A powerful marketing and education tool is at your disposal. According to a report by Adobe, marketers worldwide find this type of content has the best ROI. Need another hint? Research firm Aberdeen Group found that companies using this tool experience 41 percent more web traffic from search than those who do not use it. Do you know what this marketing magic bullet is?

If you guessed video, then you’re correct. Video has swept into town, declared itself the new sheriff and is kicking out those who don’t comply. Bad comparison, but you get the idea — it’s time to embrace the new video culture or face the consequences.

Drawing on Inspiration

While making professional videos seems daunting, PSDA member company Flesh Co took the challenge in stride, creating its series of popular whiteboard videos. These short, one- to two- minute educational videos feature a narrator explaining a specific topic — such as barcodes — while an individual draws images to illustrate the narrator’s point. Roger Buck, director of marketing at Flesh Co, explains the idea to launch the whiteboard videos was pure poetic justice: It came from watching a video.

The McKinsey Quarterly once published an article titled "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Digital Enterprises." The fundamental premise of the article is: "To stay competitive, companies need to stop experimenting with digital and commit to transforming themselves into full digital businesses." The article reported the management consulting firm's observations from studying dozens of successful firms. While the article, and research, was targeted to a broad audience, its messages are highly applicable to the graphic communications market. 

Digital publishing software is currently experiencing rapid adoption, and InfoTrends estimates that the digital publishing platform market will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.5 percent over the next five years. While the technology for digital publishing platforms has been in existence for some time, the adoption of solutions is now accelerating outside the traditional market of print service providers and publishers. Large printers, enterprises, book publishers, magazines and newspapers are all beginning to adopt this technology. Because this market is not yet fully developed, larger vendors that are established in enterprise software and print production workflow have the opportunity to come in and acquire smaller players — or disrupt the market by offering their own solutions. These vendors can also serve as an educational resource for enterprises and others that are looking to use the technology.

Distributors have been branching into digital marketing for a while now. As part of their reinventions, some have hired developers, designers and other staff more traditionally associated with marketing agencies. Others sell digital marketing services and then subcontract the work to firms with those capabilities.