Margie Dana

I often check out the News sections of printers’ web sites. These aren’t mandatory, mind you, but as a manufacturer, a printing company makes improvements, maybe wins awards, and often reaches key milestones. Suppliers and customers need to know.

Hence, news releases (or announcements) are warranted. These tend to be buttoned-down, formal types of communications. Just the facts, ma’am, and all that.

That’s OK. I write mine that way, too. But depending on the audience, I might change the message.

Do printers rework news releases for their customers? They should be written in a way that points out why the news matters to them. Here are just 2 examples:

You’ve earned a professional certification. Recently ISO certified? How about a “green” certification, like SGP? Explain to customers in an email announcement (and why not on your home page?) why this is important for them. How does this put you in a class above competitors? I like how The Advertisers Printing Company in St. Louis touts its green-ness in a Sustainability section. Likewise, DS Graphics here in MA explains why their environmental efforts should matter. Great examples. Presumably, news releases went out to a broad audience when certifications were earned.
You’re transitioning. Maybe you’ve added a mailing & fulfillment department or on-staff creatives. Or maybe you’re morphing more substantially into a creative marketing agency. I’ve been watching the big change over at DSI Marketing Communications. They’re now Blue Bumble Creative, and they’ve been sharing this news in their social channels and via emails for a few months. Now their web site is “building that buzz” – and quite well, I might add. Others would have shut down the old site and uploaded the new, with zero explanation or build up. Theirs is an example of how to do it right.

Read every news release through the eyes of your customers, then find the best way to present it to them. What should they know about your announcement? How will a move, new CEO, new sales rep, or new piece of equipment, improve your services for them?

Make your news matter to your customers.