PrintRoundTable

Does My Business Need Sell Sheets?

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Sell sheets can get you a lot of affordable attention. My1Stop.com customers who order sell sheets tell us that getting a good return is about design and placement - of course having a great supplier helps, too.   Sell sheet design. Designing sell sheets that look very much like a brochure is a common mistake that many unsuccessful sell sheet programs have in common. Our customers suggest that a sell sheet should look and “behave” more like an advertisement than a brochure. The design needs to be simple and eye catching like most great ads and the sell sheet content should “behave” in a focused manner – relying on a very few key sales features and benefits to prompt interest . As an example, a poor sell sheet design would have only one picture – or more than four – include minimal copy or way too much detailed copy – and include no benefits or long list of them.   A great real estate sell sheet design would be printed on one side, show a large curb-side picture of the house and three to four images of the best features of the house. The features would include the price and the number of bedrooms, baths and extra rooms and one or two benefits that set the home apart from its’ competitors. Benefits might be proximity to schools, parks, mass transit and the like.     Sell sheet placement. Location.  Location. Location.  Here’s the rule of thumb for where to display your sell sheets; anywhere you can that has relevance to your products and services – and where your customers are. As an example, the real estate sell sheets you see in boxes on for sale signs are a great example of well place sell sheets. So, too, are trade show booths, your office lobby, with other retailers who sell complimentary goods or services.   Your business needs sell sheets if you can be certain that your sell sheets can be placed in highly relevant places and if you can create a design that is more like an ad than a brochure.   If you want to see some successful sell sheets, just let me know. We have examples from many businesses and organizations from around the country – we’re happy to help you succeed.

Direct Mail - What are the options for Direct Mail?

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Direct mail used to be a letter and envelope or an insert in an advertising deck. Times have changed. Direct mail now includes a range of fresh, new products that have proven to drive response rates to new levels. I’ll include a few of the most popular new direct mail options available from My1Stop.com.     Plastic postcard mailers are exploding in use.  These unique products are about as thick as a credit card, come in standard post card sizes and - best of all – they enable you to include plastic cards as a part of the mailing piece. The plastic postcard mailers we see the most of include gift cards. We see so many of these because the “offer” is ready to “snap out” – providing instant interaction for the recipient – and huge time-to-mail, and overall mailing cost, reductions.  These plastic postcard mailers eliminate the need for the mailer (you) to print an envelope, print plastic cards, print a letter, insert the card and letter and drop the letter for mailing – at a pretty heavy postage cost. Instead, plastic postcard mailers combine the letter, the plastic card and the envelope into a single mailing piece.  And the entire piece can sometimes be mailed at post card rates. That’s a big wow for most direct mailers. Another trend in direct mail printing is personalization. Again, times have changed. Used to be that personalizing a mailing piece was expensive and the result was a bit odd looking. No more. Post card printing and brochure printing can easily be done with names, numbers, bar codes and even graphics changed on for each mailing piece. Often, the cost for this type of direct mail printing is nominal. If you’re preparing a direct mail campaign, or just trying to learn more, be sure to look into plastic postcard printing and variable data when doing brochure printing and traditional postcard printing.

Rack Cards- What Are The Advantages Of Rack Cards?

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Hotels, tourist info centers, gas stations and souvenir shops have at least one thing in common – displays full of rack cards. Rack cards are a compelling marketing tool for many businesses; and for My1Stop.com rack card printing is a real specialty. Here are a few of the advantages that rack cards offer over brochures, postcards and business cards.   Rack cards can be the better brochure. The main advantages rack card printing has over brochure printing are the lower costs, easier portability, higher visibility and customer familiarity. Let me explain. When comparing “typical” costs, rack cards come in about 2 to 1 over brochures, primarily because rack cards are smaller than brochures. The smaller size also make rack card easier to carry around and to stuff into a car visor or door pocket. Rack cards are definitely more portable than a typical brochure. The displays you see in tourist areas are built for the standard rack card size – not for standard brochure sizes – this creates an opportunity for rack cards to be more visible than brochures in locations that have rack card displays.   Finally, customers are used to seeing rack card and rack card displays; they are familiar with the whole rack card set up. In fact, many tourists seek out rack card.   Rack cards are the bigger postcard. Much like brochures, postcards just don’t work well in the rack card display system and a standard postcard offers less room for graphics and details than a typical rack card. There’s about 25% more space on a rack card – giving the marketer that much more room to include larger or more images and text.   Rack cards are an expanded business card. Rack cards have the advantage over almost any printed piece, because of the display racks. Business cards, too, just don’t have the display advantages that rack cards do. But, a good rack card design is really just an expansion of a good business card. In fact, a great rack card uses images and a bit more text to bring your business card – and your business to life.   If you’re considering rack card printing for your business, make sure that your goods or services have high, relevant value to the customers who will view your cards in every display rack where they will be seen. Rack cards have a lot of advantages over other marketing materials, when you target your message and your audience accordingly.

What Do You Mean When You Say, “Custom Luggage Tags?”

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With so many different types of luggage tags to choose from, trying to find custom luggage tags – that meet your definition - can be tough.  Custom luggage tags like those offered by My1Stop.com are uniquely, well, custom. Let me explain . . .   Custom luggage tags, to me, are credit card sized plastic luggage tags. Each side is custom printed with your design. One or both sides are printed with personalization that you supply. Your design is printed from artwork files that you provide. Personalization is printed from the names and contact information or other variable data that you have assembled into a spreadsheet type of file. Once the artwork and spreadsheet files are combined and printed, you have true custom luggage tags!   More Than The “Slide In Your Business Card” Style There are, to some, other types of custom luggage tags. Many of these tags are printed with a design or logo – but personalization is not printed. Typically, personalization is provided by having a pocket to slide a hand written or pre-printed card into. To me, that’s not really a custom luggage tag – it’s a great product – but it’s not totally custom.   Not All Custom Luggage Tags Are Created Equal So custom luggage tags include a custom design and factory printed personalization. That’s custom. Lots of suppliers offer true custom luggage tags, but look out. Not all custom luggage tags are printed the same way. The best suppliers print custom luggage tags digitally. Why? Because digital printing provides the highest print quality at the lowest cost. In fact, digitally printed custom luggage tags are photo-quality tags that feature special coatings that provide the benefit of protecting the design and personalization. When printed on 30 mil material, digitally printed custom luggage tags provide a long lasting, durable solution   OK. Now you’re an expert on custom luggage tags. Be sure you choose a custom luggage tag printing partner who understands what custom really means and who prints in full digital color!    

How To Choose The Right Commercial Printing Company

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Choosing the right commercial printing company really is pretty simple. The check list below is based on responses from customers who shared why they selected My1Stop.com as their commercial printing company. Product Breadth Said another way, product breath means lots of commercial printing products – available from a single source. Commercial printing companies who offer lots of products provide you the benefits of one-stop-shopping from a vendor that you know and trust. Of course, the commercial printing company has to offer great service, competitive pricing and a 100% satisfaction guarantee!   Product Depth The more options available for a commercial printing product, the more depth the supplier has. The benefit of product depth is what unique, trend setting and innovative products grow out of. Commercial printing suppliers who offer product depth, keep your marketing materials – and campaigns – fresh, active and effective.   Ease Of Ordering Do you prefer to get pricing and order online, or do you prefer “live” help? Maybe you prefer e-mail or chats to get info and place orders. The right commercial printing partner will do business with you in any of these ways – on your terms. Keep looking until you find the commercial printing company that will work the way you want them to.   Their GuaranteeLast – but not least – work with a commercial printing company that guarantees their work. How they phrase their guarantee is important, of course, but more important is how well they back up their guarantee – whatever it is! Make sure you know your commercial printing partner’s guarantee and be certain that will back it up for you.   That’s it. Commercial printing vendors are everywhere – but there’s probably only one who’s right for you!

Are Fundraiser Cards Actually Effective?

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Are fundraiser cards really an effective way to raise funds? If they don’t help raise funds . . . why use them!  It turns out that most My1Stop.com customers who use fundraiser cards are quite passionate about the value and simplicity of their card programs. Here’s a bit of insight that our customers who rely on fundraiser cards have shared with us. Hopefully, these insights will help you start or get more from, a fundraiser card program.Easy To Set Up Setting up a plastic fundraiser card program is really easy! Many start with a local school, club or organization reaching out to local merchants. The merchants agree to provide a part of each sale made with the cards back to the organization who issues the cards. Simple software makes tracking easy and accurate. Another approach is to work with just merchants, like a sandwich shop. The fundraiser cards work like coupons, giving the consumer a bit of a discount and the issuing organization a piece of each sale using their cards. Most merchants can track these sales easily with their POS systems!   Few Social Implications The bake sale is under fire. In NY alone, schools are now prohibited from conducting bake sales because the baked goods sold at the sale supposedly contribute to obesity in school kids. Because of this, many schools looking for an alternative to bake sales are finding fundraiser cards to be a more sociably acceptable way to fill the fundraising gap left when their bake sales were canceled. Fundraiser cards come with a great deal of social acceptability and familiarity!   Great Returns Many fundraiser card based programs generate upwards of 40 to 50 percent of the sales back to the issuing organization. In these tight times – or really anytime – that’s a great return on the minimal investment required to get a fundraiser card program up and running! If you’re looking for free samples and fundraiser card ideas, get with our customer service team. They offer free samples – and free advice!

Why choose Custom Printing?

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Custom printing means something different to almost every designer, business and organization. Custom printing done by companies like ours, My1Stop.com , that prints many different types of products – all from the artwork that you provide.  It’s your artwork that makes the printing, custom! Much like your artwork, no two custom printing companies are alike. Our customers tell us what makes for a great custom printing company, and we have answered the challenge. Any Way You Want It Customer Service From toll free phone and fax to instant chat e-mail and mail, our customers tell us that access to customer service – on their terms – is hyper important. According to customers like you, that’s what great custom printing suppliers have to deliver first– not ink on paper, not even experience – its world class customer service that comes first for our customers – that’s why we offer free phone and fax to instant chat e-mail and mail – and even on-site visits.   Experience Once a customer gets a hold of a custom printing company, they want experience. Only the best custom printing companies successfully combine experienced customer service, art prep, printing, finishing and shipping that exceeded customer expectations. That’s how we’ve built our business – and each of our customer relationships. After all, a great price and a fast turnaround don’t guarantee quality custom printing – that’s something that only experience can deliver.   Guaranteed This is a major biggie with most of our customers. A great deal of customer assurance is needed when a project must exactly match customer supplied designs, material and printing choices. That’s why we guarantee 100% satisfaction with every custom printing project we complete for every customer – ever day. If you need more information about our custom printing capabilities, pricing or even free samples, just let our customer service team know – via e-mail, mail, toll free phone or fax – or even online chat. They will respond in any way you want them to with experience and our 100% satisfaction guarantee!