iBlogMarketing

Part 3:  Print Industry Internet Services

There’s an old saying: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”  This is especially true for those in the printing industry.  The question is:  Are there Internet marketing services I can offer that would compliment my print business and increase my revenue?  The unequivocal answer:  YES!

Let’s examine some examples and delineate the print media and the Internet counterpart:

• Print Catalog/Directory => Internet “flip book”
• Print Brochure => Internet PDF file, “flip book”, mini-Website, video on a CD/DVD/memory-stick
• High-end direct mail => HTML Email
• Newsletters => HTML Email or electronic newsletter

The above is a short list, but the possibilities really are enormous.  There is also great synergy and competitive benefit in offering Internet marketing services that compliment your print offerings.  Some of them include:

• You already have the clients
• They have expressed a need
• You can not only fulfill that expressed need, but give them options to further fulfill the need
• You can “bundle” it with your current service offerings and provide an attractive package price
• You can become a one-stop provider giving you a leg-up on the competition

That leaves only one question:  How?

As I see it, you have two choices:

1. Develop the capability in-house
2. Outsource the project

For most printers, option 2 makes the most sense, at least as a starting point.  This means finding an Internet marketing agency willing to partner with you.  The hard part is going to be finding an Internet marketing agency that has the full spectrum of capabilities to compliment your print offerings.

Let’s wrap things up in a simple summary:

• Business in the print industry is likely to be down in 2009 due to the economy & loss of business to other media, primarily the Internet
• The Internet is here to stay and instead of fighting it use it to get new print business and offer it to clients to compliment your print services.