Passion printing is print that creates emotion, excitement, memories, and energy when received.
PDS Equipment has been doing trade shows for many years. It has been extremely fortunate to meet tons of awesome people and have the opportunity at NBM shows (now GRAPHICS PRO EXPO) to print thousands of UV print samples for customers. Most test prints are personal images or logos that are very important to these customers.
Passion printing examples
Six to seven years ago, I got my first glimpse of how powerful passion printing is for customers. It was just a typical day at one of the NBM trade shows in Texas, now GRAPHICS PRO EXPO. A lady walked up interested in looking at the Mimaki UJF 6042 and wanted to see her image printed on a ceramic tile. She emailed me the file, and in less than 5 minutes, I printed her a 12 X 12 ceramic tile with a cell phone image of her cat. After the print finished, I handed her the product, and she looked at the image and completely lost it. The tears started rolling as this image brought back many memories of her cat that had recently passed. I had no idea what I was in for, but it happened. That was back when we could hug at trade shows, and she gave me a big hug and thanked me for the product she promised to keep forever.
As you get to know PDS Equipment, more of you will learn that we love fishing, hunting, and pretty much anything outdoors. So when we are at one of our UV learning centers doing test printing, sometimes we print fishing, duck, and deer hunting images.
In one project, I used the Mimaki UCJV 300 UV roll-to-roll printer with clear gloss and printed a UV textured decal of a smallmouth bass with the spot gloss to show the texture of the scales and then contour cut the fish out. We printed a couple of extra for my garage and gave a few to my fishing buddies. Then, I posted this image and video to a smallmouth bass fishing Facebook group because I thought the members would enjoy it. (Note: PDS Equipment does not sell printing.) Instantly, my private messages started blowing up, and I had people willing to pay $25-$30 for a 12″ smallmouth decal with textured scales. I had less than 30 cents in this product, maybe 50 cents at most. The response was so significant that I had to remove the post because people were getting mad I would not sell these decals.
These crazy smallmouth fishermen have never seen their No. 1 gamefish look so cool, and they were willing to pay to get it. That is just another example of what you can do when the right products connect with the right group at the right time. This is a true passion printing opportunity for the smallmouth bass fishing group, and there are many other passionate Facebook groups out there to learn about and explore.
Showing off your UV prints in Facebook groups
Once you get rolling in the passion print market, you will have a national reach and national customer base just one free post away. Passion print products bring higher margins — much higher margins than generic promotional or static image printing. We want you to print products that make people smile and ones you get joy out of printing, too.
If you want to break into the passion print market, it’s time for you to have a shop meeting and see what Facebook groups everyone is a part of. If you have 10 different employees, you will all have varying passions, hobbies, and interests.
Business owners, please be ready with a commission plan for your team if you decide to go this route. Don’t expect your non-commissioned employees to post products to groups all of the time for free. You need to compensate them. I feel this is the No. 1 issue with smaller shops; they are unwilling to pay commission to employees and wonder why sales are down.
Everyone in your building needs to be sharing, liking, and posting your products out into Facebook groups, and each employee should post in different groups. Let your team know if one of their posts produces sales, you will pay them for it. Some of the best UV print operators generate tons of business just by posting daily print products a few times a day on different platforms. If you print something cool, post it. If you do not do social media, find someone who does. Do not miss out on this high-margin print market!
You know that employee that is always on their phone watching TikTok, checking Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter. Imagine if you offered them a commission for a post that generated sales. Do me a favor. Set your team up with a commission plan for social posts turned into sales, then see me at the next GRAPHICS PRO EXPO and let me know how it went.
Group rules and spam
Warning: Do not spam Facebook groups, and always follow the group rules.
You need to be part of the Facebook group community before you starting selling. Do not start selling as soon as you get approved into one of the Facebook groups. The moderators will remove you immediately. You need to be active in the groups and contribute content and information. This should be pretty easy if you picked a Facebook group you are sincerely passionate about and can talk the talk and walk the walk for that group. This goes back to the question: What is your passion?
If you are not real, most people will see right through it. Be real. Be genuine. Be helpful and contribute content that the group needs. These days everyone is looking at their phones. Let’s make sure they are looking at your stuff and deciding how many to order. If you follow the group rules, you will have a great time offering UV printed products to passionate people. These groups can’t wait for you to help them spend their money. Go get it!
