In January 2012, printMAX made the decision to invest in social media. The company's aim was to drive online presence, brand image and potential custom. Over the last 3 months printMAX's online presence has increased dramatically and is proving to be hugely beneficial for the business.
Michael Bolton, managing director of printMAX, comments, “We’ve really branched out and tried to maximise the power of social media to its full potential for printMAX. It’s a long process but we’re already starting to see results. We’re continually aiming to exceed expectations and by offering useful information through various touch points we’re offering something additional and different.”
printMAX’s marketing manager, Vicky Jarman, adds, “We saw the potential for printMAX online and our customers and suppliers were there... so why weren’t we? We started on Twitter with a few followers and have branched out as much as possible. Whilst Twitter is still the main base for us – most of our customers are available there and it’s probably the easiest platform for real interaction - we’ve also made a presence on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest and have even started blogging!"
She continues, "Sign UK was a real turning point for us as it allowed up-to-date news and information for our followers and also gave us the opportunity to meet many of our online friends. Additionally to aiding brand recognition it also gave us an easy route to starting conversation. In the build up to the exhibition we had counted down on the Roland forum with daily tips on how best to prepare for the show, released details of competitions and announced many of the deals we would be offering at the show. Altogether it made for a very interactive experience, rather than the one-sided nature of selling at exhibitions it became a two-way conversation between us, the customers, the trade press and our suppliers. Social media really comes into its own at exhibitions.
"Aside from Sign UK, we are seeing increased dialogue and relationship building from social media. We can direct customers to our YouTube channel to view demonstrations, share our interests and print tips with the world and probably, most importantly, communicate the printMAX brand effectively. Everything we do online, hopefully, shows a bit of personality. We avoid - as much as possible - self promotion and focus more on providing content based news feeds. With examples of what you could do with a large format printer, what our customers are getting up to with their printers and how large format print is affecting the world around us, with international press stories.
"The real benefits we’re seeing at the moment are the increase in our Google rankings along with the ability to reach potential customers through multiple touchpoints – both beneficial in driving new business. Consequentially the number of website visits has doubled since January and there are indications that many unique visitors are finding us solely through social media.
"We’ve now integrated social media into our daily lives at the office and are planning to continue to get ‘online’ and introduce ourselves to as many members of the large format print industry as possible.”