If you are in the printing industry, I have a few questions for you!
Are you tired of working with procurement managers that only care about price and not value?
Are you tired of working on a “Project Basis” .Worried about whether your client will use you again once you finished the job?
Does it make you frustrated when you hear “printing is dead” and that marketers don’t have room for it in their budgets?
My objective in this article is to explain how embracing QR Codes can do the following for a printer:
1) Give printers access to working with marketing departments ( typically a cash rich department), rather than procurement. At same time, getting the marketing decision maker to look at “Value” Vs “Price”.
2) Give printers a residual stream of business that repeats itself month after month.
3) Help bring more value to print and help printers SELL MORE OF IT!
The rise of QR Codes are a printers best friend.
As a quick refresher , QR Code stands for quick response. They have been around 18 years and originated in Japan. Their initial use was for inventory tracking.The QR Code itself can store up to 7,000 characters and thus creates a more efficient way to store data, as opposed to a UPC code.
Over the years, their use as a marketing tool has dramatically increased. For marketing purposes, the QR Code acts simply as a link to a website. The reason they are valuable is because it’s simpler and quicker to use a QR Code to get to a website as opposed to having to type the website address into your phone. When consumers are in the public, they have their smart phones with them and not their laptops. Thus, consumers can engage with a brand’s online presence when they are in public.
There is a free QR Code reader available on every smartphone. When people use this app and place it in front of the QR Code, it instantly takes them to a website.
So what is the link between QR Codes and print?!
1) QR Codes GO ON PRINT! They are a way for consumers to instantly connect print to digital media
2) QR Code scans can be tracked and therefore offer a way for marketers to measure engagement with printed materials.
3) Mobile Sites. QR Codes link to mobile sites. Everyone has a smartphone these days and in most cases when someone is around a piece of print, they have their phone with them and not their desktop! Printers can now offer clients a way to get traffic to their website, directly from printed material!
So back to the questions I asked earlier.
How can printers work with marketing departments instead of procurement?
Since there is a creative element to QR Codes, ideas that are generated will be something marketing departments want to talk about. Procurement departments just look at numbers and specs. This also means that printers can position their firm as more of a consultant and partner as opposed to just an “ink on paper” firm.
How can QR Codes help create a residual stream of income for printers?
There are companies that offer applications that automate the creation of QR Codes, mobile sites and analytics. These companies offer partner services that allow printers to resell their applications! Once a printer sells a QR Code and mobile site to a client there are multiple ways to create monthly residual income. Printers can offer a subscription model to clients because the systems allow clients to make unlimited changes to the mobile site every month.
Printers also can sell monthly consulting services. Clients need guidance in terms of where to place the QR Code, what type of incentive to have, what type of data to capture, and how to successfully promote it.
As a printer, how can QR Codes bring more value to a printer’s clients and help them SELL MORE PRINT!?
As printers brainstorm creative concepts for QR Codes with clients they’ll find it will lead to more print business. The reason again being that QR CODES GO ON PRINT! Once the client has decided on the type of QR Code promotion they want, it can lead to a new direct mail campaign, newsletter, poster, or new business cards! The list of print opportunities becomes endless! Offering monthly consulting sessions as part of a QR Code program, becomes a huge win for the printer and their client. The monthly consulting session allows the client to optimize their promotions based on the analytics they are receiving. It’s also an opportunity to bring new ideas on how they can be more successful with their promotions. This top of mind awareness will do two things. It will maximize the ROI for the client. The constant reinforcement will drive greater attention and enthusiasm to make it successful. Also, monthly brainstorming sessions will continue to drive incremental print opportunities because as we discussed earlier, more QR Code ideas lead to more print business!
Visit http://GottyCode.com or call us today to learn about how we partner with printers to help them sell more print!
Tony Bray- V.P Business Development
1-800-592-3518 Ex.102
Tony@gottycode.com
GottyCode 