For printers who are merging into marketing firms, social media is a great initiative to interact and reach out to a wider audience. It helps to keep pace with the latest buzz in the printing industry and opens up different contact opportunities and outlets. Below are the statistics revealed in a recent survey conducted by “What They Think”, showing the growing interest of commercial printers in social media.

Social media not only gets you traffic on your site but also gets you direct business. People are looking on social media networks to meet their printing needs. Even some organizations like the Print Services & Distribution Association (PSDA) are hosting conferences and presentations educating the printing professionals on the use of new platforms and technology to increase their business. You can get the latest updates on marketing resources for digital printing services providers by following Caslon on Twitter.

Five Reasons to incorporate digital printing in your marketing mix:

• Cost-Effectiveness: In contrast to offset-printing, digital printing is much more cost-efficient because you do not need to stock thousands of pamphlets or brochures, rather you can print your marketing collateral according to the interest of your targeted audiences.
• Print on Demand: It is a huge waste when a company discards its two-month old brochures or data sheets because of updates to products and services, or a new office opening up in another city. With digital printing, you can run smaller but frequent on-demand print runs for marketing collaterals – a solution that is cost-effective and environment friendly.
• Fast Turnarounds: Digital printing reduces production costs by providing soft proofs that are easier to edit, unlike the physical proofs used for offset printing. These soft proofs can be provided in the form of high-resolution PDFs that provide greater flexibility to edit. Printing workflow when integrated with digital technologies significantly minimizes plate setting as well as press down time and thus cuts down set-up and batch changeover costs.
• Personalization: Digital printing also helps establish a one-to-one relationship with your prospects by sending out personalized messages through variable data printing (VDP). VDP enables you to modify the text or graphics on every page without slowing down the press. Normally, VDP involves changing the salutation or name on every copy that increases the responsiveness of the direct mail or a promotional copy.
• Personalized URLs: Digital printing enables the use of personalized URLs (PURLs) that has gained immense popularity due to their capability to generate amazing response rates, at times nearly double the typical response rate.

Caslon provides hundreds of successful digital printing case studies from around the world to get innovative ideas and proven strategies from today’s digital market place.

No one-size-fit-all marketing plan
Successful marketers realize that cross-channel marketing communicates the right message to the right audience at the right time. Multi-channel marketing provides faster access to internal and external information, while retaining a consistent message and brand. Some of your marketing messages may be well-received through emails but others may be effective through direct mails. Hence the need to be present on multiple channels with messaging tuned to that channel.

Multiple communication channels for prospects
Another benefit is opening up multiple points of contact for your audience to connect with you. Some people may like to contact you through your website, whereas others prefer to walk up to you on a seminar or event, whereas some may like to meet you on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin.

Personalizing your marketing message increases its chance to be received by your target audience. The more convenient and personalized the experience you provide to your prospects, the more interested they will be in availing your services.

With different marketing channels available, printers may consider using some or all of them. Below are various channels to consider for your marketing mix: