Covid-19 created some disruptions in several industries; Manufacturing, Hospitality, Education, Retail, Oil, Printing, Retail, etc. The impact of Covid-19, and the current economic meltdown has brought many businesses down including print. To stem the tide, one needs to reinvent their print business, by bridging the gap between the physical and the digital world.
In this post, we will take a critical look at how to bridge the gap and consider critical issues.
A recent NAPCO research published in May 2020 reported the following findings; sales fell by 53.7% on average between mid-March and mid-April, for all printing companies surveyed in the United States of America.
Declines averaged 59.0% for commercial printers, 51.9% for graphic and sign producers, 68.9% for apparel decorations, and 37.3% for functional printers. Work for Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, and Packaged-Food Industries grew throughout the crisis, limiting the average decline for the packaged printers/converters survey to 15.3%.
Download: Covid-19 Print Business Indicators Research
These figures are worrying, and this is a survey conducted for a little over 500 companies in the US and Canada, where on average, companies sell between $3 million a year to $50 million a year. Amid these disruptions, actions have to be taken going forward:
Traditional marketing strategies largely cover:
They are more cost-effective:
a)You can track campaigns daily
b) have control of where to spend your money
c) choose a channel that provides high ROI
d) its measurable: track metrics such as impressions, shares, views clicks and time on page
e) real-time people results are available: ie exact no of people who viewed your page,
2. page visited
3. device used
4. where they are coming from
Increase your sales and marketing efforts to apply marketing strategies to attract and convert leads and also to retain and acquire customers.
Use Facebook Messenger and your Twitter handle to manage customers' reviews, questions, and social listening.
Use your Facebook page and other social media channels to link visitors to your website, and provide more information about what you can do for such visitors
You may also get started with our social media consultation, with this link: https://blog.delprintsol.com/how-to-achieve-your-business-goals-and-increase-returns-on-investment
Printers have largely been production-dependent. Most of the investments in the printing industry are targeted at production equipment to ensure earlier delivery of products and services, increase the quality of work, and other equipment-related successes. Very little is done to increase consumer or buyer engagement, and conversion.
Reinventing the business model would mean;
a) putting the customer at the centre of the model
b) finding their needs, goals, objectives, and pain points to be able to serve them better,
c) providing solutions for the above, through value creation
Have a critical look at the change drivers impeded by the pandemic, and recent economic downturn and make the following reinforcements:
Take a look at your customer segments. Without customers, your business cannot survive. Your business must identify and understand your customers, and then group these customers into segments with identical personas/profiles. Know who they are and how you can create value for them in the face of the limiting factors brought about as a result of the turbulence in the economic systems. Showing empathy and a resolve to help them through their challenges, pains, and how to reach their goals. Customer relations need to be strengthened more at this time since such relationships can impact the overall customer experience. A section of the NAPCO research above recommends: Staying in touch with clients, particularly on social media.
In a situation like this, the need to create value is now or never. Many of your customers are also badly hit by the pandemic. The effect is declining sales, challenges with pricing, and other unknown problems. Discovering the magnitude of these can only be known through engagement with the right value propositions. Create several of these for different customers in different industries and markets.
Disruptions such as covid-19 and the recent economic downturn are opportunities for redefining systems, strengthening or overhauling the following:
For example, which of your print markets will gain or lose; or how have the scenarios affected key partner’s in your print markets? This will help you to move around into B2B horizontal markets like marketing departments and partner with the executives with market reach materials such as brochures, marketing collateral, proposal contracts, banners, mass media advertising, presentation material and more.
Focus on change drivers that lead to new or changing customer needs, for example, customers are seeking to partner with a print establishment that would help them, retain existing customers, increase returns on investment, become more visible in the marketing space, etc. Do you have the skills as well as resources to create such offerings to the new business models? Work on that.
Build on your purpose, and mission, and communicate with your team, partners, and customers.
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