Sold 1 photo print in past 7 weeks. How do you guys find buyers?

[PrintingInLincs]

Ok so I'm probably saying a little too much here.

I run a family business & we provide leaflet distribution however after getting a lot of people coming into our office asking for various print jobs we decided to get a xerox 550.

it's been a total disaster & in the past year we have barely sold 1000 clicks & even they were had to be sold at rock bottom prices via ebay with all of the buyers sending us bad artwork & complaining about delivery time which was stated in the listing.

It has come to the point where I am now working full time to support a printer that nobody wants us to use for them.

We have literally tried everything, adwords, leafleting businesses & nice areas, all social media outlets. We just cannot find any sales & in 7 weeks we have sold 1 photo print & obviously were getting charged for 5000 clicks plus a lease.

We are thinking of dropping the service contract & just paying the lease & spending the fee on advertising more Obviously not ideal at all but sometimes tough decisions are required.

Your thoughts? What would you do? Where are you guys getting sales because i'd love to know.

I thought as there's 11 printers in our city it was a good idea but no.

Thanks in advance.

Is it our website putting people off maybe?

 

[OffsetStorefront]

I mean, I just spent about 30 seconds on your website and didn't see anything mentioning that you guys sell photo prints. If I was trying to get my photos printed, I would not get the impressions your company does that from being on your website.

 

[Shawnd]

Find a niche. How about church newsletters? Could you print then hand deliver them on your usual routes?

I would not consider photo printing on a xerox a niche unless you can get in with the local police department to print crime photo's or something like that.

 

[gordo]

Went through your website and didn’t see any mention of photo prints.

 

[wonderings]

What kind of photo print are you selling? Honestly a Xerox is not going to be anything like an inkjet. We have a versant 2100 and while it is a great digital press I would certainly not want to print any photos to put in a frame there, at least not quality ones.

 

[Guest]

I have not found one or two-off prints to be lucrative. Spending too much time for too small a reward. Have you looked into selling color flyers, booklets or brochures instead?- something that will get your clicks up, better run lengths and higher profit margins?

 

[kinni88]

1. Photos --
1. you compete against Shutterfly and Snapfish, so do something different.
2. Who buys photos? -- Mothers with kids.
Go yo local schools, sports teams and clubs and put together stitched photobooks/yearbooks for their organizations -- it is a memory book, so you can charge more for it. Remember they can do this online, so you are going to have to kill them with customer service.

 

[AP90]

Guys, I'm wondering if he means he has only sold 1 print job that involves photos. Not necessarily photo printing. Like everything else is legal documents, flyers with text only, etc. Could be wrong. But my suggestion would be to start hammering away at something else. Our shop is set up for booklets. Therefore, we focus on booklets, and find customers who need them. I really like dealing with brokers. Simple for me. They send a file and we print it. No design work, etc. But find something that has a high margin and print it for people. Business cards can have a high enough margin if you streamline the process. Get 20 business card orders a day and your starting bring in some money and using up those clicks.

 

[Puch]

I can imagine you've bought into the printer with the idea in mind that some of your established clients will use your printing ability, too, not just the distribution. And that might work, if you offer them package deals, which – in the end – come out cheaper that using a separate printing and distribution provider. I would do some deep analysis on the materials distributed: how many are there on a week, how much the client might pay for them for another company, how much hassle would they spare if they use only you.

All in all: you have to offer some definitive advantage over the clients' current setup, to persuade them to change. Color printing alone is not enough, as it got to the point where it's a commodity at every office.

 

[rainman23]

Not being funny but if you are looking to sell leaflets your in the wrong game, you need to find a niche, with people like Route 1 in the UK selling leaflets at prices you can only dream of, you are fighting an up hill battle! get your thinking cap on and find something unique and get out there and sell it, the work wont come to you!

 

[PrintingInLincs]

We ended up focusing on botanical prints...which I restored & made them all have the same sizing & background colours (never used photoshop before all this)...ended up making a lot of money during the pandemic & will come out of it able to buy much better equipment too.

I just thought i'd update as this post was at the worst point of the business when the printer was eating us alive. We somehow turned it around & now I print all day everyday.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

That's really great to hear. Good job! Post some photos of your machines and work!

 

[tngcas]

Hey! Super glad to hear that it came out good in the end. We all need to hear more good news these days. Great job!

 

[Lorenzo lab guy]

We ended up focusing on botanical prints...which I restored & made them all have the same sizing & background colours (never used photoshop before all this)...ended up making a lot of money during the pandemic & will come out of it able to buy much better equipment too.

I just thought i'd update as this post was at the worst point of the business when the printer was eating us alive. We somehow turned it around & now I print all day everyday.

Have you been selling on Etsy? Our captive sales printing has done extremely well there. It is not print for pay - we have to develop the product, design it and sell it directly to consumers. During the pandemic Etsy has said sales have gone up 80 per cent. That fits with our experience.

 

[PrintingInLincs]

Yes we've had an insane run during the pandemic on Etsy & I'm richer than ever lol.

 

[proditus]

1. Photos --
1. you compete against Shutterfly and Snapfish, so do something different.
2. Who buys photos? -- Mothers with kids.
Go yo local schools, sports teams and clubs and put together stitched photobooks/yearbooks for their organizations -- it is a memory book, so you can charge more for it. Remember they can do this online, so you are going to have to kill them with customer service.

Great advice kinni88! That is exactly what we do. We were a School Photography company originally and expanded production into press and finishing. We are full vertical now and we will never look for any other market. Exclusively schools and municipalities.