Print is still very relevant, maybe more so due to pandemic

The pandemic has forced many businesses to reimagine how they reach out to customers and how they deliver services and products – but even more than that, to simply communicate to customers that they are open or re-opening so that the customers can return.

One business in San Bernardino that is decidedly old-school to many, the local print shop, in this case Minuteman Press of San Bernardino, has been helping clients through the pandemic with signage, mailers and other products to help them navigate the pandemic induced conditions.

Despite the pandemic Minuteman Press of San Bernardino has seen 20% year over year growth in sales.  The owner, Joseph Lee believes a partnership attitude with his customers has helped drive that growth.

“Local businesses [in San Bernardino] need to work together as the economy recovers from the pandemic,” said Lee. “During the past year, whenever I reached out, our customers are very appreciative and glad we are still open and operating, and still growing. The reason I am growing and operating is because of them. No matter how many clients I have, I try to know them by their first name and what they do for a living. Providing a personal touch and showing you care, then proving it means everything.”

The tools of the local print shop, business cards, banners, mailers may seem antique but are still effective according to marketing experts. “Direct mail and those types of old-school tactics are even more relevant today,” said James Kennedy, president of Kennedy Marketing Group, “There are a lot of reasons – direct marketing is impactful because a large percentage of people are home all the time and are paying more attention to what is coming into their home via the mail box – one of their only outside regular contacts except maybe the UPS, Amazon delivery person.   Getting so many emails makes it a blizzard and people are yearning for the personal touch – I think there will be a great demand for touching the customer in a non-electronic way and it is going to be very important as the pandemic wanes and we reopen.”

Today, Minuteman Press in San Bernardino is seeing more and more local businesses reopening and ordering more print products and marketing services. Joseph says, “I think there was a point in time that printing might not have seemed like it was trending. However, the more you really look at it, printing is always trending and it’s not a passing fad. Today, I’m selling more business cards than before, more flyers than before (we are working on an order for 5,000 flyers that just came in), and more mailers than before (we are working on an order for 3,500 postcards that will be mailed out soon, which is actually seven versions of 500 postcards each).”

Reflecting on the past year, Joseph continued, “During the pandemic, what I see is that paper materials and tangible items are here to stay. People might have missed the human connection this year, but print was and always will be there to keep us connected in a meaningful and powerful way.”