Marketing Advice


Five ways to stay ahead of the competition


The Online Print Coach, Colin Sinclair McDermott, talks ways to gain advantages over your competitors, better your understanding of your customers, and the benefits of establishing a niche.


to them far more effective for your business and you can show them how dealing with you will make their lives better.


Segment your data


Following on from building your customer avatars, you are now able to segment your audience.


Something we can be guilty of is trying to be everything to everyone and therefore our marketing message may not be relatable directly to each customer.


B


y becoming an expert in your field, you very quickly become the go-to person when someone requires your products or services.


There are a couple of different ways to explore this. The first could be to look for speaking opportunities. Networking events or membership organisations are always a great place to start.


The second would be to become somewhat of an influencer by writing articles either in publications your target audience is likely to read or perhaps by creating your own blog. Blog posting is wonderful for search engine optimisation purposes and can also be a great source for attracting new customers.


Riches in the niches


After I trained to be a corporate coach, I was strongly advised to open myself up to work with people outside of the printing industry and spread myself out more. The problem with that was I was setting myself up to compete with the other hundreds of thousands of other coaches in the marketplace.


By niching down, I’ve carved out a career with a lot less competition. Being a corporate coach who has run his own


| 22 | July 2024


print company makes it more appealing to someone in the industry versus someone with no experience in print.


The same rules apply when customers are looking for new garment decorators. If, let’s say a hospitality customer is looking to brand their workforce in new branded apparel, are they more likely to order from a generic print company or a specific garment decoration specialist who focuses on that area of the industry on a daily basis?


It will increase your chances of converting quite considerably.


Understand your customers better Speaking to all your customers, in the same way, can harm your business. That’s why it’s so important to build profiles for each of the customer types you service. In modern day marketing, we call these customer avatars or buying personas. A customer avatar is essentially the profile of your perfect customer. The ones you make the best margins on, the ones that give you the least challenges and take up less of your time.


It’s what they look like, what their habits are, their interests, what challenges they face each day, and what their aspirations are for their business.


Once you know all this, it makes marketing


By having your customer base broken down into business sectors, you can target them specifically based on what you know about them, addressing what concerns they might have and promoting products relevant to their needs.


Likewise, if you can track customers or said sector’s spending patterns, you can create targeted campaigns based on products they are interested in or at times of the year they typically order.


Keep your competitors close It’s important that you know who your competition is.


It can often be the case that they can provide alternative solutions to your customers that you are missing out on. Are they offering print products or services that you don’t? Are they targeting specific industries and having success that you overlooked? Analysing them regularly can also help identify things such as: what value propositions are they focusing on? Is it a free next-day delivery service? Dedicated account managers? Free artwork checks? Credit accounts? Discount on first order? Lastly, take some time to check out their reviews. Most businesses these days will use the likes of Google Reviews or Trust Pilot and within there, you’ll find plenty of golden nuggets.


Reviews can highlight opportunities where your competitors are falling short and show you how you can gain an advantage and plug those holes in their business.


www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76