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/

Written by Michael Carrus

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.

The fact is that the reason that most malting campaigns fail in my opinion is lack of funding. As well as an unrealistic expectation on what that marketing should actually yields as an investment. The fact is that the reason why most marketing campaigns fails because they are grossly under budget, as well as generally the person in charge of marketing puts the Bosch on a before it’s got the ability to succeed. That’s why when I tell people when they’re about to do some type of a full color printing campaign generally geared to it’s new and existing customers.  They need to be in the game consistently. When I mean about this is the need to continue to their marketing on an ongoing basis again and again and again. To me it’s all about frequency. People remember first what they saw last. I tell people that are thinking about doing a mass mail are.  Here is a criteria I tell on the follow. One is get a big postcard, the biggest postcard you possibly can, which is a 6 x 11.5 laid to create as much as you possibly can with a specific dollar amount you have left.  When it comes to marketing and advertising is very important to get the most exposure possible at the same time, you limiting your risk. And I think is very important to use full color process when doing this.

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.

One of things that I like to do when I’m creating a strong call to action for some type of marketing piece such as a full-color postcard, full-color catalog, full-color brochure or, full-color pocket folder.

What I like to do generally suppose a question such as -

need business?

This is the headline that I like to use one on looking to get someone’s attention.  I feel as if I can get someone’s attention with a headline and there’s a good chance that they may read into the ad.  If they read into the ad is a good chance I may just catch them.

And the thing about asking a question as it actually ends up entering the subconscious of the person that you’re asking a question to when they may just need exactly what it is that you’re offering at that moment time.

One of things that I noticed over the years when I’ve tutored various different commercial printers is they actually follow their own advice. What I mean by this is very often there in a position to pitch various different companies on various different marketing products. These products may vary from full color postcards to full color catalogs full-color pocket folders, etc. I sat and then I sat in on various different color printing companies and heard them discuss with clients various different things that they can do to increase their sales. By using these various different full-color products.  The thing is you would think that a full color printing company would actually utilize their own advice.

How often have you heard the advice do as I say not as I do.

I have to tell you over the years I have very often unconsciously done exactly just that.

See the thing is is that as a general manager, the CEO of a major printing company you’re able to see various different clients come in with various different ideas purchase things like full color catalogs.  Sometimes in the upwards of 45,000 units, and then turn around and do a direct mail piece, mailing out all 45,000 units, and with the right mailing lists, a company with the right creativity of that full-color catalog.  Their sales explode.

Nobody could come up with a better concept for four color printing than a commercial printer could this to me is obviously yet we and the commercial printing industry are busy doing work for other people.  And we almost never get around the time to doing the marketing that we need to do for ourselves.

One of the things that I’ve had my various different printing clients take on is to monitor how well their advertising and marketing is doing for them?

These are the techniques that we use to monitor all marketing pieces.

1.) One of the things that we use on a regular basis is we use a sheet of paper, which is referred to as a tick sheet.

The weighted as she works is that there is some different boxes where you can basi - cally put a checkmark next to.

The various different boxes have words next to him such as where did the client hear of your business from - and then basically you boxes next to that question, where US online through the search engine and many are the various different search engines next such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Then you have another box where it’ll say from a direct mail piece - one of the things I do is when I do direct mail pieces such as postcards I put a codon mail like a promotional code 175×35 this promotional code will allow me to figure out what direct mail piece they were calling on and then I’ll put a check next to the various different mail pieces that I’ve sent out.

The idea behind this is this where you can actually test and measure the direct mail pieces as well as whatever you’ve done for your company for search engine optimization as well as paper click advertising this way you can actually see what your return on investment is.

The more you do this, the more that you’ll be able to find out which marketing is actually working for your company, which is not.

As if there hasn’t been enough changes to color printing in the last  12 months.  It seems like we’re headed for some more changes. Here the things that need to be thought of when you’re selling printing across state lines.  Since fuel charges have been on the rise, various different carriers such as UPS FedEx Yellow Freight etc, have been increasing the shipping charges.

One of the things that I like to suggest some I full color printing manufacturing companies is to use a selling approach that will hopefully diffused objection of paying for shipping. What may customers calling up looking for various different printer products and one of their argument is as bike purchases from you and I live in Arizona and your businesses in Fort Lauderdale.  The price and the shipping is not to make it worth while for me to order this printed product from you I will order from a local company or local printing firm to get that product. This is the rubato I like to use.

Being that the fact you are located in Arizona.  One of the things that you say when purchasing from our local printing company here in Florida, does you don’t pay any sales tax.  Being that are printing us at such a low rate than you could possibly purchase locally and that save you money won’t turn.

I find this to be a very effective way to move through that objection of not wanting to purchase from an out-of-state printing company.  Because the increasing course of shipping.

This is a very effective thing to do, whether you’re selling full-color brochures or full-color catalogs. Virtually you can use this for all of your color printing services that you offer is for  all the resistance.  Potential clients may be using to get out of purchasing with you.

 You can also use this in your marketing that you send out nationwide that when they purchase from you they save sales tax.

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.

You’re looking to do something like a full color brochure.  You don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it.  Call preferredprint.com.  This company has been around for are in excess of 10 years and I’ve always been very happy with the work that they’ve done for me in the past as well as the work for my clients that have referred to them.  Their graphic designers are well-equipped to basically handle all of your needs from logo design as well as and not limited to catalog design, brochure design, pocket folder graphic design. I will leave you there direct URL this will bring you directly into the brochure page for www.preferredprint.com the full color brochure or link is : http://www.preferredprint.com/color-brochures-printing_15.htm definitely give them a call and let me know what you think. By the way some people who refer to this as a full-color flyer. Remember when it comes to full color printing or commercial printing.  The difference between picking the company that might be $100 cheaper versus a company that would give you a highly professional finished product can make the difference between a promotional campaign that is successful all promotional campaign that goes in the toilet.