Stop Worrying About Customink

[printavo]

Do you have $4.5 million sitting around for a Super Bowl Commercial?

Do you have software engineers, and developers standing by to build you custom websites?

Can you afford the backstop of an MLB game for ad space on primetime?

Do you have algorithmic fulfillment down from coast to coast with contract printers ready to produce work for you at a minutes notice?

Did you develop a design tool several years ago and were first to market?

If you answered yes to any of those, this blog is not for you. But if you answered no, like many, here is the truth..

Read full article: https://www.printavo.com/blog/stop-worrying-about-customink#

[RICK STEFANICK]

Another straight up to the point article. THANKS

[NTZ-Deanna]

Great Article!

So has anyone plunged into the Design Studio World on their website?  Has it been worth it?

[CBCB]

Haha! Love this article. I think these solutions are great. Take all of the customers who don’t value our services, don’t have art, etc. If someone doesn’t care, then let them go ahead to another shop. If they do care about the value we add then it’ll be a great relationship. So we don’t sweat customers who compare us to these sites.

Great Article!

So has anyone plunged into the Design Studio World on their website?  Has it been worth it?

There has been talks of this here on the forums. General consensus seems to be that the online designers aren’t worth it. Would you really want to attract customers with no art but who feel they’re the best ones to do it, but have no clue how to do it so they use an online widget?

I recommended those clients visit our competitors!



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[Homer]

Haha! Love this article. I think these solutions are great. Take all of the customers who don’t value our services, don’t have art, etc. If someone doesn’t care, then let them go ahead to another shop. If they do care about the value we add then it’ll be a great relationship. So we don’t sweat customers who compare us to these sites.

Great Article!

So has anyone plunged into the Design Studio World on their website?  Has it been worth it?

There has been talks of this here on the forums. General consensus seems to be that the online designers aren’t worth it. Would you really want to attract customers with no art but who feel they’re the best ones to do it, but have no clue how to do it so they use an online widget?

I recommended those clients visit our competitors!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

...and then, when the shirts turn out looking terrible, people will ask "hey who made your shirts?".....and I don't know about yous guys, but that doesn't sit well with me.....

[mooseman]

I send a ton of people to Custom ink,'
every one who wants one tee shirt
every one who wants me to design a shirt for them when they have no clue what they want
every one who comes in on Wednesday and wants a shirt or two by party time on Friday
every one who is price sensative we tell them go see about Custom ink you know those people who have the TV commercials .....get a price quote .........then come back to us we will beat their price by at least 20%   They return with a quote and a design we print their order.

One element that is being missed here is using your competitions strength and weight against them.
Another point is the ton of dollars CI spends to aquire a customer. The web , the commercials, the marketing, the payroll, the elements we never see from here. This customer aquisition cost is going to be even greater when Amazon starts printing tee shirts for the universe. Custom Ink on steroids!!!!!

Lastly doesn't custom ink use shops just like you big guys out there to fill the orders they get?

The biggest threat they, CI,  pose to us is the undeniable fact that the 18 to 34 year olds so called mellinnials out there and the newer generations that follow are physically disconected to the real world. They communicate, learn, live and breathe shop and buy food, cars, electronics, find husbands and wives, and more through a smart device constantly glued in their hands.The day will come when a Mellennials will be standing right in front of a brick and morter store motionless except for the frantic tapping on a smart device to order a product that they could simply buy within. There are over 75 million mellinnals out there and growing out numbering the boomers and the gen-xers. They can't be attracted face to face because   social media is the new reality so the real threat to us is not custom ink or amazon printing tee shirts for the masses it is genetics and smart devices that will carve out the new economy

Custom ink in not the silver bullet to our future.
mooseman

[inkstain]

Who's Custom Ink?

[CBCB]

The biggest threat they, CI,  pose to us is the undeniable fact that the 18 to 34 year olds so called mellinnials out there and the newer generations that follow are physically disconected to the real world. They communicate, learn, live and breathe shop and buy food, cars, electronics, find husbands and wives, and more through a smart device constantly glued in their hands.The day will come when a Mellennials will be standing right in front of a brick and morter store motionless except for the frantic tapping on a smart device to order a product that they could simply buy within. There are over 75 million mellinnals out there and growing out numbering the boomers and the gen-xers. They can't be attracted face to face because   social media is the new reality so the real threat to us is not custom ink or amazon printing tee shirts for the masses it is genetics and smart devices that will carve out the new economy

This is where I disagree. As a side note, I’d love to see a poll for age on this forum.

I just turned 28 so I fit the range you identified. Lots of friends older/younger than me.

We don’t sell a product, we sell a service and an experience.

I think the biggest thing the older generation misses is right here in your reply. Millennials are just as connected to the real world. If anything, we are more connected through these devices.

You need to understand that the value and confidence you see in a face-to-face deal is something that millennials achieve with each other through the internet. You cannot discount the connections made between people just because they happen over the internet. You may not have the experience, but the connections humans make online are physical, emotional, and real. Just because the fleshy crap around our brains can’t bump into each other doesn’t mean we aren’t connected.

The real world is happening right in front of you. If you truly feel that the youth are disconnected from reality you should try to consider that the connections are real and so it IS reality.

We booked almost 400k this year and we don’t answer the phone. No walk ins. Email only. Are our relationships less valid because we interacted only online? Nope.

If I’m spending $1000 on anything I’m going to be sure I am confident and have trust in the provider. That trust and confidence can easily be built between two humans online, and these days that’s the most natural way for new generations to build relationships.

We don’t want face-to-face. We want human-to-human. That’s something Amazon and Custom Ink can never take away from us, and they’re not trying to.

It’s not the devices that’ll kill ya, it’s how you use them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mooseman]

The biggest threat they, CI,  pose to us is the undeniable fact that the 18 to 34 year olds so called mellinnials out there and the newer generations that follow are physically disconected to the real world. They communicate, learn, live and breathe shop and buy food, cars, electronics, find husbands and wives, and more through a smart device constantly glued in their hands.The day will come when a Mellennials will be standing right in front of a brick and morter store motionless except for the frantic tapping on a smart device to order a product that they could simply buy within. There are over 75 million mellinnals out there and growing out numbering the boomers and the gen-xers. They can't be attracted face to face because   social media is the new reality so the real threat to us is not custom ink or amazon printing tee shirts for the masses it is genetics and smart devices that will carve out the new economy

This is where I disagree. As a side note, I’d love to see a poll for age on this forum.

I just turned 28 so I fit the range you identified. Lots of friends older/younger than me.

We don’t sell a product, we sell a service and an experience.

I think the biggest thing the older generation misses is right here in your reply. Millennials are just as connected to the real world. If anything, we are more connected through these devices.

You need to understand that the value and confidence you see in a face-to-face deal is something that millennials achieve with each other through the internet. You cannot discount the connections made between people just because they happen over the internet. You may not have the experience, but the connections humans make online are physical, emotional, and real. Just because the fleshy crap around our brains can’t bump into each other doesn’t mean we aren’t connected.

The real world is happening right in front of you. If you truly feel that the youth are disconnected from reality you should try to consider that the connections are real and so it IS reality.

We booked almost 400k this year and we don’t answer the phone. No walk ins. Email only. Are our relationships less valid becaWeuse we interacted only online? Nope.

If I’m spending $1000 on anything I’m going to be sure I am confident and have trust in the provider. That trust and confidence can easily be built between two humans online, and these days that’s the most natural way for new generations to build relationships.

 We don’t want face-to-face. We want human-to-human. That’s something Amazon and Custom Ink can never take away from us, and they’re not trying to.

It’s not the devices that’ll kill ya, it’s how you use them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you just made my point
mooseman

[farmboygraphics]

CI is not cheap, it sometimes is not quick, and often times it is not the best quality. That is because CI is a solution for someone with little industry knowledge or understanding, without regard for price or personal relationships.

Not Cheap - True and they get the price they ask. Not going to get into all their overhead, not my point. My point is they get a fair price for a fair product. Are you suggesting we get a lower price for doing a better job? I see daily on here where some seem to take pride in how low they can go. I don't understand that.

Industry Knowledge & Personal Relationships - We have customers that have been coming to us for years that know nothing of the process and could care less. Yes, we have a pretty good relationship with a few. I could count them all on one hand, the rest just want the order ready when they need it and don't give a rats rear end about getting personal.

Had to vent a little and this seemed like a good place to do it.

[GraphicDisorder]

Custom Ink doesn't worry me. Some day though someone will get that model right, they just will.

We don't answer the phone, in fact we barely let people in here. If you want to buy from me you will literally email me, pay me up front, and you will wait our quoted time line for work. Hell some of our higher end art you will pay up front and wait in a month long line for it, then another line when you want to print. That's how it works. Things are going well, really well, another year of double digit % growth. Maybe I am missing the boat and we'd be bigger if we answered phones and took walk in's, that is entirely possible. However I do not care at all. We have our way and frankly believe it or not we get complimented on it all the time. Even from some that resist it in the beginning. Ill see comments like "I wasn't sure about just emailing you a order and trying you out or not talking to you on the phone, but your process makes sense now". Customers for life. Whats funny is MOST of them never even question prices or anything.

You know who questions prices? Every time we let some new customer come in here, every time they want 13 shirts with $500 of art time and they want it all for $4 each all in. No thanks, ill let some other shop clip art their way through that mess.

[CBCB]

I think you just made my point
mooseman

You totally missed my point if that’s all you got from my post. Ah well.

[Nation03]

Great Article!

So has anyone plunged into the Design Studio World on their website?  Has it been worth it?

I've used the base inksoft design studio on my website for a little over a year. It's $99 per month. People use it, but I don't get enough order conversions to justify the cost anymore. Starting in 2018 I'm going to cancel it. I can spend that extra $1,200/year in a better way.

[3Deep]

We get tons of custom ink, customers bring there art I end up redoing the art from scratch, because 95% of the time it's there reference art proof, and if we can't help a customer we only tell them about other printers we do biz with, other than that we don't advertise for Customink or any other place we do not work with.

[mk162]

It's not Custom Ink that scares me.  It's the next startup or even Amazon that gets into the game and gobbles up market share, just like the did with Uber, AirBnB, etc.

Custom ink is overpriced and the quality is hit or miss.