Calan Stanley first established his graphic design and print business, PrintTogether, 12 years ago in London. Four years later when he moved back home to Australia, Stanley made the strategic decision to launch the business here online, taking orders and payments via PayPal from day one.
“PrintTogether is a printing business but fundamentally the way we do things is based around sustainability and reducing the resources we use. Our business was born out of a personal desire to make printing more environmentally sustainable. However, when we launched in Australia I was amazed to see that there weren’t many businesses online speaking about what they were doing from an environmental point-of-view. We saw an opportunity to use that aspect of our business as a market differentiator and now people come to us specifically for that reason,” Stanley said.
According to the founder, it was a no brainer to launch online in Australia as he could structure the business in a way which made operations more efficient and allowed it to reach a much bigger audience – from the very beginning.
Using online to process orders more efficiently
Since first creating the PrintTogether website eight years ago, Stanley has evolved it from having a manual process for quotes and jobs to a more automated system.
“The biggest investment we have made as a business is in a custom built Content Management System (CMS). I am quite technical so was able to design the architecture of the system myself and then I hired a developer on Elance to develop it. It has changed a lot over the years to become a very specific online application for managing PrintTogether quotes and orders. We have invested a lot of money into the website but the return we have made by saving resources is far greater.”
PrintTogether’s business model is based on printing several customers’ materials together, reducing the cost to the business and the customer, as well as minimising the impact on the environment.
“On average we get about 40-50 requests for quotes and ten orders for jobs placed a day. In the past is was common for us to spend all day doing quoting but now the website allows people to get a quote online, omitting the need for staff to process them manually. We also use the website to process all orders and then group them together so they can be printed in batches. We do all our printing on Fridays each week, then utilise the weekend to let the ink dry and despatch the printed goods on Monday and Tuesday the following week.”
The website also helps the business from a cashflow perspective as payments are made when a customer places an order.
“I decided to integrate PayPal’s Website Payments Pro system into my website as it provides customers with payment choices. It allows customers to either checkout with PayPal via Express Checkout, or pay directly by credit or debit card using Direct Payment. While building a website can be difficult, there are many systems out there like PayPal that are easy to integrate into your website.”
Using online marketing to drive customers
According to Stanley, too many businesses believe all you have to do is build a website, and people will come.
“In reality once you’ve created the website you need to keep updating it with new content and systems. Our website has continued to evolve to keep up with changing customer demands and technology,” he said.
Currently, about 80 percent of customers are new customers, so PrintTogether primarily relies on people finding the website and using it for the first time instead of repeat business. Of these new customers, 60-70 percent find out about the business from online searches and the rest is driven by word-of-mouth. Because of the high percentage of new customers and referrals from online searches Stanley has relied heavily on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for marketing his business.
“We have used a number of different consultants for SEO over the years. We are currently working with another company from Elance. We get them to do an analysis and then our developer implements most of the changes they suggest. We have just hired a full time developer to work on customisation, our blog, and social media as we feel there is value in investing in these assets.”
Advice and thoughts on the future
Stanley is very passionate about businesses having a website, as he has seen the benefits first-hand.
“My advice to other businesses is that having an online presence is essential. Every business needs a call-to-action and online is the quickest and easiest way to provide that. I also feel it’s worth spending money to get a good website and marketing in place as it pays dividends in the end.”
While PrintTogether is seeing more competition, Stanley plans on continuing to build the businesses presence online and customer relationships in the future to maintain business.
“In our industry we are experiencing increasing competition as more printing businesses go online and ensure they are environmentally sustainable. Eight years ago we had two competitors but now we have thousands. We are in a good position though as we got in early with online printing so we have built up a reputation,” he said.
“Our goal for the future is to retain a high level of new customers and grow our repeat business. We currently have almost 7,000 customers on our database and we have built this up primarily through online orders. We aim to use our growing database to drive repeat business and continue investing in online marketing and social media to keep new customers coming to our website.”
Stanley’s tips for driving customers to your website
- Make your website dynamic – it’s important to continue updating your website with new content and systems so that it evolves with your customers. Our website looks vastly different now compared to what it was four years ago. Continually building new content into the site keeps it fresh and interesting for new and regular customers.
- Do not underestimate the power of search – 60-70 per cent of our customers find out about PrintTogether from online searches. If you’re not an expert in SEO, outsource the activity to a company or freelancer in the know. It’s definitely worth the investment and ensures your website is one of the top sites when people are searching for a relevant product or service. If you’re not on the first page of searches, you won’t get found!
- Continue engagement with new customers – grow your repeat business by continuing to interact with your customers through social media or email newsletters. Look for ways to leverage your other channels and materials to drive people to your website and include your website details on all your packaging and communications.
This case study was produced to support the Driving Business Online program, a national educational initiative founded by PayPal Australia with support from its industry partners. The Driving Business Online program consists of an educational roadshow educating businesses to launch or grow their business online in addition to the Driving Business Online website.
