Three Easy Steps to Increase Your Print Revenue
- Register for the SGIA Expo!
- Fly or drive to Vegas!
- Discover a world of new opportunities!
You may have recently seen that SGIA Expo registration is now open. Perhaps you have been to the Expo in previous years and are well aware of the value of attending. If not, why should you want to go the Expo?
Keeping up with the competition
The Specialty Graphics Imaging Association (SGIA) recently commissioned a study with NAPCO Research to better understand the extent to which printers are looking at other vertical markets to leverage growth opportunities (
download the full report
.) Anecdotally, we know from the growing number of commercial printers attending the Expo that this is happening. Many printers have adopted some form of digital printing output. Once they have this equipment in place, and the workflows to serve it, adding another piece of equipment that allows them to create new products and sell into new markets or to their existing customers is a much simpler proposition. The barriers to entry are not as steep as if another printing discipline needs to be mastered, such as screen printing or flexographic printing.
In the study, 95% of commercial printers see opportunities to expand into other markets they don’t currently serve. A third have already started and are engaged with new markets based on new technologies acquired, and more than another third are actively researching these opportunities. Rounding out perceptions are 79% of commercial printers who see that the expansion into different products and markets will continue to accelerate over the next five years across all printers.
So where are commercial printers focusing their efforts?
- 43% of commercial printers in the study are looking into label converting
- 37% are looking into graphics and wide format production
- 32% are looking into folding carton
- 19% are looking into industrial products
- And 17% are looking into garment production
And to see the broadest array of these technologies, they come to the SGIA Expo.
Selling more to your customers
The reality is that most of your customers are already purchasing various products from other printers. These same printers are adding to their arsenal of products and services to keep as much of their customer’s loyalty and attention as possible. And customers are much more interested in one stop shopping and consolidated purchasing and program management. The more you can do in-house for them, the less likely they are to find someone else who can.
Higher margins, lower costs
Each year technology changes and so does the best method for printing a specific product. Newer equipment with faster production speeds (presses, finishing equipment, even Print MIS systems) or other enhanced capabilities, such as automation or file handling, can decrease operating costs. Some markets have higher margins than others and provide a better return for each cap-ex dollar spent. There are many ways to assemble a new strategic business plan, and much of it begins with how to create higher value for the least cost. The SGIA Expo brings together not just the technology, but the minds and experience that can help you investigate and validate your new direction. Be it through networking with old or new friends, educational sessions, or meetings with the foremost suppliers in the market.
It’s Vegas, baby!
And, of course, Vegas can be a fun town. But don’t let that distract you from the job at hand – finding your next big idea!
