Interview with Nathan Dube, chief social media marketing engineer and MPS consultant, Expert Laser Services

1. Getting Creative with SMB Marketing Interview with Nathan Dube, chief social media marketing engineer and MPS consultant, Expert Laser Services Nathan Dube, chief social media marketing engineer and MPS consultant for Expert Laser Services, is known throughout the imaging world for his “Destroy Your Printer” contest (featured by the New York Times). He reveals his creative MPS marketing strategies in an exclusive interview with Photizo.

2. Nathan Dube Nathan Dube is the chief social media marketing engineer and managed print services consultant for Expert Laser Services in Southbridge, MA. He is also the creator of the “Destroy Your Printer Contest,” which has generated business for his company and attracted the attentions of several blogs and publications, including the New York Times.

3. When did Expert Laser Services begin to offer MPS? Our founder and CEO Luke Carpentier had the foresight to see the coming paradigm shift towards managed services back in the early 90s. Luke is a true pioneer of the MPS industry. There was very few companies at the time who had really started building the infrastructure needed to be an expert MPS provider, something we see many startups and hybrid dealers struggling with today.

4. How do you believe SMB businesses are learning about service providers today? What does your client base look like? The best way to get new clients is still for your sales team to hit the pavement and to build positive relationships with other human beings. With that being said we have also had success from Google’s paid ads, branding our fleet of tech vans with vinyl advertisements and of course utilizing social media. The Majority of our customer base would be considered SMB.

5. Guaranteed What has been the biggest challenge in communicating your offerings? Since our company’s foundation hinges upon our own brand of remanufactured toner cartridges, one of the biggest challenges is putting skeptical prospects at ease. The “drill and fill” phenomenon of the ‘90s have left a bad impression on a lot people. Many IT professionals have had only bad experiences with “remanufactured” toner cartridges. Educating and proving the superiority of our remanufactured toner cartridges has been a common hurdle for me personally. With that being said, a simple on-location test usually puts new prospects at ease.

6. How did you and Expert Services get started in social media? About three years into my tenure here at Expert Laser Services I suggested to the CEO that we get involved with social media. He asked me to put a presentation together, and told me that if I could convince him as well as the sales manager and company president, then I would be put in charge of creating, implementing and monitoring our social media presence. Long story short, I got the job… As an autodidact, I simply invested my own time into educating myself in the craft of social media and made it my mission to communicate the inherent potential for ROI to my superiors.

7. What are some of the social media campaigns you’ve done that have brought new business? All of the new business that we have generated through social media is a direct result of our now infamous “Destroy Your Printer Video Contest. I used Twitter to find tweets that contained keywords such as “hate printer,” “kick printer,” “kill printer” and “printer window” and found thousands of tweets from frustrated office equipment owners. After putting together a blog post with the rules and regulations, I tweeted the post to hundreds of people who had tweets containing the above keywords to advertise the contest.

8. What would you want readers to know about marketing to the SMB? Any tips/tricks? Do you spend marketing dollars on traditional advertising as well? Absolutely, we do e-mail and snail mail blasts, print advertising, fun at five gatherings, educational luncheons, and so on and so fourth. Don’t treat sales and marketing as “sales and marketing.” Think of everything you do as a small step in building a positive relationship with other human beings. The purpose is to help them better themselves, their business and to act as a catalyst for their success.