The print industry is enjoying a resurgence as more business owners return to the tactile magic of print. This is due to digital marketing getting noisier and more expensive.
I have created “20 Growth Hacks That Work In Print. That’s no fluff, no theory, just twenty things small print business owners can do right now to stop leaving money on the table.
My challenge to you, pick THREE, and make a start this week.
Your existing clients already trust you, already buy from you, and already need more than you are currently selling them. Every hack below starts from that fact. I often refer to your existing customers as “The Diamonds on YOUR Doorstep”… because they are.
Mine What You Already Have
1. Pull your last 12 months of invoices and look for the gaps. Every client who bought one product and nothing else is a missed sale. That list already exists in your accounts software.
2. Ring every client you have not heard from in 90 days. Not an email, a phone call. Half of those clients are buying from someone else for something you could be doing.
3. Send a product guide to your top 20 clients this month. Not a price list, a guide showing everything you do. Most long term clients have no idea you offer half your range.
4. Add a 'you might also need' line to every quote. Ordering business cards? Mention letterheads and compliment slips. One line at the bottom of a quote costs nothing and converts often.
5. Ask every satisfied client for a referral and make it easy to give one. Most clients are happy to refer you and never think to do it unprompted. Give them one sentence to forward.
Follow Up or Lose Out
6. Chase every outstanding quote within 48 hours. Most businesses send a quote and wait. Set a reminder, follow up with a warm message, and watch your conversion rate improve immediately.
7. Build a basic three touch follow up sequence and stick to it. Touch one at 48 hours, touch two at seven days, touch three at 14 days. Write the templates once and use them every time.
8. Use AI to write follow up messages in seconds. Give it the job context and the client name and it produces a ready to send message. Personalise with two details and hit send.
9. When a prospect goes cold, send something useful instead of chasing. A relevant tip, a case study, or a short article keeps you front of mind without pressure.
Protect Your Time and Margins
10. Score every client by profit, not just volume. Your biggest client by turnover is often not your best by margin. Score accounts on profit, hassle, and growth potential. The print industry has a reputation for the “race to the bottom”, why not “race to the TOP”?
11. Stop discounting and start adding value instead. Offer faster turnaround or a free product rather than cutting your price. You protect margin and demonstrate what makes you different.
12. Set a minimum order value and apply it without exception. Small fiddly jobs eat time. Work out your true cost per order and set a floor that makes it worth your while.
13. Have an honest conversation with clients who always push back on price. Either they accept a rate that works, or you free up that capacity for someone who values what you do.
Get Known and Stay Visible. Be NOISY when others are QUIET.
14. Post one piece of behind the scenes content every week. Show the press running, the finishing process, the before and after. This proves your expertise without a word of sales copy.
15. Ask every happy client for a Google review immediately after delivery. Satisfaction is highest right after the job lands. Ten seconds to ask takes years of effort out of building your reputation.
16. Partner with one local designer or agency and become their go to supplier. One solid agency relationship feeds you consistent, well specified work and can be worth more than ten individual clients.
17. Send a printed piece to your client list twice a year. A print business that never sends print is a missed trick. Physical mail cuts through in a way email simply cannot match. Are you telling your clients that print doesn’t work by NOT using it?
Run It Like a Business
18. Hold a 20 minute commercial review every Monday morning. Outstanding quotes, follow up dates, at risk accounts. When growth is on the agenda every week, it stays everyone's job.
19. Track your quote to order conversion rate and improve it by 10%. Most businesses have no idea what percentage of quotes convert. Measure it this month and improving it becomes straightforward. You’ll be amazed just what a 10% improvement does….
20. Pick three of these, implement them this week, and measure for 30 days. Reading this and doing nothing is the most expensive mistake in business. Three hacks done properly beats twenty half started.
Where to start right now
• Share this with your account handlers and designers and agree which three you are starting with. What are the “quick wins” for you?
• Set up a shared follow up tracker this week and review it every Monday.
• Pick one client you have not spoken to in three months and call them today, not tomorrow, not to sell anything, this is NOT a sales call.
• Follow Stuart Mason www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-c-mason
• Podcast https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/stuart-mason2
• www.howtowreckyourbusiness.co.uk
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