IPMA Report: Shout Your Value

The 2026 In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference recently convened nearly 130 managers for five jam-packed days of insights, networking, and awards. Attendees returning home from Greenville, South Carolina, left inspired and armed with new ways to improve their operations.

Joanne Gore gave the day two opening presentation at IPMA 2026. | Credit: Sam Lauersdorf Photography

During a mcorning general session on Tuesday, Joanne Gore, president and chief strategist at Joanne Gore Communications, shared several practical strategies to help in-plants better market their services.

While Gore acknowledged that some in-plants don’t market at all — a costly mistake, she said — shops that promote what they can do for their parent organizations position themselves as business centers, build trust with customers, and reduce “work leakage.”

Joanne Gore speaking at IPMA 2026.

“If they don't know you can provide large-format or signage or mail, they're not going to come to you,’” she said. “When people go outside of the in-plant, I call that work leakage. It costs money. The organization loses control; it loses brand consistency. Security and compliance become a big issue. Speed, quality assurance, and institutional knowledge — these are all the values that you bring to your parent company, to your customers, and you need to be proud about what you bring. You need to shout it from the rooftops.”

Gore provided a slew of suggestions for in-plants to do just that. First, she touched on the Amazon effect, which has left buyers expecting quick turns and transparent processes. In-plants that want to recreate this experience for their customers must offer a way for them to quickly check order statuses.

The IPMA general session audience.

Additionally, shops should market their services on a regular basis with consistent messaging. This can include spotlighting a particular capability in an email newsletter, hosting shop tours, or putting together new-hire packets promoting their capabilities.

Marketing should not focus on what equipment an in-plant has, Gore insisted, but on business outcomes.

“We love talking about our equipment, and we love talking about how quickly it works and how many sheets it can produce,” she said. “But guess what: We're the only ones who care. The people who are buying our services and solutions, they do not care what equipment it's printed on. … They want to know about business outcomes, they want to know how you're reducing risk, they want to know that they're going to get a better experience than if they went to the copy shop down the road. They want to know that you are going to be able to protect their brand.”

Joanne Gore speaking at IPMA 2026. | Credit: Sam Lauersdorf Photography

Hand in hand with that, Gore stressed that communications should not be centered around how busy the shop is.

“‘We produced 2,000 pieces. We printed 500,000 pages. We're slammed.’ Those are busyness statements,” she said. “Business value statements, on the other hand, are: ‘We helped reduce outside spend. We improved turnaround for a key department. We protected sensitive data.’ And ‘We kept brand standards consistent.’ Those are business value statements. We're saying the same thing, but we're saying it in a language that our parent [organization] can actually understand.”

The IPMA 2026 conference was filled with helpful sessions like this designed to give in-plants ideas to improve their operations and enhance their value. Stay tuned for more IPMA coverage in the weeks ahead.

Nearly 130 in-plant managers attended IPMA 2026