Local Edge Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Marketing, content, & technology to help printers sell more printing

When Time Doesn’t Fly, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Local Edge, Direct Mail

Time flies . . . except when it doesn’t. In our multi-tasking, WiFi world, every stalled moment seems accentuated. Inconvenient holdups cause us near physical pain. And perhaps they should! Did you know that in the course of one year, an average adult will spend four and a half days waiting? Over a lifetime this totals nearly a full year delayed in traffic, on hold, or in some type of line. Streamlined and Simplified Time is a cherished commodity. Each day we get a fleeting 1,440 new minutes to connect, to make substantial progress, and to create meaningful opportunities. Enhanced connectivity pushes us to increase output while decreasing expense, so simplicity is more appealing than ever. Gain the Local Edge Today Use the August edition of our Local Edge direct mail postcard to remind your customers and prospects of the efficiency of local print. While big-box printing can result in a long, impersonal guessing game, your clients can rest easy as they look to you as a full-production, single source option for all their printing needs. Whether it’s artistic design, custom formatting, production samples, personal consulting, or immaculately finished pieces, your expertise will help them simplify and save from start to

Rebuilding Community Through Vibrant Local Businesses, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Direct Mail, Local Edge

In her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs writes about the relationship of locally owned businesses and community. Here’s what she observes about the power of small, daily interactions: (Community) “grows…out of people stopping by…, getting advice from the grower and giving advice to the newsstand man, comparing opinions with other customers at the baker and nodding hello to the two boys drinking pop on the stoop…Most of it is ostensibly utterly trivial, but the sum is not trivial at all. The sum of such casual, public contact at the local level…is a feeling for the public identity of the people, a web of public respect and trust, and a resource in time of personal or neighborhood need. The absence of trust is a disaster to a city street.” The Hidden Costs of Absentee Ownership The July edition of our Local Edge direct mail postcard focuses on the importance of local business and its impact in the community it resides. While our global economy has its perks, often a decrease in independent business owners brings a loss of personal investment in the community itself. Research consistently reveals that absentee-owned companies result in hidden costs: depressed

Direct Mail, Local Edge, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Where Corners are Never Cut

On February 6, 2016, the city of Tainan, Taiwan, was slammed with a magnitude 6.4 earthquake (and sixty-eight aftershocks!). A day later, examinations of a toppled 17-story high-rise apartment building showed horrific structural problems including pillars reinforced with Styrofoam and empty tin cans. Similar quality control issues were exposed in Japan when seven massive hotels were forced to close after a prominent architect was found cheating earthquake building codes. The issue at hand? Corner cutting at its worst. You’re the Security They’re Looking For The June 2017 edition of our Local Edge direct mail postcard highlights the significance and security of local printing. Your customers have invested tirelessly in bringing their vision to life, and print production completes the work they’ve patiently, carefully crafted. While big-box online print can bring hassle, headaches, and generic, substandard products, trustworthy local service ensures a flawless finishing touch. Printing locally assures clients a seamless match of color, brand, and professional materials EVERY time they print. A Flawless Finishing Touch Show your customers how local print pairs two winning elements: a wholehearted commitment to excellent craftsmanship, and the matchless service that comes from fully invested relationships. We’ll encourage prospects to find security and confidence with

Direct Mail, Tips, Marketing Ideas For Printers, 8 Tips to Make Your Direct Mail Marketing Your Own

The direct mail packages from Marketing Ideas For Printers couldn’t be easier! Each month we send you a link for a press-ready file of the text and artwork, two months ahead of publication. You drop in your logo and contact information, print, and mail to customers or prospects within your exclusive ZIP code(s), offering you the ability to produce consistent, reliable, high-quality content every month with minimal effort. But that doesn’t mean you get off entirely scot-free… Launch Into Something Great The reality is that any marketing campaign takes thought, planning, and a target to aim for. We desire to provide the best springboard for you to launch your monthly marketing campaign in a way that suits your print business and allows the greatest return on your investment. Part of that desire includes helping you discover ways to take the launchpad of the design and content we provide and then make it into something even better: your own. Hone In Here are eight ways that you can customize your direct-mail marketing to hone in on your target: 1) Build Your Samples Arsenal Photograph a collection of printed pieces you are proud of or save the artwork files of recent projects you’ve

Marketing Ideas For Printers, Double Color Management: An Extraterrestrial Experience, Tip

Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses sounds like a good thing, right? It sure can be, except in print. When your printed images start taking on an extraterrestrial hue, it’s time to take the glasses off and see where this mystical glow is coming from. Recently, one of our customers experienced a rather “rosy” view of the images in our Direct Mail For Printers’ Business Forum newsletter package. Frustrated with the magenta casts and poor quality images, they contacted us looking for a solution. Our team suspected that double color management was to blame for the less-than-great print quality images our customer was experiencing. So, what is double color management? Simply put, double color management occurs when both the software and the output device are trying to control the color output values assigned to your document as it goes through the production cycle. This often causes hiccups and frustrations along the way. Double color management is a silent killer of good print quality because the settings are incredibly easy to miss and no error message is produced when the settings are incorrectly applied, The telltale sign of double color management is an unnatural pink or magenta cast to your print, in addition to very

Local Edge, Direct Mail, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Why Craftsmanship Matters

Today’s generation is manifesting hunger for the authentic – whether it’s eating organic, supporting small business, or celebrating spectacular artistry. A desire for craftsmanship is at the forefront – an appreciation of the highest standards and those who’ve spent a lifetime cultivating them. Carhartt (clothing & outdoor gear) specifically termed the call to craftsmanship as a “rebuilding” of a nation, the “road home from a throwaway world.” More Than (Just) Good Design Craftsmanship is more than good design; it’s a wholehearted commitment to a tradition of excellence – to creative, enduring, breathtaking products. In a recent Harley-Davidson (motorcycles) commercial, it was phrased this way: “What is the going rate for the work of the American craftsman? How much value does heritage add to technology? If every detail fits together perfectly, how much more is the whole worth (rather) than the sum of the parts? If riding gives you a feeling that’s impossible to explain, is it possible to calculate how much that’s worth? How do you measure the value of becoming part of something that is bigger than yourself?” Craftsmanship is Alive and Well in Local Print The May edition of our Local Edge direct mail postcard commends this tradition! What

Here in Fargo, North Dakota, we have a physical construction challenge. Our city is founded in the central basin of what was formerly a glacial lake. Our clay-rich sediments are capable of absorbing large volumes of water, compromising foundations and weakening the base of every structure in the city. High-rises are a rarity because every high-load construct (water towers, skywalks, arenas) must be anchored by enormous steel pilings or concrete piers that descend through the Lake Agassiz clay to firmer rock over 100 feet below. The FargoDome (home of the five-time national championship Bison football team) rests on more than 240 caissons, some with diameters of more than five feet! Due to our vast experience with buckling walls or slumping structures, Fargo natives know the crucial importance of a solid, authentic foundation. Values Worth Buying Into Consumers today are hungry for a similar foundation: a reality built on relationships they can trust. The March Local Edge postcard highlights your appeal as a sincere, trustworthy local printer. James H. Gilmore, a marketing consultant and author of the book Authenticity, said people feel increasingly uneasy or unstable in a “staged, contrived, mediated world.” The pendulum is swinging in favor of genuine, creative, original

Exciting news! The February 2017 edition of Local Edge, our latest direct mail marketing system, is in production today. This month we focus on a simple truth: Local printing yields results you can trust. Local Edge helps overcome a huge advertising challenge – competing with big box printers and prioritizing a consistent, compelling message that penetrates your local community. Our very FIRST local edge subscriber says 85% of her customers are other local businesses, so she looks forward to this monthly community connection: Local Edge appealed to us because it offers a marketing plan that is consistent and professional. It is a convenient way to market to local businesses . . . providing the ‘Top of Mind Awareness’ (TOMA) we need in today’s marketing climate. –Terri Rawlins, B&B Express Printing, Inc. This month’s Local Edge highlights the partnership of local printing, eliminating customer guesswork and maximizing creativity. Terri says she’s excited to accentuate her reputation with this heartfelt, conversational tone. One of the biggest challenges we face today as a small to mid-size printer is finding ways to compete with online print services. We know our quality is superior, (as is) our personal customer service and our ability to

Our newest direct mail package, the January edition of Local Edge, helps your customers get out of the big-box mindset and thinking local. They Don’t Know What They’re Missing Our inaugural issue of Local Edge (available for download November 15) highlights what a print buyer is missing when they choose to purchase their printing from a large, global, faceless print company. What are they missing? Real people, a better quality product, personalized service, … the list goes on. So why would potential customers choose to give these up? The main reason print buyers decide to purchase from these big-box, cookie-cutter companies is to save money. But, is the savings really worth it? Especially when inferior quality fails to make that great first impression? It brings to mind that old saying, “you get what you pay for.” Why Local Matters Alex Gladu, in his article “Five Reasons Not to Shop at Big Box Stores” had this to say about the importance of local small businesses: Local Edge will highlight the key benefits of keeping business local and communicate to your customers and prospects that they don’t have to sacrifice quality for price. Also included in the Local Edge design is a

Proclaiming the many benefits of doing business with a local printer will be the theme of our new Direct Mail For Printers postcard offering. We are proud to announce the introduction of….wait for it…Local Edge! Hooray! Have you been waiting for an opportunity to showcase the benefits of keeping things local and working with a local printer, but just haven’t had the time to promote this yourself? Well, good news! We’ve heard your desire and understand how difficult it is to compete with the low-margin, high-volume printers around the country. We understand how precious of a commodity time can be to local printers, and that’s why we created Local Edge. We all know the benefits of working with a local printer and we want to make sure your customers are reminded of those benefits as well. Give Your Customers a Reason to Buy Local Focusing on “The Real People Advantage,” “High-Value Printing Because We Care,” and “Experience, Dedication, and Reputation,” these are just some of the local-oriented themes we will be promoting through the Local Edge postcard. Your print buyers want to know why they should do business locally and Local Edge will provide that monthly message delivered right to

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