Wednesday, May 5, 2010

WHEN EXCELLENCE IN PRINTING IS AVAILABLE, GOOD IS NOT ENOUGH

Nobody likes to rock the boat, but you can’t get to where you need to be by standing still. When buying printing for your company’s advertising, sales and marketing literature. there is a lot on the line.
You have to make the best impression possible while keeping the costs down. If you are a small company or a new startup, you have many printing ideas in your business plan with a budget that has to support it. You know your business depends on excellent marketing tools but cost plays an important part.

Your first step is in creating a marketing piece. Design is very important. You have to take into account how will your flyers, brochures, catalogs and postcards stand up against your competitors. If your designs are just like or similar to other companies in your trade group, you could be missing a great opportunity to separate yourself and get noticed as a trend setter. Powerful branding is a good stratergy to gain market share. Take the time and make sure your design is innovative and eyecatching.

Once you have your printed piece designed, it is time to get it printed. Worried about costs, you start seaching online for cheap printing prices. Pricing is important but value is what you should be looking for. Cheap pricing does not mean quality printing. What and how you are printing can change the course of your business. A poor quality printing job can do more damage than not having a printed piece to present to a prospective customer. Your printing job reflects on you and your business. Look for a printer that will exceed your expectations.

You should also consider creating printed literature that will set you apart from your competition. You can still have a unique design look with the highest quality printing at a cheap low price. Look for a printer who can offer you special services at a reasonable cost. New ideas drive the market so it may be time to look for a new designer that can provide a fresher look. To get noticed and remembered, you may want to consider adding an attention getting effect to your color printing. The WOW FACTOR and eye candy effects can be achieved by use of spot UV coating, matte / dull coating, a combination of both, metallic silver ink or colored metallic effects. Achieving these eye candy effects can be expensive and may require custom printing. But finding the right printer who can provide these services at a reasonable cost is not impossible. Your small local printer generally can’t manage these kind of jobs. Most online printers don’t do these printing techniques either. However there are a few full color commercial printers who can do this on gang runs, which will save you lots of money and still give you that custom one-of-a-kind look.

Take your time and look for that printer that can provide value, service and quality. Sure you need to look for the best price but when excellence is available, good is not enough. If your designer and printing service can’t provide these services then it may be time to find another. Remember your printed materials reflect on you and your business. If it is exceptional, potential business will think you are exceptional as well.

Be sure to visit us at http://www.colorprintingpros.com

POSTCARDS PRODUCE PROFITS

The old line, ten percent of the fishermen catch 90 percent of the fish couldn’t be more true than when we are in a deep recession. Competing for the trophy fish doesn’t require hard work as much as planning and new tactics. If you have a small business, you have an advantage. You can quickly change strategic plans to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing economy. Large companies with strong corporate cultures and long term planning have difficulty breaking contracts for advertising. They can layoff workers to save money but remember large ships cannot make quick turns. With this said, if you have a small or medium sized product or service business don’t give up hope, try to better target your market, offer discounts, free services and other promotions that attract sales.

It isn’t easy to sell a product that people think they don’t have the money to buy. By describing the benefits of your product or service you are offering a solution to this problem that may improve your customer’s life and/or save them money in the long term. For example, local laundry/ drycleaner customers were not coming in as regular as before due to the economy. The drycleaner created a targeted list of old customers as well as others in their zip code service area. They retrained their behind-the-counter associates, stressing strong customer service. They offered a prepay 30% discount card and registration at the store in case you lost your card. They sent out an inexpensive postcard offering the benefits of this offer and within two weeks of the mailing, business picked up 15 to 20%. This increase in business easily paid for the cost of the mailing and got them many new customers. Two months later they sent out a new mailer offering the same service, planned driver routes and add a free local pickup and delivery. That created a local buzz in the area and their business was actually better than a year ago.

This laundry/dry cleaner had a local web site. They put the same offer on their site and got no response. Why? People don’t normally do this kind of business on a web site. On their next postcard mailing, they offered their new free pick up and delivery service online. Now it made sense to order your laundry services on the internet and business picked up again. They expanded the list to include businesses in the area and customers from outside the traditional residential area and their customers found it was easy to put their laundry in the car and have it picked up and delivered at work.

The reason all this worked so well is that it used passive sales techniques with the postcards. People needing laundry services respond much higher to receiving the offer in the mail than having to take the proactive step of going online to find the service. Once they accept the idea of ordering this service online, it was possible to reduce mailing costs and use more email promotions. But you always use both if you wish to be successful.

In order to use postcards effectively you must ask yourself a couple of questions. The first question always is how much will it cost, and can I afford to do this. The next question is how much can I expect get in return for my investment. Postcards can be cheap but be sure to get quality as well as price. The postcard’s feel can impress your customers to expect quality from your service. Some printers offer 10pt or 12pt cards. These cards lack the feel and usually do not stand up well. A printer who offers 14pt or 16pt postcards with free UV coating is offering a superior product. One that will stand up to wear, shows you care about quality and can help your company be remembered. Isn’t this what you really want from a postcard?

Remember online advertising is great. But to achieve the maximum return, you need to combine it with passive advertising- a printed piece. Use postcards wisely. Let them draw customers to your business and then have a followup with your online service or site. In today’s world, you need to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing economy with good strategic plans. You have to take advantage of all the resources available to you both passive and proactive to promote your business properly.

Be sure to visit us at: http://www.colorprintingpros.com

HOW TO SAVE BY PRINTING ONLINE

How can you save money on your printing? The answer is easy. Choosing an online printing service can save you 50% or more than a traditional local printer for your advertising, sales and marketing literature printing. The cheap pricing is accomplished by printers using regularly scheduled gang runs where they combine your job with similar jobs using the same paper stock, finishes and quantity. The cost savings in using this gang run printing can be huge. One problem is that quality and service can vary from the highest quality possible with personal customer service to bordering on poor quality and no service. Top search engine positioning is no indication of quality or service. Search engine positioning can be bought and worked.

If you search any of the most popular search terms like: cheap, wholesale or discount with the product you need such as business cards, flyers, brochures, postcards, or any other printed products, you will discover there are more choices than you can possibly review. What is to your advantage is that going to any of these sites, you can easily check prices, services, paper stocks, finishes and turn around times available.

With all of these sites available, you can easily be overwhelmed so if you are shopping for the lowest price, you should be aware and expect that the cheapest cost may not be the best value. Paper weights and finishes are very important in your presentation. Sales can be won or lost by the impression you make. In choosing wisely with cost as a criteria, you must take into account what paper and finish is being offered for that cheap price and whether there are any hidden costs involved.

Making the right choice does not have to be difficult or overly risky if you follow some simple tips.

1. Select an online printer that gives you choices of papers, finishes and options to help make your advertising sales and marketing printing stand out and separate you for your competition. What are their standard paper stock and coatings? Do they offer options such as spot UV coating, metallic silver ink or colored metallics allowing you to add a WoW Factor? These options can make your job unique and stand out.

2. Make sure that the online printing service you are interested in offers you free upgrades or services such as UV coating or aqueous coating as well as low pricing for full color printing. Upgrades such as 14pt card stock to 16pt card stock are helpful in evaluating whether you are getting value for your money.

3. Contact the company by phone with any questions or to clarify what you will be getting for that price is a great way of judging their customer service. Are they knowledgeable about your needs? Will they be there to help you each time you need assistance?

4. A good online printing service should have free file check to make sure your files have no problems and that they will print at the high quality you expect. Check what their requirements are and if they will be there to help you achieve your goal?

5. Other questions you may want to know is: Do they use soy and vegetable inks? Do you use aqueous (water based) non-solvent based coatings and cleaners to protect the environment? Do they offer any eco-sensitive options for printing?

If the online printer you have selected meet these criteria than you can be assured that you have chosen wisely. Price is an important factor but the quality and service you receive in return for your purchase is equally important. Shopping for value not price should be your goal in order to receive a high quality product that you can be proud of and confident in presenting to future customers.


Be sure to visit us at: http://www.colorprintingpros.com

CHEAP MARKETING USING SHORT RUN DIGITAL PRINTING

There are many advantages to using full color short run printing. Just started a new salesman and not sure if he will work out, have a new product to advertise but don’t have a lot of money to spend on promoting it, these are just some reasons a long quantity of printing materials are needed. If you have big ideas and a small budget, digital short run printing is a great way to get your advertising, sales and marketing message out without breaking the bank. By using high quality short run printing, you can create high impact low quantity flyers, brochures and postcards in quantities as low as 100, 250 or 500. With short run printing, you can test different approaches or add new sales personnel easily.

The quality of short run printing is as good as offset lithography and less expensive for quantities under 1000. It’s a excellent marketing tool for realtors, financial services and proposal packages.
Short run printing makes test marketing cheap and easy. You can try different ideas to see which one works best. The same high quality printing paper is used on your short run printing as on an offset press. As for print quality, it is hard to tell the difference between digital printing and offset printing. In both, the printing detail is sharp and bright and the color is extremely accurate.

Short run printing is an eco-friendly process. They is virtually no paper waste. The color is consistent from the first sheet to the last and you are only printing the quantity you need. This means less waste. If you want to think green, you can use recycled high post consumer waste FSC or FSI certified coated and uncoated papers for your short run printing which contributes to a cleaner environment.
Being green is also a good marketing tool. Many companies and consumers are supporting the eco conscious movement. With a small green logo at the bottom of your message, you can tell your customers you are a socially conscious company. It’s a very effective, easy marketing tool that can help your branding.

No matter what your reasons for needing smaller quantities of your print materials, short run printing is a great way to go. Whether you need new sales and marketing literature but money is tight and your budget is small. Thinking of being more eco friendly with your new marketing tools can also make short run printing a effective way to go with your next printing job. Whatever your goal, short run printing makes quality printing at low prices affordable. Check out online printers who offer these services. You can save money while obtaining high quality printed materials.


Be sure to visit us at http://www.colorprintingpros.com

WHERE TO FIND CHEAP BROCHURE PRINTING

Whether it is for a real estate listing, a trade show handout, a data sheet, or another application, brochures can be a great promotional tool. They can be very expensive or surprisingly affordable, depending on your needs and where you look. Two of the easiest ways to find good prices is to search online or to contact printing companies for quotes. There are so many competing printing companies- both offset and digital - that the job of finding a cheap brochure printing company couldn't be simpler.

Digital printers tend to be less expensive than offset printers, but some argue that their quality is not as high. It is best to investigate what the printer you are interested in offers and to see a sample before making a judgment. Digital printing is best when you need small quantities. They can keep the pricing down on these shorter runs. Some commercial printers offer both services, digital as well as offset.

If you have limited internal marketing services, you can still easily make a brochure that will be of high quality, appealing and cheap. The key elements are creating and implementing a clear design plan and doing all of your electronic file work in-house. This will avoid enlisting the extra services that some printers will charge you and will help keep the cost low.

Many brochure printing companies will prominently their no-frills prices to attract customers looking for bargains. The prices for brochures will usually include a few standard paper choices, full color and a standard fold. They may even offer free shipping as an incentive. Be sure to include all the features you want in shopping for the best price. Watch out for those extra charges for better paper grade, coatings or increased prepress costs. Make sure when you are pricing your brochure printing job that it includes full color. It is a buyers market and there is no reason to compromise on color.

Remember with a rapidly changing economy, it is not enough just to have a nice brochure. What is needed is a brochure that stands out from the rest and gets your company noticed. A brochure that a potential customer may keep even though they are not ready to buy. A brochure that shows you care about quality as much as they do. That means looking for the best prices but taking into account quality when looking at price. Paper weights and finishes are very important in your decision. Sales can be won or lost by the impression you make. Look for a printing company that may give you that “WoW factor”. Something different than the rest yet inexpensive. You don’t have to break the bank in order to achieve this goal.

If you can find a online printer that can help you achieve your goals of a great promotional brochure than you know that you have chosen wisely. So don’t settle for vanilla when you want and can get chocolate. Be sure in making your final decision, you take into account what you wish to achieve. Price is an important factor but the quality and service is equally important. Shop for value not the lowest price and your customers will do the same.


Visit us at http://www.colorprintingpros.com

TIPS FOR CREATING YOUR OWN FLYERS

Why do some flyers get all the attention and some just bomb. Here are some important things to consider before you make your flyer. If you think you can improve your sales with a flyer but are working on a shoe string budget and can’t afford an advertising agency, copy writers and designers, look at the up side. Nobody knows your business better than you. With careful planning, you can do it yourself.

Over the years I have met many people who come to me and say they have an idea for a flyer and the first thing they show me is what it should look like with very little idea what is should say. The most important first things to consider are: What am I trying to sell and who is my target market?

In order to avoid some of the most common mistakes, follow these suggestions.

1. Flyers are designed to be an immediate call to action. Think of your message. Don’t try to sell your company, that's saved for brochures. Don’t try to sell your new equipment unless your target market in very technical. Do think about the benefits to your product or service to the customer, how will it make his or her life better by buying what you are selling.

2. Make a list of all the attributes you are offering, offer a compelling reason and a call for action before you think about the design. Write your copy first. The design will come to you once you have the copy. Make the design fit the copy.

3. Select powerful photographs and / or illustrations to attract immediate attention. You only have a few seconds to create interest. It’s okay to use stock photos. Do not copy from the internet. The files you steal are not high enough resolution to use for quality full color printing.

4. Keep your layout simple. Use a type font that is easy to read. Don’t try to be too fancy. Don’t use type sizes that are below 7 or 8 point. Avoid using font sizes that are too big or too bold. It’s better to go with a light hand.

5. Organize your flyer with boxes and boarders. You can include lots of information by enclosing it in a box or boarder.

6. Don’t make false or unrealistic claims or promises. It will immediately turn prospects off. You should be enthusiastic about your offering but if prospective customer think it’s to good to be true you will do more harm than good.

7. Decide on your most compelling idea or reason for your prospective client to act upon and make that the most important element on the page. Put your copy in a strong photo to attract attention and grab the reader before they have a chance to read your proposal.

8. Use only 2 colors that work together according to your taste. You can use lighter or darker percentages of your color choice but be careful not to overuse them. You don’t want your flyer to look like a circus, or do you? If you have company colors, now it the time to use them.

9. Use only 2 type font families. One for head and one for your body copy. You may want to use other fonts in your selections family. Bold and italic are sometimes used but be careful it doesn't get too busy. Look at the flyers of companies you like and see how they do them. I’m not saying copy it, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel either.

10. Stay with your project. It takes thought and focus and it’s easy to get bored or distracted when you are designing your own advertising, sales and marketing literature. Use simple spoken language especially on the front side of the flyer. Give your prospective customer a reason to contact you. Make an offer that you would like to receive yourself. If you offer a technicel product or service, use the back side for this information.

Don’t let a low budget stop you from moving forward. If your business can’t afford a flyer, that’s the best reason to make one. Once you have your desgn and are happy with your copy, make sure to choose a printer who will check your files for free. This is important as printing can be as important as creating a good flyer. Look for a printer that will offer value as well as quality. Remember your flyer will reflect your business. With your good design and the proper printer, you can create a very cost effective way to get your story to your target prospects as well as re-enforce your branding with your existing customer.