We all have experience ordering online. We all have experience searching online. Yet most printers do not currently offer a way for their existing customers to do business with them online. And because most printers service customers they know (B2B, or business-to-business), they are not worrying too much about how to be found online (SEO, or search engine optimization). 

The opposite of the “most printers” model is a pure online print business whose primary target is strangers who “find” them online. They are expending a lot of time, effort, and money to be “found online”—what I like to call “earned traffic”—and/or they are paying Google or social media channels advertising dollars for what I like to call “paid traffic.”

Traditional printers who have sales teams out trying to get new business and only do business with companies they have an established relationship with are constantly telling me, “I want anyone (strangers) to be able to order from my website.” There is nothing inherently wrong with this. Every business owner is constantly looking for ways to grow their business. It’s only a problem because it requires a lot of changes in the way you do business in order to successfully execute on it. Buying online ordering software is the easiest part of the puzzle—but is should not be done until you tackle the harder, much more fundamental changes that would have to happen to your business.