Simple SEO for Your Print Shop Website

Too many small print shop owners miss the point about search engine optimization (SEO) for their websites. It may be because they have forgotten their real target audience or the purpose of SEO. Whatever the reason, it's relatively easy to fix. Here's how…

The first step is to understand your print shop's target audience. For smaller print shops, the target audience is generally constrained by geography: those people wanting print services within a radius of 10, 25 or some number of miles. If your shop is in Daytona, you probably aren't trying to attract customers from Detroit, Denver or Des Moines. So…develop a list of cities and towns where your audience lives and works.

The second step is to consider how your target audience expresses what they want. Many customers, these days, aren't very familiar with printing or the printing process. They won't understand or use terms like "offset", "NCOA", "#10 window" or "duplex". Instead, they look for letterhead, postcards, brochures, etc. and expect you to handle all the details to give them what they want. So…develop a list of the more general terms for your products and services customers want. 

Now, take your two lists, put combinations of your places and products into your favorite search engine and see how your website ranks. For example, if you search for "printing Daytona", how does your website rank? How do "printer port orange" or "letterhead new Smyrna" rank (Port Orange and New Smyrna border Daytona Beach)? Do this "product + location" search enough and you will see exactly how manage your SEO.

Make sure your business location appears on every page and can be indexed. Use simple keywords plus locations in your website text. If you remember you aren't doing SEO for 4over or Vistaprint, your job will be much easier and effective.

Stop Sending Monthly Newsletters

If you print and mail a monthly newsletter…Stop it! That's our suggestion. Read on to see why we think monthly newsletters are a waste of time and money and aren't the best way to market your print business.

Before we do, however, you should determine if your newsletter delivers real value to your customers. Or, is it simply a monthly annoyance that immediately goes in the trash? Consider what kind of message that delivers.

If you're like many print shop owners, your customer base is increasingly broad and less knowledgeable about printing and direct mail…perhaps even marketing. Your customer are less likely  to be interested in discussing envelope sizes, bleeds or the nuances of mailing. Newsletters that focus on such topics probably offer little value to most of your customers. This type of narrowly focused newsletter may tell customers that you don't really understand what they want and need.

They want you to make them look good and make their jobs easier and they look to you more-and-more to do what is right for them. For this reason, your newsletter should address broad, simple business communication and marketing ideas and solutions.

Even if you have the right newsletter content, we suggest not sending it monthly.

Mailing a monthly newsletter only demonstrates your capability to print and mail. Why not save money, show more of your capabilities and make customers happier? Consider changing your marketing-communication program to a monthly email and a quarterly printed newsletter.

A monthly email should be short but packed with value for customers. For example, include 4 to 6 very short but valuable/interesting communication and/or marketing tips, tricks, reminders (e.g. ordering Christmas material) and a monthly special offer of some type (buy this and get that, call for a free something, etc.). Short and valuable are the key concepts for the email. The goal is to make your monthly email easy to create yet something customers look forward to receiving.

When your newsletter comes only quarterly, customers will tend to view it as something more special than the monthly version. Since you have raised interest, give your customers something special… something that demonstrates why you are the knowledgeable, creative and talented professionals they want helping them. Make your newsletter such an interesting and valuable piece that they want to save it, share it and act on it. 

Stop sending monthly newsletters, save money, save time and make your customers happier and more confident in working with you. Consider the simple monthly email and a quarterly newsletter. While you're at it, see if your current newsletter provides interesting and valuable content to your customers…or something that might reflect poorly on you.