Searles Media - Print Design http://www.searles.media/blog/category/17/Print-Design en-US http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3755/Direct-Mail-Still-Works-The-Messengers-Podcast Direct Mail Still Works - The Messengers Podcast There are some myths about “snail mail” as a marketing medium floating around that it’s outdated, too expensive, and ineffective. While direct mail definitely became over-saturated in the ‘90s when printing technology improved dramatically making direct mail more affordable and accessible than ever, the tech boom of the ‘00s and ‘10s has left the physical mailbox empty and the digital inbox jammed with more junk than we ever used to get in the mail.


The truth is, for many marketers, direct mail is still the highest performing direct response medium available.


Since the amount of mail people get to their homes has been steadily on the decline, your direct mail piece has less competition. A lot of that spam has moved to email, which leaves a prime opportunity to redirect some of that marketing effort towards physical mail once more.


In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss the benefits that direct mail marketing can bring to a business and how they’ve managed to use direct mail to make a difference for their own clients.


They discuss the various ways you can get a mailing piece to your target audience, how to build or acquire your mailing list, and how to deal with post office regulations (we know it can be hard). They also touch on the actual design of your direct mail marketing, and how to maximize the effectiveness of your direct mail piece through creative and intelligent design.


Use the links below to watch or listen, and don’t forget to subscribe to get more from The Messengers on your favorite device or streaming service!


Spotify

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

Overcast 

Pocket Casts

Google Play Music

Anchor

SoundCloud

Stitcher

 

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3661/A-New-Marketers-Guide-to-Buying-Print-The-Messengers A New Marketer’s Guide to Buying Print - The Messengers In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss the basics of buying printing. For many people, even the basics of printing can be a foreign concept, which can leave business owners either overpaying for what they need or with a lower-quality final product than they had originally envisioned.


Chris and Rob discuss the most important things you need to know when going to buy printing for your company to help you end up with a piece that’s right for your business. This episode covers items like:


- What is “stock” and how can you select the right one?
- How a number of factors affect your “price-per-piece”
- Bleed and trim safety
- Working with designers that are familiar with print production

Use the links below to watch or listen, and don’t forget to subscribe to get more from The Messengers on your favorite device or streaming service!


Spotify

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

Pocket Casts

Google Play Music

Anchor

SoundCloud

Stitcher

 

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3369/The-Beginners-Guide-to-Buying-Printing-for-Your-New-Business The Beginner's Guide to Buying Printing for Your New Business There are a lot of things to think about when you’re starting a new business. Often, it’s the small things that people forget to include in their plans and budgets.

It may not seem like it, but items like business cards, letterhead, and envelopes can start to add up and bring costs you might not have anticipated.

I recently worked on a proposal for a new hedge fund that didn’t have a great idea of exactly what printed staples and stationery they were going to need and looked to us for guidance on where to start.

It’s not the first time I’ve had that conversation so I thought it would be a good idea to write up a guide for entrepreneurs and small business owners to help with the process, provide some ideas you may not be thinking about, and make sure you cover your bases during your initial planning stages.

Business Cards

Business cards are a basic staple for any business owner. Even the most technical of businesses and business owners need business cards.

Anybody that’s been doing it long enough has found themselves in the unfortunate position of meeting someone unexpectedly and not having a card to easily provide contact information for a follow up.

Cell phone and tablet batteries die, and there’s still not a great way to easily and quickly share contact info digitally during an in-person meeting.

Not only that, but business cards represent such a minimal investment that there’s simply no excuse not to have one.

My advice for your card is either go all out and make it something memorable that will get shared around, or keep it simple and classy. I always opt for the latter:

Chris Searles, Searles Media business card

If you’re just getting started, it’s important to identify the people in your organization that will need a card.

Anybody that has direct client contact or does business development should absolutely have a business card. But that should be obvious.

Don’t skimp on the rest of your employees though. My general rule of thumb is if you have a desk, you get a business card.

There’s a good reason for this. Imagine for a second you just took a new job with a company or potentially even took a risk to leave a steady job to work for a startup.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a box of shiny new business cards with your name and the company’s logo on them?

Business cards in a box

It may seem like a small thing, and it is, but sometimes the little things produce the best results. And the small things do matter.

As far as sourcing business cards, that depends on a number of factors.

First, pay the money to have a professional design your cards. A great option is using the designer that created your logo.

It’s a very small investment that makes a very big difference in the long run.

For printing, there are now a number of websites that sell business cards extremely cheap in small quantities.

A simple Google search for terms like “business cards” or “buy business cards online” will yield more options than you’ll ever need.

Buy business cards online Google search results

These options are ok if you need 500 of a single card or two and quality isn’t your paramount concern.

There have been times when we’ve purchased business cards online for clients because it was simply the best option for them under the circumstances, but we are always prepared to send back the first set that are delivered (and do in more than 50% of the instances where we go this route), and sometimes even more than that.

If want higher quality or better service, or you simply want to look at paper samples so you know what you’re buying, get a price from your local print shop.

Simply Google “[my location] printing companies” and you should get a good list to start with. You want a commercial printer that offers sheet-fed offset or digital printing services.

Higher quantities are where they’ll start to be more competitive in price or simply offer you the options or service that you can’t get online.

Online printers vs local printers

One way to save money when you anticipate needing a large number of cards over a longer period of time (i.e. you frequently have new employees coming in and/or you have others who run out all at different times) is to have your printer run shells and inventory them for you, and then imprint individual cards as needed.

Generally, the way this works is they will run the standard company info that’s the same on every card either in 2 or 4-colors on an offset press in a large quantity.

Then, whenever someone in your organization places an order, the printer will simply take a stack of the shells and run them through a digital press in black and white (which is cheaper than color) to imprint the person’s name and contact information.

Business card shells

Letterhead

Letterhead is another staple every business needs to be able to pull out of a drawer at a moment’s notice.

You probably won’t go through nearly as much of it as you used to, but it’s amazing how many times you’ll get a request for something that has to be “on company letterhead.”

Search results for the exact phrase "on company letterhead"

It’s also a really nice way to reach out to clients or prospects. There’s still something to be said for being able to hold something tangible in your hands (and there’s data that shows it actually influences buying decisions quite positively).

You have a lot of the same options with letterhead as you do for your business cards, and my advice is largely the same.

Pay a professional for design, I promise it matters and is well worth the minor investment you need to make.

Price out online and local print shops with the same caveats included in the business card section above.

In general, online is better for short-runs where quality is secondary and you are willing to buy blind. Go local if you want someone to work with you to provide the best solution for you and your business based on their experience.

Neither is the right or wrong option, one is simply better for your business and your unique situation and requirements.

(If you’re unsure, reach out to me and I’d be happy to help you make the right call.)

In either case, your designer and your printer (even better if it’s the same company!) should work with you to design your piece in a way that’s both cost-effective and represents your brand well.

Your design should also be consistent with the rest of your marketing and promotional materials, so it helps to use a single designer for all of these items unless you’re in the process of rebranding and are purposely looking for a change.

Pepsi logo history

For printing, you have three primary options: One-color, two-color, and four-color. Yes, there are other options but there’s most likely no reason to consider any of them for letterhead.

If you’re doing a short run, you’ll only save money going from four-color to one-color, and only if that one color is black.

Ford Model T Any Colour

Digital presses (where most short print runs go) only offer price breaks for black ink, everything else prints in full color which costs the printer the same amount as if you put a nice full-color picture on it.

On the other hand, if you’re doing a slightly larger run (usually around 1,000 pieces or more), there might be a very large difference between four-color and two- or one-color printing.

Unfortunately there are no hard and fast rules to this and specific breaks are completely dependent on the type of equipment your printing company has.

This is when it’s important to discuss your goals with your printer and your designer to ensure you get what you need.

High quality, low price, or something in the middle can all be had, just be open and honest about your needs and your budget and the right partners should be able to accommodate you well.

Envelopes

The world of envelopes is a lot bigger than you probably realize.

Boxes of envelopes

They come in an almost incalculable number of sizes, styles, colors, weights, and options.

Square flaps, peel and stick, single window, double window, remittance, #10, #9, A6, A7, A2, bright white, natural white, catalogs, booklets, 24 lb., 60 lb. - coincidentally those last two happen to be the same thing (read this if you want to know why)  … the list goes on and on.

So I’m going to simplify it.

Get yourself some non-window #10 envelopes with your logo and return address on them.

#10 envelopes will fit a standard 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper (folded in thirds) and are the most basic, versatile, and oft-used envelope there is.

Once again, you have options for ink colors.

Black is always the cheapest but you can choose a single PMS color that’s not black and still save money.

Two-color printing certainly won’t break the bank either, usually you would run two brand colors or one PMS color and black (your logo designer did give you a two-color version of your logo, right?).

Four-color envelopes can be had inexpensively at lower quantities (a few thousand or so) where they can run on a digital press instead of a four-color offset press.

Believe it or not, I often prefer a two- or three-color envelope over a four-color because the PMS colors can really pop.

1-color, 2-color, and 3-color envelope examples

But if your logo is a little more complicated and doesn’t translate well to two-color (first, find yourself a new designer, then) spring for the four-color. It’s worth the minor increase in cost.

If you’re doing long runs, usually it’s for a specific purpose like a direct mail piece, at which point you should talk with your designer and your printer about the goals of the piece as well as price differences on color and size options, then decide if it’s necessary or worth it to do more than just a black outer envelope.

Beyond a standard #10, you may also want to consider #10 window envelopes.

If you send out a lot of invoices (hopefully you will!), these are nice and easy to just fold up an invoice that already has the customer's name and address on it and pop it in the mail without needing to address the outer envelope.

#10 envelope vs #10 window envelopes

Usually these are the envelopes you’ll send checks in, and you likely may not need anything printed on them at all (that’s what the windows are for).

Buy them from your printer, if you have a good relationship with them you can take advantage of their buying power and get better pricing than if you just went to Staples or Sam’s Club (even after a reasonable markup for their time, handling, and service of course).

Finally, I would consider a larger envelope like a 9” x 12” or 9.5” x 12.5” (which one would depend on your intended use, see the section on pocket folders below for more).

Often, if you’re sending marketing materials or other promotional items, the last thing you want to do is fold them up and stuff them in a little envelope.

These envelopes give you the option to send your materials flat, and for the added $1 (or less) in postage, the value you get out of the presentation is well worth it.

All you need to know about these (besides which size you should buy to fit what you're putting inside) is the difference between a catalog and a booklet envelope.

Catalog envelopes open on the short edge, booklets open on the long edge.

Catalog envelopes vs booklet envelopes

Pocket Folders

These are an option you should consider, but be sure you have a reason to order them before you do.

Pocket folders are a basic print staple of a lot of businesses because of their versatility.

They allow you to change your materials frequently, print out customized proposals for customers, include new brochures you’ve created since you had the folders printed, and anything else you can’t think of right now that you may want to include or use them for in the future.

They’re a great way to present contracts, agreements, proposals, etc.

Obviously, if you run a retail store, you may have no need for a pocket folder, but if you have a B2B business or work with large projects where spending a couple dollars on presentation can go a long way towards getting a five or six-figure project, it’s a good start.

You have just as many (if not more) options with these as you do with all of your other printing, but a good place to start is a standard 9” x 12” folder with two 4” pockets and a single business card slit.

For professional services, the most common option is a nice, heavy cotton or linen stock with a simple one- or two-color logo in the middle on the front cover.

Pocket folder examples

You can get a lot of legs out of a metallic ink, or if you want to spend a little more money and like the look, a gold or silver foil stamp process. Neither are necessary though.

If you’re trying to build a brand, your logo alone may not be enough to really leave a mark so you may want to include a tag-line or some imagery on the folder, just be sure not to make it so busy that the message gets lost in the shuffle.

Notepads

I’m going to let you in on a 40+ year secret here … custom notepads are one of the single best promotional items you'll ever find.

We’ve used them for decades and they’re an amazing way to keep your brand in front of prospects and clients.

Searles Graphics notepads

Everyone at some point throughout their day or week needs a piece of paper to write on.

That means they sit on top of a desk, on a conference table, at reception, or at arm’s reach all the time.

When a note is written, it’s kept for a while or passed along to someone else who can’t help but see your logo and what you do. Sometimes a single note or message can last weeks in full view every minute of every day.

It’s hard to buy that kind of frequency with any other advertising or promotional product; plus there's the added benefit that everybody else isn't doing the same thing.

When it comes to notepads, you don’t have to go crazy. Four-color pads are great if you have a need but the same rules as discussed in the envelope section above apply here.

As for paper, 50 lb. offset is all you really need. Anything heavier than that is nice but overkill.

Talk to your local printer or check out CorporateNotepads.com for options.

CorporateNotepads.com homepage screenshot

Full disclosure, this is a website we own, but I share it with you because we were able to figure out a way to get the prices crazy low so I figured I’d share it with you because it’s worth at least taking a look at.

And there you have it, everything you need to at least get yourself started with your printing needs.

Yes, you will have some unique requirements that I haven’t discussed and you’ll definitely want more than just the basics shortly, but this is just the beginner’s guide!

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3347/Direct-Mail-Outperforms-Email-for-Purchase-Decisions Direct Mail Outperforms Email for Purchase Decisions In a recent study conducted by Temple University comparing the relative effectiveness of digital advertising vs direct mail advertising, researchers concluded that direct mail had a deeper and longer-lasting impact than email advertising.

Researchers showed test subjects a variety of 40 email and postcard advertisements and measured the subjects' responses in a variety of ways in an effort to determine whether one medium showed a significant advantage over the other for marketers. Eye tracking technology was used to visual attention in reaction to predetermined areas of interest. Biometric sensors measured heart rate, sweat levels, motion, and respiration to monitor the level of emotional engagement with the ad. Finally, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to pinpoint deep brain activity to measure more brain activity that's thought to influence purchase behavior more than surface activity (e.g. empathy and reward).

The results of the study showed the physical, direct mail ads outperformed or equaled their digital counterparts in all but one of the nine areas measured. The direct mail pieces outperformed the email ads in the areas of:

  • Review Time - The amount of time a customer spends with an ad.
  • Stimulation - An emotional reaction to an ad.
  • Memory Speed & Confidence - Quickly and confidently remember advertising source and content.
  • Desirability - A subconscious desire for the product or service.
  • Valuation - The subconscious value a participant places on the product or service.

The study found the following three areas performed equivalently for both the direct mail and email marketing pieces:

  • Engagement - The amount of information a customer processes or absorbs from an ad.
  • Memory Retrieval Accuracy - Accurately remembering the advertising source and content.
  • Purchase and Willingness to Pay - Whether and how much the customer is willing to pay for a product.

The digital ads were found to be superior in gaining a subject's focused attention on key parts of the ad for a sustained period of time.

As the study notes, self-reported survey results demonstrated little difference between participants' preferences for digital ads vs phsyical advertisements, however the physical ads had a longer-lasting impact than the digital ads. And while the participants stated similar preferences and willingness to pay for an item regardless of the medium it was presented in, their brain activity indicated a greater subconscious value and desire for products and services advertised in a physical format. It goes on to note, "Previous research indicated that activity in this portion of the brain (the ventral striatum), responsible for valuation and desirability, was a strong predictor of purchases, which merits further research."

There are certainly some caveats to note here. The first is that this is a single study, and although it was conducted independently at Temple University, it was commissioned by the Postal Service Inspector General's Office. It's also a study representing a sample size of 59 people, with 39 of those participating in the follow-up study a week later. This is hardly a significant portion of the population and it would be good to see these results replicated before jumping to any major conclusions. Finally, while 40 different ads should represent a significant variance in content, design, and structure, each of these items can play a huge factor in engagement and response rates which needs to be 

The take away here is not that you should ditch your digital efforts and switch everything back to print, or that the caveats noted above completely negate some legitimate and interesting findings. Both mediums have advantages and disadvantages (as found in this study), and as we've always stressed, it's critical to use a varied marketing mix to reach your customers and prospects in a way that proves to be most effective for your business, industry, product, and individual clients.

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http://www.searles.media/blog/3326/If-Youre-Not-Testing-Youre-Failing If You're Not Testing You're Failing I love to snow ski but here on Long Island, getting to the mountains isn't the easiest of trips. This tends to leave large gap in ability between those who ski once or twice a year and those who are lucky and dedicated enough to spend more time on the moutain.

The result is an interesting phenomenon where a large number of beginner or intermediate snow skiers inevitably steer the conversation toward how frequently they or you fall while on the mountain. It's their litmus test to decide how good a skier somebody is. Someone who doesn't fall much is a good skier, and vice versa.

I'm a good skier. I may not be the best but I can hang with anybody and ski anything (shy of what you see in the movies - my cliff-hucking days are long behind me, if they ever existed at all), and I fall often. In fact, the best skiers I know are those that fall the most often, not the least. So when this topic comes up, my response is always the same, "if you're not falling, you're not learning."

The point is that it's easy to do the same things every day and get better at those things over time. But while you're trying not to fail, others are leap-frogging you because they're pushing their limits, trying new things, falling, getting back up, trying something else, and improving exponentially with every iteration. You may end up with a few bumps and bruises along the way, and it might hurt a little in the short-term, but the long-term rewards are well worth the short-term sacrifices.

Which brings us to our topic: Testing.

It's tedious. It's time consuming. It can be frustratingly slow, and it can cost you in the short-term. Yet it's the most important thing you can do to drive consistent, incremental improvements in every aspect of your business.

If you're not familiar with the concept of A/B testing, it's been used in the advertising industry for years. The basic premise is to produce two pieces of nearly identical content with a single change to one version that you believe will result in a better performing ad, and then measure the results. In advertising, frequently that means trying two different headlines, calls-to-action, images, or placement of any or all of the above.

While a lot of SMBs aren't familiar with this concept, even fewer are aware of how widely you can apply A/B testing throughout your business.

The underlying goal of A/B testing is constant, incremental change that increases organizational knowledge and provides continuous improvement. This is achieved by continually testing your assumptions and challenging the status quo; making changes where necessary and refraining from changing something that already works well.

Ok, that's a lot of conceptual talk, how can you apply this to your business or your job?

The most important thing to understand is that this concept works best when it's ingrained in the culture of your organization. Testing shouldn't just be something that happens every once in a while when you decide you want to try something out. It's something everyone in your organization should understand the value of and be empowered to implement.

For most businesses, advertising and marketing is an easy first step on the road to becoming a testing maniac. Digital advertising makes it very easy to A/B test, and most (if not all) modern digital ad platforms give you the ability to easily test multiple versions of the same ad. For example, Facebook advertising allows you to build a single ad and test up to five different images at a time, or to simply copy an existing ad, make a simple change, and run the two side-by-side in the same ad group for as long as you need to determine a winner.

In your ads, test everything you can: Headlines, calls-to-action, images, descriptive text, display URLs, etc. Just remember that you need to measure your results against a goal. If that goal is traffic to your website, most clicks wins (although it should be noted that this is the most basic measure of performance and probably one of the worst). A better option is to set your goal as quality traffic to your website and then determine what that means to you. Maybe it's a user that visits four or more pages because you make money by selling ad-space on your site.

If you want users to fill out a form, join your mailing list, or buy something from you, then your goal is conversions (a four-page visit could also be considered a conversion, but that's just semantics). Conversions have gotten much easier to measure performance against, and again, all modern digital ad platforms have built in conversion rate measurement and testing options. This metric is far better because you can build an ad that drives a lot of traffic at a very small cost; but if it's not well-targeted traffic, they'll leave your site as soon as they arrive. Well-targeted traffic might cost you a bit more per click, but the resulting increases in conversion rates should be worth it.

On the other side, quality landing pages on your website can do everything from lowering your cost-per-click (CPC) to increasing conversion rates, so it's important to test those too. Maybe you want to test an intro video against a static image and some text, or requiring more information to download your whitepaper to see if you can capture more information about your prospects without lowering your conversion rates. Here again, call-to-action and headline placement and copy can also be tested and optimized.

The same goes for email. One of the reasons I've been pushing my clients to MailChimp from Constant Contact is the extensive built-in testing functionality. Test subject lines, images, image placement, calls-to-action, copy, and design to find the optimal way to present your information. If your mailing list is large enough to support it, the best way to do this is to send your test emails to a small subset of your list, then send the winner to everybody else.

It's important to understand how powerful this can be. If you have 15,000 subscribers and you can increase click-through rates by just 1% by writing a more compelling subject line, 150 more people just performed the action you wanted them to. Then, if you've optimized your landing page and again convert just 1% more of your visitors, that's 2 people that buy from you that never would have before (not to mention converting the additional 1% of those that would have clicked through your email anyway if you're following the math correctly ;-).

This tactic isn't just limited to digital advertising. Print ads can just as easily be tested. If the publication you're advertising with won't allow you to run two different ads in the same issue (most won't), get a better rate by signing a longer term contract and test them one after the other (being sure to account for any differences in season, of course). It's not as immediate a result as digital, but "get rich quick" is a myth and this stuff takes time and effort to get right.

If you're doing direct mail, it's a lot easier. Print two versions, provide a unique phone number or URL for each version and track which one gets more calls or traffic.

For both print and digital you can (and should) also test placement. Do you get a lower cost-per-conversion on Facebook or AdWords? In the local newspaper or a trade publication?

Where this really gets fun (yes, I'm a huge dork, I actually love this stuff!) is when you start experimenting and testing stuff that's a little more outside the box. Do you have trouble getting through your email every day? Test a new approach to managing your inbox for a week and measure your productivity. Manage a retail store? Test product placement and see if you can find ways to draw customers to higher margin items or impulse purchases at the register.

Run a manufacturing facility? Study your process to identify bottlenecks then design and test alternative solutions. Find that you consisitently don't hire the best candidates? Test changes to your screening and interviewing process and see which employees last longer or produce better results.

You can apply this anywhere efficiencies can be gained or results can be improved. If you're having a hard time figuring out where you can apply this to your business and you need ideas, feel free to reach out to me anytime.

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3325/Whats-the-Difference-Between-Sheet-Fed-and-Web-Printing What's the Difference Between Sheet-Fed and Web Printing? Here at Searles Graphics we've traditionally run sheetfed offset presses. Within the last decade we've invested heavily in digital printing as well. One thing we've never offered is web printing. Most consumers don't have any idea what type of printing press the finished piece they're looking at ran on. Luckily, you won't be one of those after reading this ;-).

I've written about digital printing and I've written about offset printing so please check those articles out to get an idea for the differences between the two, and know that both offset and digital printing provide options for sheet fed and web presses, with the primary advantages and disadvantages of both being similar.

If you follow Searles Graphics on social media or have been on our website before, you've no doubt seen pictures and video of our sheet-fed presses in action. The primary difference between web presses and sheet-fed presses is that web presses feed off of a large roll of paper, while sheet-fed presses feed individual sheets of paper.

Ok, you're asking, "So what? Why is their a difference and what does that mean to me?" Easy, I'm getting there ...

All paper is manufactured in rolls. As such, there is a cost involved in sheeting paper; that is, the process of taking a large roll of paper, slicing it into individual sheets of a certain size, and stacking and/or packaging those sheets. This makes purchasing sheets of paper more expensive than purchasing rolls.

It's also slower and more difficult to feed sheets into a press than it is to continuously feed a roll.

All that being said, in order to produce a finished product, that giant roll of paper needs to be cut, folded, and bound just the same. The difference is in where this occurs in the process.

On a web press, printing, folding, and sheeting all happens in line. After all, those rolls of paper are extremely heavy, so moving them from place to place is both cost prohibitive and difficult, so it's important to only have to do that once, rather than in between each step in the process. This video is of a monster Manroland heatset web press:

As a result, once a web press is running, the printing, folding, and sheeting/sheet handling process is significantly faster, reducing overhead and production times.

On the other hand, all that functionality comes at a cost. Web presses are larger, heavier, more expensive, costlier to maintain, and require far more in terms of infrastructure and power requirements. Some large web presses are so loud while running that they need to be run inside specially-designed sound-dampening enclosures.

Having all of that functionality inline also means that if one thing goes wrong anywhere in the process, the entire process can come to a screeching halt, so downtime is far more impactful on operating costs. With sheet-fed, downtime on a folder or cutter doesn't stop your press from running, and it's far less expensive to have a backup in place and ready to go.

Make-ready costs and waste are also much higher with web printing than with sheet-fed because of the size and complexity of the press. Here's a video of a sheet-fed Heidelberg press:

Similar to the differences between digital and offset printing, all of these trade-offs in cost and speed have break-even points where the speed of production more than makes up for the added costs. Essentially, longer runs tend to be more economical on web presses vs sheet fed (think newspapers and jobs requiring hundreds-of-thousands of impressions as a general idea, but be sure to talk to a printer about your specific needs).

Here's a good overview of the cost structure of a printing job, especially as it pertains to economies of scale. ]

Finally, there's the difference in the finished product. All that speed comes with trade-offs in quality. No matter how you put it on a sheet, ink needs to be applied wet and allowed to dry. With sheet-fed presses, ink is either allowed to dry naturally over time as it absorbs into the sheet, or the sheet itself is coated with a laminate and then dried through a heating unit on it's way to being delivered to the end of the press.

With web presses, because the folding process occurs inline and at such a high speed, it's critical to expedite the drying process.

Traditional or "cold" web presses only work with uncoated paper. Without a coating on the sheet, the ink is able to absorb into the sheet to dry. This is the newsprint you're used to when you read the newspaper. It's not an ideal process as is evident from the remnants you undoubtedly end up with on your hands after handling newsprint.

The other option is heatset web printing, which is the process used for the major publications you see every day on the magazine rack. Heatset web printing can be used on both coated and uncoated stocks.

On a heatset web press, after the roll passes through the impression units, it is run through an oven that dries the ink on top of the paper before it's absorbed into the sheet. This lack of absorbtion (mostly on coated stocks) yields a glossy shine, and it's also why the ink is more likely to rub off onto your fingers if you hold onto the page too long (anybody that's ever read a magazine on the beach or by the pool in the summer can attest to that!).

As a side note, it's also common for the covers of some magazines or catalogs to be printed on sheet-fed presses as a high-quality wrapper around lower-quality interior pages that are printed on a web press.

One final drawback of heatset web printing is a phenomenon known as fluting. Fluting doesn't happen on every job, but when it does, it's problematic. Drying ink at such high temperatures also affects the paper, which contains moisture. The heat draws moisture out of the sheet, which actually causes the paper to shrink. Depending on the amount of ink coverage on the piece, some parts of the sheet will lose more moisture than others, causing a sort of ripple, or wave effect on the page.

All of this brings us to some basic realizations. If quality is of the utmost importance and/or you're not doing very large quantities, sheetfed printing is usually your best option. If quantity and speed are the primary factors, web printing is generally the way to go.

One final caveat to all of this ... technology is constantly getting better across the board. So just as the quality of web printing has gotten significantly better over the years, so too has the speed of sheetfed printing, blurring the lines a lot more than ever before. The job that used to only be feasible on a web press might be able to run on a sheetfed press now, and the high-quality job you couldn't afford to do on a sheetfed press and didn't want to do on a web press could be a possibility on a modern heatset web press.

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3317/Our-Latest-Innovation-Launches-Today-and-Its-a-Big-One Our Latest Innovation Launches Today and It's a Big One! We continue to innovate and provide new products and services to our clients at a pace unmatched in our industry! I could tell you all about what we're launching today, but I figure it's much better to just show you. Watch the video below and prepare for something you've never seen before.

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3297/Why-We-Dont-Price-Match-in-a-Price-Competitive-Industry Why We Don't Price Match in a Price-Competitive Industry The printing industry isn't what it used to be. There's no denying that. While I absolutely still believe there are tremendous opportunities in print media for smart marketers right now, it's hard to argue that anybody is or should be doing more total print volume now than the same size business was doing 20 years ago.

So a market correction is a natural occurrence. Especially in an industry where equipment costs run into the millions of dollars for a single printing press, there was and is a tremendous amount of pressure to keep those presses running. A solid industry with good margins and plenty of work for everybody turned into a cutthroat battle over who could sell what they had at the cheapest price to keep the machinery running and their people busy.

High-volume print shops traditionally operated on three eight-hour shifts per day, seven days a week. Their pricing and business models were built on that kind of volume, so the investments these printing companies made were based on a press that operated 24/7. As volumes decreased, rather than trying to adjust to the marketplace, many printers simply continued to slash prices in a desperate attempt to preserve a dying business model.

Here on Long Island printers have done the same, and we've seen the carnage that has resulted, both in the print industry itself and, more importantly, in what it's done to their customers. Sure, it was hard for a little while watching a few (but fortunately not many) good clients jump ship because they were offered a price they couldn't refuse. But while we were busy changing, adapting, and maintaining our quality of work and service, most of those Long Island printing companies either are no longer with us or they're barely hanging on with no ability to produce quality work because they slashed expenses to the bone to support a pricing model that's not sustainable.

Happily, just about any client that's ever left us for price reasons has returned because they realized that with printing, as with everything else, you get what you pay for. Somebody that cares only about price will always only care about price, regardless of the service you provide. That means the only thing you can ever do to keep that customer happy is be the cheapest. The minute you're not the cheapest, they'll find a competitor that is.

This business philosophy can work, Walmart is an amazingly successful company. But there's only one Walmart, and you can't out-Walmart Walmart, as the saying goes. Target, on the other hand, found a way to compete with Walmart by offering high-end design at mass scale. This allowed for lower prices than people were used to paying for similar items, but prices that were still higher than Walmart.

Some people are willing to pay for quality, but not all people. Some people are willing to pay for amazing service, but not all people. Some people are willing to pay for outstanding reliability, but not all people. And some people simply want the lowest price possible without regard for quality, service, or reliability - but not all people. Somewhere in there is where you need to find your niche. We don't compete on price because we know that to do so would compromise the outstanding quality, service, and reliability our customers have come to know and expect from us. And once you take your business down that road, there's no coming back.

That doesn't mean we're never the lowest price (we often are, or are at least close enough for it not to matter), or even that we don't make concessions every once in a while for great clients when they need it (we do). It just means that we're confident that those who value quality, service, and reliability will happily pay a reasonable price for those attributes, and that we need to charge what we need to charge to offer that to our customers. We've built our business on the simple philosophy that we offer the absolute best value anywhere. We don't have a single competitor that provides higher quality or better service at our price point, and that's something we're simply unwilling to compromise on.

If you have a sustainable business model that allows you to always be the cheapest option, go for it. There are definitely customers out there that will find you and work with you. But if your business is built on more than just price, be confident that there are customers who also value what you bring to the table. If you find that you need to steeply discount your products and services just to stay in business, you've not done a good enough job establishing why you're worth a bit of a price premium. If that's the case, spend your time finding out where you're falling short and working to improve in those areas to show your customers why they have no choice but to work with you.

Stand for something meaningful and live or die by it.

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3282/Introducing-CorporateNotepadscom Introducing CorporateNotepads.com! Anybody that's worked with us for any amount of time knows about our notepads. We've been producing them for ourselves for decades now and they're one of the best marketing tools we use. While we've always printed notepads for clients, it's not something we've ever really pushed. That changes today!

Today we launched a new custome notepad service at CorporateNotepads.com. The goal is to provide the same amazing marketing tool we've always used to other businesses in a simple and convenient package where you can complete an order in minutes.

Notepads are an amazing marketing and promotional item for a number of reasons. First, everybody uses a scratchpad / notepad at home and at work. Whether you're writing a to do list, a shopping list, taking a message for someone, writing a reminder for yourself, or you just need pen and paper to work something out, you always need a place to write notes.

At the same time, marketing is mostly about keeping your brand in front of prospects. What better way to do that then to have your logo, name, and contact information on the notepads that are kept on someone's desk or coffee table? Not only does that person constantly see your brand, but so does everyone that gets a message, list, or note from that individual.

People spend a lot of money on promotional items that don't work very well because they have no utility. But how many times have you been caught with a pen but nothing to write on so you scramble to scratch a note out on anything you can find? You're not the only one.

So for everyone that's a regular reader here, a customer of ours, a follower of mine, or just passing through, please take a look at our new site, corporatenotepads.com and give it a test drive. Even if you decide not to buy (but you definitely should), I'd love to get your feedback. Call me, tweet to me, email me, message me on Instagram, contact me through my website, contact me through Searles Graphics' website ... whatever works best for you!

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3259/Printing-Basics-What-Does-the-Weight-of-Paper-Mean Printing Basics: What Does the Weight of Paper Mean? If you're not experienced in buying printing (and even if you are), the terminology we use can be difficult to understand at time. In the past we've written about things like saddle-stitching, 4-color printing, offset printing, PMS color matching, digital printing, image resolutions for print, variable data printing, and perfect binding to help give you a better understanding of the basics of print media. But all of these processes would be nothing without the substrate they're printed on. The stock (paper) you choose for your print job matters a lot and can make or break a commercial print job.

We often hear terms like "thick card stock" or "poster board" but the problem with those terms is that they're subjective and somewhat meaningless. What we consider thick may not be thick enough for you, and you can make a poster out of just about anything. Like most problems, however, there's a solution - although it might not be as simple as you're hoping.

When we talk about paper weights, we're really talking about is what we call the basis weight of that stock. The basis weight of paper is how much (in pounds) 500 sheets of that particular stock weighs in that paper's basic sheet size. Pretty simple, right? Well, here's where things start to get tricky.

For some reason (that was decided well before my time), different types of paper have a different basic sheet size. I'm going to discuss the three that are most common for you to see today (stocks like tag and index are far less common these days so we're going to leave those out for simplicity).

The three most common types of paper you'll see or hear about from your printer are bond, text, and cover weights. It should be noted that while bond and offset used to be quite different, these days they're essentially completely interchangeable and most mills no longer even distinguish between the two, they make one stock and either call it a bond or an offset. However, because they label it one way or the other, we still need to talk about both because the weights are very different depending which way they've chosen to label it.

The basic sheet size of bond is 17" x 22", text is 25" x 38", and cover is 20" x 26". The three most common weights of bond are 20 lb., 24 lb., and 28 lb., which correlate exactly to offset (uncoated text) weights of 50 lb., 60 lb., and 70 lb., respectively (i.e. 20 lb. bond = 50 lb. offset). For cover stocks, 60 lb, 65 lb, 80 lb. and 100 lb. tend to be the most common weights. Once you go higher than 100 lb. cover, the weights that are available are very dependent on the actual stock, with values anywhere like 111 lb. (don't ask me why) and 130 lb.

As if that wasn't enough to confuse you, here's where things really get interesting. Although we commonly use weights to indicate a thickness, the weight of the stock doesn't necessarily correlate to thickness, even within the same category.

One of the questions we get quite often goes something like, "Why is this 80 lb. uncoated cover so much thicker than the 80 lb. coated cover?" This is the inherent problem with specifying a weight when what you really care about is thickness. In this particular instance, the coating on the paper actually adds a lot of weight to the sheet. In order to get 500 sheets of the coated stock to weigh the same as 500 sheets of the uncoated stock, the paper needs to be much thinner.

If what you really care about is the thickness of the paper, a better approach is to specify a thickness, or "point" size (often referred to as the "caliper" when shopping for paper). This is a measurement of how thick the sheet is in thousandths of an inch. So one sheet of a 10 pt. stock measures .01 inches, regardless of it's basis weight. A 10 pt. stock generally equates to a 100 lb. coated cover, and an 80 lb. uncoated cover. For text weight stocks, the difference between coated and uncoated thickness by basis weight are even greater. A 60 lb. offset sheet is roughly equivalent to a 100 lb. coated text sheet; both around 4.7-4.8 pt.

It's important to have an understanding of the basics when you buy printing so you have a general sense of what you're asking for and what you're going to get. If it's a brand-critical piece (rather than a cheap instruction set you're including with your product), it's even more important to sit down with your commercial printer and discuss what you want so they can provide you with a range of options to meet your needs and your budget. If they can't do that, then it's time to find a new printer!

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3182/Leveraging-Variable-Data-Printing-in-Your-Print-Marketing Leveraging Variable Data Printing in Your Print Marketing Variable data printing is the place where the digital world meets the real world in an explosion of marketing genius ... if you do it right.

So what exactly is variable data printing? Digital printing brings a number of different capabilities that traditional offset printing lacks. Offset is a mass-production process. The more you print, the cheaper each impression is. On the other hand, in digital printing the costs are more fixed on unit-cost basis. While you'll see some savings on larger runs, the savings aren't nearly as high as they are with offset printing.

However, as a mass-production process, offset printing falls short in customization. Digital printing, and more specifically, variable data printing, gives us the ability to change each piece on the fly and customize it based on who the recipient of that particular piece is.

My favorite example of how this can be used to a marketers advantage uses a fictional real estate firm. Lets imagine you own a real estate company that has a database of prospective buyers. For each buyer you have a few key pieces of information: Age, marital status, and whether or not they have children. Your firm is pretty large so your database contains a few thousand names. For you to go through each prospect and individually market to them would be prohibitively time consuming. This is where variable data fits the bill.

In our example, we're going to break age into three groups: Under 35, 35-55, and 55+. This gives us a total of 12 possible combinations. In reality, we can probably simplify this further by doing things like combining the under 55 with children group and the under 35 with children groups, and assuming that 55+ with children are likely to have those children not living with them anymore to treat that group the same as the 55+ without children. For arguments' sake, let's say we have 8 total combinations.

What this means is that we can design eight targeted marketing pieces for our database of 3,000 names and be reasonably confident that the recipient is going to receive something completely relevant to their situation. Our unmarried-under-35-with-no-children group is going to see the one-bedroom apartment on main street that's walking distance from all the local bars and restaurants. Our 55+ group is going to see the condo in the retirement community, and our 35-55 with kids group is going to see the 3-bedroom ranch on a half acre with the swingset that's next to the park in the great school district.

Now obviously in the real world we'd also add income into this equation but you get the idea. With minimal investment in graphic design we've come up with a highly targeted direct mail piece that comes off the press already addressed to the recipient. This is just one simple example of the power of variable data marketing.

Where most people fall short in variable data marketing is in the data. Your data has to be rock solid to execute this strategy at a high level and most small businesses aren't willing to invest the time and effort required to gather and store that much data, and to continue to keep it as accurate as possible.

It's essential that you leverage your digital assets like your website and/or your CRM system to capture and maintain accurate data. It's also key that your employees understand how important accurate data is to your business and it's objectives so they assign as much value to entering and scrubbing data as you need them to. Once you have a solid data strategy in place you can send your marketing into hyperdrive and you'll be amazed at the results you can drive without changing your marketing and advertising spend.

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3170/Image-Size-and-Resolution-for-Print Image Size and Resolution for Print An issue we quite commonly face is the inability to use images and photos provided by clients for print jobs due the issue that the resolution or size of the image is insufficient for print. Much of the population believes that if an image looks good on screen, it will print just as well. This is not true. Image resolution for on-screen viewing is drastically different than print. Sometimes clients are under the impression that they can provide an image downloaded from their website for a print project and it will look just as good in print as it does on their screen. You may have witnessed the result of this, printing low resolution images. The appearance is bitmapped, blocky, blurry... printing image files that are too small and too low a resolution for print, not the best quality at all.

These are two of the most common issues that determine the best quality of an image for print, image dimensions and resolution. Our general rule of thumb is 300 dpi (dots per inch) at actual print size. There are more technical explanations about the relationships between file size, resolution, and image dimensions, but for the purposes of this article, we’d like to keep it simple.

The best way to check if an image is the proper resolution is to use an image size calculator. You can find several of these online. First determine the files pixel dimensions. On a PC right click on the image file and go to properties>details. On a Mac select the image file and hit control “I” (info). These pixel dimensions can be punched into the image size calculator and, if you select the 300 dpi option, the maximum size (in inches) that the image can be used for print will show in result.

Other issues that determine best print quality are image sharpness (focus), color, composition, exposure... These are somewhat photography related issues but they do effect image quality. There is a great deal a designer can do in Photoshop to correct or enhance a photo, but it is always better to have a better quality start point.

With a digital camera, the quality or file size setting for photos should be as high as possible. This will ensure that there is sufficient resolution for print. The highest quality or file size setting ensures that the most information related to the photograph is captured, thus resulting in the best quality for print. These files can always be reduced in size for online viewing or email transmission by removing file information through compression; but you cannot add information back into a low resolution file. These larger file sizes will eat up memory on your card but will result in the best quality images for print.

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/3168/Using-the-Pantone-Color-Matching-System-(PMS) Using the Pantone Color Matching System (PMS) Many of our clients are not aware of the differences  between printing processes. Although much of our printing projects, both digital & offset, are completed in four color process rather than spot PMS colors, we would like to explain the process of printing with the Pantone Color Matching System.

A typical type of job that would require PMS ink colors would be stationery such as letterheads, envelopes, and business cards. Using consistent ink colors for a logo or corporate branding purposes is a necessity. This will strengthen your identity, and the right combination of color can make your company stand out. These standard PMS colors, selected for your company stationary, will be referenced across other industries to reinforce your branding. Vehicle wrap, uniform, signage, and  many other promotional item companies understand the PMS color matching system and require your PMS color choices to ensure the best possible color matching

Commercial print shops rely on a color ink standard known as the Pantone Color Matching System otherwise know as the PMS color guide. This, regularly updated library of standard ink colors offers a wide spectrum of color. Pantone releases new swatch books on a regular basis that represent the ink color on both coated and uncoated stocks. These swatch books provide the pressman with the ink mix ratio to achieve each specific ink color.

It is important that clients understand that this is the print industry standard for color matching. This standard is used to ensure accurate  and consistent color for print.

Clients sometime bring samples of color for us to match. Whether it is a photograph representing company vehicle color, or the color of their uniform, we find the best and closest match in the PMS book and mix the ink custom.

Quite often we are asked to match a color referenced by an image on a cell phone, tablet, or computer monitor. We will again, use our best judgment to match the color based on the device we are viewing the color on. But, keep in mind... every device and monitor will display color differently. There are many variables to consider with viewing color on a screen including resolution, view angle, and different color lookup tables. Once a decision has been made with regards to  a selected PMS color, the variations between viewing devices will at least be consistent.

Proofing these colors can be done two ways. Our standard proof is done on our Epson wide format printer. This proofing system emulates the ink color on a standard white coated stock. PMS, as well as CMYK process inks will appear differently on different stocks. The PMS book has covered the two most basic stock options, coated and uncoated samples are given for every ink color offered. But, color stocks, such as cream, ivory, natural... all will change the color of the ink's appearance.

The most accurate way to see the results of PMS inks on these stock colors is to run a press proof. This proofing option will cost almost as much as printing the actual job, because it essentially requires the same process as a typical print project. We digitally prepare and rip a file, output plates, mix ink, hang plates, and run on press. This type of proof is reserved for color-critical jobs... print projects where color branding and matching is essential, down to the last detail.

So as explained here, selecting PMS colors for your company is an important first step to consistency in brand and identity marketing efforts. Take the time to sit with a designer and carefully select the colors that would best represent your company. Hopefully, understanding this process better will make your color selection process easier and much smoother for your designer.

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/2152/What-is-perfect-binding What is perfect binding? Perfect binding is one of the most common binding options available to you when you're designing your print piece (saddle stitching is another extremely common option for commercial printing). If you're not familiar with the term, perfect binding is the squared-off, flat spine you most often see on soft-cover books and larger magazines.

Where a saddle stitch binds the piece together using staples, perfect binding uses glue to adhere the cover to the spine. The spine of the book is first purposely cut to a rough edge to better accept the glue. The cover is then applied flat and folded around the edges of the book or magazine. In the video below, the sound you hear is the knife grinding the spine and the foreground is the cover feeder pressing the cover onto the interior of the book.

Perfect binding gives a nice high-end look to your finished piece but it does have its limitations. There are varying grades of quality in perfect binding. A higher quality perfect bind, like those used in book publishing, will be more expensive but will last longer and hold up against a significant amount of use. The lower quality the perfect bind, the more likely the bind will fail and pages will begin to fall out as the book is opened and closed continually.

There are good applications for both ends of the quality spectrum in perfect binding. For items like soft-cover books, a high-quality perfect bind is needed because the book is generally thick, expensive for the consumer, and expected to hold up to a significant amount of use. Lower quality perfect binding is a great option for printed pieces that have a short shelf-life. Weekly or monthly magazines, monthly or quarterly catalogs, trade show materials, and quarterly and yearly reports are all prime candidates for a binding solution that won't break the bank and doesn't need to hold up to a tremendous amount of use.

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http://www.searlesgraphics.com/blog/2133/What-is-4-color-printing What is 4 color printing? To sophisticated print buyers, the terminology is second-nature; "48 pages + cover, 4/4, dull spot varnish, 100# coated cover, 70# opaque text, saddle-stitch ... " etc. But to new buyers, the print buying process can be tricky. I've already covered some other basics like how the offset printing process works and why price-per-piece is so heavily tied to your quantity, but after a few recent potential clients called and didn't understand what I meant when I said "four color process" I thought it would be a good time to touch on exactly what this means.

At it's most basic definition, four color printing is full color printing. The same way you used to combine yellow and blue to make green in art class, we use four different colors in different ratios to deliver (almost) any color you want to see.

You'll often hear 4 color printing referred to as "CMYK." This is a reference to the four colors that are used in the process. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. From those four colors, we can deliver almost any color in the rainbow. I say almost because the four color process can't deliver things like metallics or even the color (or lack thereof I guess) white. The only way we can create white is to apply nothing to a white sheet. Otherwise, if you need a spot white (or a metallic or some other specialty color) then it needs to be applied by another unit on the press after the four color process. This is why we have a five color press here at Searles, and there are some presses (especially label presses) that can go into double digits on how many colors can be applied.

Most likely, you've already seen this process in action in some way, shape, or form. The most basic example is the grade-school art class color mixing I mentioned earlier. To be fair, we still do that too. When we need to match a PMS color we often need to mix specific quanitites of different color inks to do so, but that's a topic for another day.

If you've ever used a program like Photoshop or done any kind of web development, you should be quite familiar with color separations whether you realize it or not. Digital colors work similarly to print process, however they work with a different color wheel. By default, these applications use the RGB (red, green, blue) color system to get you to the final color you choose with your eye-dropper. (That six digit number you're provided is a hexidecimal representation of each the amount of each that goes into making the final color, but that's a little beyond the scope of this article.) If you're working on art for print, you need to convert your project to CMYK so the colors can be properly separated and burned to plates for print.

When you go to place your first order for print, remember that four color is just the proper way to indicate you want full color, but remember the limitations it brings and understand if and when you may need to use a fifth color (or more). Also remember that adding those requirements becomes expensive, as 6 and 7 color presses and printers are far less common than 4 and 5 color presses. If you'd like to see the process in action, feel free to contact me to come down and take a tour!

Photo: Flickr | Ann Wuyts

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