Why use direct mail printing to reach consumers during COVID-19?

1/28/2021

Direct mail printing has come into the limelight over the last few months as it has proven to be an effective method to reach your targeted prospects. With the threat of COVID-19 still restricting people’s outdoor movements, your direct mail pieces could let you give your business messages a personal touch that you can’t do with your digital marketing campaigns. With online competition between businesses heating up to attract a few seconds’ attention of their target audience, direct mail printing in TX could be your road to fame. You’ll just need to partner with an experienced printer in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex to ensure your business gets the desired response from your direct mailers.

If you’re unsure of how responsive people would be to your direct mails and if they’ll be worried about the virus getting transmitted via such direct mailers, you can assure them that it’s completely safe. You can quote WHO and CDC, both of which mention no incidences of coronavirus transmission have been found to occur due to magazines, newspapers, letters, or packages. Right now, people locked away in their homes are not likely to venture out unless they have to. They’re worried and a bit confused when it comes to making buying decisions as not everything they’re bombarded with online may seem reliable. Thus, it’s the right time to reach these people with one of the most trusted business marketing materials – direct mailers. You’ll just have to hire an experienced printer in Dallas, TX to blend creative designs with your concise, laser-sharp messages to elicit the desired response rates.
If you’re still not sure why your business needs a printer in Plano, TX, for your direct mailers, here are some compelling reasons to consider:

Complement your digital marketing campaigns well: If you already run digital marketing campaigns for your business, you can pair them with your direct mail campaign to boost the average response rate between 23% and 46%. By bridging the gap between your offline and online marketing, direct mailers designed by a leading printer in TX can significantly improve your business marketing results.·

Let you leverage multi-sensory response: Since direct mails are tangible, holding them in their hands and viewing them engages your recipients’ touch and sight senses, thus making them feel a connection to your brand. You may even add elements like sound or smell to stimulate a multi-sensory response and make your direct mailers create a deeper impact. The more senses your business mailers engage, the more would your message resonate with your target audience.

Enjoy one of the highest ROIs: Though direct mail may not be everyone’s go-to solution, it gives you one of the highest ROIs among any advertising channel. As COVID-19 has hurt businesses badly, now is the time to invest your money wisely. When you invest in one of the leading and most reliable printing services in TX for your business, you can make the most of every dollar spent.

Get noticed easily: Many businesses have stopped their marketing campaigns completely or decided to go slower to negate the impact of COVID-19. As a result, your prospects’ mailboxes are no longer full of direct mailers or other marketing materials. You can take advantage of this situation by sending them your direct mail that’ll have a much better chance of standing out easily and being eagerly read as people stuck in their homes are increasingly looking forward to their daily mails.

So, chuck your dilemma and hire our experienced printer in TX for your direct mailers now!

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How print can help your marketing in 2021

1/14/2021

Print is going to hold its ground in Plano, Texas, and everywhere else in the U.S. According to a 2020 Quocirca study, 75% of US respondents (who were IT Decision Makers) expected print volumes to remain the same or even rise compared to the pre-COVID-19 days. This makes it the right time to find a reliable and competent printer in Plano TX to meet your business printing needs. You may have reduced your print marketing budget in 2020 in an effort to stay afloat. Even though vaccination has begun, the threat of the COVID-19 still looms large. But this doesn’t mean you should put your magazine printing, small newspaper printing, direct mail printing, or flyer printing in Texas on hold. Rather, you need to find a printer in Plano, such as DFW Printing Company, for your local business that meets your business print marketing needs, lets you position your business ahead of your competitors, and contributes to your long-term growth.

With a competent printer in Texas as your partner, you can position yourself as a dependable business and enjoy the authority it brings that digital marketing can’t. By creating tangible printed materials like direct mail, catalogs, annual reports, and flyers, you can create a deeper level of engagement with your target clients and offer them a broader customer experience. These can prove quite effective to boost your business.

If you’re ready to plan your business print marketing budget for 2021, these are where you should allocate your precious dollars:

Direct mail
Compared to any other mode of advertising, direct mail response rates are 5 to 9 times higher. You can just add a name to your direct mail to boost its response rate by 135%. You can partner with a direct mail printing TX company to test your market and reach your target customers quickly and effectively before deciding to invest in more aggressive business advertising modes. Since direct mail is extremely personalized and evokes a sense of dependability and security, hiring a direct mail printing TX company is a good business decision to boost customer engagement and ROI.

Catalogs
Your target audience’s buying decisions can be significantly influenced by printed product or service catalogs, as this survey by the USPS (U.S. Postal Service) found. 72% of the respondents said the catalogs made them more engrossed in the retailer’s products while 84% bought an item after they saw it in a catalog. Investing in catalog printing would mean having an efficient customer retention tool in your marketing toolbox. That’s because people spend 15.5 minutes on average reviewing a catalog and are likely to retain them for several weeks.

By asking your catalog printer in Texas to include visually-appealing images in your catalogs along with other innovative features like smells and textures, your business can stimulate your readers' multiple senses concurrently. This could stir up positive emotions in them, thus paving the way to their long-term association with your business.

Annual reports
Printed business annual reports can help your investors and stakeholders to review key financial and operating information, thus facilitating them to understand your business stability and even evaluate your growth potential. Additionally, choosing an annual reports printing company right here in Texas would let you showcase your corporate capability. This could encourage your employees to work as a cohesive team towards achieving a common business goal.

Flyers
Not each of your targeted customers may have visited your website or interacted with you via your social media channels. Reaching them easily and making them notice your offerings can be easier and faster by distributing professionally-designed and printed flyers.
You need to design your business flyers well to help your readers skim the important facts quickly. Ideally, keep your fonts bold and large for the key points and limit your color choice to two to three, thus avoiding messy, jumbled-up flyers. Above all, choose a reliable flyer printing service - such as DFW Printing Company - to ensure you benefit from a well-designed flyer with a high-quality print finish.

Are you ready to leverage these print mediums by hiring our expert printing services right here in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex? Don’t hesitate to contact us via phone, email or our online contact forms.

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Top Direct Mail Campaign Ideas and Examples You Can Adopt Right Now

12/4/2020

While direct mail campaigns are regaining their prominence these days, it’s essential to explore fresh ideas, especially when your prospects are getting inundated with marketing materials regularly. It’s important to understand that the pieces your business sends out don’t necessarily need to be traditional. Instead, trying out captivating ideas and content can do the trick when capturing the recipients’ attention. Here, we’ve handpicked four innovative direct mail campaign ideas and three examples from leading businesses that you can adopt and use after infusing your brand’s message.

4 Exciting direct mail campaign ideas

1. Gift cards
Sending gift cards is one of the most effective ways to differentiate your business from its competitors. This approach typically performs better than sending offers or special discounts. The reason behind this is gift cards are usually considered free money. Consumers often spend more than their values when utilizing them, which essentially increases your business’s sales.

2. Traveler kit
If your business targets top-tier executives, sending traveler kits could be an effective idea to keep them engaged. In today’s globalized business landscape, frequent travel for work has become common for most people holding high-level positions. Everyday items that the kit can contain include earplugs, hand sanitizer, grooming essentials, and a book of puzzles, among others. Of course, any of these can be swapped out for something that relates more to the recipients.

3. Multiple discount coupons
Instead of sending only one offer to the recipients, why not provide them with a variety of offers/coupons? If possible, try to send multiple yet different coupons – from a specific discount on a fixed total purchase value to a certain percentage off of a particular product/service. It’ll naturally increase the chances of the recipients purchasing from your business. Additionally, the more coupons someone receives, the longer will be the shelf-life of the direct mail material.

4. 3D mailers
Rather than sending traditional two-dimensional mailers, it’s possible to surprise the audience with eye-catching three-dimensional materials. Though this approach typically generates a high response rate, it’s an expensive affair. There are two reasons behind this. First, it’ll require a professional design agency’s involvement, and second, the postage will most likely be higher because these are often considered parcels. But if your business can afford the additional costs, they’re undeniably well worth the investment.
Regardless of the idea your business wants to include in the next direct mail campaign, it’s essential to prioritize personalization. Personalization not only generates a feeling that the sender is speaking to the recipient directly, but it significantly increases the likelihood of them taking action as well.

3 Outstanding direct mail examples

1. Stadium Shoe Box from Nike

Nike created these limited edition shoeboxes to motivate kids to join athletics. Once opened, the boxes offered a resemblance to a stadium. Moreover, a sound, similar to a cheering crowd, was also produced by those innovative pieces.

2. Liberty Mutual

This auto insurance provider sent standard postcards with an innovative scratch-off feature, thus letting the recipients know of its offerings. By using the interactive pieces, it displayed the problem and the solution at the same time.

3. Earth Hour Candle Box

To motivate companies and enterprises to mark the Earth Hour, WWF produced boxes of yellow candles and sent them to industry leaders and CEOs. From the front, the boxes resembled the façade of a building with “lights turned on” and “lights switched off” when the candle is pulled out.

Wrapping up

The above ideas and examples can spice up your direct mail campaigns and make the recipients feel excited by seeing the materials. Get creative and partner with a top-tier printing service like DFW Printing Company to ensure you get the most out of your effort, time, and money.

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Industries That Can Leverage the Power of Direct Mailing

11/18/2020

With the growing popularity of online marketing, many businesses have started considering direct mailing as outdated. Big mistake as direct mailings is still a highly effective marketing method to capture new leads and generate sales. In fact, around 64% of people visit a website because of direct mails.

Direct mail can take different forms – from catalogs, postcards, and flyers to reply cards, newsletters, and more. And it isn’t merely the local retailers or grocery stores that can utilize direct mail marketing. Instead, it can be effectively used by a wide range of diverse industries. These seven industries are heavily reliant on direct mailing to accomplish their marketing goals.

1. Automobile repair shops and car dealerships
Both these industries utilize direct mail marketing as an effective method to reach out to customers depending on geographic locations. Whether your business sells/repairs luxury vehicles or entry-level cars, direct mailing can act as the cornerstone of your marketing campaign. From sending scratch-to-win postcards and promotional leaflets to attract customers to offering discount coupons – a lot can be done to publicize your business.

2. Healthcare facilities
Medical professionals, such as dentists, physicians, etc., heavily depend on regular appointments to ensure they continue to earn consistently. Direct mailing is a highly effective method to remind existing patients of their upcoming appointments or annual health checkups. Promotional flyers and new customer coupons can also be sent to let the locals know that your business is ready to accept new patients.

3. Travel and hospitality
With the help of strategic data segmentation, businesses operating in travel and hospitality can use direct mailing for targeting specific demographics. For example, to promote year-round trips, middle-class retirees can be targeted because they’ve got both the financial muscle and enough time to go on a trip, whenever they want to. Another effective option could be targeting young couples or families with kids using booklets showcasing cost-effective holiday packages when the holiday season starts approaching.

4. Real estate
In the real estate industry, direct mailing has become a prevalent method to let the world know of the offerings. For instance, if your business sells homes, direct mail letters or postcards can be sent to neighborhoods having potential buyers. First-time homebuyers can also be targeted using direct mailing to let them know of special deals and discounts. If the offers are sent at the right time, such as in spring and summer, direct mailing’s effectiveness would surely boost.

5. Insurance providers
Though it becomes a little difficult for insurance providers to leverage direct mailing, it brings in a significantly high response when done right. Since these businesses need to deal with high-value customers, a personalized approach is essential. For example, your business needs to put in the benefits that your potential clients will actually be able to enjoy by buying insurance from you. It’d also be wise to mention the features that make your business different from others.

6. Landscaping companies
Direct mailing can also be an effective method for lawn care and landscaping businesses that want to reach out to potential customers. By utilizing tactics such as displaying before and after pictures, testimonials from satisfied customers, asking for an opportunity to quote, etc, a high response rate can be easily generated.

7. HVAC companies
Sending direct mail marketing materials such as HVAC postcards may seem like an outdated method but they still work. To make the most of this method, it’s important to communicate the offerings in simple words along with incorporating a clear call-to-action based on the objectives of your business.

Closing thoughts
While direct mailing can be used to produce quality leads, a curated and well-refined mailing list is extremely important. It’d help your business ensure that the messages reach just the targeted prospective customers. The data-driven approach of DFW Printing Company ensures that its direct mailing solutions work effectively for your business. To learn how we can help, reach out to us today.

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Essential things to consider before choosing a mailing company

10/28/2020

In today’s digital age, if you thought direct mail was dead and buried, think again. According to a 2018 study, direct mail campaigns were found to generate 5X purchases than emails. But this isn’t the only reason why you should include mailing services into your marketing mix. Unlike digital advertisements or emails that are often blocked or marked as spam, direct mailing services build trust in your business. Since they’re tangible, they are more effective and appealing to humans, who seek connection through their five senses – touch being one of them. Mailing services are quite affordable and let your business target the desired clientele better. Since such services let you target particular demographics or zip codes, you’ll be able to factor in the details like family structures, average income, age groups, housing values, etc. in a specific region.

In the market, there are a lot of mailing companies that offer a wide range of services. While some may offer direct mailing or postcard mailing services, others like DFW Printing Company offer a complete range of mailing services – right from direct mails and EDDM to bulk mails. But before you choose a mailing company to meet your business mailing needs, you need to consider certain factors. These are:

Know your goals

Your business may need mailing services to achieve different goals, such as:

Customer acquisition (where your focus is on acquiring new customers)
Lead conversion (where the aim is to convert leads into sales or customers)
Upselling or cross-selling (where you’ll sell more high-end products/services to existing customers and even encourage them to buy things related to their past purchases)
Customer retention (this is where your business tries to keep existing customers happy so they continue to spend on your offerings; this can be done by making them feel special with loyalty benefits, sales preview, or similar VIP treatments)

Sometimes, blending a few of the above could be an option, too. Knowing what your business goals are lets you maximize the benefits of direct mailing services.

Create your mailing list and segment your customers

You want the right messages to reach the right people. This requires you to carefully prepare your business mailing list. If you need help, you can ask your mailing service partner if they can let you acquire targeted mailing lists. DFW Printing Company can provide you with any list and help you find the right one for your business. Once you have the mailing list, you’ll need to segment your target customers. For instance, the company CEOs on your list would be interested in messages that are completely different from what millennials would like to read about. Unless your customers are segmented properly and targeted messages are crafted to appeal to them, your business won’t benefit much from direct mailing services.

Choose the mailing format and company

From postcards, booklets, flyers, and leaflets to custom letters and magazines, there is almost an unlimited number of direct mail formats that you can choose from. Depending on what stages your targeted customers are at in their customer journey, you can choose the mailing format. The format could even be decided by what your business goals and budget are for the direct mail campaign. If you’re not sure about the right choice, having a reputable mailing service partner that’s into the printing business for over three decades like DFW Printing can help. Thus, if your business needs a wide range of mailing formats and could benefit from having a printing-and-mailing service partner rolled into one, make your choice judiciously. Trust a reliable mailing company like DFW Printing and you’ll get a print service leader with its complete suite of fulfillment services to enjoy some added benefits.

Contact us for all your mailing needs! Phone 800-903-1673, email dfwsalesgroup@dallasnews.com

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Why Your Business Must Partner With a Top-Tier Dallas Annual Report Printing Service

10/13/2020

Whether it’s a small business or a large organization, a business owner’s commitment to excellence and success remains the same. And an annual report is one of the most important mediums to highlight and share the success stories of your business. An eye-catching yet easily comprehensible annual report, printed by a reputable annual report printing service, offers a business the much-needed opportunity to attract potential investors while displaying its professionalism to the current ones.

Importance of annual reports
Your company’s annual report does more than just disclosing the revenue your business has earned in the last year and its goals for the next year. It also acts as an effective medium for business communication and your company’s branding. Additionally, if your business comes under the category of public companies, it becomes mandatory to issue an annual report to your company’s shareholders and other stakeholders to help them analyze your business’s financial performance. Another notable advantage of annual reports is that they let you show off your company’s achievements, which essentially give the shareholders a positive feeling about their involvement with your business.

Key advantages of hiring a Dallas annual report printing service
If your business is located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, joining hands with one of the leading annual report printing companies in the area would be worth the investment. Let’s take a look at the major benefits you can enjoy by partnering with such an annual report printing service.

Perfect presentation
Regardless of the type and volume of your business, annual reports need to communicate appropriate and crucial information effectively. Here, presentation plays an extremely important role in ensuring the key messaging doesn’t get lost. An experienced Fort Worth annual reports printing service would make sure proper representation of data visualization backed by easily comprehensible descriptions. It’d essentially attract your prospective investors to inquire about the products and services offered by your business.

Proper communication of crucial information
As the key objective of annual reports is to inspire confidence among current and potential investors, they must contain well-conceptualized sections that offer real insights into your business. For instance, an effective annual report should comprise sections such as introduction, auditor’s report, director’s report, operational review, financial statements, and future expansion plans, among others. This kind of detailed and structured showcasing of your company’s finances and future plans can only be accomplished by a top-notch annual report printing service.

Quick turnaround
This is one of the most obvious benefits of hiring an experienced Dallas annual report printing service such as DFW Printing Company, Inc. With more than 50 years of experience in the field, and it has the best infrastructure in the area and a robust team of experienced print professionals who’re capable of printing annual reports on strict deadlines. Additionally, its knowledgeable print team is available to answer any of your questions and to meet any urgent needs.

Custom works
Every business is different, and so is their requirement when it comes to annual report printing. That’s why your business needs to find fully customized services offered by a competent print team that works closely with you/your designer to deliver the best results. And if the chosen printer provides pre-press services, it can make sure the final document comes out with the highest quality to impress the target audience.

Parting thoughts
Unlike popular belief, printed annual reports will never become obsolete because of their durability and ability to act as an effective marketing vehicle that leaves a lasting impression. At DFW Printing Company, we offer annual report printing services for businesses of all sizes, along with a wide range of options to meet the exact needs of your business. Contact us today to get a quote on your particular project, and we’ll take it forward from there.

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Top 4 factors to keep in mind when getting restaurant menus printed

9/30/2020

Usually, little thought goes into designing the restaurant menu before businesses hand them over to menu printing companies. Most people consider the goal of restaurant menus to just show a customer the food items on offer and their corresponding prices. But there’s a lot more to it than what meets the eye. Your restaurant menu acts as the gateway to your business identity and brand. By getting the menu designed and printed right, your business can help the customers in their decision-making process and even encourage them to try specific dishes (which could be the ones that have the highest profit margin).

Here’re four key factors that should be remembered before your restaurant menu is sent to your printing partner:

1. Don’t stuff too many options in too little space: The restaurant menu design company hired to design the menu should include limited food options to avoid overwhelming customers. Some may feel the more it is, the merrier it would be. However, according to a psychological theory called the “paradox of choice,” putting more options in your restaurant menu would make your customers feel more anxious when ordering. This could make them choose wrong. Thus, when they leave, they’ll feel less satiated. Though it could be because of their wrong choice, they could have a negative perception of your business and may not return. So, it’s ideal to keep the menu limited and straightforward, enticing customers to try something new or even different (that might be a bit more expensive).

2. Organize the menu logically: Your restaurant menu should reflect the sequence in which people usually eat the dishes on offer. This means the menu should begin with breakfast items followed by those offered as part of lunch and dinner. The lunch and dinner menus should ideally list the appetizers first, followed by the main course and then the dessert. However, suppose your restaurant has items that work the best when paired together or offers specialties like chef’s recommendations. In that case, the menu design could be tweaked to highlight them so that the customers feel enticed to give them a try.

3. Be judicious with the use of images: Humans often respond to the photos on display similar to how they would respond to a plate in front of them. Businesses can use it to their benefit by including extremely high-quality professional images. The more realistic such images are, the more will they stimulate the customers’ response to it. However, it’s ideal to use just a limited number of images. But there’s a risk too. Not all food photography will appeal to everyone. Additionally, the inclusion of images would escalate the cost of laminated menu printing or take out menu printing. Some restaurants prefer not to use any pictures in their menus because they believe it best to leave the food’s quality to their customer’s imagination. Those belonging to this league could avoid using images or opt for illustrations instead as they tend to be more universally-appealing.

4. Make the prices as inconspicuous as possible: Restaurant menus shouldn’t emphasize the currency signs or the dishes’ cost. A Cornell University study found customers tend to spend more when currency signs were omitted than when they were mentioned (either as the $ sign or written-out prices like ‘fifty dollars’). The use of dotted lines that lead the customers’ eyes from the menu item to its price is a cardinal sin that should be avoided. Businesses that make customers overly aware of the amount they are spending miss out on the chance of selling pricey items. Ideally, the menu design should list the price as discretely as possible, in the same size font as that of the item’s name and/or description, to help the customers’ eye simply glide over it.

If your business needs a restaurant menu print company, get in touch with us here at DFW Printing Company by calling 800-903-1673 or sending us an email at dfwsalesgroup@dallasnews.com.

We are happy to help you with all your restaurant menu printing needs!

5 custom marketing materials your business should start using

9/4/2020

Despite the emphasis on digital marketing, print marketing is far from dead. Though businesses often put traditional print marketing materials on the back burner, not using them is a big mistake. Contrary to popular belief, most people love printed business marketing materials – including the millennials. The reasons are varied – from digital fatigue triggered by data overload to advertisements by pushy brands and mistrust caused by data mishandling. If your business isn’t using custom print marketing materials, here are five to begin with:

1. Business cards
These are the must-have business marketing materials for any business – be it small, large, or anything in-between. Business cards help establish your brand and are considered useful in boosting your business’s credibility. Additionally, they act as a tangible and physical identification for your business. Unlike exchanging phone numbers with a prospect or writing down the website address, handing a business card would make your business appear more professional and organized, indicating that it’s ready to take on more clients. Compared to digital marketing that can be seen on a computer screen or the screen of a smart device, seeing and feeling something in your hands invokes stronger emotions. So, make sure your business cards are well-designed and have the necessary information for potential and returning customers to reach you.

To get your Business cards printed, click here>>

2. Letterheads
To position your business favorably in the market, custom letterheads can be a great tool as they provide authenticity to your printed communications with clients. The use of quality paper for your business letterheads and having a full-color logo printed on it would stand testimony to how detailed attention is paid to all aspects of your business. Apart from showcasing your brand accurately, custom letterheads can be a potent tool to attract and convince potential customers to choose your business offerings over similar competitors. Since letterheads are often one of the first contact points with potential customers, customizing them to align with your brand image would help impress customers, strengthen brand awareness, and benefit the bottom-line.

For custom Letterhead printing, please email us here>>

3. Postcards
To tap into the local clientele, say within a 2-mile radius of your business, custom made postcards can be a useful tool. Since custom postcards are handy, easy to design, and affordable, they can help your business expand its clientele and boost sales quickly. The key is to be precise with the message that your company wishes to convey and choose the layout and size right. Whether such postcards are mailed using a custom-built direct mailing list or via EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) services, they can help businesses reach potential clients that they won’t otherwise reach and impress easily.

For our Postcard Printing Services, click here>>

4. Booklets
Booklets can be a useful resource for your business’s potential and existing customers. They are somewhat similar to brochures though they’re different too as they contain more information within their pages. Apart from being one of the least expensive print marketing materials, booklets score due to their versatility, which can be used for many offerings. Be it self-cover or softcover booklet options or different binding methods in use like saddle stitching, spiral bound, perfect bound, or wire-o bound, your print experts at DFW Printing can do them.

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5. Brochures
Every business should have brochures to let customers know about their products and services. Even when someone has just a few seconds to interact with a potential client, handing out a custom brochure will facilitate a much more in-depth conversation with them through the printed words. Your business brochures should be visually appealing with well-placed images and texts to catch the consumers’ attention. Additionally, they should use the right colors to tap into human emotions and encourage the desired actions.
If you need help with printing any of these custom business marketing materials, you can discuss your needs with our team here at DFW Printing Company by calling 800-903-1673 or sending us an email to dfwsalesgroup@dallasnews.com.

Our Brochures & Flyer Printing options can be found here>>

5-STEP PREPRESS CHECKLIST TO GET YOUR DESIGN READY FOR PRINT

8/12/2020

5-STEP PREPRESS CHECKLIST TO GET YOUR DESIGN READY FOR PRINT

You may have been sending your marketing materials to our Dallas print shop for quite some time to get them printed. But did you know you could follow a prepress checklist to ensure nothing gets lost in transition between your desktop and our Dallas print shop? But what does “prepress” mean? In simple words, it refers to all the processes that take place before printing and finishing.
Whether it’s a magazine, a business brochure, or postcard mailing, when you send your design files to our Dallas printing company, we will be checking and proofing those files before they go to print. Usually, that’s our prepress department. Not spotting and fixing a mistake in prepress could end up being costly to fix down the line and delay the print project. Even our Dallas printing company has a prepress department, carrying out your own step-by-step prepress examination of your design files could help save time, money, and potential headaches. Given below is a five-step checklist that would ensure your printed business marketing materials appear on paper just as you have envisioned them.

1. Proofread Everything

Grammatical errors and typos in your printed materials will have a negative impact on your brand image, and your customers may decide not to read further or even choose your competitors instead to do business with you. So, make sure you conduct linguistic proofreading to fix typos as well as grammatical and spelling errors. Check the overall flow of the language used in your printed materials too. Additionally, conduct prepress proofreading that checks the visual appeal of the text from a graphic viewpoint and fixes elements like uneven line breaks, inconsistent font/text spacing, etc. It always helps to have a few additional people proof-read and check your files.

2. Confirm the Size and Resolution of Your Images

You should always save your design files at the highest possible resolution. This way, you can scale an image down, if needed. Ideally, you should never enlarge photos more than 20% of their original size or else, their output resolution in the printed document would be adversely affected and print pixelated. Before printing, you must double-check your image resolution. This doesn’t just mean the resolution of images in your design but even the resolution your entire final draft is saved at. Reach out to our print expert if you have questions!

3. Check Color Accuracy

Did you know digital cameras and computer screens show light and color in different spectrums than what they will look like when printed? While the additive RGB (Red, Green, Blue) model is used by most (not all though) design software programs, printers usually use the subtractive CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) model to overlay diverse intensities of each tone to create the complete range of colors. Check with our Dallas printers on what type of color settings they need. In doubt, they can always help.

4. Calibrate Your Screens

Check your images on differently calibrated monitors to find how different they are from each other. You may even print the design off to notice small differences that you’re unable to see on your monitor. Ensuring your images are correct before sending them to your printer can avoid headaches and unsatisfactory results. When in doubt, always communicate with our print experts here at our Dallas printing facility.

5. Keep an Eye on Imposition

Imposition refers to the process of organizing all the pages of your design onto the paper to print faster and in the most effective way. Keep an eye on imposition and don’t forget to add a bit of extra space to your design to make up for the binding. Our Dallas print shop experts can give you exact information and templates on how much space is needed and where.

Closing Thoughts

Communicate clearly with our print shop on what your expectations are and also discuss effects you want to have on your finished print product. There are many options available such as glossy, spot UV coating, satin finish, etc. If you need reliable printing in Dallas, TX, come to us DFW Printing Company, Inc. - we have our own in-house prepress department. You can reach us at 800-903-1673 or via dfwsalesgroup@dallasnews.com. Let’s discuss your next print project.

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TOP 7 IDEAS TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS WITH PRINTED POSTCARDS & DIRECT MAIL

8/1/2020

TOP 7 IDEAS TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS WITH PRINTED POSTCARDS & DIRECT MAIL

If you’re a small business owner looking for cost-effective ways to market your business, you need to try using printed postcards and direct mail. In case you own a big business that’s trying to extend its reach via innovative means, printed postcards and direct mail campaigns should be on your marketing strategy list. Despite (or rather because of) their simplicity, direct mail postcards are extremely effective when it comes to building brand awareness, boosting traffic to your online and/or physical store, and improving sales. Apart from their design flexibility, postcards can also serve a dual marketing purpose as you can utilize them as standalone marketing tools or as a component of your other marketing pieces.

If you’re struggling to find ideas for your Dallas postcard printing project or need help with your Fort Worth postcards marketing campaign, here are seven ideas that can help:

1. The BOGO Postcard

Customers love freebies. When you print and distribute BOGO (Buy One, Get One free) postcards, you’re sure to grab the attention of your target customers. Make sure your business is ready to handle the number of customers willing to try your product or service for free. If customers who buy from you have a memorable experience, they’re almost sure to return and may even do some word-of-the-mouth publicity for free among their networks of friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, etc.

2. The Promotional Postcard

These are ideal to let people know about special events and deals, which could be anything from an upcoming event, clearance bargain, and off-season sales to discount vouchers, hard-to-beat deals, etc. If you want to dispose of your dated inventory while giving your sales a big boost, promotional postcards could help a lot.

3. The VIP/MVP Postcard

People will remember for a long time how you make them feel. Leverage this psychology by making your target customers or your most frequent buyers feel special by giving them a VIP/MVP postcard where they get special privileges or can score points for each purchase, which can be redeemed later. This is a smart way of marketing your products and services by making a particular category of customers feel special and encouraging them to buy more.

4. The General Information Postcard

They hold all the key information about your business such as your store location, contact information, and the address of every offline and online purchase portal. With those custom made postcards, you would be able to reach and impress every customer.

5. The Segmented Postcard

These printed postcards are designed to appeal specifically to your submarkets. Thus, you can create Fort Worth postcards for your most frequent shoppers in the Fort Worth area or those who buy from you every month. If you run a restaurant or a café in Dallas, you could create Dallas postcards that target vegans and vegetarians, taco lovers, beer lovers, etc. specifically in the Dallas area.

6. The Greeting Postcard

These postcards are sent on a customer’s birthday, anniversary, or on special holidays like Christmas, Labor Day, Memorial Day, etc. You could even send postcards without any special occasion like TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) postcards or “beating the Monday blues” postcards. The idea is to use special occasions (and even the not-so-special days) to create leads and convert them into sales.

7. The Referral Reward Postcard

With these custom printed postcards, you can encourage your existing customers to act as your brand ambassadors and send referrals your way while earning perks and discounts for themselves.

Conclusion

Other printed postcards that you may use include save-the-date postcards, CTA (call-to-action) postcards, reminder postcards, welcome postcards (for new customers/home owners/car owners/ new parents, etc), thank you postcards, etc. If you’re searching for a reliable postcard printing company in Texas, trust DFW Printing Company, Inc. to deliver high-quality printing services for your business postcards and direct mailing campaigns. Reach us now by dialing 800-903-1673 or via email at dfwsalesgroup@dallasnews.com.

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