Full Color Printing News

Driving sales up in a down market

Businesses today face increasingly difficult decisions with their advertising budgets due to low sales and reduced customer response. It is very typical to see businesses stop advertising when the economy is down and cash flow is tight. I recommend my clients never stop spending altogether in a down market, but rather adjust how and where they spend.

Companies that stop spending altogether in a down market are forced to start fresh when the market improves. On the contrary, companies with the wherewithal to adjust their spending will weather the down market, having an edge over the competition by being aggressive sooner when the market does improve.

With so many options to a business owner it is not easy to decide how to adjust spending. That’s why traditional media like direct mail are back in style in such a big way.

Once you determine direct mail is right for you the next step is to choose a firm to work with who can help you with your campaign. A successful direct mail campaign includes several factors including design, offer, target, cost, etc. I spoke with national full color printing and graphic design company Preferred Print on the subject.

I first asked what trends were emerging in the full color printing industry and what has been successful for his customers. “…companies are realizing old faithful always delivered in the past, and are turning back to direct mail in droves. Let’s face it…in today’s market the security of a steady predictable conversion rate is more important than ever…”

When asked about customer success they said “it is important to our customers to have their campaign handled by one shop. By handling all aspects of the campaign from graphic design, full color printing, as well as the prospect mailing list needs and postage it keeps their costs down.” He added ”I had a recent customer mail 5000 full color postcards to a targeted list and picked up new customers worth $60,000 in total sales.”

When designing a direct mail campaign, full color printing is better than not. A postcard in full color is more impactful and is proven to get better results. Design your mailer around the goal of the campaign and the audience, as well as the product. Next you need to decide what type of mailer to use.

Postcards allow your message to have immediate attention and are especially useful for announcing new products or services, special offers, and lead generation. When deciding what size post card to use it is important to remember the most expensive cost is the postage, not the printing. This means you should opt for the larger format like a 6”x11”, since the printing costs are similar. It is typically the largest piece in the mailbox and commands attention. “We have seen big changes in our customers results when moving to a larger format, as much as 100%-150%.” says Mark Murray of Preferred Print.

That translates to real numbers. On 5000 4”x6” post cards with a total cost of $1445 for printing, and postage with a .5% response is $57.80 per lead. With the same campaign on a 6” x 11” post card total cost is $2095 with a response of .5% at $21 per lead. Obviously, results vary but the fact remains the small additional investment typically results in a marked increase in overall campaign results.

Brochures and Sell Sheets are better suited to share lots of information you can’t fit on full color postcards by having more space to convey the message visually and verbally. An 11” x 17” tri-fold brochure is great for getting your message out in a newsletter format and has good responses with the right design, plus you don’t need to use an envelope saving even more.

Finally, the most critical component is the list itself. This will make or break your campaign. “By properly targeting the people in the right stage in the buying cycle the conversions can be staggering. As an example, targeting a list of consumers for automotive lease can garner a typical .5% response. However, by targeting people in the last 3-6 months of their lease, our customer tripled their response by getting their prospects at a time they were already looking to make a move.” This can translate to virtually any industry; it simply requires working with the right partner.

For more information on full color printing or to discuss a direct mail campaign for your business contact Mark Murray with Preferred Print @ 800-329-0005 or visit http://www.preferredprint.com/

In the last few years we have seen a huge emergence into a echo friendly orientated consumer. It seems like more and more each and every day, various commercial printers.  That happened to be our clients are looking for ways to meet the demands of an echo family consumer.

Buys is in full color printing market are now asked him questions about recycled paper as well as environment friendly inks.

One of the inks that people or commonly asking for is SOY INKS

Soy based inks are used for the simple reason that they are not petroleum base and they are much better for the environment. The reason Commercial printers use Soy inks and vegetable productsis because of the pigmentationthey produce. In my research, I’ve come across several different types of national based inks.  Some of the more popular are flaxseed, canola,and castor just to name a few.  I think the reason that soy is so popular is because it’s has been perceived as well as tested over a long period of time to be a much more stable product. In a couple different articles I’ve read.  I’ve also heard of various different ink manufacturers using blends of various difference natural oils and pigments to create their final product.

 I’m sure that as time goes on more be revealed in how much this actually and ultimately looks to impact the world at the level of a positive versus negative. 

Another positive step in the right direction in my opinion is the emergence into various different paper products such as recycled paper, as well as paper that is made from renewable energy such as banana trees.

The thing I like about using the banana tree paper is that anybody that lives in the tropics and has had a banana tree realizes how fast and intrusive that particular tree grows.

I had a banana tree in the back of my house for many years, and it seemed like every time I blinked my eyes that thing was getting up to six or 7 feet tall and constantly growing new shoots every day.

It’s clear to me as time continues to go on and we as a race continue to take down more and more of the Earth’s natural resources away.  Ultimately landing most of these products in landfills within a short amount of time.  We need to create a constant can very well from the new to the old to the new again. Use recycled reuse.

If we can just start with all of our commercial printers struck a home tie United States.  Imagine the difference it would make in the landfills over the next decade.

One of the fears of many companys is how to get a class look on all of your full color printing and still use paper products that will be well recive in the consumers mind.

The fact is that almost all the cunsumers in the market places are very receptive to all marketing and promocnal full color printing that use recycle paper and green inks. The fact is the more comercal color printing companys push these plant health products the faster they will catch on.

Next time you are looking to do some full color printing for you corperation look to go green. They say little is the new big, and now green full color printing is the new BIG. Green color prnting is in big time.

You can work all of this into - your companys - 1.) Color Business Cards  2.) full color book printing  3.) Color Brochure Printing

there is a new directory worth looking at. The name of it is -

www.freeprintingdirectoryonline.com

The thing that I like about it is, if  your looking for a printing company and were in the USA and for a certen product as well a printing company that makes this product in your area. You have mean different way of finding the product you wish to buy at this printing vendor website. You should look at and live a post on full color printing news and let me know way you think. It also has the ability to look at the different companys that poduct these products on the home page of the site in catorgares scuch as color postcards, color catalogs, Calanders, color brochure, book printers, ect

Here’s some of the things challenging the commercial printing industry as we know it.

1.) I don’t think that anyone in the printing industry has even thought about the fact that all of the printing materials that they receive such as ink as well as paper needs to be moved by local and national trucking industries.

As a result of this is definite accords the supply of paper and ink to be hit with higher prices resulting in price climbs for both printed products as well as paper. This potentially could be harming for many different facets of the commercial printing industry. Such as companies alike print brokers, as well as the manufacturers themselves.

This could potentially cause a ripple effect throughout the whole entire printing industry.

This problem actually goes far and beyond just the commercial printing industry.  It also relates to basically all business items products as small as pens and pencils. It is a strong possibility that as you go to purchase your products from various different office supply companies is a very good chance that all of these companies will start to increase their prices across the board.  Based on high diesel and gasoline prices throughout the country.

There’s a great book that was published sometime ago called who moved my cheese. I think as a country as well as the citizens within this country we need to start thinking of alternative ways to create the necessary need without taking down the natural resources that we’ve been squandering for so many years.

I think the companies that are on the forefront of this recycling revolution will be ultimately it for front runners.  In this forever changing global marketplace.

I was serching around google look for a place that I could get some good qulity color postcard print and I ran into a website that had both great color printing for great pricing. The URL is www.preferredprint.com/printing/Florida/Fort_Lauderdale.html 

I was very impress with both there expertize and knolage. I would tell any one to give them a try. I know that they also do both 1,2, and 3 color printing if you are looking for that.

I think one or more challenging things to figure out over the last few years is what type of machinery would one by when trying to leverage themselves in the full color printing arena. It is been my experience over the past 20 some odd years in this arena of full color printing.  That is been more challenging over the last five years actually picked a piece of equipment that you might be able to use the next 10 or 15 years.  By riding out that equipment until it is completely paid off, and you’d be able to leverage it out and purchase another piece of equipment. The problem is when you go to buy a piece of commercial printing equipment and it ends up being outdated within three to five years, if you’re lucky. The use disadvantage.  I piece of equipment, it’s probably worth 35 to 40% less than what you paid for. I have to tell you that this makes it a very challenging situations you looking to leverage out of one piece of equipment into another. I wish I could give you some type of a silver bullet or a magic wand that would make you immune from these choices, but the truth is that I can’t. My advice to you before you purchase any of this equipment that you do the due diligence to make sure that nobody is coming out with a piece of equipment that on making your is obsolete with the next three years. A lot of companies have made the decision to make the goal of the commercial printing industry is brokers.  Rather than commercial printers themselves. One of the companies that I do some counseling for www.onetwothreecolorprinting.com this company has made a decision to outsource all of its 12 and three color printing rather than trying to print in house for the simple reason that what they can actually buy cheaper from a company that’s been around for 20 some odd years.  And that owners will or equipment outright selling offset printing to the trade only that it would be for them to employ a commercial printing mechanic to produce their work internally.  The other thing that’s important in my opinion is to find a niche within the commercial offset printing industry.  Such as there is some companies out there that specialize in all they do is full color business cards. Some companies may specialize in just doing catalog printing. Other companies will put all their aphids and marketing in two producing just full color flyers. Some of these companies won’t even have their own graphic designers on staff, everything needs to be sent to them and what they call art ready, and/or artwork supplied. In my opinion.  I think your best taking a specific niche and doing some direct mail marketing and marketing and promotion to those groups of people.  Some other companies not only will they go after a niche market as far as product is concerned.  But they will also go after specific industries like just printing for Christian churches. They will go after the financial institutions and looked to be a specialist in that particular industry.

I have been around and involved in the full color commercial printing industry for well over 25 years.  I guess this makes me what they would call a trained professional after all I have been earning well over six digit personal income and have created and business tens of millions of dollars over the last 25 years. Some years ago when I first was introduced to the full color printing market place as a person purchasing full color printing for my own events. I started out as a nightclub promoter and I would order for color printing from a commercial printer located in Manhattan.  Over near Spring Street and Van Damme. The thing I was able to find out, back then was how form printing worked, better known as gang run printing today.  Nowadays, almost all a full color printing that you purchase on any given day is done by a gang run printer. Back then, very few printers were actually involved in production in this way.  And if you want to buy something like 5000 full color postcards you’d end up paying someone area for upwards of 700 to well over $1000 for 5000 full color postcards. Now for product is even more superior than that, based on technology in the sheer volume and competitiveness of this particular industry the commercial printing industry.  That same product can be easily purchased phone anywhere in the area of $150 to someone area of $325, which I have to tell you this is significant discount from where once was. One of the companies you have heard about from me many times before is www.preferredprint.com This company offers a variety of full color printing at virtually wholesale printing prices.  It’s a definitely worthwhile time to give them a hard look to see what they have that minefield to help you in the future your commercial printing needs.  So whether it’s 123 color printing or something that may be a bit more coarsely such as full color catalogs, full-color brochures, full color business cards, full-color letterheads in envelopes.  They also dual wide variety of promotional products, and I know that they also carry a full line of mailing equipment.  So they’re able to fulfill all of your direct mail and marketing needs.  They also have a full staff of graphic designers.  I believe that the Rall running state-of-the-art G5 Macintosh computers.

The printer of the week that I would like to do an exposé on is www.preferredprint.com this company has been around for approximately 10 years and everyone and anyone that I referred to this particular vendor always seems to come back satisfied happy and reach a large. They tell me working with this particular commercial printing company leaves them invigorated and recharged and revving to create more mocking concepts to put out to the masses.  I think the reason this is, is because of their attention to detail as well as they are unmatched customer service representatives.  That’s why tell all of my clients, whether you’re looking for full color catalogs, full-color posters, full-color pocket folders, full-color brochures, one to three color printing, or business cards, Preferred Print definitely can do little! And last but not least sent in one of forget that they have a superb graphic design department capable of not just doing a graphic design to your printing materials are also well-equipped in all of the latest web development techniques as well as search engine optimization.

One of the first resources like to tell you about for full color printing is www.freeprintingdirectoryonline.com this is a wonderful resource because it has virtually somewhere in the area 60,000 full color commercial printers in the United States. It’s nice because you can search various different ways, whether it’s by the city’s by the state that you’re in.  Its also very nice unit available to look for possible vendors, if you’re doing something like a road trip like let’s say that there are corporate headquarters that you work is in Cincinnati were you ever trade show that you’re going to be in New York City you can actually search for vendors in those local areas.  So this way, you can get your printing in New York City when you’re there for your trade show run printing it in Cincinnati and then having it shipped to that location. I believe this to be an essential tool for adding marketing director looking to purchase full color printing and/or marketing material for various different reasons.  It also has its listings broken down by specific products like let’s say brochure printing catalog printing full color services direct mailing services one to three color printing always different things are broken down good inside the resources of free printing directory online.com.