1. Run a tight ship

OK, it's obvious, you are not going to survive a deep recession with a leaky boat – you need to run a tight ship.

Although operating your business well is important for your success at any time, in tough times the elimination of waste and inefficiency is critical. What's more, if your operational side is basically good, marketing can propel you to new heights. If operations are subpar no amount of marketing will fix the problems, because then your marketing will not reflect the experience your customer gets from you. You may get new customers but it will be tough to keep them.

Getting your staff to present themselves with friendliness and enthusiasm is vital, and often overlooked, along with creating a welcoming, inviting atmosphere for visitors. Think of these things as marketing activities. Creating an experience which your customers want to repeat, and will happily pay a premium for, depends on your operations but has absolutely critical implications for your marketing efforts. All truly successful companies build on this knowledge.

It is very hard to shed capacity quickly in a capital intensive business like printing - much easier to shift gears on the marketing side, and that is where my ready-to-go direct mail for printers campaign can help you.

2. Keep your wits about you

Remember that the biggest threat in times of looming recession is fear and panic. If you can focus on realities and opportunities, and not get caught up in the fearful speculation of those around you, you will be in a much better position to take advantage of the possibilities. You will be better able to overcome the challenges and maintain or grow market share even in a tough environment.

3. Be flexible, adaptable, ready to reinvent your business

Respond to the dominant fears, beliefs and motivations in the marketplace by modifying, re-packaging, re-naming, re-inventing your services to take advantage of opportunity. Think of ways to bundle your services for specific market niches, ways to create value in a collection of services that cannot be compared to the low cost providers directly. Create specialty printing services for specific niches of buyers, and replicate the concept for other niches as many times as you can.

There is always opportunity, and those able to present themselves as most specifically in tune with the buyer's needs will win the business.

4. Focus on the most promising prospects

Direct your efforts toward potential customers who are least affected by recession, last in the row of dominoes. Additionally, remember that smart, accountable effective marketing is the key to survival and growth for your prospects, just as for you. You are in the strong position of being able to help your customers achieve success through direct marketing and other printed communications, and the logical way to sell printed communication is as an investment that produces a positive return.

5. Be diligent with leads, prospects and customers

In good times you can afford to let a few leads slip through the cracks. Now you must maximize the value of every lead you obtain, nurture every prospect and fight to retain every good customer. That takes regular, effective communication.

One of the biggest advantages of being a printer is that you get to produce your marketing at cost. I can't do that, no other business owner can. You have a huge leg up on the most critical ingredient of lead development and nurture - communication through the most effective means possible - direct mail.

No other advertising medium lets you target your prospects so precisely, communicate so cost effectively, and put in your prospect's hands physical proof of your capabilities.

The trouble for most printers I know is the hassle and expense of figuring out what to send. Coming up with concepts, writing copy, locating images, putting it all together, adds up to an obstacle that most printer owners can't overcome. The cost of hiring freelancers and agencies is simply prohibitive. They don't want to have their creative people work on marketing tasks when there are paying jobs to do for clients, and they are always too busy running the business to do it themselves, so it slips to the back burner, every time. That is a potentially fatal problem in tough times like these.

Now you can put a system in place to jump start your marketing,
driving a steady flow of new orders

Here's how this system will work for you: every month I create several outstanding direct marketing pieces specifically crafted to engage and persuade print buyers. They include postcards, and two newsletters. You will have full access to these mailers and will receive complete editable files. You can edit them as you wish, or simply drop in your contact details, then print and mail to your prospects and customers. All the creative work is taken care of for you, so you eliminate bottlenecks, expense and hassles.

You will have strong advantages over your local competition

You reserve the zip or postal codes you want to mail to, and lock competitors out of your area – no other printer is permitted to mail into your reserved territory, helping you build superior “mind share” in your marketplace.

You already print direct mail advertising every day for your customers. Now you can do the same for your own business, with a regular multi-channel campaign that can produce an astonishing return on investment.

Take advantage of this brand new money-saving package deal

I slashed the cost so far my accountant thinks I'm nuts!

I want you to give yourself the same ability to attract profitable business as my happy customers. I want you to enjoy less stress, more sales and better profitability as soon as possible, so I'm offering you a package deal that I believe you won't be able to pass up.

I have never offered this package deal before. As a charter subscriber to my “12 Month Direct Mail Nurturing Campaign,” you get all my top level, professionally crafted direct mail marketing resources for printers for one full year, at an introductory price that makes my accountant's palms sweat – it's such a huge reduction from our traditional month to month subscription fees! But I want to get these business building campaigns in as many print owners' hands as possible as quickly as I can — offering a great deal seems like the right way to help you get started beating the recession we all know is on the way.

Here is an overview of what you get with your 12 Month Direct Mail Nurturing Campaign:

• Three exciting new print mailers every month,
• or take your choice from the extensive archives of dynamite marketing mailers:
• ColorCard postcard
• PrintHints newsletter
• Inklings newsletter
• fully editable files available by ftp or optional CD
• Indesign CS & CS3 and QuarkXpress 6 & 7
• Full support files and fonts
• exclusive mailing rights in your chosen territory, up to 15 zip codes included
• print marketing how-tos to help you run an outrageously successful marketing campaign

Sign up today, and you get this complete package of direct mail marketing resources, ready to use and put to work for your business for one full year, for a one time payment of only $1,575.97. If you prefer, you can opt for the convenience of three monthly payments of $524.97. That's a whopping one third off the regular annual price of the mailers on a month to month subscription - you save $788!!