If you require help with your blogging – remember that blog content generation is just one of the many online marketing services for printers that we offer.

What is a blog good for?

• It becomes the voice of your business
• It enables you to convey your firm’s expertise
• It gives people a reason to visit your website
• It can be used as a vehicle to stay in touch with your potential customers

Getting started

Understand your audience – the first step is to understand your potential customers and the kinds of content they are looking for. If you get to know them and their problems you can develop a more effective content strategy.

Develop a content strategy – always start with a plan and understand the types of content you are producing, when, how often and why.

Get writing – clearly you’ll need to put in the time producing great quality blog posts for your audience to read. Writing becomes habitual and is certainly a lot easier once you just get started with it.

Promote your blog – you are likely promoting your business but promoting your blog in its own right is a very smart strategy because if your blog can become popular enough, it will become a powerful marketing tool for your business, so be sure to look for opportunities to promote your blog as a content hub in your industry. Promoting it and seeing how popular it is getting will act as a motivator for you and your team when it comes to regularly creating articles for it.

Be persistent – in the beginning, the number of people reading your posts is likely to be very small but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t persist with blogging. It is a worthwhile strategy and we all know that good things come to those who wait.

Combining with other online marketing

A blog should sit at the heart of your online content marketing efforts. It becomes the content engine of your business and you can use the posts you produce to drive other aspects of your online marketing.

Blogging combined with email marketing – email marketing is a very powerful channel in today’s online world. Whilst some would argue it is an outdated tactic, those in the know recognise that in a busy world where there is so much noise from all angles, communicating with prospects via email is one of the few ways to reach them effectively. Combine your email marketing with the blog content you produce as a reason for staying in touch and being useful to your potential customers.

Blogging combined with social media – it can become challenging constantly interacting with your audience, particularly in some industries which perhaps have fewer natural opportunities for social conversations but when you combine the blog content you produce with your social media efforts you are creating a powerful combination. Social becomes a channel for driving traffic to your website and the content you produce becomes the reason for your social media outposts to exist.

Blogging combined with SEO – producing good quality, relevant and keyword-optimised content on a regular basis will be beneficial to your overall SEO efforts because you can link the article to other pages on your website thereby benefiting from internal links which can help boost your rankings. Also given Google’s recent freshness update, producing good content on a regular basis will likely improve your visibility in the search results.

Google in particular is able to provide enough visitors, enquiries and sales to sustain most print businesses and make their website a worthwhile investment so it is essential that you pay attention to SEO.

SEO or search engine optimisation is both an art and a science and in this post we will be outlining a few techniques, tips and general pieces of advice to help you get started with optimising your website for the major search engines.

By and large, SEO can be divided into two categories; on-page optimisation and off-page optimisation. Both are required in order to fully-optimise your site and we will cover off the basics of each of these in this post.

On-page optimisation

Optimising the pages of your website involves the following:

• Technical SEO
• Keyword Research
• Content optimisation
• User experience optimisation

Technical SEO

This aspect of on-page optimisation involves taking care of the technical ‘housekeeping’ on your website which means you are ensuring the search engine spiders can access, crawl and index your website.

Keyword research

This aspect of on-page optimisation involves identifying the keywords which your prospective customers are using to search and find products and services that you offer. If you can optimise your website for visibility across these keyword terms then your chances of turning visitors into customers is greatly increased.

Content optimisation

Once you understand the keywords that your customers are searching for then you can tweak, rewrite and even create new content to ensure you are effectively targeting these terms.

User experience optimisation

This might sound like a job for your website designer but ever since Google announced their Panda update which is believed to relate the the quality and usefulness of a website, optimising the experience for your users has become an essential and integral part of SEO.

This doesn’t mean you necessarily need to change the design of your website, it can just mean targeting the right types of keywords to ensure the visitors who use those keywords and find your site can easily find the content that they are looking for.

It is also important you look at ways to reduce the bounce rate of your web pages (the number of people who arrive at your site and leave without progressing any further than the first page) as it is widely believed that Google is weaving user feedback metrics like bounce rate into how it ranks websites – with sites that have a high bounce rate dropping in the rankings in comparison to websites which are seemingly very useful for their users.

Off-page optimisation

• Link development
• Social media strategies

Off-page optimisation can seem like a much easier task as there are less things to worry about but in actual fact not only is off-page optimisation more important it is also a far more complex challenge because arguably you don’t have control over social media or who links to you.

Thankfully though there are things you can do to encourage links and improve your social media presence.

Link development or link building

It is often easy to get sucked into the belief that more = better but in the world of links, not all were created equal and it is very much about quality and relevance rather than quantity necessarily.

You can make some quick improvements with linkbuilding such as directory submissions, article submissions, social bookmarking and proactive guest posting and content exchange for links.

Social media

Although social doesn’t have a direct impact on rankings just yet, it is likely to have a much bigger impact as time goes by.

Looking at ways to encourage social interaction with your presences on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ in order to drive traffic in the short term and longer term to ensure your rankings are secure should Google look to incorporate social media signals more heavily into the algorithm.

Near enough everyone is on Facebook or Twitter whether they’re 16 or 61 – it’s infiltrated almost every generation of society.

Don’t believe social media is just a fad – take a look at this video

What does this mean for your print business? Are there social media opportunities you can be taking advantage of in order to grow your business?

The answer is a resounding yes! People aren’t just using social media as a way to tell others what they had for breakfast, it is fast becoming a way to get recommendations from trusted peers and business associates when making purchasing decisions.

There are also early indications which show that Google is working social signals into its ranking algorithm which means that if you aren’t looking at exploring social media then you might be missing out.

Here are our 3 top social media tips for printers:

#1 -Social listening

This is the practice of monitoring social media and conversations online and participating where applicable. This might be a customer offering positive feedback on your products or services, it could be a prospective client asking their followers a question about your business or seeking reviews of the products you offer.

It could even be a prospective buyer who has no idea about your business but is looking for a solution you offer. All of these situations present the perfect opportunity to engage in a non-intrusive way to offer your advice, thank them for their feedback or address any queries they might have.

Social Mention is a free and very easy tool to use which enables you to ‘listen in’ on the social web. It sources data from much of the known universe including Facebook, Twitter, Google, blogs and more.

#2 -Be interesting

It is easy said than done but remember that with social media comes a more conversational environment; people aren’t looking to be hard sold, they want to be engaged with. Produce interesting content on your blog and share via social media channels or you could run specific events on your social media profiles and encourage interaction through things like surveys or prize draws.

#3 – Convert likes into sales

There is no shortage of ‘experts’ out there telling you social media is for kids and that you’ll never get any business from it. They’re either mis-informed or haven’t been doing it right because social media with strategy can lead to significantly higher sales…HubSpot surveyed small and medium sized business owners, 62% of whom concurred that social media had become a more important lead source over the past 12 months.

How do you convert more likes and fans into sales then? Traditionally a lead for your business may have come in via an outbound channel for example you employ a telesales team or you have been sending out direct mail – these leads were typically handled in a hard-sell fashion whereby you or your team got on the phone and attempted to create a solution and close the sale.

Leads that arrive via social media require much softer conversion tactics. It is wise to slowly lead the prospect through the conversion funnel from Facebook fan > to whitepaper reader > to blog subscriber > to customer. This developing loyalty to your business before they even become a customer means that they will likely stay as a customer for much longer than a traditional lead that is sold to and then perhaps never nurtured again.

This social media thing might seem like a lot of hard work but it is definitely worth it. Handling social media as a marketing channel correctly can lead to greater lead quality which not only generates more sales but sales of much higher volumes and profit margins.

Today we will tackle this question and outline the key differences to enable you to make the right decision for your business.

Web to print – as a complete solution

To helo you better understand the difference we can highlight our two offerings here at Online Print Solution.

Our full web to print solution has 6 modules which includes a complete website that is accessed and used by anyone on the worldwide web to browse your print catalogue and make a purchase online.

• Your own website
• Fully browsable print catalogue
• Online purchasing/secure checkout functionality
• Print template module – enabling clients to easily access, amend and order print projects online
• Artwork upload functionality
• My account area – helping you to better service your customers

We also offer the opportunity to sell websites as a value added service alongside your current print offers. More information about this can be found here.

Web to print – as a storefront

A web to print storefront by contrast is usually a lower-cost solution.

In essence it provides a web address where you can send single account customers where they can then access a specific set of print products, templates and prices enabling them to place orders online and enabling you to deal with their order in a more organised, efficient and profitable way.

You might choose to have multiple storefronts for your key clients as this still ensures you are taking advantage of the power of an online solution without having to implement a full-scale web to print solution as outlined above.

Whilst a storefront provides a way for your customers to order online, it doesn’t provide the functionality to checkout online as usually payment is made by invoice/account. By request we can include this functionality if required.

If you would like to discuss your requirements further or to better understand the kind of solution which will be suited to your business – please get in touch

Growing your online presence is going to become increasingly more important. eCommerce is growing at such an incredible rate for example in the US, they are looking at 30% year on year growth in online sales in 2011 that is sure to be a trend mimicked in the UK.

We work with clients offering SEO, pay-per-click management and a host of other online marketing services and here are a few tactics we suggest that will enable you to harness your offline operation and translate it into online marketing success.

Use QR codes

A quick response or QR codes are those unusual looking bar codes that you will start to see more of in the future.

A QR code usually links an offline marketing campaign or physical presence usually to a URL (webpage) of some kind. Many modern phones have the facility to read QR codes so it is worthwhile starting to incorporate these into offline marketing that you do or around your physical business for customers to see and use when they visit your operation.

These are much more than a gimmick because mobile use has seen and will continue to see phenomenal growth so it is advisable for your business to get on board with this. It makes it easy for potential and existing customers to do things that you want them to do e.g. leave a review because rather than having to remember a web address they can just scan the barcode and get taken to the page automatically.

There is an example of a QR code above on the right – if you have a QR code scanner on your phone it will take you to our homepage.

Encourage reviews

If your business doesn’t have a Google Places listing then it really should, even if you don’t have an address that people usually visit, it is worthwhile claiming your spot on the map because it will improve your visibility in the search results for local terms for example “printers in exampleshire” or wherever you happen to be based.

Encouraging customer reviews will help enhance your listing (adding social proof to the service you offer), it will help your rankings as local businesses with more positive reviews tend to be more visible and it will likely increase the amount of traffic you get from the search engines as businesses that have reviews and in particular ratings will see rich markup on their listing in the search results (see example below).

This listing with shiny gold stars next to it is obviously going to attract more attention and more clicks than a plain listing with no reviews or social proof attached to it.

Offer discounts and financial incentives

The third and final way we suggest you can leverage your offline operation to increase your visibility online is to offer financial rewards to individuals for doing what you want them to. For example, you might offer a discount for completing a review or a voucher code if they become a fan on Facebook.

A discount or financial reward, as incentives go, are far more powerful than other fringe benefits such as ‘being the first to hear about your latest news’ which is what a lot of companies try to entice customers with.

Be careful with this method though and ensure your margins remain in tact – heavy discounting is not a route to long term business or marketing stability.

The above methods can be used in conjunction with another, for example a QR code could be used to send customers to your Google Places listing and you might offer a discount for anyone that completes a review.

Online marketing isn’t the big, bad expensive world it once was – even small businesses can take advantage of the opportunities on the internet. Talk to us today if you need help marketing your print business online.

The thought process most people go through is as follows:

“Does it look pretty? Great, I’ve got a website…now what?!”.

The truth is that there is so much more to a good website than aesthetics.

The key considerations for any website should be:

• Design – of course, it must be visually appealing?
• Functionality – can customers easily use your website?
• Optimisation – does it load fast and is it search engine friendly?
• Cost – does the price fit with your current financial situation?
• Flexibility – is the website setup to grow with your business?
• Manageability – how easy and cheaply can you make changes?
• Communication -  relevant information on print products and services will ensure that it generates new enquiries and ultimately new business for you. A website can be your 24/7 marketing employee that doesn’t need a break!

Flexibility really is the key because if you are going to invest in a web presence, you need to be sure it is going to be able to grow or develop alongside your business. This makes a content management system (CMS) an increasingly important part of a website.

Just so you know, a CMS gives you the ability to run, manage and update your site yourself. This means your printer website can be kept up-to-date, and this is important for both customers and having a good position in search engines.

Our printer websites solution (a module of OPS) gives you access to a very simple and easy to use back-end administration system to allow you to make changes and update your product catalogue as and when you need to. We also provide full training and support to make the process as pain-free as possible for you.

Generate new business – Having a website is a great way to attract new customers through high search engine visibility, you can retain existing clients by providing added value services online. Being online is a great way to gain time to promote additional services, also when you are online you can have access to customers anywhere in the world.

Reduce operating costs – Being online is a great way to save time, as everything is online you can reduce the overhead cost for example office administration. There are also plenty of ways to trade and communicate in a cost effective way. Being online can reduce cost as you will require less staff and less office space.

Improve customer service – With an online business your company is available 24 hours a day. It makes it a lot easier access for pricing and ordering routines. You can be available for any customer concerns instantly and gain new business by providing instant quotations. If your business provides artwork then being online allows easy upload of images.

Improve communications – By keeping your website constantly up-to-date, you can inform existing clients or new potential clients of offers and the range of service provided. Being online offers ways of communicating world-wide for a very low cost, even free of charge. This would allow you to reach out to possible new customers throughout the world, greatly increasing your target market.

In today’s business climate a successful website is essential to virtually every business:

In recent studies carried out 8 out of 10 consumers say they would contact a company that has a website first, over and above one that doesn’t. 70% of users actually go on to make contact with a company they find listed on a search engine.

A Web to print Storefront – You can create your own unique online print shop with the option of a secure checkout and payment gateway facility which will enable your customers to browse and immediately purchase which is a proven way of increasing revenue.

Online Web to Print Facilities – Using a modular solution will enable you to choose the right mix of products and services and will allow your customers to obtain instant quotations and place orders online immediately.

Save on Set Up Costs – Using a ready prepared Print Management Software system offers your business the complete flexibility to be up and running in double quick time and allows you to generate a website print services menu that is bespoke to the products and services that you want to offer without the major expenditure of designing and setting up from scratch yourself.

Artwork Upload Facility – With an online presence your customers can easily access and upload artwork which provides them with an easy and convenient way of getting a job underway as quickly as possible and speeds up the completion of the work from your point of view, so you and the customer are both happy.

Internet Profile for Growing Your Business – Quite simply if you do not have an active internet profile where your customers can find you through a search engine or related advertising, you are likely to be missing out on a substantial amount of business . You also have the potential to generate substantial amounts of new and repeat business through internet visibility and of course there is the fact that being online provides you with access to potential customers anywhere in the world.

These are 5 good reasons why your print business needs to be online and when you consider the opportunities to generate new business together with the potential to reduce operating costs by reduced office administration it is a persuasive argument. It is highly likely that you will improve customer service and satisfaction by offering easy access to your print services and a faster turnaround time on orders that have been placed online.