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? Yes, most printers have made a good living over the last few decades printing marketing materials for their customers, but have you notice how printers market themselves? Maybe I’m old school, but selling something you haven’t proven that you can do for your own company is a stretch right? How many of us would hire personal trainers who are out of shape or financial planners who are in bankruptcy? Look at the stuff printer’s print for themselves, it’s always beautiful of course because they know it’s showing off what they can do. So the primary channel for marketing today is online, how many printer’s websites are a sellable example of good marketing services?

Why aren’t printers good at marketing themselves? For decades, printers didn’t have to be good at it. Print was the dominate form of communication, printers just had to have a solid sales team and be great manufacturers to thrive; they responded appropriately – focusing on their sales team, manufacturing capacity, quality, and customer service.

Here’s the catch – most of the print industry is still running their business focused on being better manufacturers (like it is still 2003). A lot has changed in ten years, not small incremental changes but tectonic changes in the overall connectivity of the planet, the communication transition from print to screens, and the entire approach to marketing from outbound to inbound marketing. No company can continue to thrive without adapting to these new realities. Printers in particular are getting hit from all directions therefore adaptation is required to survive, let alone thrive in this new landscape.