 Critical Factors for Web-to-Print Sales & Marketing Success

Published August 25, 2014

Would you put your Sales department in charge of your next IT project? Heck no! So why do you put your IT department in charge of your web-to-print projects?

Solution Selling and Web-to-Print

Published August 21, 2014

Jennifer Matt talks about how web-to-print can enable printers to extend their value beyond the shipment of printed materials. Web-to-Print allows you to start providing marketing logistics to your customers.

Why Printers are Vulnerable to Brokers, Distributors, and Print Management Companies

Published August 18, 2014

Customers expect more from their vendor partners than simply delivering the product on time and at a fair price. As the print industry continues to contract, differentiation is required to remain competitive. Printers are at risk from print-manufacturing independent service providers because customers are looking to reduce the number of vendors and engage with vendor partners who make doing business with them very easy.

Order-Entry Data Collection

Published August 14, 2014

Asking the Right Questions About Print Software Integration

Published August 14, 2014

Jennifer Matt talks about the topic of print software integration, how to ask the right questions during the sales process, and how to understand the key components of integration.

Self-Service vs. Full-Service

Published August 11, 2014

Customer preference is trending towards self-service, yet most printers continue to offer only one way to do business with them – a full-service order entry process that involves multiple back and forth communications between customer and printer via e-mail/FTP.

Is Your Web-to-Print Solution Under-Utilized?

Published August 7, 2014

Print Software Section Editor Jennifer Matt talks about the common causes for web-to-print systems that are under utilized or not used at all.

Features vs. Benefits of Print Software

Published July 31, 2014

Jennifer Matt talks about the importance of selling software solutions in the form of benefits to the customer instead of the features of the product.

Choosing a Web-to-Print Partner

Published July 24, 2014

Print technology of all kinds; presses, production software, Print MIS software, and web-to-print technologies have one thing in common – they are constantly changing. This one factor probably causes the most pain in the purchasing process. As a buyer you want to feel confident with your purchasing decision, yet the very thing you’re investing in is in a constant state of change.

The Benefits of Integrating with a Customer's Technology

Published July 24, 2014

Print Software Section Editor Jennifer Matt talks about why you would want to integrate with a customer's technology. A key to building customer loyalty is to decrease their burden to do business with you.

When Marketing Web-to-print, Don't Call it Web-to-Print!

Published July 17, 2014

Jennifer Matt gives some key tips on how to brand your web to print offering by telling your story and not using the term web-to-print or the software solution you are using.

Winning the Big Deal with Little Decisions

Published July 10, 2014

Jennifer Matt discusses how to approach winning a big print sale by asking your customers to make a series of little decisions. Big decisions send your sales process up the food chain, cause delays, and often result in pricing concessions. Taking the path of a lot of small decisions can get you to the same place with less resistance.

What Can You Do to Save Your Customers Money?

Published July 9, 2014

A printer e-mailed me recently and said, “the Vice President of Procurement at our biggest customer is open to a meeting but she wants to know what I can do to save her money.” Of course she does, she’s always wanted her vendors to engage with her in a way that solves her business challenges and makes her look good.

Building Digital Connections with Your Customers

Published July 1, 2014

Your sales team creates customer demand for your products and services, your production team fulfills that demand by manufacturing quality printed products on-time. Both your sales team and your production team need to be SOLD on the strategic, long-term importance of creating digital connections to your existing customers and using digital connections to win new customers.

Selling Solutions: A Path for Your Print Sales Team

Published June 24, 2014

Customers have challenges; the best way to increase your sales is to provide your products and services wrapped into solutions to your customer’s challenges. Solution selling is an easier topic to write about then it is to execute on. Too many people write about the idea without providing guidance on how to get from where you are today (selling print jobs) to selling print programs or solutions.

Experts at the Past vs. a Vision for the Future

Published June 17, 2014

Last week I was in Bali, Indonesia, speaking at Dscoop Asia. The event, the travel, and the reading I did along the way came together with a common theme which can best be summed up by a quote from the book I read on the way home.

Say Thank You: Customer-Vendor Relationships

Published June 5, 2014

When you are the customer, you’re always right – correct? Maybe not always but the relationship between customer and vendor is a tricky one.

Web-to-Print: Are Users Ordering or Shopping?

Published June 3, 2014

A web-to-print site is all about customer convenience, enabling your customers to order from you in a self-service fashion. One thing to understand about your customers is whether they are ordering or shopping.

How Can Lean Startup Concepts Improve Software Implementations?

Published May 29, 2014

WhatTheyThink's Jennifer Matt talks software implementation and the concept of "lean startup". Jen argues applying the lean startup concepts to web-to-print implementations can help improve the speed and effectiveness of the process.

Test Your Assumptions via Minimum Viable Product

Published May 29, 2014

We think we know our customers, we think we know our market; we think we can predict the future, we can’t and we shouldn’t invest lots of money without building in the ability to test our assumptions with data rather than opinions and theories.

Selling Against Yourself with Web-to-Print

Published May 15, 2014

Jennifer Matt, Managing Editor of WhatTheyThink's Print Software Section, asks one of her favorite questions: "How would you sell against yourself to your biggest client?"

Web-to-Print: A Mission Critical Sales and Marketing Project

Published May 13, 2014

Web-to-Print is a sales and marketing project that happens to involve technology, yet most printers delegate the leadership of web-to-print projects to their technical resources. We are collectively as an industry putting too much emphasis on the technology and not enough emphasis on the sales and marketing aspects.

Your Marriage to Your Print MIS May Be in Trouble!

Published May 6, 2014

There are several marriage mistakes that lead to divorce: cheating, dishonesty, addictions, and major changes in priorities. What does this have to do with your print management information system (Print MIS)? I am suggesting that your Print MIS is your most important business partner.

Print Software Vendors – Send Us Your News

Published May 5, 2014

Welcome to Print Software, WhatTheyThink’s new special interest section. Because software is the primary tool of the information age, we wanted to create a specific area dedicated to this topic. Virtually every decision you make about your business involves some software technology or the requirement for connectivity/integration.

How Sales Creates Web-to-Print Disasters

Published April 30, 2014

The sales process sets up the critical transition period from lead to customer. Customers remember what was said in the sales process and they often use this to guide their approach to implementation. Don’t inadvertently focus your soon to be customers in the wrong direction.

Don't Prioritize Activity Over Strategy

Published April 21, 2014

Activity does not equal results. You can be really busy, work really hard and fail miserable because you were busy doing the wrong thing.

Need to Scale Your Sales? Invest in Marketing

Published December 17, 2013

The online world enables good online marketing to escort prospects through the sales process (know me, like me, trust me, and pay me). Online marketing is a path to scaling your sales reach.

Use Technology to Change Behavior

Published December 3, 2013

Technology promises great potential to create leverage in our business. Leverage isn’t created in the purchase of technology; real leverage comes from how the use of the technology changes the behavior of the people who use it.

How Would You Sell Against Yourself in Your Largest Client?

Published October 11, 2013

When I interview print sales representatives and ask them why their customers do business with them, they almost always say because we have a great relationship, our service is great, and our people are great. Relationship selling is a very common way to sell.

A Passive Print Business Doesn’t Work Anymore (Be Assertive)

Published September 24, 2013

The default for decades has been, when you want to communicate something (a marketing message, information, education, compliance message, etc.) you contacted your printer and discussed the timeframe, manufacturing specifications, and quantities. Printers could be passive

Let’s Proactively Evolve Print from Outbound to Inbound Marketing

Published August 27, 2013

Outbound marketing is promotion-based; spread the message about my company, my products, and my services to as many people as I can interrupt in the hope that some will find the message relevant. Print examples of this are blasting out huge direct mail campaigns to strangers, newspaper advertisements, and billboards.

The Software You Buy vs. the Software You Use

Published August 20, 2013

A 2002 Standish Group study of software projects found that 45% of features were never used and only 20% features were used often or always. We base our software investment decisions on the number of features a product has and then we fail to utilize 80% of those features. Does that make sense to anyone?

Make Great Software Decisions

Published July 30, 2013

We collectively make a lot of poor software decisions, according to my very bias and unscientific research we make way more mistakes in this area than we do with other business decisions. What is it about technology that causes a collective brain freeze when it comes to making good decisions?

Printer’s Marketing Efforts: The Untold Story

Published July 23, 2013

For many years I cringed every time I heard someone in the print industry say, “printers need to become marketing service providers.” My initial reaction was always, are you kidding me?

The Pace of Change Around You

Published July 2, 2013

I was involved in an RFP-like process recently, the organization made the following statement which I haven’t stopped thinking about since it dropped into my consciousness.

Why Most Sales Pitches/Presentations Suck

Published June 18, 2013

The number one best answer to any question posed by a prospect during the sales process is a clarifying question (hopefully several of them). The two best clarifying questions are, “what business challenge are you trying to solve?” and “how would you define wild success?”

A Printer’s Online Infrastructure Investment

Published June 4, 2013

Doing business online requires an infrastructure investment. Your business needs to be able to control content, commerce, and customer engagement online from your home base online – your domain.

A Real Commitment to Change

Published May 21, 2013

A commitment to real change requires real risk because you have to be all-in for it to work. Too many technology projects fail because nobody was committed to bring forth the change necessary for success.

Technology’s ROI Requires People

Published May 7, 2013

Technology alone does not create value, differentiation, or competitive advantage. It has to be combined with strategy and execution (by your people) – that’s where real differentiation happens.

Business-to-Business Commerce aka Web-to-Print

Published April 9, 2013

Business-to-business commerce may not be getting the headlines in the print industry, yet across all industries in the US it’s nearly twice the size of the business-to-consumer market. It’s vital that printers understand the B2B opportunity and not confuse it with jumping into a price war with retailers online.

What Job Does Web-to-Print Do for Your Customers?

Published March 12, 2013

Web-to-print is a product that should do a “job” for you and/or your customers. When you look at technology purchases through the lens of “jobs” you focus on what’s really important.

Your #1 Strategic Imperative: Build a Learning Organization

Published March 4, 2013

The greatest investment you can make in your business is to assure you living the example of a lifelong learner for your organization and then surround yourself with other lifelong learners.

Buying Print Software: A How To Guide

Published February 12, 2013

Too many mistakes (big ones) are being made in our industry around software purchases at a time when nobody can afford expensive mistakes. Virtually all of these mistakes are preventable.

Web Strategy vs. Web Technology

Published January 21, 2013

There is no shortage of talk about web-to-print technologies; there is too little talk about printer’s online strategies. Printers can talk for hours about how this or that web technology has failed them or this or that technology is what made all the difference.

When Things Go (Sometimes Horribly) Wrong

Published December 7, 2012

We have a choice how we react to mistakes/failures. This is an area where we can learn from the technology startup world. Mistakes are learning events; sometimes very expensive but invaluable learning opportunities which should be analyzed to get everything you can out of them. Learning from mistakes requires you to remove the moral mindset to your reaction and replace it with an economic mindset.

Print's Evolving Role in the Digital Economy

Published November 16, 2012

The print industry is facing a tectonic level change in the communication business. You have to chart a new course that takes these changes into consideration in order to remain competitive. There are many options; the only one that isn't viable is the status quo.

Jennifer Matt on the getting real stage of web-to-print

Published November 5, 2012

Cary Sherburne speaks with WhatTheyThink contributor Jennifer Matt about what she calls the "getting real stage" of web-to-print.

Jennifer Matt on selecting a web-to-print technology

Published October 29, 2012

Jennifer Matt talks about mistakes printers make in selecting a web-to-print technology and how to avoid the pitfalls.

Measuring Activity Instead of Results

Published October 19, 2012

Being busy does not equate to delivering results. We are so caught up in the culture of busy we forget to reflect on why we're doing what we do and how it contributes to the results we seek.

Web-to-Print Acquisition Analysis: EFI Buys OPS

Published October 5, 2012

The web-to-print market is fragmented and hard to determine clear leadership or market share. EFI's acquisition of OPS consolidates the market (slightly). EFI's market share will grow, their product offering will be more comprehensive, and OPS will benefit from EFI's well developed channel partnerships.

Expand Our Thinking About Web-to-Print

Published September 14, 2012

Web-to-print has to become the set of tools that enable printers to be competitive on the web. This is a whole lot more than a B2B business card site. It requires us to rethink the way we shop for solutions and partners.

Innovation: Easy to Talk About, Hard to Do

Published August 17, 2012

Who do we respect most in business? The individuals or companies who talk the best game or the individuals or companies who execute?