It’s almost never too soon to start thinking about Christmas, and after another economically challenging year, it’s the period when we hope to make good. The trade printers have already been thinking about it, and have plenty of suggestions.

There is a wide range of products available, from the more obvious staple seasonal items like wrapping paper, cards and calendars to gifts of all kinds, such as snow globes, baubles and gift boxes. Craig Stark at Tradeprint observes, ‘As the holiday season approaches, we witness a significant uptake in the demand for ceramic mugs, coasters, photo calendars, personalised apparel, cushions, and more,’ noting that the company’s recently-launched Online Designer with 3D preview helps customers to check their uploaded artwork will produce the desired product, in addition to the existing automated 40-point artwork check.

Tradeprint has also moved into personalised packaging in a big way, offering an expanded range of products that includes personalised shipping and mailer boxes, custom gift boxes, and bottle boxes. These can be combined with custom packaging tape and sticker products for more complete personalised offerings and suggests that discount offers or even mini catalogues can be included in the box; the company also offers a range of ‘extremely competitively’ priced large for at signage and display products, which it says were very popular last Christmas, perhaps reflecting a return to normality in public events and activities after the Covid restriction period.

Gary Peeling, CEO at Where The Trade Buys (WTTB) reports that ‘Notebooks, mindfulness journals and even diaries are back in fashion. With that in mind we will have a new range with pre-printed stock blocks and proper sewn binding, perfect for brands who want to engage with their customers.’

Not your typical Christmas stocking – custom tote bags are within WTTB’s gift

WTTB has also added garments such as hoodies via a new apparel range which can be personalised and could be adapted for events such as Christmas Jumper Day or as branded wear for fundraising events in the run-up to the festive season. Likewise, there are branded aprons on offer and Mr Peeling notes that personalised Advent calendars are as popular with adults as with children.

Leicester-based Flexpress mainly sells Christmas cards and calendars but also offers gift tags, wine boxes and wrapping paper. MD Steve Wenlock says, ‘We’re not planning to add anything new this year, but we’ll probably look to include some fighting lines in our Super Saver range.’

It’s a similar story at Rotherham’s Route 1, where the company’s Macauley Hardeman says, ‘We have made the strategic decision to prioritise our core products, namely greetings cards and calendars, and refrain from expanding our print portfolio this year. Our goal is to solidify our position as market leaders in these key product categories by delivering unparalleled quality and efficient turnarounds.’

Whether their Christmas ranges are being expanded or not, all four have continued to invest in equipment and software to maximise their productivity and efficiency in order to offer competitive pricing and reliable turnaround times. Flexpress has added a Duplo booklet-making machine and three-knife trimmer, plus a big software investment in Rip, imposition and workflow. Route 1 has got its Landa S10P press into full-time production, supported by two new Multigraf Touchline TCF375 creaser/folders and another Autobond Mini laminator.

WTTB has a £1.6 million automated binding line being installed as this article was written, following on from the garment investment in a DTFMagic Pro 60 direct-to-film printer earlier in the year. Tradeprint had a major investment period in 2022 with the addition of a Canon VarioPrint iX3200 sheet-fed digital press and a Heidelberg XL106 LED UV offset press, which respectively have reduced minimum order quantities and turnaround times.

The power of print

But it’s not just about what your customers buy, it’s about what you can sell, and the argument is put succinctly by Mr Wenlock: ‘Most businesses tend to see marketing as a cost rather than an investment so cut back on it, at the time they need it most. As a response we’ll be adding products to our Super Saver range to try to help our clients be able to offer a high-quality, low-cost option.’

However, Mr Peeling points out that ‘Digital marketing costs have increased so both hospitality and retail need to find tangible ways to attract customers at what should be their most profitable time of year. Display and print marketing not only offers great value but will also help drive return.’

Mr Hardeman echoes this theme, saying, ‘Print marketing… becomes especially relevant during Christmas, the most heavily marketed time of the year. In a digital age, print materials can evoke emotions, provide a tactile experience, and stand out from digital clutter,’ while Mr Stark points out that print can be used to support an online presence:

‘Printed advertisements, such as flyers, posters, and banners, can be powerful tools in promoting your website or social media pages. These tangible materials can attract potential customers and drive traffic to your online platforms.’

Other advice revolves around carefully targeted and simple-to-follow offers. Mr Wenlock advocates, ‘sell print as an investment as opposed to an expense. Use every opportunity to deliver proof of concept,’ citing Flexpress’s free raised spot UV and raised foiling sampling service as ways to do that. Mr Stark suggests that consolidating purchasing via a single supplier will streamline procurement, always helpful if and when the desired Christmas rush arrives.

But the main advice is that given at the start, which is to start early. Mr Peeling provides a timeline: ‘Planning is all-important as the main activity takes place in October for delivery in November in time for Christmas. Decide what products you are going to focus on and decide on your target customers. Think about having samples in hand ready to go and make sure that discussions with clients about their marketing and product needs start in early September to raise awareness, with a view to orders being closed in October.’

Mr Hardeman adds further impetus, noting that, ‘The Christmas rush arrives swiftly, and even as early as mid-summer, we’ve seen an influx of Christmas print orders. Ensure your customers know that you’re their go-to printer for all their Christmas printing needs, so they can plan ahead and avoid last-minute stress.’

Since Christmas can often be a stressful time for families, it seems a double win not to let it be one for business. Have a great one!

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This year’s event saw 114 entries from which 34 winners were selected, across print, packaging, publishing and journalism. According to Lord Black, 59% of the winners were from the print sector, a big increase from 2022. Lord Black also welcomed the fact that 56% of the winners were female, commenting that was ‘a hugely important thing for the future of a diverse, inclusive entrepreneurial industry’.

There has also been an increase in role diversity amongst winners. This year’s winners work in a range of roles spanning administration, client management, communications, design, editorial, finance, human resources, management, marketing, sustainability and technical expertise, plus those who have founded their own businesses.

The winners will use their £1500 grants to fund a portfolio of complementary courses designed to build a range of skills and boost their capability, personal growth and career potential. This year, one in five courses chosen focuses on personal development, to build transferable skills to make it easier to adapt and continue to thrive in a rapidly-evolving and progressive industry.

Printing Charity CEO Neil Lovell said, ‘The 2023 award winners joining our constellation of Rising Stars once again show the wealth of emerging talent in the print, paper, packaging, publishing and graphics sectors.

‘Particularly key this year is that our winners are drawn from a broad range of job roles, covering a full spectrum from traditional disciplines to new technology. This, and the diversity of training options being funded by the awards this year, shows the enthusiasm of young people to grow their career within our industry, and the range of different opportunities within it. There truly is a role to fit every skillset; an important message that we think needs to be better understood by young people looking to forge their careers in dynamic and vibrant organisations.

Winners from the print and related sectors came from Solopress, Route1/Bluetree/Instantprint, Northern Flags/Faber Exposize UK, Dayfold Print, RA Smart, Amberley Labels, BCQ Group, McLaren Packaging, Webmart, Eight Days a Week, Go Inspire Group, Paragon, and Coveris UK Paper.

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The HP Indigo 12,000 was installed at Route 1’s Rotherham factory back in November 2021, with the firm saying that it complimented its existing digital equipment, upped its capacity in flat and folded work and provided increased versatility and optimum output.

It has now been joined by the Indigo 100K. Route 1 says it opted for the B2 solution, which is capable of printing at 6000 sheets per hour, in order to improve its short runs and digital print capabilities. With both new printers now up and running Route 1 reports that its ‘digital efficiency’ has improved by more than 60%.

‘We are incredibly pleased to have completed the installation of both presses and we’re excited to see how this duo will enhance our digital efficiency,’ commented Bluetree Print managing director Mark Young. ‘It’s improvements like this that will really help us to support our customers as the print industry changes.

‘HP have also been extremely helpful during this transition. Their support has allowed us to seamlessly integrate these new machines into our existing arsenal without a single hiccup.’

Since launching in 2012, Route 1 has invested in digital and litho technology in order to meet its goal of offering ‘high quality, low-cost and fast turnaround print.’ The company has also confirmed that it plans to continue improving its factory and equipment to meet the needs of the business as it grows.

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The South Yorkshire based company will initially offer four perforation options across its flyer and leaflet range, allowing the creation of tickets, vouchers and tear-off forms. Folding and perforation will be done on the same MBO folder as used for non-perforated items. Route 1 plans to expand the capability over time to address products such as perforated booklets.

‘Client feedback is a huge part of our decision-making process when we’re looking at launching new products,’ said product coordinator Jack Crofts. ‘Our job is to make our clients’ lives easier so if we follow their requests, we can be sure that we’re on the right path. Given how many requests we’ve had for perforation, I’m confident we’re going to see a very positive uptake.’

Route 1 Print clients can make requests through the company’s regular customer surveys, or by contacting their account manager at any time.

Brand Manager Christie Round encouraged Route 1 clients to get in touch with specific requests: ‘Our account managers are always happy to pass on ideas and no idea is too small if it could help our clients. We’ll be launching our summer survey soon so we’re looking forward to seeing lots of comments and suggestions that we can take forward,’ she said.

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Initially brought in to support parent company Bluetree’s Instantprint brand, Vpress web-to-print software has increasingly been deployed to support the rapid growth of the Route 1 trade print arm of the business, further boosted by its September 2020 expansion to produce surgical masks for the NHS. Route 1 estimates that processing orders automatically via Coreprint saves five minutes per order compared to manual handling, which equates to 40 hours for every 500 jobs. Jobs are routed directly into Route 1’s production workflow.

‘Route 1 Print is trade-only, and for a segment of our clients, an integrated solution offers a big saving in transactional costs. [The] Coreprint Pro web-to-print system and its flexibility is a really good fit for these organisations, and it means their customers can order directly through it,’ explained Sarah Kilcoyne-Guilliam, head of sales and integration at Route 1 .

‘It has allowed us to significantly streamline integrated accounts using Vpress technology. Not only that, it has helped us strengthen customer service and ultimately provided a tool for our clients to win contracts they wouldn’t have done otherwise – specifically through the creation of bespoke ordering portals,’ she added.

In addition to reducing times spent by Route 1 staff on laborious and repetitive work, the Vpress software allows Route 1 account managers to receive automated processing and status reporting to monitor work progress and pass on to their clients as required. Ms Kilcoyne-Guilliam also noted that once customers become used to working with the Vpress-based system, they tend to place more work that way, because much of the work is low margin, freeing the customer’s own print capacity for more complex, bespoke or higher added-value jobs.

Further integration developments will enable the entire Route 1 product portfolio to be integrated into its customers’ e-commerce portals, further simplifying the ordering process for print end-customers.

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Notoriety comes in all shapes and sizes, as Asif Choudry, sales and marketing director at Leeds printer Resource discovered recently when he attended a client event. He was introduced to an executive of the client organisation who, when told that Mr Choudry was from Resource, exclaimed, ‘You’re the custard cream guys!’

It is not such a bad thing to be remembered for. After all, there are many who see the custard cream as a prince among biscuits. For Mr Choudry though, it is further confirmation that Resource’s approach to customer engagement is cutting through, and within that approach the use of social media is a key component. Resource sends its customers and prospects a calendar every year, as many printers probably do. The purpose of the calendar, however, is not just to give these companies a useful physical record of upcoming events. Its purpose is to start a conversation about that most mundane of things: dunking biscuits in hot beverages.

Using #dunkability on its Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, Resource follows up on the calendar with an ongoing campaign of social media posts that draw in recipients
to voice their own opinions on what biscuit is best to dunk, and engage with a series of fun challenges such as designing their dream biscuit.

‘It’s creating warmth with customers, and that’s where social media can make a tangible difference,’ said Mr Choudry. Resource is a leading exponent of social media amongst UK printers, according to marketing consultant Jacky Hobson of Up Marketing, who has worked for years with British printers, helping them to market themselves better.

‘They are a class act when it comes to their social media,’ she said. ‘They have really got the tone of voice right and they are engaging with their customers, sometimes about print, sometimes about things that are far more of a personal nature. I would say they are the best example of a printer using social media.’

Being social

The key to Resource’s approach to social media is that the company understands how the medium should be used. There is a clue in the term ‘social media’ itself – it is supposed to be social, and in a social environment people do not want to be overtly sold to. However, they are often happy to engage, either with light-touch, light hearted content, or with business insight or intelligence that informs them and which, by sharing, enhances their own standing in the B2B social media community.

Ms Hobson continued, ‘The businesses that get social media wrong see it as a broadcast medium and you can see that on any number of printers’ sites – get your business cards for X pounds. Really, the chances of that resonating with someone are very small. I don’t think you can use it to measure sales, it just has to be part of your strategy. It’s much less about talking and much more about listening.’

It is true however that many printers have dabbled in social media and do not feel they have cracked it. In researching this article, one printer with a successful online brand told Digital Printer that his company has tried on quite a few occasions to achieve lift-off with social media, with ‘mixed, and at best limited success’. He said, ‘I’m sorry to say that B2B marketing on any of the social media platforms we’ve tried has proved to be less effective than we had hoped or envisaged.’ As a result, social media is now addressed there on an ad hoc basis.

That is not going to cut it, according to Asif Choudry. ‘It is critical that you are active frequently in the social media space, posting, sharing, commenting, generally being part of the conversation, if not leading it. This might not be natural for many people, and they will often feel even less inclined if they are already ‘too busy’.

Social media requires commitment, and to give readers an idea of the degree of that commitment, Mr Choudry explains how Resource views its social media activity. ‘It
has completely changed the way we keep in contact with clients. We have lots more conversations that are not part of a transaction. Before social media, we just rang and said, have you got any work you need printing? Now we can speak to them seven days a week, interact with them, and connect them to other customers and influencers.

‘It is hard to measure, and you have to put a lot in personally, but if it did not bring any business in, we would not do it. I have seen printers set up on Instagram and post things that they have printed, and then wait for the sales to follow. That’s not going to do anything, to be honest. People have to realise that you have got to invest the time; it’s not one hit, you’ve got to get the conversation going on a regular basis.

‘Nor is it about bringing in a digital marketing manager or a digital apprentice; these people are not trained in sales conversations. We report on interactions on social media with clients in our sales meetings, just as you would with normal sales calls.’

To say this approach to business development might require patience would be an understatement. Mr Choudry admits that he has engaged with people on social media for three years before he has even met them. You have to be prepared to accept that any interaction via social media might lead to no business at all, but still be prepared to play the long game, keep engaging for engagement’s sake, with the goal of developing a soon-to-be fruitful business relationship.

Resource does monitor this activity by its sales team, in the same way that any business expects to hear feedback from a salesperson tasked with making 20 calls day. While it does not demand a set number of posts per day by its sales employees, it does measure the quantity of social interactions because it wants these employees to get into the habit of being active on social media.

‘It’s good, old-fashioned sales – you’ve got to play the numbers game, and we will share the numbers across calls, social media interactions and meetings,’ said Mr Choudry.

Generation game

Resource is by no means the only printer that is having a positive experience with social media. Given its youthful but sky-rocketing profile in the industry, it is probably no surprise to hear that Route 1 Print is an experienced social media player.

‘We use social media to drive new business, but it is more lead generation-based than sales,’ explained marketing team leader Christie Round. ‘Our brand value is to support the lives of creatives and printers so, for prospects who don’t know the brand, we want to create that relationship. Social media helps us do that through being there and offering advice and tools for their business. Social media is also a place where we get feedback on the content pieces we create, and that level of engagement is something you cannot buy.

‘I think in today’s world, customers want to feel aligned with your brand, and it is more about how available you are and if you are there on the channel they want to speak to you on.’

A much smaller company than either of these two organisations is Ripe Digital in Corsham, Wiltshire, which has LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram platforms for sharing content. George Penny, account manager at the company, says the aim of its social media activity is to ‘provide inspiration’.

‘This could be an insight into how we work, the equipment that’s been used, material, a finishing process or a creative solution. Sometimes it’s just a case of ‘wow, that job
turned out really nice let’s show everyone!’. Ultimately, it’s about trying to ensure people know what we are capable of producing, and that they keep us in mind for future
projects. We don’t have a dedicated sales team, and social media is our way of reaching out, so it needs to do the talking for us.’

Channel hopping

If you are not sure which social media channel is the right one to use, the best guide is to identify which ones your customers or prospective customers are using, says
Charlotte Sheridan, director at The Small Biz Expert. ‘It’s important to remember that no channel is a magic sales channel,’ she continued. ‘Social media should be used to
nudge potential customers along a journey to purchase, and should target all stages of a buyer’s process. It’s also important to note that awareness is part of the sales process, and probably the one that organic social media does best.’

Another marketer – former DST and Paragon executive Fraser Church, now general manager of print co-operative CPX Group – describes social media as ‘a nice way to do light-touch marketing’, adding, ‘It’s more for story-telling. Trying to use it for hard-nosed selling is very difficult, but connecting people to the brand, yes. It helps spread conversation and interest. It’s probably the softer side of selling.’

Used skilfully, social media can help printers to develop relationships and keep their name in the minds of the buying community. It is a more relaxed environment where business people share information and have a little fun along the way. If printers can engage with it on those terms, hold back from the hard sell and join in the conversation, it can work to their advantage.

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