May 2007

This is my 250th column for Printing Impressions magazine and as I predicted way back in my first year, 1984, the world population would reach 6.6 billion people. How is it I am accurately prescient? Remarkable!

I also predicted the U.S. population would reach 300 million. Yep. I was right about this also. Gee, I’m good.

Furthermore, in these pages, in 1984, I predicted the number of web sites and blogs would total about 6.7 billion and I’m pretty sure that I am right about that number.

The remarkable thing about that last prediction is that 1984 was six years before the worldwide web was invented by Briton Timothy Berners-Lee and Belgian Robert Cailliau. I was making sales calls in south Alabama and met these guys at the Ramada Inn cocktail lounge in Geneva, Alabama. Soon we were joined by another young man, a politician from Tennessee named Al.

Tim and Robert were motorcycling across the United States and Al had gotten lost looking for Tennessee and decided to spend the night.

We drank and talked about bass fishing and country music and eventually the conversation moved to more cerebral topics. Tim told us he had assembled a homemade computer. I said, “Well you silly, why didn’t just buy and Apple? They had been introduced several years earlier.

I swallowed some more Jack Daniels and remarked how I had been a trouble-shooter for the first computer, the Eniac, in Philadelphia. Soon I was telling these three new friends about an idea I had for something called the worldwide web where people and companies could set up web sites to sell stuff and tell about themselves.

My companions seemed to like the idea and started taking notes on cocktail napkins. I gave them several technical embellishments to their notes and, voila, I had invented the worldwide web! The young politician, Al, said he would introduce some legislation to help finance this ambitious endeavor. Tim and Bob have gone on to win many awards and Al almost became President of the United States.
Nowadays printing companies all over the world use websites to introduce their companies to potential customers and to receive and send files to existing customers. I visit a lot of these printing company websites in my work as an investment banker who specializes in the printing industry.

I see a lot of sites that are good. They are enticing, exciting and fun and make me want to examine all the pages.

Others are atrocious. Some are boring. When I see atrocious or boring I rarely get past the home page and click off to something else more interesting.

Web sites should help you sell print communications – the entire range of services that you offer. A web site is a part of your marketing mix and a form of marketing communications.

Here are some of my basic likes and dislikes about printing company web sites.

1. It frustrates, actually riles me, when I have to search to find the company phone number. The phone number and fax should be on every page. If you have an 800 number it should be on every page. What if some major league buyer just happens to be grazing the web for a printer, likes what he sees, wants to call you for some quotes and can’t find your phone number?
   I know you will have a tab that says “Contact Us” where you will feature the phone numbers but I am telling you to make your phone number convenient on every page.
   
2. Every page should also feature your address, city, state and zip somewhere. It’s usually best at the bottom in about 10pt type.
   
3. The “Contact Us” page should contain two user friendly maps. One will show your immediate neighborhood. The other map should show the area, say a 25 to 50 mile radius.
   
4. The home page must be readable for even my old eyes. Eight point type may look trendy but it’s useless if it can’t be read. Your designer should be careful about a reverse in small type against some dark background.
   
5. The home page text and graphics must quickly capture the visitor and communicate who you are, what you do and how you are different. This means short and well-crafted sentences. Don’t leave this responsibility to some outside copy writer. Run the copy by your salespeople, CSR’s, plant personnel, everybody. They may not have any changes or ideas but frequently they will come up with some gems. Also, ask a handful of close customers to review the copy and you will get some outstanding suggestions. Assuming you have some close customers. Assuming you have some customers. After all your web site is designed for people who buy printing and not for your sleazy unworthy competitors or suppliers.
   
6. Your website must have a theme. The theme should be consistent with who you are as a printing company occupying a one of the many printing segments and niches within the segments. I won’t belabor market segmentation because that is about four chapters in a master’s level textbook. But, if you are a short run fast response half size sheetfed printer up to six colors, your graphics and text should reflect your business. The theme should also reflect your uniqueness’s or what differentiates you from your competition. For example, I saw a website recently that used a down home theme as in, “bring your projects home to our folks who treat your work like your mama used to treat her family”. It conveys an emotion involving loving care, interest in your well-being and motherly understanding.

Well, I could and I will write a lot more about web sites as a sales tool. But first, I want to announce the first ever Maňana Man Printing Industry Web Site Contest.

The contest is for all companies anywhere who subscribe to Printing Impressions. There will be three categories. Category one is for companies with sales less than $10.0 million. Cateogry two is for companies between $10.0 million and $50.0 million. Finally, category three is for companies with annual sales revenues greater than $50 million.

Send me a letter or an email nominating your company, or if you dare, some other company’s web site. My panel of experts will visit the site and give it a score. The winner for each category will receive a feature in this magazine and a gift box of Philadelphia’s own Tasty Cakes. The contest will end on my birthday, June 30, 2007.

See it’s kind of like Dancing with the Stars and American Idol except that it’s far more important. Your web site serves your livelihood.

Now put this magazine down and get out there and sell something!