Margie Dana

Remembering You Always

Words fail me. Which is funny when you consider that I write for a living.

For months I’ve brooded over what to say in my last blog post, but nothing seems right. Or enough. How do you do justice when saying good-bye to a long and happy career? More to the point: how do you say good-bye to all of the incredible people you’ve encountered along the way?

With excitement and more than a touch of glee, I am writing to tell you that I’m retiring at the end of this month. This has been in the works since January, and while I am poised to enjoy all that retirement brings, it’s impossible for me to convey what my career has meant to me in a few hundred measly words.

Do I list the people who most especially influenced my work and my career – people I met and got to know, as well as those whom I’ve only known virtually? There are so many of you. So many.

There’s Frank, of course, and Joe, John, Cary, Christine, Daniel, Jamie, Mark and Marc. There’s Linda, Diane, Greg, Dan, Jill, Cindy, and Kevin. I think of Jim out in sunny California and Texas Jim as well as Kathleen. Also Brian and Frances, KOB and Lisa. There’s Richard and Holly, Kitty nearby, and Mariah, Beth and Pat. I thank Ali and Paul, Don and Tim and Peter. Sal, Kristi and Bree. Jeff in the Midwest and Cheryl in my home state of NJ. I’ll remember Lilly, Jane and Monica, Ken and Jack, and Dean out of Chicago. I think of Duncan and Kurt, more Dianes and more Marks. I thank everyone who ever worked for me or with me, like Ken and Barbara, PM and Marcia.

I have wonderful clients whom I’ve already thanked, for giving me writing assignments that challenged me and improved my skill.

And again, there’s Frank. Because Frank Romano has done more for me than anyone else, as a mentor and as an enthusiast of my work, particularly when I ran print buyer conferences. It’s a debt I can never repay.

Being a part of the print industry has been a long and wonderful ride. It’s been my pleasure trying to help bridge the divide between manufacturers and their customers. It’s the sort of work that can go on and on and on…and yet, it’s time for whatever adventures and opportunities lay before me in this life.

So keep calm and print on. I’ll see many of you on Facebook if not in the flesh. Thanks for the millions of memories and support. All of you have colored my world in full and brilliant CMYK. What a gift!

Your Customers Aren’t Coming to You for Your Printing

The dog-grooming services were pretty much identical – so why did I switch from one establishment to another for Charlie, my mini poodle? Let me count the ways.

Old Place

It got increasingly difficult (read: impossible) to book an appointment for Charlie with the one groomer I preferred.
This was the only groomer there whose services I consistently liked.
Parking was a pain in the…
It was always crowded, with around 8 to 10 dogs there at any given time, making it LOUD and kind of crazy. Not exactly “Zen-like” for my anxious dog.
Prices were steep.

New Place

They vetted me extensively over the phone before booking a first appointment. What was my dog like, are his shots up to date, how’s his health, and so on. I was impressed.
They offer an Express Service. For about $10 more, I can drop Charlie off first thing in the morning and fetch him an hour later. Worth every penny.
The groomer came highly recommended by a local dog owner I see regularly.
There’s ample and easy parking.
The grooming area is small and quiet.
Their price is about 25% lower than the Old Place.
They offer a Senior Citizen’s discount. So later this year, I’ll pay even less!

Let me repeat myself: the end result (one clean and groomed dog) from both places is nearly identical.

So ask yourself: why do customers stay with your company? Trust me, it’s not the quality of your printing, per se. It is generally a combination of that and the following:

How you talk to them.
How welcome they feel when they’re there.
How easy it is to reach you when they need to.
How well you and others in the company know their organization’s needs and preferences.
How easy it is to deal with you.
How easy it is to understand your company’s invoices.
How professional you are.
How creative you are when it comes to solving problems or offering fresh ideas.
How helpful you prove to be when they need related services.
How respectfully you speak to them and about other people.
How well you respond under pressure.
How well you react to problems, especially those that involve your accepting responsibility.
How important you make them feel as a customer.
How thoroughly you follow through.

Initially, customers may come to you for your printing. But they’ll stay – or leave – for a variety of other reasons. Some of these may be subtle. And they may be unknown to you.

If you can figure out what makes the difference to customers, you can do something about it and keep them coming back.

Your Customers Notice the Littlest Things

I joined the YMCA this year. Being in Boston, I have access to 13 different Y’s throughout the city (what a great deal). Every Monday, for the last 3 months, I’ve taken a 5:35 Zumba class at the West Roxbury YMCA.

And every Monday, for the last 3 months, there’s been someone washing the windows and glass doors at the Y’s entrance. Every. Single. Monday.

As a customer I thought, “This is great. They take care of their facility.” This morphed into, “This is smart. They work hard at making their gym an inviting place for members.” And not for nothin’, cleanliness in a gym matters a lot to me.

Now, I don’t have any idea if Monday around 5 pm is the only time that this cleaning takes place. And I don’t care. All I care about is that I see someone cleaning every time I go there. It gives me the impression that the West Roxbury YMCA is well maintained.

So, printers…when your customers visit your plant, what do they see?

Braintree Printing Won’t Leave Me Alone. And That’s a Good Thing.

For the past few years I’ve been getting postcards on a regular basis from one local printing company – Braintree Printing. It’s left a impression on me.

This company is just south of Boston proper. They are a trade printer serving all of New England as well as New York and New Jersey (my home state!). Hoping to learn more about this direct mail campaign, I sent a list of questions to Jim Corliss, the owner.

Here’s what I found out.

Braintree Printing has been mailing postcards to the trade on a monthly basis or so, for the past two or three years. All of the postcards are personalized, which is one reason I love them. They use my name and my company name very effectively. The design (different each time) is big and bold, and the cards are often printed on different stock to make a point about that particular stock. I have one that’s a bumper sticker. Another is printed on 24 pt. board, and the message is all about Braintree’s ability to print on that substrate. The postcards are printed on their Xerox® iGen®4 or their iGen™150, using XMPie software for the personalization. They apply a UV coating offline.

Braintree card 3 The only hard cost for these cards is postage, about $.30 apiece. The company designs, prints and mails their postcards in-house. Jim says they mail about 2500 pieces each time.

Direct mail is not their only marketing channel. The postcards are coordinated with email blasts. I get the emails, too. I think this is a very smart one-two punch.

So, are these postcards and the accompanying emails effective? “People seem to enjoy getting our pieces,” Jim wrote. “We try to keep them simple and try not to be intrusive.” As a recipient, I can tell you they are not intrusive. The cards are fun and colorful. The emails are related and get to the point right away.

Jim says they get a 30% opening rate on the broadcast emails. The company does almost no other advertising, and they don’t have an outside sales force, so Jim feels that most of their sales can be attributed to the postcards and email blasts.

For now, the company will continue sending out their postcards – with accompanying emails – but Jim says they’re always on the lookout for different ways to communicate with their customers. Braintree card 2

There’s something iconic about these postcards that show up in my mail, and there are a few reasons why I think they work as a marketing tool:

1. I get them regularly.

2. I check out each one to see what’s being promoted.

3. They’re not overdone. There’s just enough copy, and the design isn’t “precious.”

4. Each one tells me about a particular product or service the company offers.

5. Accompanying emails reinforce the postcards.

Braintree card 1 When all’s said and done, these postcards are welcome. They’re lighthearted. Each one’s different. They shine a light on Braintree Printing. And most important of all, they keep the company’s name in my mind.

The Only Thing that Distinguishes Your Printing Company

One thing sets you apart.

Almost exclusively, my clients are in the printing industry. When I ask a new client what makes his or her commercial print company special, I hear “Service” a lot. They say this with conviction. But there’s some bristling when I question them on what exactly they mean. I can’t help it; I hear it all the time.

There’s only one thing that makes a printing company different from another, and that’s its people.

Regardless of how fantastic your service is, how magnificent your presses are, how efficient your production workflow may be, how fast you deliver, or how low your prices are – you have competition.

So unless your employees can be in two places at once, they are your aces-in-the-hole.

And because business print buyers (as opposed to consumers) like building lasting relationships with the people at printing companies, printers should find ways to feature their employees.

Start with your sales and service reps. Make their skills and other specialties known. You can do this on your web site, in blogs and in newsletters, on Facebook and your company LinkedIn page, in email marketing efforts, and in direct mail. You could do short videos that feature different team members. Let people know whom they’ll be working with. Impress them.

Here are a few things I’ve learned about industry professionals that got my attention:

A CSR with not one but two degrees from RIT;
A rep who volunteers his time every week playing music at a home for the elderly;
A company owner who has decades of experience working in the paper industry;
A sales manager who used to be prepress manager at other companies, making him a tech/preflight expert;
A prepress specialist who’s earned IDEAlliance’s Mail Pro Certification;
Service reps who are gourmet chefs and who rebuild cars.

Such expertise, or industry experience, adds value to your company’s reputation. Some employees may have deep roots in the industry; others may have outside passions that customers will identify with. Either way, sharing more information about them gives dimension to your company.

Individual sales reps may mention certain skills in their prospecting materials, but what about everyone else in your company? How is word getting out about these jewels in your crown?

Work it. As you develop materials and publish regular content to promote your company and build your community, find ways to feature the one thing that’s truly unique: your people.

This post first appeared on www.piworld.com. I blog for them from time to time.

When the Scent Grows Cold

Scent A peculiar thing happens when a writing assignment is put on temporary hold once the writer’s already begun. The momentum is lost, and like a popped balloon, all the air goes out of the project.

Weeks or months later, when the job starts up again, the writer in a sense has to start anew. The mood has been broken.

The energy that initially fueled the assignment, be it through discussions with the client or research done online, has vanished, like the scent of a crime in an open field after a downpour.

Imagine dating someone you start to fall for – then he disappears into the blue for months. When he returns, it’s like starting all over. Hopefully, you can reclaim the magic.

The bigger the assignment and the longer the hiatus, the more likely this predicament will occur. Content quality can suffer when writing assignments are interrupted by fits and starts.

5 Things on Print Customers’ Wish Lists

Print customers in business settings are always eager to share with me what they want from their printer partners – not in regards to the holiday season, but all year long.

Their wish list includes things that range from enhanced customer service to a deeper understanding of certain technologies and manufacturing processes. As the year nears its close, I’ve put together this list of the Top 5:

1. A better understanding of personalization applications and options available to them. Help your customers appreciate how easy variable data printing can be. What should they know about putting together the right types of data to be used in campaigns? Can you help? I’m being facetious. Of course you can.

2. Educational information throughout the year. This can be done in so many ways: seminars, lunch-n-learns (or breakfast meetings), after-work events, webinars, videos, valuable blogs or enewsletters. So many options. Pick one or two. Just do it.

3. Insights into new printing technologies and applications. Most print customers do not attend print industry events, and they’re not particularly proactive in learning about the latest manufacturing capabilities from industry web sites. It’s up to you to tell them what’s new.

4. Recommendations about how to make their print materials more effective. Give them ideas that will improve their jobs. Is it the process, the format, the substrate, the design – or literally the whole approach that needs to be rethought? What would you have them do differently so that the results are better? Do you even know what results they expect? I’m pretty sure once you know, you’ll have suggestions for improvement.

5. A relationship built on honesty, professionalism, and trust. Print customers want a lasting relationship with a printing company. It’s too much work and definitely too stressful to replace printers. If your capabilities and price points are both good matches for a customer, the rest is up to you. The people in your company who serve your customers are crucial in the world of print buying. Customers need to trust you. You need to be responsive. Qualities like integrity and honesty come up a lot in conversations with buyers. Without them, you’re doomed.

If you’re a printer, why not tackle any or all of these as your New Year’s resolution? They’ll help strengthen customer relationships, which leads to more business and more referrals.

Why a Printer’s Gallery Page Is So Important

How good is your gallery?

I’ve discovered something interesting about commercial printers’ web sites: often it’s their page of Sample Products, AKA “Gallery,” that is most important.

Here’s why.

If the site copy elsewhere doesn’t make it clear to visitors what you’re really good at, and what types of printing you do, the Gallery Page can tell the story better than any words. And much faster.

This happens frequently. I land on a site and can’t tell what the company’s sweet spot is. Then I move to the Gallery page and think, Oh……NOW I get what they’re about.

I like seeing a variety of products on this page, plus a short description of each image (Chalkboard Printing, Floor Graphics, Posters, Catalogs, Variable Data, etc.). It gives me a good sense of the breadth of your offerings.

Based on this one page, I might decide if you’re a good fit for my business or not.

My hunch is that corporate and agency print customers (including marketers and purchasing pros) will do the same thing – zip on over to your product sample page and decide on the spot if a printer’s a good fit.

So when words fail you, good images won’t.

Shop Around for a Better Experience

Keep your eyes open.

Sometimes it’s the experience that makes the difference between service providers.

That includes doctors, dentists, mechanics, health clubs, hair stylists, and yes, even commercial printers.

I’m not trying to dissuade customers from being loyal. Rather, I hope people recognize the value of testing the waters to see if they could get a better experience elsewhere.

It’s easy to move on if a current provider is not delivering the product or service to your liking. Something negative is propelling you out the door. I’ve switched doctors and other professionals, not because they weren’t qualified, but because of the experience. It was negative enough to make me leave.

I switched primary care physicians once, because my doctor consistently kept me waiting over an hour and never acknowledged it. I switched an eye doctor because the practice was run like an assembly line. I was passed from one eye technician to the next like a hot potato and then hustled out the door so the next spud could be handled.

A customer experience typically means how you treat your customers when they’re interacting with you. It’s what you say and how you say it. It can be subtle, but when it’s negative, it can trigger our search for your replacement.

What if you’ve been dealing with the same service provider forever? You’re comfortable, but (let’s be honest) you have nothing to compare it with. It’s still smart to check out the competition from time to time. This goes for commercial printers. How else will you know if there’s something incredible, or new, or both, that you’ve been missing? What if you could be treated better elsewhere?

Recently I took a few fitness classes at a different club than the one to which I belong.

The dance moves were the same.

The music was the same.

The instructor was the same.

But the experience was totally different. It was a combination of a few things, but taken together, they made the classes refreshing and fun and brand new for me – after all these years. Based on that experience, I joined the club. Experiencing working out in a new environment was a change I didn’t know I needed until I tried it, purely by chance.

So for any print customers reading this post, keep your eyes open. Visit new printers from time to time to see if the experience they can offer you is different in a positive way. Talk to some of their existing customers. Think of it as a test drive. Maybe you’ll find your current provider is still the best choice for you, and it’ll strengthen that relationship. But maybe you’ll uncover something that blows you away for any number of reasons, and you’ll make a switch, or add this printer to your group of providers. That’s what I did with the gym.

Printers reading this post should recognize the importance of customer experience. All things being equal, would your customers say that none of your competitors could beat the great experience you deliver?

My Preferred 5-Part Blogging Process

Freelance blogging requires lots of reading and writing, but (thankfully for me) no arithmetic. I’ve developed my own blogging process. Here you go.

Discuss the topic with client. A phone conversation is preferred, as it lets me get all my questions asked – and answered – before I dig in. I need to understand what’s expected and who the audience is. I take notes as we chat.
Ponder the post. I think about the key points I want to make.
Do research. I take to the Internet to learn what I can about the subject, if I’m not familiar with it. This step is critical. I create a Word document just for this research, jotting down the URLs and key phrases or ideas that will be fodder for the post.
Ponder the post again. Looking at my client notes, my research notes, and my client’s website, I form the thesis in my mind.
Write. Now I’m ready to rock and roll. At this point, I know where I’m going with the post and have decided which points to make and when hyperlinks will help support my work. I suggest a few headlines, review my writing, and send it off to the client.

This works well for me. The research notes keep me honest and careful, and if the client wants to see them, I send them along. Some bloggers “dump” everything they know about a topic onto a clean Word document and whittle it down from there. I can’t work that way.

What’s your process?

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