Chris Kelley of Emigrant, Montana writes:
I’m a publicist, and Andrew Field, the founder and CEO of PrintingforLess.com, the world’s largest commercial online printer, is one of my clients.
More than 50,000 customers nationwide—mostly small and mid sized businesses—annually visitor our website for affordable, full-color marketing materials such as business cards, brochures, postcards, newsletters, letterhead and so on.
Andrew now wants to become the first national brand name in the printing industry. He was runner-up in the national Best Bosses of the Year contest and has generated substantial publicity, including stories in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. All this has helped, but he wants the Printingforless.com name to be to the printing industry what Kinko’s is to the copying industry.
Can your Hounds help?
Hi Chris:
If you want to become the first national brand name in the printing industry, then you must collaborate online public relations and traditional public relations methods.
You should be writing and submitting press releases online directed towards your business audience and not just reporters. You should also be writing and submitting articles online. There are thousands of sites, directories and ezines that accept tips, how to, trends and many other expert advice article submissions. By writing and submitting articles online you will build your prospect list, create a constant flow of traffic to your site, increase branding and exposure on the Net, and improve your SEO rankings all at the same time. For more information on article marketing, check out http://www.articlemarketingexperts.com
One idea.
Hook up with a charity.
How about providing free printing supplies
for kids in the New Orleans school district?
How about free printing supplies to the kids
of the Katrina victims? This might give it
more national interest since Katrina victims are spread out across the nation.
Oprah is building a whole district for girls
in South Africa, are you giving her school supplies
to help her see her dream come true?
How about a Paper A Day Keeps Dropping Out Away campaign?
Encourage kids to write one essay a week
about what they like about themselves.
Building self esteem lowers drop out rates.
Supply the paper for them to do it. Maybe best if they do it on some kind of cool looking paper.
Come up with a cool prize that would appeal to
the kids.
I would like to suggest being as successful as Kinkos–but not being them. Make yourself the “quality” option.
I’m already a Printing for Less customer, and since I’m a business coach, I send my clients to you as well. Just this week, one of them was thanking me profusely because you treated her so well.
The thing that makes you unique us that you have these 2 things down pat:
1. A great online ordering interface.
2. Fantastic real people that follow up on your order.
So the high-tech meets high-touch aspect is where you blow Kinko’s away.
If there was an area where you could expand that, and garner my loyalty for life, then it would be expanding your “green” options, and PUBLICIZING THEM.
I’m now a certified green business, and was just about to break up with you (sniff, boo-hoo) because I need to go with a recycled paper & soy-based ink printer. What I learned after 6 hours of research, is that I can get greener options than PrintingforLess, but their websites are lame, which makes me nervous. When I emailed my PFL team to say I was sad to go, they said you do have green options, they’re just not online. *sigh* So it’s possible, but I’ve got to work harder to get them. (Bummer, I don’t want to work harder. I like ordering online.)
==> So my coaching for you is to basically follow a Whole Foods Market approach. Make your company HUGE, but focus on a Quality/Caring/Green value proposition.
Sorry for the long comment, Joan. But I’ve been hoping PFL is wanting feedback! I really want to stick with them, while also staying green.
1. print a copy of the Constitution for every homeless person in New York and hire a helicopter to drop them from the sky.
2. paint every poodle in New York with the logo and phone # of your client.
3. start a national printing day and have Britney Spears be photographed “commando” while accessing your client’s website.
As head of the Beanery Writers Group I deal with persons who want to self-publish. This is a popular idea today, for better or worse—and I do believe competition will separate the so-called sheep from the goats. For example, our group is unique in that it has a blog, http://www.ProBlogs.com/beanerywriters, which is the top site at ProBlogs.com, receiving 125 hits (and increasing) daily. I believe we’ve reached this lead because we emphasize GOOD writing, regardless of the genre.
We are not the only writers group with self-published members. Perhaps this is a direction for you to investigate.