Discover predictions and trends for the industry in 2023, insightful observations, and tips and tricks for success in this webinar.
Print industry expert panelists include:
- Eric Vessels, President & CEO, WhatTheyThink
- Joanne Gore, President – JGC
- Amanda Bronowski, Owner, Mom OF
- Brad Kugler, CEO/Co-Founder, DirectMail2.0
Transcript:
0:00
let’s get into it so uh we’re here for the printers webinar I’m calling it The
0:06
printer’s webinar that’s probably not the exact name but we have some very accomplished experts that we hope that
0:13
we’re going to give you about 45 minutes of very interesting in-depth uh perspectives on the industry you know
0:19
we’ve all been in this for a while I I will introduce myself and admit that I am probably the Newbie to this industry
0:27
uh I’ve only been in a print related industry since 2017. I’ll admit before
0:34
2017 I spent the previous 26 years uh in
0:39
wholesale distribution and e-commerce um found myself coming into a marketing and
0:46
digital uh digital marketing company out of necessity I sold CDs and DVDs online and
0:54
I don’t know that anybody in our audience has bought one of those probably in a few years which you have
0:59
to thank you a little bit recently not recently okay okay well there was a time
1:05
some years ago where almost everyone bought them every day and it was a great business so I had to uh
1:14
re-career myself about six years ago and uh I I found myself here I was always
1:20
into technology but I am the CEO and co-founder of direct mail 2.0 we are a
1:26
marketing platform to lift the results of direct mail we usually lift the results of direct mail by 25 to 50
1:33
percent we’ve been doing this now for over six years 40 000 campaigns were
1:40
coming up on almost a billion pieces of mail lifted as a result so we’re not the
1:45
new kid on the Block anymore so uh that’s my back story I’m going to turn
1:51
it over to Eric to give his little commercial and then he will pass the torch and we’ll get going
1:58
yes I’m uh Eric bessels president and CEO of what they think so what they think is uh are about our official about
2:05
is something about the global printing Industries leading source of information but and it is basically a go-to source
2:11
and and I also career transitioned um I but I’ve been in the industry I do
2:18
want to make an apology because I’m on a printing industry the expert panel I don’t consider myself a print industry
2:23
expert I think I’m what we used to call in the military a jaffo just another blank Observer
2:30
um but I’ve been in the industry for a couple of decades and I have been observing and leading the growth of what
2:36
they think as a as a media source for the industry transitioned over from I was actually in the Paint and Coatings
2:42
world for a while but since uh the year 2000 have been involved with what they think so I’m I’m happy to be here to
2:49
represent uh what we do at what they think and what we know um and uh yeah it’s gonna be a good good
2:55
panel I don’t know who I’m passing it to Joanne I’m passing it to Joanne all
3:01
right thanks Eric so I am Joanne Gore and I am the President of joint Gore Communications we’re a full service B2B
3:09
marketing agency that Services the print industry um we help companies stretch their
3:14
marketing dollars and uh generate awareness engagement and growth we’ll
3:19
pinpoint your quickest time to money will help you attract a new generation of business and really will help you
3:26
figure out who you help hi help and why it matters before um I launched jgc I was a corporate B2B
3:35
marketer for some of the larger software and tech companies around the world so I cut my teeth in B2B marketing primarily
3:42
in the technology space which is probably why I migrate a lot to the
3:47
stories around automation technology software Cloud AI I I really am a nerd
3:54
when it comes to all of that I’ve worked for some companies some of you guys might know I’ve worked at Avanti I’ve
3:59
worked DST output um I have to jot some of them down I worked at compact every company I’ve
4:06
worked at has since been acquired by the likes of HP broadridge open text you know big names
4:13
out there um so I like to say over the years I’ve been such a great marketer that I
4:19
marketed myself out of every job I ever had but but really I’m here to help
4:26
companies truly stretch their marketing dollars and figure out the best programs that
4:32
are going to uh get them their quickest time to money that’s what I want to do
4:37
thank you and last but not least Amanda my name’s uh Amanda bernofski I am the
4:45
owner of Mom of marketing merchandising and social media
4:50
um basically what I do is help printing companies technology companies kind of utilize a different form of marketing to
4:57
promote their business um focusing on social media aspects and Merchandising
5:03
previously I have actually been in the print industry for over 20 years but basically on the operational side I ran
5:11
an implant for multiple years so I know the ins and the outs of the operations
5:16
and then within just the past few years I decided that I wanted to help companies that I used to work for kind
5:21
of Market themselves to get more customers and try some new and Innovative types of marketing that some
5:28
companies you know haven’t started using yet so that’s where I am right now excellent thank you for that so what
5:35
we’re going to do now and I wanted to let everyone know I would like this to be as interactive as possible there is a
5:40
q a feature so if you have a question or it’s for a specific person on the panel please put it in the Q a section as
5:48
opposed to the chat because there’s a lot of comments and things in there and I may miss the question so if you want
5:54
something actually brought up live we can do that please put in the Q a so the first thing
6:01
I’m going to do is I’m going to I’m going to take sort of a very high level question and I’m going to have each person answer it based on their
6:07
experience first and because we all have different tangents into the print
6:13
industry uh we all have a different viewpoint on what the answers to this question will
6:19
be and that’s why I want to hear it from each of you and the first question is what do you consider what do you find
6:25
are the biggest challenges print companies are having right now in
6:30
today’s market not years ago not coming up in the future but what are you
6:35
hearing right now from multiple connections clients interviewees
6:41
whatever uh are the biggest challenges they’re having right now so so Eric why
6:46
don’t we start with you on that yeah I think um the biggest one that I’m hearing and
6:52
it’s it’s been pervasive um through covid and and continues to be
6:57
a little bit persistent is is labor and just talent and um you know training issues or or
7:04
finding people keeping people in the industry first of all how you how do you locate them
7:09
um and then how do you keep labor I think that I think the coveted part of that constriction is lightening up quite
7:16
a bit but it’s it still seems to be a Remnant so I see a lot of printers that I talk to in shops there they just
7:24
struggle with the the people aspect of it I think a lot of places have the technology dialed in they’ve got a lot
7:31
of the equipment dialed in the sales well marketing may be a little bit not
7:36
so much um but they really struggle with people with the people side of it and I think it’s it’s going to be an ongoing uh an
7:44
ongoing issue something that the industry I think is going to continue to face and there’s really no no one answer
7:49
I guess we could probably explore the answer but it would be good we will we’ll go deeper into that uh Amanda how
7:55
about you what what do you what are you hearing is the biggest challenge um I would say and especially with the
8:00
clients that I work with budget restrictions right now it seems like with the inflation with the paper
8:06
shortage with everything people are having a really hard time with their budgets not only not having enough you
8:13
know money up that maybe they’ve had for previous years pre-covered but you know knowing what to do with those dollars
8:19
that they do have and spending them wisely um I’ve seen so many different instances where you know someone throws all their
8:27
money with into the technology portion of it and it’s awesome they have all the equipment but yet they don’t have
8:32
anybody to run that equipment because they don’t have the labor or they’re throwing all their money into sales but then they don’t have the equipment and
8:39
Technology to back it up so I would definitely say that you know having those budget issues right now seems to
8:45
be you know especially with the clients I deal with is you know what they’re struggling with right now
8:50
Vanessa and Joanne um I’m gonna piggyback on what Amanda
8:55
said and take it up just one level higher I think overall they’re just overwhelmed
9:01
um there are so many choices that they need to make so many they know what they need to do but I think in many cases
9:07
they just don’t know where to begin is it an equipment is it in the software is
9:13
it in the people is it in the paper is it is it should they get into New Vertical markets
9:18
um I can’t even tell you how many companies I speak to who still don’t even have a CRM so we’re talking like bottom of the
9:26
barrel elements that are you must have in my opinion that are still not out there and
9:33
they know that they know they don’t have a CRM they know they need some sort of you know marketing automation or they
9:40
need to be able to measure more efficiently and they need to to eat their own pudding they just don’t know
9:46
what to do first they don’t know what to do next and then of course then they have to figure out and it’s already late
9:52
so that’s what I’m seeing yeah and and for you know we have hundreds of print
9:58
clients too and I Echo the same thing if or when we will lose a partner that
10:06
resells our product every single time it’s it’s not your solution it’s not your software it’s the fact I don’t have
10:11
anybody to actually do it so there is a hole in the labor market and people say
10:19
well you just keep offering more money so we’ll take the job well that that may be true but here’s the problem even if
10:25
they do now you’ve probably wrecked the profitability of your company if you just pay anybody anything well I don’t
10:32
know that that’s a smart decision either because that could set you back uh there’s already a question where someone
10:37
says why do you think the labor short has become so prominence in covet well one I think that the situation has not
10:43
been completely absent before covet but it was definitely exasperated after uh
10:50
inflation drove the labor prices up uh we all know this business is not high margin it’s
10:58
low margin so there’s very little room to pad those offers to something that’s
11:04
gonna that’s gonna attract somebody from another more lucrative job so that that would be my answer to that and
11:12
moving right along is that is do any of you have any specific suggestions how to
11:19
close the labor Gap or fill the labor shortage and and we’ll go in reverse order Joanne we’ll start with you on
11:24
this oh good I’m glad because I don’t know if I could have kept my mouth shut through it looked like you’re chomping at the
11:30
bed there so I got it I mean I I don’t I’ve been saying this long since before
11:36
the pandemic but we have to make we have to stop selling print in the print
11:42
industry as the print industry because unfortunately it has this sort of
11:47
tarnished whatever brand that it’s dated an
11:54
old-fashioned and it’s dead and oh my God if I have to hear that again I just I might just kill somebody no no kidding
12:00
but I I just feel we need to do what it takes to make Prince sexy to make print
12:07
hot to make people want to say how did they do that I want to be involved in
12:12
that I mean there are so many areas within print that aren’t just the
12:19
manufacturing side there is the whole business side there’s the financial side there’s the legal size there there’s oh
12:26
my God just the whole data and analytics and software and development so just
12:32
because it’s the print industry does not mean it’s exclusive to manufacturing
12:38
something on some type of substrate I’m not even going to say ink on paper
12:43
anymore because we all know that it’s it’s gone so beyond that but that’s it
12:49
it’s our job collectively and industry-wide to really show off why this is such a really cool
12:58
industry we are a very unique and very very powerful channel of communications
13:04
that will cut through all the digital noise that’s out there and at the same
13:09
time re-engage people back into that digital ecosystem that that metaverse that they
13:17
are familiar with and print is the only Channel really that can do that you know
13:23
QR codes wouldn’t exist without print so think when you wrap when you start to
13:29
wrap your head around that value chain it becomes a completely different
13:34
conversation so I’ll shut up now and let everybody else no that’s a great point and Eric do you have any suggestions to
13:41
address the labor shortage I I agree with Joanne’s yeah point but it’s very
13:46
hard to if you’re printing menus or uh business cards or letterhead you know to
13:53
portray that in a new disruptive sexy way but how do you attract labor to come
13:58
into this industry so I’m gonna I’m gonna back up and get a little more macro and and I think I think the first
14:04
thing that you need to do is take a look at yourself right like are you have you
14:09
built an attractive culture someplace that people want to plug into and work right I’ve got like this philosophy that
14:16
I call like Vibe and tribe like find the people that have your Vibe right that kind of vibrate on the same frequency
14:23
that like you you meet for the first time you’re like oh hey do I know you right those are the kinds of people to
14:28
bring in and then create that tribe around that where your value viewing those people right
14:34
if you plug people in on that level you’re not going to really worry as much
14:39
about losing people but if you just continue to just do the grind and just have this you know a Sausage Factory of
14:45
like pay people more and bring them in it’s just it doesn’t matter you’re right Brad 100 it doesn’t matter what you pay
14:51
somebody if you don’t have that culture of of acceptance and of recognition and
14:57
empowerment all those things so it’s it’s a more of a macro thing relative to
15:03
and this is just leadership right that that I see in terms of like if you’re if you’ve got a print shop and you’re
15:08
having trouble finding people to do the work a you might be
15:13
finding the the wrong people to begin with and B there may be something culturally where you’re not able to keep
15:19
them so there’s there’s a couple of different questions but I just took sort of a more of a macro look at it and I
15:25
think it’s just like dating right like you’re not going to meet the right person until you do the work on yourself and and get your together so first
15:33
and foremost get the in-house stuff together build a solid business build a solid team and then man people will want
15:40
to be there and then that’s kind of what we try to do what they think that’s that’s brilliant so we got two great
15:47
bullet points I want Amanda’s going to add the third Bill a point I’ll summarize it because I think this is
15:52
this is a key point for this webinar that should be worth the value admission right here so go ahead words of wisdom
15:59
Amanda okay so I’m going to take this and just kind of piggyback off of what Eric said
16:04
and especially being in operations I ran into labor shortages and trying to
16:09
figure out how you know you still have to keep those practices running you still have to keep you know business going and the one thing that I found
16:16
that worked the best was to work with to kind of get out of that traditional
16:21
mindset that okay first shift has to come in nine to five second shift has to come in two to four I worked with my
16:28
team and we all sat down and we had you know we had 10 positions builds that should have been 15. and we talked about
16:35
okay what would work best for you guys how would you know how could we create a schedule here that is going to optimize
16:42
what you can do for us and you know just getting their input and it was very non-traditional by the
16:48
time we finished it and you know we changed it we would have a review every three months or every six months to see
16:54
you know well what has changed with your schedule what has changed with it have we brought new people like how do we accommodate for that but it’s it’s
17:00
really cultivating those different schedules and and different
17:05
ways for the employee to work it doesn’t have to be that traditional okay I tell you first shift you have to be here at
17:12
nine o’clock when you actually work with your employees especially if you’re having a hard time getting new ones and
17:17
you really need to appreciate you know the ones that you have and work with them and treat them more like you know
17:23
this is not just you coming in do your job go home you know we you know cultivating that idea that you know we
17:30
are like he said a tribe we you know we care about what you think your scheduled and I you know I was able to get almost
17:36
six months of work out of 10 people that I should have had 15 people for and and you know like I said just giving them
17:42
that respect of here we’re going to work with your schedule you don’t have to work with ours you know was it benefit
17:49
for them and for the company that’s I just want to I just want to pile on that that’s brilliant I mean and
17:55
I would just Echo that like what came to me while while you were speaking Amanda was I think a collaborative work
18:01
environment will be a hierarchical work environment every day of the week yeah well 100 and just to kind of you
18:10
know boil these down into bullet points so people can package up and take away this this vibrant tribe or cultural sort
18:17
of thing and and I I also think it’s brilliant Joanne’s sort of I don’t want to say rebranding of the print industry
18:24
but there has to be a new a new label of it it’s very hard to take an old industry and put a sexy shine on
18:33
everybody’s looking for the bright shiny new object in the room you know but being that it’s probably one of the
18:39
oldest continuous businesses in the history of the world uh well there’s some that I won’t discuss but
18:45
everything’s been around for what 600 700 years now um that is a very old industry you know
18:51
by the way I mean I was thinking of masonry and construction but you know that’s what I wanted to do but the point
18:58
being is you have to be able to take these old Industries and apply New Management Concepts new
19:04
cultural Concepts new working environment Concepts they can be applied it’s the owners of these businesses who
19:11
have to get out of that older mindset and come to terms with what the world is
19:17
like today yes your business may be a legacy business that’s gone hand to hand for five generations but listen man it’s
19:24
it’s it it’s adapt or die you know so you must come up and re-educate yourself
19:30
into what is acceptable now you know in the 50s people yelling at employees and
19:36
docking them for two minutes late and all this other stuff that’s that’s over you’re not going to have any employees
19:41
if that’s how you run your business so um especially people in an industry that is not quite as sexy as some of the
19:46
others so we have to go the extra mile you know we can’t just try to keep up
19:52
with these other sexy businesses we have to actually have a better culture because we are lacking in that
19:59
bright shiny new object sort of Industry so uh so there was a question that came
20:05
that I saw that came in why did covid affect it and I just I was going to chime on chime in on that real quick I
20:10
think like what you saw in the great resignation and the dynamic of covet is is covet caused a lot of places to shut
20:16
down so people you know we’re forced to like some people were forced to like sit around
20:21
like because they didn’t didn’t have the work and I think while they sat around it occurred to them why am I doing this
20:27
like why am I working in this way why am I in this environment in this culture and I think that’s what caused the Great
20:33
resignation and so now like the the people that are working in a lot of these positions are starting to have the
20:39
power and it’s and it’s flipped so it’s relevant the answer to that question and the question itself prompts like our
20:46
whole conversation right that’s that was the the kind of the covet effect and the whole great resignation I think it’s
20:53
because it like the workforce is just like why and they a lot of them couldn’t come up with a really good answer so
20:59
it’s incumbent upon employers and people that are running businesses to answer that question for them and create that
21:06
that really great culture it’s it’s true I mean I I I’m an old school guy and and even the work from home sort of
21:12
mentality has been difficult for me to overcome in a lot of cases but again we
21:18
all have to adapt all right being that we’re about halfway through the content part I’m going to move us along to
21:25
Investments all right so so we’ll start with this and I’ll let Amanda take the first one what investments do you think
21:32
printers should be making to improve their business and increase their revenue if they were going to make one
21:38
investment this year what would you say that investment would be
21:43
okay so as I’ve said before you know coming back from an operational side I know I see it a little bit different
21:49
than you guys do um as in what I would think an investment would be and for me it would
21:55
definitely be automation within your production um you using different Technologies and
22:02
different software to automate your process makes things go so much smoother and so much faster and so much more
22:08
efficient where you can reduce your labor you can reduce the time that
22:13
people need to be there having something like that can you know can change
22:19
the dynamic of how things operate in a shop I’ve seen places that have
22:24
absolutely no system automation whatsoever everything’s done manually versus the same size company with the
22:32
same type of equipment who has automation doing almost 10 20 30 times more production because they have
22:39
something like that within their facility and it works all the way up from sales down to finishing to getting
22:45
that piece out the door so that would be my one investment suggestion would be an
22:51
automation software fantastic um Eric what would you say in terms of
22:57
investment immediately so I’m going to answer a couple of different ways automation was on my list so check we I
23:04
don’t have to mention that automation is is definitely needs to be on everyone’s radar because of the labor issues that
23:09
we talked about before right um I would say also like any kind of of
23:15
margin increasing things like embellishments or or maybe you already
23:21
have the capability to do embellishment but maybe you need additional training or any kind of investment around
23:26
leveraging the equipment you have or getting additional equipment that can
23:32
add margin and add value to the work that you’re maybe already doing or or maybe sell different creative things to
23:39
people I think that would be my suggestion the second way that I was going to answer the question is is to
23:44
reference some of the work that’s coming out of our printing Outlook survey at what they think and into what actually
23:49
people are looking to invest in and the top one is finishing right so
23:56
um finishing equipment is at the top of the list and what printers are expecting to invest in so that’s probably needs to
24:02
be on the radar there’s also a continued and increased uh interest in production inkjet presses toner presses aren’t very
24:10
far behind but but digital Investments digital embellishments finishing
24:15
equipment Automation and I’m getting ready to go to a huggler Innovation days where they’re going to demonstrate how
24:22
print engines and Automation and finishing all work together so it’s going to be a a wonderful place to sort
24:28
of see that happening but those seams seem like the areas that should be on on every printer’s radar in terms of of
24:35
Investments good Joanne did you have an opinion here so the the toughest thing about going
24:42
last is reading the fact that everybody who said what I want to say but this is
24:47
why I switch it up so everybody no I know but I will add because there were a couple that I did jot down everything
24:54
that Amanda and Eric said 100 bang on automation uh having some problems there
25:00
yeah drinking problems you know I have drinking problems yesterday you’ve experienced my drinking problems all for
25:06
myself um but you know if you don’t know what to automate or where to automate it
25:13
comes back to sort of that original point so for me I always say you’ve got to pinpoint your quickest time to money
25:19
right where are you going to make the most amount of money in the least amount of time from the most amount of people
25:26
and focus there find more like that Master what it takes to get those
25:33
prospects and to really streamline that Prospect to opportunity conversion then
25:40
you can start expanding and you know to your point investing in more equipment if you have an audience for sexy print
25:47
but if you you know maybe you have an audience for commercial uh stationery so
25:52
you’re gonna really focus on the businesses and verticals that will adapt
25:57
and adopt that solution but again if you don’t have a way to track and measure if
26:04
you don’t have a CRM for the love of God get a CRM first first and foremost before you do
26:11
anything else now there are some solutions that have built-in crms so you get a twofer right
26:18
but you’ve got to be able to track if you cannot track you cannot automate if
26:24
you cannot automate you cannot grow you cannot deal with everything that is
26:29
coming at you and you will continue to be overwhelmed so Alex added something Brad really
26:36
awesome in the comments I don’t know if you saw it I saw it after our whole conversation invest in people
26:41
like that that that’s an obvious point to invest in you know I I’m a big
26:46
believer in low-hanging fruit what is the biggest Bang from the buck what can you do that will give you the the most
26:54
immediate return on whatever you spend now that being said I wanted to delve in this because I’m curious uh with Rising
27:01
interest rates and inflation and you we’ve all mentioned software and Equipment investing
27:07
is that becoming less and less a viable option with interest rates and lease
27:12
rates going high are printers going to have a problem at the banks and the leasing companies for this or is this
27:19
not a problem I have no idea I have known nothing about this world uh
27:24
what say you guys so I think something else that came out of uh and I spent a lot of time before
27:31
this talking to Richard Romano who did uh the survey and knows this inside and out
27:36
um there seemed to be a lot of fear around recession but by the time we got finished with the
27:42
survey and was putting the report together a lot of those economic indicators were kind of were leveling
27:49
out uh to to pointing to a fairly good 2023 um so I mean I would say at least from
27:56
what the printers are telling us from being surveyed and going into the the printing Outlook report that we did
28:02
that a lot of those recession um woes are are maybe just there’s fear
28:09
there I think um but I’m not sure to answer your question I’m not sure that there’s going
28:14
to be as big a struggle as we maybe think in terms of being able to do capex and being able to acquire new equipment
28:20
and grow your business um because it’s looking like the economy is going to be pretty decent in 2023 and
28:27
maybe some of those fears were a little unfounded that’s true unless you listen to the the
28:33
financial traits that I listed yesterday and the producer price index went up almost double what it was predicting so
28:40
there’s some that’s hence the stock market cracked yesterday but we’ll we’ll see it’s too soon to worry about that
28:47
um I I did want to make a point that being a lifelong marketer during a
28:53
recession 20 30 40 of the businesses tend to pull back on their marketing expense normal
29:00
reaction in tough times but here’s the thing that means marketing is on sale that means 30 percent of the your
29:07
competitors have just backed out of the game and gone and taken their chips off the table and went home guess what you
29:13
now have a better chance of actually getting those customers so if there’s any time to beef up the marketing let
29:19
alone keep it the same at the very least you now got a 20 30 discount on the price of
29:25
eyeballs so I I love to push this message whenever I can I believe it
29:31
wholeheartedly I’ve old enough to have lived through four recessions now and the people that hang on and push
29:37
marketing tend to come out the other side even better than they were before that’s my point on that question you
29:43
have to keep your pipeline full no matter what and if you’re focused only on current and not looking at top of
29:49
funnel and where they’re coming from at some point you’re going to run out and you’re going to run dry and I’m seeing
29:54
it now it’s happening over and over and and going back to your question Brad one
30:00
thing I wanted to point out um from a mergers and Acquisitions perspective again I’ve been on both sides of that
30:05
fence and I’ve worked with incubating companies sorry I’ve lived that life I
30:10
can tell you you know it could have been 20 years ago it could have been two days ago what banks are looking for from a
30:17
valuation perspective is your data and if you think back to the good old days it used to be your value was in your
30:23
Rolodex right who who’s in your Rolodex well right now is what data do you have
30:29
what do you know about your customers what value is this data to other
30:36
potential interested parties and again I it goes back to everything we’ve been
30:42
saying automation The Collection the management the visibility all of that it all comes down to the data right I I had
30:50
one question that popped up mainly for Joanne and you guys can all pipe in
30:55
since I did uh what’s CRM do you recommend I put I said Zoho CRM because
31:01
I think it’s the best bang for the buck it’s cheap there’s a lot of things that you can do with it you agree it’s that’s
31:07
what we use and what to think I mean it does 95 of what Salesforce does for 10
31:13
of the cost because with Zoho the only drawback I would say maybe Brad would be
31:18
to get it to really do what you want there may be some custom development involved and like like you you either
31:24
have to pay with Salesforce though yeah yeah you either have to internally learn it really well like out of the box it’s
31:29
a little clunky the interface is a little a little 99 yeah it taste but but
31:35
it from a data standpoint it does the job and it ties into a lot of other
31:40
um uh feeds that that are that give us what we call just like um
31:47
um the data you know like signals we call them signals and they have interfaces to all the social sites and
31:53
if you support tickets and finances but anybody else have another vote beside
31:59
Zoho Amanda you do okay Joanne tell us your phone so there’s a few because I am
32:04
asked this question all the time everybody says HubSpot because it’s free but be careful what you pay for
32:11
um HubSpot has gotten uh better at keeping their pricing down so if you
32:16
want to get you can have their CRM but if you want to actually use it you have to purchase HubSpot marketing or HubSpot
32:24
sales or marketing and sales so it used to that that free service ended up
32:30
pricing you out of out of the league but now you were tied um at that time I was recommending less
32:36
annoying CRM or lacrm that’s what we use
32:42
um it’s a little more user friendly than Zoho I agree that Zoho was probably a
32:47
bit more powerful but it is great if you have that developer’s mindset so if you have any developers at all on your team
32:53
Zoho is a walk in the park but if you don’t I would I would go back to lacrm
32:59
again it’s it’s pretty Dirt Cheap it’s basic but what’s most important is it
33:05
helps put you in the habit of using a CRM because it doesn’t have all the
33:10
bells and whistles in its basic get in the habit and then once it’s have it once you are in that habit of constantly
33:17
updating the records keeping your notes keeping track putting in the reminders and the triggers and everything to
33:23
follow up with then you can look at what you need next so again what I always say
33:28
is what do you need now what do you need next what do you need later if you don’t have one start with something simple
33:34
that’s not going to turn you off with all of its bells and whistles put it in make it a habit and then once you
33:42
realize oh I wish it did this as soon as you start saying that then it’s time to
33:47
look at the next level until you say that stay where you’re at you don’t need to change for the sake of change and
33:54
zapier or um something called zapier I don’t know if it’s a Canadian U.S thing zapier is
34:00
is brilliant for for Solutions like this because even if La CRM doesn’t integrate
34:05
let’s say with your Mis you can create a zap and it’ll do it for you so there’s lots of ways to make it
34:12
work um and it’s a great starting point that I highly recommend again along with Zoho
34:17
and that reinforces my whole collaboration Point too right if you’ve got a tool like this everybody can sort like I can go in and
34:24
see oh when is the last time that we sent an email to so and so and it’s in there like and oh okay Stephanie sent an
34:32
email on this date now that gives me context and how to relate to our clients and customers in in a way that you
34:38
wouldn’t have if you’ve got silos built or if you don’t collect the data at all which is the worst possible scenario and
34:44
that’s also how you figure out where to automate because the more touch points then it’s like why is this being touched
34:50
so many times let’s automate it you know if it’s only being touched once or twice it’s okay let’s leave it alone again
34:56
going back to automation is key but if you don’t know what you’re automating you’re just going to be spinning in
35:03
circles and you’re just going to get really frustrated and just give up on the whole thing right Amanda did you have a comment I
35:10
know that you haven’t gotten a word into edgewise on this question
35:17
good to warn you a little more versed on this right now with the clients that I see which are
35:23
smaller companies HubSpot works for you know for what we what I’ve been doing what I’ve been seeing but Joanne is
35:29
absolutely right which he says you get certain things for free but then all of a sudden if you want to try you know a
35:36
drip campaign or automate email or something then it’s like extra extra extra if you’re doing just for the very
35:42
Basics and you have a very small team that I think HubSpot is great because it’s not a large investment but then
35:49
once you get into getting these larger teams um definitely those other platforms will
35:54
work better so Amanda’s like my grandfather doesn’t speak very often but you better listen
36:00
she’s good she’s got the pearls here I mean that’s what I love about these these panels is is there’s actually some
36:06
great little truth bombs even in the chat there so uh again it’s about a
36:12
collaborative Minds sharing what they know and everybody wins you know all right we’re gonna transition into
36:17
marketing with the seven minutes we’ve got left here uh and we’ll go right to
36:23
it how many questions have we have we gotten through Brett four okay we had a number under a sign
36:30
I was thinking six we’re really lucky to get through one more you know we had just for everybody watching we had 10
36:36
questions I don’t know there were a few questions that got interjected so those count two right okay yeah true all right
36:44
um so this one will will let well hopefully people can keep their their stuff short what marketing tactics do
36:51
you feel Drive most of the success for printers these days and the next
36:56
question is going to be what can they do to differentiate themselves or basically
37:01
accelerate the drive for for new customers so why don’t we combine these and everybody gives a minute or two
37:08
about what do you think they’re doing now and what can they do to improve their own marketing all right A man is
37:15
going first this time
37:22
Omni channel can for printers I mean it’s pranks people need to see it
37:28
and touch it and then you need to be reminded on a digital you know platform about what you’re seeing and what you’re
37:34
touching you need to kind of pull all those together with either you know an email marketing campaign or social media
37:40
campaign with you know a direct mail piece or you know something that’s going
37:45
to be your printed material what they can do to kind of differentiate them you know differentiate themselves
37:52
now is for one stop selling on your marketing and start teaching that’s the
37:58
one big thing that I preach to all of my clients is when you start teaching them especially
38:05
campaign with a direct mail piece was like a little how-to booklet on um
38:11
design for one of my companies and then we did a webinar and a social media campaign that went that time today and
38:18
we got the best response like once we started teaching people then they’re like oh wait you taught us this so what
38:24
can you offer us you know now that we know all about this so that’s like my biggest thing is getting on digital
38:31
using still using you know an omni Channel approach with Direct Mail pieces but stop selling and start teaching I
38:38
would say if no one says anything else that’s probably the best point so we’re done with this next question yeah
38:45
does anybody have any that trumps that I don’t think so no I was just like
38:50
okay I don’t have I don’t have anything else straight mail check Omni
38:56
channels I think the big point for me that jumps out is if you’re a printer
39:01
demonstrate it right like like show what you can do it’s obvious it’s a it’s a
39:07
right it’s a pudding it’s a touch a touchable type thing the only thing I would maybe add uh and it’s an addition
39:14
not a not uh um a different thought really is content marketing like Amanda
39:19
said I think it’s a vaynerchukism Gary vaynerchuk is give give give give give and then go for the ask but you’ve got
39:25
to give like eight times before you go in and go for the ask so position yourself as a subject matter expert in
39:31
wherever you are and you do that through content development you do that through demonstrating what it is you can do
39:37
teaching giving giving right and then what I’ve learned is when people need
39:42
that you don’t even have to sell at that point they come looking for you because you’ve positioned yourself as the expert
39:49
I I totally agree and and you know I I don’t want to beat a dead horse with
39:55
that but I think we can all expound on a lot of anecdotes to how that’s worked for each of us uh we tend to practice
40:01
what we preach so everybody out there needs to figure out a way to
40:07
give before they receive all right now to segue into the second half of the
40:12
question with a more tangible or tactical approach everybody give a point of what an
40:19
example of what somebody could do to do that or some marketing action they could do that may contribute or reinforce the
40:25
points we just made as opposed to going off in another Direction so this is probably going to be like a little off
40:31
the beaten path so I’ll get it out of the way and then we can get into some probably some better answers the first
40:36
thing that comes to mind is look at your have a better website man for crying out loud it drives me crazy to know when I
40:45
go see a printer and then I go to look at their website and those two things don’t match it should it should it
40:51
should very much be just better like easier like not
40:56
outdated like invest in that because a lot of people are are going to find out
41:01
about you maybe I’ll find out about you on LinkedIn or whatever but I’m gonna eventually go through that portal that
41:06
is your website and I need to find everything that I need to find there and it needs to put you in the best light it needs to just
41:13
work um and and the successful printers that I know have a really good website they present
41:19
themselves really well um and then even going farther than that they’ve enabled it to to take you know
41:26
all of their ordering and all that for their current customers is just really easy through that and there’s tools to
41:31
do it so absolutely going through the screen on this one she’s got something to say so go for it so I’m gonna I’m
41:38
gonna try and summarize this into some semblance of an order based on everything we have and number one I
41:44
agree sharing is the new selling that’s exactly what I say that’s a it makes total sense
41:49
first and foremost you need to know who you help how you help and why it matters because if you cannot answer those
41:55
questions then any you’re wasting your time you’re wasting your money you’re wasting your resources you’re wasting
42:00
everything you if you don’t know that then how will the people who get to your website know if you are
42:08
the solution for them you’ve got less than five seconds to convince somebody who lands on your home page that they
42:15
are the right person for you and that only comes when you know what that right person looks like I like to say if I
42:22
gave you 100 leads how would you choose the top ten start there once you have that and you get your you
42:29
have your messaging Playbook which is you know basically what Eric is talking about you can take that cohesive messaging and apply it across all of
42:37
your content across all of the channels you can you know you’re creating an ebook for example a sharing tool if you
42:44
know who you help and how you help them you’ll also know what type of content they like to digest do they prefer video
42:49
do they prefer downloads do they want webinars do they want ebooks do they want carousels where are they hanging
42:56
out which channels are they on again you can’t answer those questions if you can’t answer who you help then when
43:04
they’re on your website you need to be able to grab their information so are do you have the ability to capture that
43:11
information are you putting forms are you putting the lead magnets on your site once you’ve captured that
43:17
information where is it going that brings us back to the CRM question that brings us back to the automation
43:22
question and e-commerce and web to print and everything else direct mail now they’re on your website
43:29
and they left while their software if they’re the contract who visited your website now we know who’s there let’s
43:35
send them um an email let’s send them a retargeting ad on on LinkedIn or AdWords
43:41
or Facebook because we know where they are now we’re hitting them with the same
43:46
message from The Playbook on different channels in different formats at different times and after they’ve seen
43:54
it 10 times at least maybe closer to 15 now only then
44:00
will they say oh crap you know I think I’ve seen something from these guys before you’re sick and tired of seeing it you
44:07
need to hit them over the head at least 15 times before they’ll even remember that they’ve seen your brand then
44:15
you can really start that engagement process so there you go I think I went over but I tried to speak as fast it’s
44:21
all right it’s all right I would be remiss if we if we stopped without throwing this question in
44:28
because I believe that it’s relevant we’ve all seen and heard about chat gbt
44:34
and the coming revolution of AI and machine learning and all this well this
44:40
is I believe this is going to impact every aspect of our daily lives within the next three to five years all right
44:48
anybody in business anybody live however they live their life this will touch your life if it’s not already
44:55
what advice or suggestions or do you guys have for print industry owners
45:02
marketers how to embrace this technology what should they be doing now as far as
45:07
this technology comes so they don’t get left behind embrace it learn embrace it
45:13
learn it figure it give me some examples okay Eric how do you recommend a guy
45:19
who’s run a print shop for 30 years and he’s in his mid-50s he Embraces this what what does he what does he do
45:27
well I mean if if he’s not wired to learn new things
45:32
then find someone there that is right like find maybe it’s a younger person or another partner that’s kind of more
45:39
techy or whatever and and it’s always good to have that person that can kind of translate these things into layman’s
45:46
terms I I have that in in my partner Adam Dewitt’s we’ve worked together for 15 years and he’s a programmer techie
45:51
guy RIT I can say explain it to me like I’m seven and like he can he can do that
45:57
right so maybe that’s the answer but what I would say is here’s the thing with all of this AI machine learning I
46:04
mean it’s it’s affecting a lot and we cover this extensively on what they think right machine learning around presses kind of telling you that they’re
46:11
going to break down because they’re they’re taking in all of this data and they’re they’re it’s hey this belt this
46:17
whatever’s about to go you know you need to do some maintenance or whatever smart Factory industry 4.0 all that stuff
46:23
we’re at iPhone version one of this stuff right very very very very early so
46:28
if you imagine to yourself what the first iPhone was and I think I have one in a drawer versus what your phone now
46:35
does that’s the level that we’re going to be in a decade or less like you said so
46:42
I you know for me it’s just like there’s always a fear thing that crops up in any
46:48
new technology it’s just like oh it’s gonna eliminate this job and it’s going to get rid of this thing and blah blah
46:53
blah ignore all that learn as much as you can figure out but
46:59
but also I don’t think it’s gonna I don’t think it is gonna take away jobs I think it’s gonna it’s gonna be a tool
47:06
that we figure out how to use and we’re they’re still going to need to be people involved so I think learn and if if you
47:12
can’t do it yourself have someone in your team that can learn so that that’s a strategic Advantage for you instead of
47:18
or else you’ll just it just and and how many printers have we seen over the last decade that have been left behind by
47:25
something yeah I mean there’s people that I’ll go
47:31
back to I have a a real big Gearhead guy who’s been telling me for a decade one
47:37
of my closest friends for 30 years electric cars are a fad five years they’ll be gone I’m like dude wake up
47:43
and smell the coffee it ain’t going away and for anybody that thinks ah Chachi p
47:49
is good for I don’t know producing top 10 lists no no this is this is not
47:54
evolutionary technology this is revolutionary technology this is something that if you feel that it’s not
48:02
living up to the hype it is and you really need to get on the bandwagon and
48:08
at least get yourself educated well and in the same sense I think Brad like electric cars also aren’t perfect no
48:15
right like there’s there’s an entire energy energy infrastructure and a lot of it’s powered by coal and there’s our
48:20
there’s there’s all kinds of things to learn as we adopt a new technology and that’s going to be no different than
48:26
than what we’re seeing with chat GPT and Ai and we’re learning right away right very quickly the chat GPT and AI content
48:34
generating at least isn’t perfect I mean there’s just story after story after Story of
48:40
of it not being perfect yeah I agree Amanda I I’d like to get you in to make
48:46
a comment here and I’m sure Joanne has something she’d like to add to this
48:51
um yeah and I actually deal with this now because one of my clients is a part of all of the Mi and machine management
48:58
right now and the way that they do it it’s more like you said it’s not there to take away jobs it’s not there
49:05
um to eliminate positions but what they have been using the tool and what they’ve been advertising the tool for is
49:11
more to just make what you’re doing more efficient make your machines work better for you make your process work better
49:17
for you and you know it does for them getting people to learn it is the most
49:23
difficult part because so many people are set in their way so many people have done it for 20 plus years this way
49:29
and they don’t want to embrace the technology that’s going to help them improve their production so I agree with
49:35
what Eric said find somebody on your team who you know who is ready to learn who wants to learn who wants to help you
49:42
know make your processes better make your production better and you know Embrace this changing technology because
49:48
we see it everywhere and then another thing is to partner with a good company you know that
49:54
is introducing it I’ve learned that if you find what some of those startup companies that you know are producing
49:59
this type of Technology team up with them they are like a vast Vault of knowledge and they are so willing to
50:06
share and so willing to help and even if it doesn’t become a sales partnership or you’re buying something off of them they
50:13
you know just getting the exposure to different companies I found that they’re still willing to help you along the way
50:19
and show you the caveats and then you know you can decide is this something for your your company or you know maybe
50:25
you still want to stay with the old school way so that’s that’s what I would do agreed agreed Joanne comments
50:33
so from a displacement technology displacement perspective I was fortunate
50:38
enough to start my technology career for a company that made it possible to send
50:43
a fax from your computer prior to that you had to use a fax machine
50:49
um I started my career there was no such thing as email and then suddenly there was email so I’ve lived through many
50:58
um displacements I remember when word first launched and
51:04
a lot of people suddenly the admins or you know back then they were still called secretaries were producing the
51:12
company newsletters and they were they were like okay now with word we can produce these newsletters and all the
51:18
graphic designers were up in arms like oh no it’s going to be 20 fonts and it’s ugly and you know just because it’s word
51:24
doesn’t mean you you suddenly can design a newsletter this is what we’re facing now everyone
51:30
is just dipping their toes in it trying to figure out what it does what can it
51:36
take off your plate from an automation perspective I love what you said Amanda it’s going to help streamline a lot of
51:43
those day-to-day processes so that you have another form of automation that you
51:49
can you know delve into again once you know where that automation needs to
51:55
occur using chat GPT to me is awesome but it doesn’t understand
52:02
human emotion it doesn’t understand intention so you have to you know a good
52:09
writer will take that chat GPT and elevate it to make it a great piece of
52:15
content that’s that your target market wants to download but if all we do is
52:21
rely on just what chat GPT pushes out if you really read it and you pay attention
52:27
to it you’ll start to be able to quickly spot oh yeah this was written by an AI and this was written by a human and once
52:34
we can really start to distinguish is when we’re going to be able to focus on weeding out the really you know the lazy
52:43
writers from the great content creators that’s that’s what I’m saying and I don’t just mean words I mean you know
52:49
images data code whatever you’re creating if you’re
52:54
really great at it you’ll be able to take what it gives you as your starting point instead of sort of looking at that
52:59
blank sheet of paper but you have to embrace it you have to learn from it you have to be prepared to make mistakes and
53:05
one day I’ll actually be able to get on the platform and play with it myself so far I’ve had zero luck
53:12
so I’m just taking everybody’s word for it because I’m yet to be able to play with it well I’ll give you my experience
53:20
you know I I’ve always felt myself a technologist and we are we do a webinar
53:26
every month next month is a machine learning and Ai and marketing and print
53:32
is what we’re going to do so here’s a little plug for our late March webinar uh so I’ve been doing research on it in
53:38
fact I had the AI write the title as well as the bullet points for the
53:44
outline of the of the actual webinar and it did an amazing job in about 10
53:49
seconds um so there is value there and I’m going to enjoy putting this together I don’t I
53:55
don’t have it all mapped out yet because I’m not going to rely only on the AI to do it but I’ll I’ll do it but uh I
54:02
wanted to end with that question because I know that it’s relevant in today’s world but we do have
54:08
looks like only one question here with four minutes to go well there’s a whole
54:13
bunch of stuff going on in the chat I I know what if we appear silent we can’t
54:19
actually contribute to the chat so if it looks like we’re being snobs we’re not we just there’s some great stuff yeah
54:26
there’s some awesome stuff I’m seeing clippy Lake I remember clippy
54:32
um well let me give you this question so we we let people go back to their lives on time the question is what will drive
54:38
the biggest change in printing and mailing costs in the near future will it
54:44
be significant in the next five years and how will we get ahead of it I’m I’m guessing it is the printing and mailing
54:51
cost being the issue anyone want to comment on that I am not qualified
54:56
yeah I’m gonna guess postage yeah yeah I’m not qualified as well but but I
55:02
think I think postage Supply I really think and again this sort of came out of our printing Outlook it seems like a lot
55:08
of the a lot of the pricing pressures are easing up there’s still somewhat of a challenge but it seems like obviously
55:15
Post-its and supplies are I mean those you know those are the things that do cost I get a Feeling Just based on the
55:22
theme of sort of what we’re hearing at least from talking to printers and doing the survey that they think that those
55:28
pressures are easing now that that may not be obviously anecdotal for everyone but
55:34
um I’m hopeful that that’s the case and I think I mean how to get ahead of
55:40
it obviously like you Brad I don’t think I’m necessarily qualified but I mean I think
55:46
the thing that I’m hearing from a lot of printers that they get a lot of value out of and I’ve just been recently talking to a lot of npsoa members
55:54
um doing some video clips for their for their conference is to just appear to peer learning right like in in terms of
56:02
supplies or even getting supplies or what are you doing to get ahead of this trend or that Trend I think networking
56:10
with a group of peers that had the same issues and same challenges that aren’t necessarily in a competitive market I
56:15
think is is one of the most beneficial things that I hear printers tell me they benefit from in the industry so it’s not
56:21
me or my opinion it’s just sort of me being the messenger and talk to your customers have have
56:28
honest not the salesy conversations just the conversations like hey how’s it
56:34
going like tell me what what what’s been going on
56:39
I don’t want to sell you I want to help you it comes right back to what Amanda was saying it’s all about how can we
56:46
help you those are the conversations you have not what do you not what print do you need
56:53
right you will get two very different answers agree well guys so when do we do part
57:00
two and the other five questions we’ll leave it up to them we’ll have them here so I’ll save them but listen
57:06
no I’m just I’m just kidding I do want to thank you guys I think I get I get really into this stuff I love the
57:11
collaboration I always feel that communicating with other people in an open environment helps all you know
57:18
Rising tide lifts all bugs so so our Collective wisdom helped a larger
57:23
Collective of people and I thank you for sharing your hour with me I thank all the audience members for sharing an hour
57:29
there will be a recording of This sent out in the next 24 to 48 hours so I’ll
57:35
let everyone get on with their week and again thank you very much and I appreciate you all take care guys bye
57:41
everybody thanks for having me appreciate it thank you thanks
