How to increase the digital printing turnover? (two)

Digital printing service providers must further understand how sales of variable data are sold if they want to further increase their turnover.

Rapid growth of variable data printing (VDP)

Currently in North America, VDP is an important and growing part of the revenue stream for print service providers. It is complementing the digital printing market share that short-run traditional printing has recaptured in recent years, and has helped print products in the Internet era to increase the relevance of their content to their recipients.

In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Printing Industry Association of America last year, the goals of general variable data printing projects are:

(1) 39.2% of new customers are developed

(2) Consolidate customer relationships (loyalty) 49.6%

(3) Billing/Financial Statements 9.1%

(4) Other 2.1%

Variable Data Printing (VDP) is the only professional application for digital printing. Traditional printing cannot be replaced, but its sales method is totally different from traditional printing. Today, the application of Internet and e-commerce in China is becoming more and more widespread. The variable information printing operations generated through databases have gradually become popular in society. Online and offline variable data printing services are bound to rise rapidly in China.

At present, there has been no major breakthrough in the market development of the domestic color digital printing service industry, and the overall situation is still relatively primitive in its basic applications and it is moving forward at a relatively low growth rate. Digital printing service providers have not fully grasped the application of variable data printing and truly understood how to successfully sell variable data printing services to potential customers. In the final analysis, the main reason is that many domestic digital printing service providers still have the wrong idea, and think that the promotion of variable data printing services is similar to traditional printing. However, on the contrary, marketing variable data color printing services is a far cry from traditional color printing services.

In the end, how is today's variable data printing different from the traditional sales methods of traditional printing?

Of course, there are indeed many differences, and here we briefly analyze the significant differences from ten different perspectives:

(1) Basic or primary contact with potential customers:

Past: purchasing director of print

Today: Executives at or above the middle level, including marketing, sales manager, and even corporate shareholders

(2) Ways to interact with potential customers:

Past: Serving individual projects as sellers

Today: Learning how customers run their business and how they can help them

(3) Problems with potential customers

Past: How much is printed?

What format?

How many colors are you going to use?

How many weeks do you want to deliver?

Today: How do customers measure success and return on investment?

What is the minimum amount of print?

Where does the database come from?

How many hours do you want to deliver?

(4) Skill requirements

(A) Sales

Past: Project sales

Today: Sales Solutions

(B) Organization

In the past: What type of press was used?

How about postpress processing capacity?

Today: Marketing mentality

Database thinking skills

Information Technology expertise, including the Internet

(5) More complicated sales cycle

Past: 24 hours

Today: 1 to 12 months

(6) Changes in value-added content

Past: to provide high quality, cost-effective services

Today: Providing Development, Analysis, and Reporting of Marketing Strategies

(7) Considerations for quotation

Past: How much paper is needed?

How much ink is consumed?

What kind of post-printing processes are needed?

Today: Needs Project Management Skills

Software development

test

Database purification

(8) Sales support

Past: Assisting in obtaining orders

Today: Team sales concept

Super sales representatives no longer come in handy!

Adopt customer manager

Invite support from various project experts

(9) Calculation of production cycle

Past: Straightforward, proven algorithm

Today: It is still evolving, involves more elements and quality checks, is more complex and usually requires longer computing time

(10) Measurement of Customer Satisfaction

Past: Whether the colors of the printed materials are the same or not, and whether the printed materials are delivered on time

Today: Based on the customer's return on investment (ROI), not the quality of the digital press print proofs

How to successfully sell VDP?

The key to VDP's successful sales is that when digital printing service providers promote VDP, they must understand that the real purpose of customers using color VDP is to expand their business. If a supplier wants to become a strategic partner for his business, he must have a deep understanding of the customer's business and the difficulties they face. The supplier's focus is to satisfy the customer's requirements in terms of documentation and communication, and assist the customer in optimizing the workflow and analyzing and distributing the project results on behalf of the customer.

A phenomenon that we cannot change... The way information is disseminated is constantly changing!

The business's budget is under severe pressure to reduce. The target market has more access to information. People are increasingly demanding feedback when requesting information. They need continuous communication methods to carry out dialogue with the target market and adopt various Different types of media, such as e-mail, print media, and the Internet, are conducted asynchronously. The key to success is to focus on communication, not just printing.

The market is constantly changing and the factors that make it successful are also changing. The plan to promote variable data printing is absolutely different from traditional printing. Digital printing service providers must change to succeed in a dynamic market.

What does this all mean?

As a digital printing service provider, you need to evaluate whether your organization is currently ready and whether your team already has the relevant skills? If it is not already available, you may consider cultivating existing staff, or recruiting new ones, or even cooperating with other IT companies. In addition, you need to ensure that your workflow is optimized for a wide variety of digital printing applications and operations, and that Internet-enabled and automated printing facilities are included. Finally, you need to develop a development strategy to promote and implement the above-mentioned new equipment and capabilities, and be prepared to have endless fun from your career development! ! !

Why image personalization and variable data printing are so important?

Although the cost of printing variable data in full color is higher than printing black and white variable data on preprinted envelopes, the effectiveness far exceeds the cost of multiple expenses. In 2006, the American Marketing Association focused on absolute response rates, reduced the cost of each response, and increased sales revenue from 60 color VDP projects compared to black and white personalization. The cost of printing full color variable data is more than double the cost of overprinting the envelope. The project's average response rate increased by 21%, and the cost of each response was reduced by 54% compared to traditional direct mail campaigns. The average sales increase from color VDP projects is 93%.

In fact, according to a survey conducted by the American Direct Mail Association, although the cost of direct mail in the United States continues to increase, the direct mail response rate is declining.

5 tools essential for variable data printing services

To successfully run variable data printing, service providers must have the following five essential basic tools:

(I) Marketing mentality

(b) Layout layout tools that are not required to be imported from the variable data printing system (allow designers to use the tools they are accustomed to)

(three) test methods

(IV) Tracking and reporting capabilities

(E) Analysis skills

(I) Marketing mentality

● Digital press is a marketing tool, not a production device!

● Learn how to determine the actual needs of customers

● With industry vision and long-term business vision

● Ability to summarize and aggregate market demand

(B) Layout tool

● Convinced that you must use a build engine as the basis for system operation

● It is important to keep in mind that “creative professionals” can use the page layout tools they have become accustomed to:

- To increase their acceptance of the system

- Shorten their learning curve and cycle

(three) test methods

● longest name, shortest name, no name

- Text wrapping and overlay

●Logical test

●Print test

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