Why? Firstly, they had a slick online ordering system. She gets a firm price online within minutes, and then uploads her print-ready pdf file. The system does an automatic preflight to pick up errors and if okay, forwards it on to production. Everyone in the sales-production chain gets notified by email.

The second thing she liked is that she can log in to the site and check progress. (Such toolsets have been around for almost ten years now).

Thirdly, the speed. Her last one was an urgent offset job on special stock. She uploaded the file Tuesday and it was still printed, dried, trimmed and in the courier bag Wednesday night. It arrived Thursday afternoon. Quality was superb.

This is the standard NZ printers have to meet. Pricing? Very similar to local printers who quoted 7-10 days delivery…

A recent article in Crunchgear in the US reminded me how quickly the publishing industry is moving to digital editions. Another article by Print CEO said much the same. We’re at the tipping point as paper books take a dive.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we could all make a good case for paper, especially novels and paperbacks.  Electronic readers we’re robust enough and still too costly.

However that’s changing. Sure, not everyone can yet afford an iPad, but the mono readers like the kindle are actually surprisingly good and with a battery life that doesn’t deter. And the prices keep falling.

Yet there are many business opportunities around e-book publishing… However the industry’s inherent fear of ‘all things online’ will likely hold us back.

Last year we’ve noted that when you go to Google and use the term printer, you inevitably get a list of suppliers of desktop printers, not commercial printers. Well that’s now changed. Go to Google today and actual commercial printers are displayed prominently on page one!

We’ve written more up theses changes in our (Digitalmarketing blog). Note this upgrade is yet another BIG nail in the coffin for the local Yellow Pages. If you’re still spending money on a Yellow listing, now is the time to change. Save some money AND get up to 10 times more leads.

So, how do you get on this ‘listing’? Invest time and effort into a Google ‘places’ listing, some website SEO and directory backlinks. Not showing up on page one? For just a modest cost, we can revamp your internet presence and profile. email us

In 2005 they introduced their Digital Business Centers at many of their locations. These state-of-the-art centers have achieved impressive sales growth in 2010, with median YTD sales growth exceeding 30 percent.

“We believe that our recent sales growth signals an awareness on the part of companies big and small that they have an opportunity right now to use their marketing dollars to get a jump on their competitors,” Cushing said. “In August, the company had its best single month of sales growth in over a decade, achieving growth of more than 13.5 percent. Businesses are ready to begin growing again, and we are ready to help them.”

I was reminded of this from a recent announcement that Shutterfly has purchased another print operation (read more), further expanding it’s print service offerings.

Shutterfly does of course have a big online presence here too for photobooks, although I’m unsure where the actual printing is done. 

They are much like Vistaprint, making the most of online and the web to bring in orders.  Both these overseas-own, online printing companies are doing exceedingly well in what is supposed to be a depressed print market!

We tried that and it didn’t work!

This is the perceived problem I keep coming across when I mention printers should look at the photobook opportunity. It seems everyone knows someone here or in Auzzie who tried it and it ‘didn’t work out’.

There’s also that old belief that just buying the printer, ‘putting up a website’, owning some new software and the orders will then flow. When it doesn’t, they believe that there’s no market for the product. If this is the case, why are printing sites like Shutterfly, Vistaprint, Moo and many others doing SO well online?

The investment must make sense

Like in any sales or marketing opportunity, it takes lots of work and commitment. It’s not just the equipment. Equal investment must go into

1. The printing and finishing equipment
2. The website and automated workflows
3. Marketing, both online and offline

This means if the startup capital is $300,000 then that’s a $100,000 for each. Spending 90% on the equipment and software will get you nowhere fast. And investment in a website and marketing is an ongoing expense. Dynamic. It’s never ‘finished’. It must be treated like a sales reps wages.

If you can’t afford part two or three, then make it a joint venture with those that specialise in ecommerce websites, workflows, online marketing etc.

Marketing really is the most critical. Even Vistaprint spends a huge proportion of it’s immense income on maintaining its online marketing around emails, GoogleAds. Moo are very active in Social media. THIS is how we need to do it. The online ‘success’ recipe is out there for all to see. Just follow the leaders…

If you’re interested in breaking into this market during 2011, fill in the form here

END

In the US market especially, they are becoming a commodity item. But down here, high quality personalised calendars are still a rare treat for most. Like Photobooks, the trick to success is automation, along with getting the customer to do most of the work. The moment you inject your own staff into the design-production stream for more than a few minutes per order, you’ll lose money.

To profit, you must have the entire ordering, through to printing as automated as possible. The moment you have to have a human take in details via phone or email, copy details into InDesign and run it as a manual  job, even sort out billing or invoices, you’ve little chance of making money.

PURLs + VDP to automate personalised calendar production

If you’ve VDP software on hand, a job like this we can automate 80%, and without a huge amount of effort or expense.  It just requires us building you low cost ‘landing page’ using the www.boingnet.com or similar.  This web page lets customers type in their name, address details, plus the personalised bits they want added to each month of the calendar, to a max 5 items like the photo sample shown above, which is an example I found on MailPrint.  I’d also suggest a simple online credit card payments facility too, so that like Dell computer, you get the money in the bank before the job is manufactured. Manually invoicing lots of $20-50 orders is a good way to go broke!

At a pre-defined time of the day/week, the printshop Mac/PC operator downloads the database file stored on the webserver,  imports it into their Designmerge/XMPie/Darwin VDP + InDesign application with a pre-built design template, and prints. This process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

In prepress we add in our secret tricks around workflow, formats, auto imposition etc to ensure everything is printed in realtime, ready for trimming and binding.

Keep it Simple

Aside from having operators doing too much, where most shops fail is trying to be too fancy in the design and sizes offered. Initially just offer the smaller desktop calendars too, not large wall varieties, nor would I give the buyer the option of uploading their own images or seeing a pdf proof. This all adds to complexity, delays and costs.

Keep it text-only personalisation using standard InDesign+VDP tools. Avoid the fancy ‘names in sand/cake/sky’ imagery too, as shown. All possible, but it’s more costly to setup and takes more time. You can add these and limited image upload features later, once you’re been running the simple stuff a while. Like everything new, start slow, start simple. Remember it’s still a major advance on today’s static, generic calendars.

So, can you see the opportunity?

The system opens up print opportunities few consider. Here, it’s not a single customer that provides the database as in a normal mailing VDP job, but dozens/hundreds of individuals that build up the database online over a period of time. When it can be semi-automated as shown, can be highly profitable.

To discover how to setup this automated calendar ordering-printing service, phone or email me. kevin@printnet.co.nz

Graphic designers will love this as it’s based around Adobe InDesign, not a foreign program with a steep learning curve. And we’ve naturally added the ability to incorporate PURLs into the copy, to boost response rates and provide client campaign tracking – All this, including training, for under $2,000

The NEW Designmerge Pro Starter Pack

Designmerge is a fast, affordable, easy-to-use solution. Quickly generate compact VDP files for inhouse or outside printing to any production-grade digital colour press*.

Designmerge is also suitable for high volume mailshops moving into full colour variable for the first time. Very simple, affordable and fast compared with packages from XMPie, Printshop Mail or PreS.

Full tutorials and videos to get you started are included, plus optional on-site configuration and training is available at reduced rates.  Plus…

Boingnet PURLs – With every Designmerge Pro purchase, we’ll set you up with a FREE boingnet purl account and landing page for your first campaign. (Unique domains/designs additional and extra). You then just upload and the tag the same mailing list you used for the printed VDP mailer.

Now you have a simple, highly affordable VDP mailing + online response package guaranteed to impress and wow your clients.

Here’s a superb intro video on designmerge.

Designmerge Pricing: Starter package – A full version of Designmerge Pro, but limited to 30,000 clicks (cumulative db/list) US$995. Full unlimited click Designmerge Pro is just US$3,495. Upgrade from starter to full version US$2,995. Ample tutorials and training videos provided. Low cost (optional) onsite setup and/or training packages designed to suit.

*Compatible printers: Most modern FujiXerox, Canon, HP Indigo, KonicaMinolta or Ricoh digital colour presses, equipped with a modern PPML2-capable Xerox, HP Smartstream, EFI Fiery or Creo rip/controller.

Below is an intro video on boingnet purls.

For details or a quote on Designmerge, boingnet or VDP training services  email kevin@printnet.co.nz

Still not convinced of the need to get into VDP? Watch this video

The above video programme will form part of our own training resources, for both print proivders and their customers.