Haidan DongIt can be hard for small businesses in the graphic arts industry to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors, whether they’re competing with other small companies or big businesses.
Here are seven ways that make it easier for printers and graphic designers to deal with competitors without lowering prices in an already increasingly commoditized and price-driven industry.
How to Deal with Print Competitors
1. Be Better
As a design or print provider, you already know that high quality products and services go a long way, but don’t forget that process quality can too. Consequently, make sure that you have both good quality assurance and quality control.
Next, you need the world to know about your great quality, so ask for reviews and referrals from customers. A 2017 study shows that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
In addition, being better means being a good employer so that you can get reviews and referrals from your own employees. Consider getting workplace certifications for safety, sustainability, or other qualifications.
2. Be Smarter
Being smarter involves knowing four things better: your customers, your competitors, your industry, and your own business. Knowing your customers and knowing your competitors create the combined knowledge of how you can meet your customers’ needs better than your competitors can.
Knowing your industry means staying up-to-date with news, trends, and developments that could potentially impact your business – or your competitors. A good first step to educating yourself is subscribing to Printer Success.
As for knowing your own business, you need a good understanding of how your workflow works right now and how you can optimize to do more with less. Take our workflow quiz to get started with this.
3. Be Quicker
Some customers are famous for placing their orders last-minute and then demanding that we rush them to meet deadlines. Find out what your competitor’s turnaround time is and see if you can offer an option that’s faster, even if you have to charge a higher price for it.
The same goes for delivery. Did you know that most customers expect their goods to arrive 1-5 business days from the time they ordered?
Provide timely customer service and communication as well. This might involve reorganizing your customer service strategy or preflighting process. We have an article to help you overcome the late communication problem.
4. Be Cooler
This takes a great deal of market research. You may have to find a new market segment to target and consider how to rejuvenate your business model. If you’re thinking about reaching a younger demographic for your customer base, we have an article on selling print to students.
Network with key influencers to see if they’re willing to mention your services online, in person, or in print. They could even be just a popular print buyer or design enthusiast (individual or group) in your community.
In the meantime, you might want to take this opportunity to reevaluate your branding strategy. Is it outdated? Does it need revamping? Ask a member of your target audience what your branding communicates and if it isn’t doing what it should, fix it.
5. Be Kinder
Sometimes the key to being more competitive is demonstrating your kindness. This is why so many companies use supporting a cause as their key marketing message. If possible, pick a cause that is relevant to the story behind your business.
Furthermore, friendly customer service is crucial. Customers are willing to pay more for it, and they’re a lot more likely to do repeat business with you than with your cranky competitor down the street. Great customer service may not necessarily win new clients, but it does build more business.
Finally, you might just choose to collaborate with your competitor. As crazy as this sounds, collaboration marketing is a strategy that could potentially boost profits for both of you. Think of it not as simply adding resources to produce a new sum but building upon each other’s resources for an exponential result.
6. Be Different
Differentiation is one of the best ways to deal with competition in an industry where many businesses are offering similar products and services. Your goal is therefore to produce what your competitor can’t.
Can your competitor print roll labels? Can they sell their business card designs on specialty stocks? If not, consider offering these options. Can’t do it either? SinaLite is an outsource printing solution that can do it for you.
If you really cannot find anything unique to produce, specialize in something different from your competitors, or do something specific better than they can (e.g. offer better pickup hours). With your new or specialized services you can then target your markets better.
7. Be Proactive
Reading this article was your first step to being proactive! Now it’s time to make business plans, set goals, and work towards them. Actively communicate to seek new leads and opportunities. Update your selling approach to reflect your new strategies.
So don’t let old habits weigh you down. Explore new possibilities to growing your profits. This might mean outsourcing your projects to a print supplier like SinaLite to give your business a competitive edge.
Go ahead and get ahead. We’re rooting for you.
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