Selling Digital Print

[Creative311]

All of the mfr's have some type of guide covering how to sell digital to different vertical markets - they all seem too generic like "Sell to finance and real estate company's". Has anyone had any success with these guides?

A better question would be what are you doing to sell digital?

We've done fine selling short-run as an offset replacement for some clients, but are looking to find new customers and better margin products. Any suggestions?

Happy Holidays

 

[Craig]

I'm a bad person to answer, mostly because I have not had to sell digital printing. We are keeping busy without the need to sell, it's been all word of mouth for the last 3 years.
But if I did I would pitch the book and pick a market, lets say Non-profits. Learn as much as you can about the items that these guys are buying and find out how they fit into the digital world. Market to those particular items that you will have the advantage over offset, like variable data fund raising collateral. I don't think there is going to be a magical answer, more like do whatever works for you and your location. Some companies are just looking at price right now, even reverse auctions to get their printing.

 

[JaimeZ]

I have found that shops that only sell one type of printing are at a disadvantage. There are many types shops in the Los Angeles area. Some are all offset and some all digital with many with both. The shops that are hybrid with both are the ones who are doing better.

Yes, the quick demand printing segment is becoming more and more digital, but the ones I speak to admit they're limited. There are some that are thriving only using digital machines, usually in a niche market, the majority of them are losing market share as their clients get similar digital equipment, which many are complaining about.

Likewise the shops that are all offset are losing market share as well. More and more jobs are being printed on digital equipment that used to be printed exclusively on offset equipment. But I still see a majority of the older shops churning out work on the ABDicks, QM46, Hamadas, Ryobi 3300 and 3302 etc. I even see Chiefs, ATF and even multi's--my dad had multi's back in the 1970's.

Recently a few local all digital shops approached me to do their numbering, perforations and scores. They have also been giving me envelope orders, PMS printing and jobs their digital machines just can not do. And we ourselves were sending out more and more jobs to some of the digital shops in the area with jobs we were not able to do profitably (all small run jobs under 500 sheets). This is why hybrid shops will gain market share because they will be able to direct the jobs to appropriate device for printing. My shop will get more digital equipment on top of the Xante Ilumina, but we will not get rid of our offset presses; I intend on becoming a hybrid shop.

As for selling digital, I will just send out mailers and visit existing clients, just like I should do for the offset part of the business!

 

[Creative311]

Craig - nice to have the business come in that way. I think the niche idea makes sense.

Jaime - we've done fliers without a lot of success - the response rates have been horrible. Are your fliers about digital printing at $.75 for example or more specific to fast turnaround, and advantage of digital?

I think we just haven't found the right messaging.

 

[dynamicprinter]

As the owner of a small quickprint shop, I'm finding it harder and harder myself to sell.
In my opinion it looks like the bigger companies are going after shorter and shorter runs.
I see on line that color copies are selling at 5¢, haven't figured out how they do it unless it's on a press. I think you have to find a niche in your market and stick with it. Personalized service, quality and a reasonable turnaround time helps. Some of the samples I've seen from online printers look like crap.

 

[X33]

check out Xerox' ProfitAccelerator Suite : ProfitAccelerator Helps You Grow Your Digital Printing Business

it includes a bunch of different textbooks, sales & marketing kits, guides, samples, etc for Digital Printing. some of them are free, others you can buy online.

You can also call Xerox if you want, and they have a specific position for this suite, something like a Graphic Arts Digital Printing Consultant. the service is fee based of course.

 

[smatros]

we are doing quite ok with printing personalized invitations for various purposes - now with new web-to-print I believe it will be even easier and faster. This is one of the niches that can be a good additional income besides classic streams.
Another good one is personalized calendars, etc...

 

[Creative311]

Thanks Smatros - how are you personalizing your invitations?

We have just started playing around with variable data print - Fusion Pro Desktop - and are inclined to purchase DirectSmile. We think DirectSmile would be good for our invitations and the calendars you mentioned. Have you used DirectSmile or the Uimage from XMPie to do any personalization?

 

[smatros]

Never tried DirectSmile or XMPie, both seem more like VDP programs which are not so useful for short run personalizations. We started with developing around 100 templates for different purposes (wedding, birthday, baptism & comemoration, anniversaries, ...) and modified them for usage with zetaprints. We pay a flat fee for every order, but we calculated it in the price. There was no initial investment in software purchase, as Zetaprint is order-fee based. We will probably switch once the volume gets so high it will be unreasonable.
If interrested we can provide you with several tailored templates for business cards and invitations, and you can run you own web-to-print within a month for less then the setupfee of direct smile, but this would include also several graphic layouts. pm me if you are interrested.

 

[amazing1589]

Never tried DirectSmile or XMPie, both seem more like VDP programs which are not so useful for short run personalizations. We started with developing around 100 templates for different purposes (wedding, birthday, baptism & comemoration, anniversaries, ...) and modified them for usage with zetaprints. We pay a flat fee for every order, but we calculated it in the price. There was no initial investment in software purchase, as Zetaprint is order-fee based. We will probably switch once the volume gets so high it will be unreasonable.
If interrested we can provide you with several tailored templates for business birthday cards and invitations, and you can run you own web-to-print within a month for less then the setupfee of direct smile, but this would include also several graphic layouts. pm me if you are interrested.

Hi Smatros:

I do really hope that you're still active here in the forums.

If you are, please PM me your contact details, we need templates and hoping that you could help.