Personalization can, and should be, more than just the use of the recipient’s name throughout mailer.  Data fields, blocks of copy and  images can all be variable or unique to each individual piece.

Following are some suggested uses of personalization based on a direct mail campaign for subscription renewal.

• Use personalization to version the piece between renewal donors (those who have made a donation in the previous 12 months), acquisition donors (those who have made a donation previously but not in the past 12 months) and non-donors (those who not have never made a donation)
•  Use subscriber’s previous season ticket information to map their seat information for easy removal. (i.e. number of subscriptions, seating locations, ticket prices)
•  Use color coding to point recipients in the right direction.
• Vary the suggested donation amount dependent upon previous donations.
•  Print a different message dependent upon the targeted group.
• Utilize a personalized url (purl) to pre-populate a landing page for those who reply online.

Using personalization in the proper manner can remove or minimize the friction involved with renewal or donor requests and ultimately increase the response rate , hopefully increasing  the incoming revenue to the organization.

Consumers and businesses alike are being bombarded with content.   An argument can be made that they suffer from digital fatigue.  With the dizzying array of marketing channels now available and the explosion of digital and social as media, companies are scrambling to learn new forms of communication often at the expense of presentation. In other words, the medium becomes more important than messaging.

As I step back and look at communications trends in business, I see marketers quickly scrambling to learn new technologies sometimes at the expense of basic principles of marketing. Fear of irrelevance in terms of digital parlance has made many irrelevant to their core audiences. Simply put, content is there, but it stinks. Has anyone scanned a QR code lately?

Regardless if the medium is paper or digital, it is still important to ask the following questions in order to cut through clutter and engage your audience:

-Have the fundamental elements of good design changed? (Am I employing good design?)

-Have the fundamental principles of marketing changed? (Is my offer valuable to my audience?)

-Has our visual interpretation changed? (Do they understand me?)

While the methods of delivery are almost too numerous to count, the goals and basic principles typically remain unaltered.  Excellent design, a timely offer and a message that leads me to believe my needs will be met will be remembered, even amidst the clutter.

For those of us with tight marketing budgets, this movie can serve as a reminder of the things that we can do to improve our campaigns and compete against larger organizations that have bigger budgets. As in the movie, the key is analyzing the data and looking for pieces that can be an indicator of success or failure. Finding failure in a campaign is not necessarily a failure in and of itself. It allows you to not repeat the same mistake in future campaigns.

During the movie, the A’s identify two factors (on-base percentage and slugging percentage) that they feel are better indicators of long term offensive success. By doing this they go against the common wisdom of baseball insiders with years of experience. Success in a marketing campaign can be achieved in the same way. Searching the data with a fresh perspective may allow you to gain insights that can translate into long-term success for future campaigns.

Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, recyclable and sustainable product made from trees.  Trees are a harvestable crop, no different than wheat or corn and vital to the American economy as well as the environment.  Not printing that email does absolutely nothing to save the planet or forests.  Think of the impact if everyone did the same!

Instead of purchasing individual applications or even a Creative Suite 6 bundle (such as Design & Web Premium for layout work or Production Premium for video), Creative Cloud lets you access everything for a monthly fee.  Our Prepress Department  supports any design work using this new version and always has the most recent versions of the applications used in our industry.  More information about  Adobe Creative Cloud is available at:

https://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html?promoid=JQPEQ

The environment created must reflect your brand, create awareness and position your product, be relevant to attendees and generate traffic. All of this must be done in an area that may be as small as 6’x8’.

In my opinion, one of the mistakes that many companies make when designing their space for the standard 6×8 booth is to cram too much information in their display materials. It typically takes about 5 seconds for someone to walk by your booth. A backdrop that is full of text and graphics will make it difficult for an attendee to discern your message. If the attendee is not sure of what your company has to offer they are more likely to continue on to the next booth. In other words, keep it simple.

Depending on your budget, the area can include different types of signage. The least expensive is a retractable banner stand. These come in a variety of sizes and shapes. The signage can be printed on a flexible material that can be customized for each show and attached to the hardware that can be used for future shows.

One of the things that you can do to easily enhance your booth is a custom printed table cloth. Most trade shows supply a standard cloth with a generic black and white sign containing your company name. A bright colored table cloth with your logo printed on the front will help you standout from neighboring booths.

Most trade show booths come with a 6’ foot table as part of the space. I personally like to put the table at the back of the booth rather than the front. By putting it at the back of the booth allows you to design a tabletop backdrop that can be set against the back of the table. Any brochures or premium items can be set in front of this. The tabletop backdrops are less expensive than the full-length backdrops. Some trade shows can have very tight aisle ways. By setting the table towards the back, it allows an attendee to step into your booth, away from the traffic and creates an open space. Lastly, by having the table in the rear, you can also add a full length retractable banner at the front of the booth. For a successful trade show use less graphics, create an open environment and keep smiling!
 

Well to quote Mark Twain, “the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”.  This certainly applies to printing in today’s business environment.   Print is alive and well and consumers continue to view mail as a highly relevant and significant part of their lives.  Consider the following:

• 70% of Americans including 69% of 18-24 year olds state they prefer to read print and paper communications rather than reading off a screen.
• Consumers in the 18-34 demographic prefer to learn about marketing offers via postal mail and newspapers rather than online sources like social media sites.
• 74% of college students prefer a printed textbook when taking a class.   And research shows that people learn more effectively from print than a computer.  (Sources: PIA and Paper Because)

This is not to bash digital media and marketing.  Digital is a significant part of advertising that can’t and shouldn’t be avoided.  For the first time, web usage is overtaking TV viewing with online channels like You Tube.  There are over 1 million new blogs posts every day. Marketing as a science has changed.

So it’s all about the mix.  We used to think in terms of traditional vs. digital marketing, traditional being TV, radio and print and digital being search, social, mobile and video.  But if you think about marketing putting the customer at the center, digital becomes another tool to reach the customer. 

Companies and marketers talk a lot about integrated marketing.  This has been used to describe actions such as adding a website URL to an ad or sticking a QR code on a print piece.  Real integrated marketing is more than that.  It’s also been referred to probably more accurately as unified marketing.  This is a framework where all marketing tactics traditional and digital play a role and it’s based on the customer’s behavior.  It also means that digital is used to make traditional better.

And it also means seeing a lift in your marketing results.  Statistics by vertical market are available in a white paper on our website but the lift can be significant.

Following are some of the different envelope production methods and the pros and cons that go along with them:

Printed pre-converted envelopes on a sheetfed press– This is the most common method for short to medium runs. The process allows for cost efficiently printing 250 to 25,000 quantities in spot colors of a static image. Heavy coverage is not recommended for this process, as the seams of the envelopes will show through the coverage. It is possible to bleed a thin line or small image but anything larger risks having the ink “offset” onto the back of the envelope during the production process.

Printing pre-converted envelopes on a Jet press- This type of press is most cost effective for quantities of larger than 25,000.  These presses can print at speeds of up to 60,000 envelopes per hour. It can do process and spot colors. However, much like the sheetfed process, heavy coverage or bleeds are not recommended.

Printing on flat sheets and converting afterwards– This type of process allows for the best reproduction quality. The envelopes are printed on a flat sheet then diecut and converted after the printing. This process can allow for printing on coated stocks, process and spot colors, as well as spot coatings and special effects. Heavy coverage and bleeds can be reproduced without a problem. One of the limitations of this process is that it is more expensive to have the design butt to the edge of the finished envelope. Because of the high diecutting process used (this allows for cutting a stack of sheets at one time) there is a 1/8” tolerance in the diecutting. Therefore it is recommended having any images wrap around to the back of the envelope so that any movements are not as visible to the eye. One way to avoid this is to diecut the envelopes on a letterpress; however this process adds significant cost in time. Also, because of the time involved for setup, this process has a higher unit cost for smaller quantities.

Digital Laser on pre-converted envelopes– This process has become more popular as technology has significantly improved in the last couple of years. Digital laser allows for printing full color. Because of the digital technology, the colors are much richer than offset printing, which many feel is a positive. In addition, this process allows for variable imaging so that the envelope can be personalized to the intended recipient. The cost of printing larger quantities of these envelopes can be more expensive. However, the increased cost should be weighed against the possible increased ROI of a personalized envelope.

Inkjet on pre-converted envelope- This process is the least expensive method of imprinting on an envelope. The downside of this method is that the resolution of the reproduction is much lower than the other processes. This method should be limited to line copy or very small graphics.

For our customers, this increases our print finishing capabilities and improves turnaround time with almost all foil stamping and embossing being done in-house.    We also can now cut up to 90 point board as well as plastic materials.  This press is perfect for a wide range of projects including presentation folders, CD pockets, displays, and packaging material.  Finishing techniques include kiss-cutting, creasing perforating, embossing, foil stamping and hologram stamping.  And this is economical even on small runs.  Contact your Perfect Printing sales representative today for additional information.