Graph Expo 15 was the most innovating and exciting exhibition of Digital, Inkjet, Offset, Flexo, Gravure and Hybrid technologies. Products and services for the Commercial Printing, Publishing, Mailing, Photo Imaging, Marketing and Industrial Printing industries in 2015!
Tuesday, Sept 15 in Chicago, IL. Heritage Printing, Signs & Displays President Joe Gass had the honor to be a feature presenter at Graph Expo 15.
BIG IDEAS: Creative (& Profitable) Wide Format Applications
Presented by Joe Gass of Heritage Printing, Signs & Displays
Are you tired of being labeled as “just another” printing company?
Struggling to distinguish your company from your competitor?
Having a hard time creating additional revenue from existing clients?
Having a hard time getting into targeted prospects to present your company capabilities?
There is a whole new world out there for those who want to grow their business and become more valuable to their customers. With an array of wide and grand format printing and custom contour cutting technology available, there is ample opportunity for those who can think outside the box to offer creative solutions for their client’s event and venue signage, storefront and visual communications displays.
Joe’s seminar was 1 of the 64 educational opportunities at the Graph Expo and was one of the Top 10 attended seminars. He elaborated on printing experience, technology and how we expanded our commercial printing to additionally offer wide format printing of signs, banners and custom made event displays.
A “snippet” of Joe’s’ presentation:
Introduction
During my years as the president and co-owner of Heritage Printing, Signs & Displays, I have experienced a lot of things that have changed the way I live my life and lead our business. I have navigated our business through the highs and lows of the economy and have been party to events that have greatly shaped how I view life and make decisions today. I have seen amazing changes in technology and communication that have revolutionized how we run and grow our business.
Expanding the Business
In 2008 I was also beginning to see that life in the printing industry was about to change again, and that my new home town of Charlotte, NC, would be a place for us to extend the reach of our business and possibly add new production capabilities to our offerings. Through a variety of new relationships, I became exposed to the wide-format printing industry and the world of event signage. At first it was extremely alien to me; the process and methods were different, the competitors were different, and the type of employees and their skill sets were very different.
Expanding to Charlotte, NC
We opened the doors to our first wide format production facility in Charlotte, NC, in November of 2009. The early days of this new venture were both exciting and terrifying, I was learning something new by the hour. It was like starting all over again, after so many years of being the guy with all of the answers, I was now the one with all of the questions.
I watched our team in Charlotte go from being highly skeptical about the investments I was making in wide format technology in Charlotte to embracing it as a valuable tool in meeting our customers’ marketing and communication needs. In 2014, wide and grand format production represented more than 40% of our business revenue and should exceed 50% for the first time in 2015.
Marketing Change
Our wide format and commercial printing initiatives would have been largely fruitless if we had not embraced the amazing attributes of Internet marketing. We began aggressively marketing our company on the Internet via search engine optimization and social media campaigns beginning in the spring of 2008 with the launch of the Charlotte sales office and our www.heritageprintingcharlotte.com website.
Internet marketing has also totally changed the way we pursue new account acquisition. By the end of 2013, sales staff and long timelines to develop new clients were abandoned to deploy trained project coordinators that respond to calls, emails, and live chat sessions generated from our internet presence.
Today Heritage Printing, Signs & Displays can be found on the front page of more than 200 different Google searches for targeted phrases that we track in the markets we serve as well as, in some cases, regional, national, and international front-page exposure. We currently attract more than 150 new prospects to our two websites each business day!
The Heritage Printing, Signs & Displays team is excited about the continual transformation that has been taking place within our culture through the past twelve years. We recognize that our clients’ needs are ever-changing, and we are now more quickly able to adapt with them.
#GraphExpo15
