So you have a LinkedIN account, a Facebook Page and a Twitter account. Now, do you know what your social standing is? Do you have Kred? Do you have Klout? Klout measures, as the language distorting name implies, your social “clout.”
The “cloud”—once the purview of IT geeks and software developers—has gotten personal. For several years, there’s been a movement to transition software from the desktop or local server to the cloud. One example is Web-to-print software, typically offered as Saas (software-as-a-service).
Some in the industry are already saying that this Do Not Track movement could drive marketers back to print—but it is naïve to think that this will happen en masse. The digital movement is a giant snowball rolling downhill and this legislation is not got to stop it.
A new StrongMail study asked 925 marketers where they are spending their marketing dollars in 2011; 57 percent said they are increasing their social media spend. While the ROI on this investment is not entirely clear, that hasn't deterred businesses of all sizes from deep and increasing engagements.
Social media is not going away. If printers want to stay ahead of their customers’ needs and provide them with 360 degrees of customer service, they better begin to take advantage of this new communication platform.
The first step is to determine what you want to accomplish with a print e-commerce offering. Think of it as a needs assessment for your shop, but, more importantly, for your customers. Would it make your clients' lives easier to be able to order print projects on a self-service basis (that's ultimately what most consumer-based, e-commerce stores offer)?
While sitting around a table with a group of printers, I was hearing that business is starting to pick up after last year, but the commoditization of print is making pricing ever more cut throat.
