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2008 Media Kit Available
The Print Solutions 2008 media planner is now available. The planner includes the 2008 editorial calendar, rates for advertisements placed in Print Solutions and our electronic newsletters, plus details about ad specifications. Click here to download a copy.

Reader Looks to Magazine for Unique Solutions
“I’m always looking for little niche solutions for my customers,” says Greg Erickson, president of Riverside Business Products LLC in St. Paul, Minn. And that’s one of the reasons he reads Print Solutions magazine. As a small distributor, he wants to offer more for his clients than items from a catalog. He also knows he can’t compete with the advertising budget of FedEx Kinko’s, which constantly runs ads on TV. That’s where Print Solutions comes in. He reads the articles and the advertisements to find “a unique solution to customers’ problems.”

What does he look for in ads? It’s the details that grab him, he says, such as a list of products offered, especially if applications are suggested. “I keep looking for the little solutions that will make me shine in the eyes of the customer,” he says. It’s not just the case studies in Print Solutions that Erickson finds useful. He reads the magazine “to get a macro view of where the business is headed,” he says. “It’s good as a kind of directional compass.”

Meet Preeti Vasishtha
Preeti Vasishtha jokes that she is “quite the rebel.” The native of Chandigarh, India, did not become the software engineer that her parents expected. Certainly, that career path seemed likely while she was attending college and majoring in engineering and computer science. Instead, Preeti chose a writing career. For years, she had been fascinated by the field of journalism, in part because a family friend shared stories about his exciting journalism career with her.  

After graduating from college, she took a job as a copy editor at the Indian Express, one of India’s largest circulation daily newspapers. She also studied journalism at a nearby university. At the urging of her older sister, a doctor practicing in New York, Preeti immigrated to the United States, where she pursued her master’s degree in print journalism from Washington, D.C.’s American University. Upon graduation in December 2000, she went to work for Government Computer News, a biweekly Post-Newsweek publication that covered information technology and the federal government.

After two years, she left to join the Print Services & Distribution Association (PSDA, the publisher of Print Solutions magazine) as an assistant editor of the magazine. Two years later Preeti was named editor of PSDA’s popular weekly e-newsletter, Print Matters. The newsletter, which reaches 10,000 PSDA members each week, represents more than 500,000 member contacts annually.

“Print Matters is a lot of fun personally to me,” she says. “I like keeping track of what’s going on in the industry and getting it out to readers.” Each issue includes short news items about topics such as acquisitions, as well as longer profiles and interviews called “Q&A.” For each Q&A, Preeti interviews an industry expert. “There are so many people out there with in-depth information about the industry,” she says, and the Q&A format allows her to quickly pass their insights along to readers. Print Matters was recently redesigned (see sidebar).

Receiving responses from readers asking for more information on a topic, within minutes of the newsletter’s distribution, is her favorite part of the job. “Because it’s an electronic publication, it becomes easier to write back,” she says. She welcomes feedback from readers, as well as article ideas and suggestions of questions to ask experts.

Outside the office, Preeti enjoys interior decorating projects for the condominium she shares with her husband. She especially likes taking old artwork and transforming it into unique decorative pieces.

Preeti Vasishtha can be reached directly at (703) 302-8783, or via email at pvasishtha@psda.org.

Advertiser Profile: Why I Advertise in Print Solutions
“As far as print advertising is concerned, the majority of our new leads come from Print Solutions,” says Bob Giammarco, vice president of Universal Label Technologies in Attleboro Falls, Mass. “There is no question that we get our best response from that magazine.” Universal Label, which manufactures bar code labels, has advertised in Print Solutions for the past few years.

Giammarco says advertising in Print Solutions is key because “it reaches the market we’re shooting for. ... The majority of people distributing our product read Print Solutions.” Universal’s ads show photos and illustrations of the different types of bar code labels it produces. By running ads with that information, Giammarco hopes to “spark something” in distributors, who will realize existing clients can use Universal’s products.

Does it pay to advertise during an uncertain economy? “Unless you’re comfortable with the business you currently have, you’re not going to gain any new business if you’re not advertising,” Giammarco explains. There’s another reason for his company to advertise now. “With the economy the way it is, even the distributors out there are looking for new product lines to sell. With the product we sell, if the economy takes a downturn, people (end users) need to maintain better controls.” Thus, during slow times, end users may be more likely to buy Universal’s products, whose purchase typically is allocated from an operational budget, than certain types of printing and promotional products bought through marketing departments, he explains.

Advertising in Print Solutions has another advantage. Giammarco says his firm has had a lot of success exhibiting at PSDA trade shows. He believes that success is due, in part, to the name recognition generated by the company’s ads. “We’ve had people come up to us [at shows] and say, ‘Oh yeah, Universal Label. We saw your name in the magazine,’” he says.

Tips for Advertising in an Uncertain Economy
With all the talk about a slowing economy, business owners are looking for ways to cut costs. However, cutting advertising during an economic downturn is not a sound business practice, says Mac McIntosh, a business-to-business marketing consultant located in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

It’s been proven over and over that companies who advertise during a slowdown “are the first to come back,” says McIntosh. They also experience “faster growth at the other end [of a slowdown],” he says. McIntosh tested this theory firsthand in 2001-2002 when the economy hit the skids. He continued to advertise and found his business doing well when things turned around; some competitors who had foregone advertising ended up out of business, he notes.

What should you do to market your company during tough times?

• Tweak your advertising message, he says. In a downturn, consider running ads that focus on products or services that are most profitable, the easiest to sell or those most applicable to potential customers.
• If your budget is tight, hold off on running “image” ads. Instead of promoting your company’s image or brand, design ads with offers or calls to action.
• Include a variety of offers tailored to customers at different places in the buying cycle. You might want to offer free samples for those thinking about trying out your firm, as well as a tool or checklist for those further along in the sales process. Coupons work, says McIntosh, whether customers actually clip them or cite the special offer when they are ready to order.
• If you don’t currently track leads from ads, start now, says McIntosh. Doing so is easier and less expensive than you might think. You can use unique extension numbers for phone numbers used in ads in different publications, promote a specific web landing page in each ad, or use a unique email address, he suggests.
• Determine if your suppliers offer a co-op marketing program, enabling you to share costs.

Mac McIntosh specializes in helping companies get more high-quality sales leads and turn them into sales. He can be reached at (800) 944-5553, or via email at mcintosh@sales-lead-experts.com.

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