How events can help grow your print business
Printers do far more than just print. Events are a great way for them to display what they can do and illustrate the benefits to their customers.
Before I began my journey with Mitingu, I ran a digital print business. About 8 years ago I had doubts about the longevity of print... how wrong was I ?! Print is the perfect physical communications tool and combined with technology and complimentary digital channels, the only limit to what you can do with it is simply one’s creativity.
There are lots of printers out there that have the technology and skill to make their clients’ communications come alive. The issue is there are far fewer who actually tell their clients and prospects what they can do and how they can help improve marketing ROI and cost efficiencies (via print on demand).
This is where running onsite, local and national events come into their own. It gives the print business the opportunity to inform, add value and raise awareness of what they can do and how they can help.
If you are one of those printers out there that thinks you don’t have the time or budget to organise one event, yet alone a number of regular events, I completely get that because I felt exactly the same! When I finally got round to organising an event (an open house), it opened my eyes to the opportunity. We attracted existing clients and some prospects who until that point we hadn’t managed to have a conversation with. We found out their actual pain points and got the opportunity to demonstrate how we could help them. The event gave us the opportunity to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones.
The great news is that it doesn’t have to cost lots of time and money to organise and manage a professional event for your business.
Mitingu can help printers or any type of business with event marketing, registration and ongoing communications from one platform. Here’s how…
1. A mobile responsive event registration and marketing site - your branding, your URL..not ours!
2. Event emails - invitations, booking confirmations, reminders, survey requests...personalised, branded and relevant to each recipient.
3. Attendee management - plan ahead by seeing who’s coming and what they hope to get out of the event (use the registration form to get valuable information such as that).
4. Analytics - see important metrics like registrations versus invitations, email response rates and total bookings and revenue (if you’re charging people to attend).
5. Integrated payments -take card payments online as part of the registration process.
6. Share on social media - helps to generate registrations and interest in your event.
7. Check-in - a professional way to check attendees in via an iOS and Android app. Their status is upgraded in the event admin attendee list, so you know who has made it on the day and who hasn't.
8. Surveys - your chance to collect more valuable attendee data to help you understand their pain points and how you can help them. It's also an opportunity to get their honest feedback on the event which can be used to refine the next event so it's even better!
Print has a great future, especially if it utilises technology such as web to print and cross media marketing software.
Events could be one of your business’s biggest opportunities to get the message out there and we’d love to help.
Print versus Digital - Who’s the winner?
Event invitations can be the first opportunity to make a great impression. Print or digital? Here's our thoughts.
Invitations to an event are often the first chance to make a great impression. Do you print them or email them out?
I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. There’s a place for both and also a strong argument to send both printed and emailed invitations. Print is far from dead and is actually more of a premium product nowadays. I’ve also read some comments recently about the demise of email. Stats would argue otherwise!
Here’s a few pointers if you’re printing an invitation:
Personalise it - increase impact and response
Choose the right material - it’s an invite, so make an impression by printing it on a quality card (your printer can give you samples)
Make it easy to respond to - add something like a QR code so it can be quickly scanned to take the recipient to the mobile friendly registration page
Package it right - you’ve spent time and money getting the invitation right, spend a bit more to make sure it arrives in style and in the right envelope or package
If you’re sending an email invitation here’s some things to focus on:
Subject line - these stats from Campaign Monitor show including the word “Invitation” at the start of the subject line increase responses by over 9%. Avoid “spammy” subject lines
Personalise it - as with print, it increases impact and response
Make it snappy and quick to read
Add response buttons - make it easy for them by adding Register and Decline buttons
Track who’s opened, responded and bounced - follow up accordingly
So I guess there is no winner. My personal preference is to do both. They compliment each other and give your invitation two opportunities to be seen and responded to.