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READ THE LATEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
Desktop Publishing Tricks for the Do-it-yourselfer
If you have a small business, you probably cannot afford to hire a professional designer to do all of your promotional materials. While a good designer can really help your materials to be effective, you can do a respectable job yourself if you follow a few simple design tricks. (read more)
7 Tricks in Making Your Own Cards
Business cards are an important part of making a connection with potential clients. Most people can not even remember the name of a person they just met. If you want people to remember you and actually give you a call, you need a business card to hand out. These tricks will help you to create a business card that will make an impression. (read more)
Ways to Create Enviable Business Cards
Do your business cards make your competition green with envy? If they don't, then they should. Here are 4 easy ways to create enviable business cards that will make your business card printing the talk of the town. (read more)
How To Improve Your Business Cards
Almost anyone can design business cards, but do you know how to take your ordinary design and turn it into something that will be remembered? Here are some step by step ideas for recreating your typical business card that will take your card beyond the competitors' designs and turn it into an advertising machine. (read more)
Elements of a Successful Postcard Campaign
As more and more businesses shift advertising and marketing to online formats, your business may very well be able to take advantage of marketing’s secret weapon – postcard printing. Arguably the most cost effective and efficient advertising tool, postcard printing has had one major Achilles’ heel: major competition with junk mail. But with fewer businesses taking advantage of postcard printing, the mailbox landscape is much less cluttered. (read more)
Is Bigger Better With Postcards
Imagine opening your mailbox and finding an oversized postcard. Now, what's your next move? Obviously, your curiosity is probably piqued. So, you at least give the postcard a glance. As a business owner considering a postcard printing campaign, would you consider this a success story if this postcard had been yours? Absolutely! (read more)
Color Theory
For the do-it-yourself business person, there are a number of design tips and tricks that can go a long way in improving the professionalism of your color printing projects. Don’t worry too much, these are not complicated theories or difficult concepts that you have to grasp. The only thing you really need to have available is a color wheel, like the one below. (read more)
Trends in Catalog Printing
Catalog printing is still a necessary part of a well rounded marketing and advertising campaign. Catalogs serve as a reference material for customers, provide opportunities for cross selling, and keep your products and services at your customers’ fingertips. Catalog printing often has a high return on investment, so expect catalog printing to be around for long time yet. (read more)
Viral Sticker Marketing
Viral marketing refers to using social networks – friends, family, customers, etc. – to spread a message via word of mouth. Modern viral marketing includes e-mails and using digital social networks for communication as well. The beauty of developing a viral marketing campaign is that it grows on its own, sometimes exponentially! All you have to do is get it going and more and more people begin to hear about it. (read more)
Costliest Postcard Mistakes
It is hard to argue with the fact that postcard printing is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways of advertising through direct mail marketing. Postcard printing is easy to do and with professional printing firms that can handle the direct mail responsibilities, there is almost zero stress your business. Yet many businesses make the mistake of rushing through a postcard printing campaign without taking the time to carefully plan. This article discusses some of the costliest postcard printing mistakes that companies tend to make when in a rush. (read more)
The Case of Glossy Business Cards
This article discusses the case of glossy business card printing as a way to stand out from the crowd. Glossy business cards are cost effective, enhance professionalism, increase visibility, and improve durability. Each is explained below in greater detail so that you can be sure to make the right choice for the finish on your business card. (read more)
Branding Through Print Advertising
Print advertising is the tried and true method for establishing and reinforcing your company’s brand. The reason is simple - printed materials stay in front of your customers for a longer period of time than other advertising methods, such as television or radio. But where can you start? What are the best ways to brand through print advertising? This article will give you a framework for a well-rounded print advertising campaign designed to reinforce and build your brand. (read more)
Brochures and Flyers to Market your Business
While word of mouth is a powerful tool for growth, most companies understand that it simply takes consistent advertising if you want your business to grow. One of the most effective marketing and advertising tools are brochures and flyers. Printing campaigns that incorporate brochures and flyers have proven to be highly successful as well as cost-effective. This article discusses several ways printed brochures and flyers can be used to advertise. (read more)
6 Things You Can Do For Interesting Brochures
Creating a brochure takes time and money, so be sure your investment in a brochure printing is well spent by making your brochures as interesting as possible. Brochures are designed to hold a significant amount of information, so you need extra tricks to get people to turn the page and keep reading. (read more)
Business Cards: Keeping Your Customers in Mind
It’s easy to get carried away with business card printing and design. The temptation is to develop a unique business card design that will stand out from the crowd. You must keep your customer in mind if you want to make sure that they will be able to keep your business card around for later use. This article discusses why readability, accessibility, and visibility are so important for business card printing by looking at how your customers keep your business card around. (read more)
Gather Valuable Customer Data by Printing Stickers
Everybody loves a sticker. As early as grade school we were taught that stickers were a good thing to get. Often we were rewarded for doing something well with the sticker. To this day, stickers are still a positive symbol in our culture. (read more)
Brochure Layout Tips and Ideas
Boring brochures abound. It’s easy to see why this happens: we all get in a rut and designing interesting brochures is often the last thing on our minds. But think about how much wasted time and money this kind of thinking can result in. Boring brochures are sure to be thrown away by your customers, probably before even having read them.(read more)
How To Make Money With Direct Mailing
For businesses new to direct mailing, the terms, lingo, and economics can be confusing and frustrating. The whole goal of direct mailing is to make you money, so it is important to understand how the system works. This article discusses the typical expenses for a direct mailing campaign and basic ways to predict how many potential customers it will make. (read more)
New Year Printing Ideas
The holiday season is by far the biggest spending season of the year for individuals and businesses. Yet many businesses focus entirely too much on Christmas and forget about the other big holiday of the season: New Year’s Day. New Year’s Day has an entirely different feeling and tone than that of Christmas, and any printing campaigns that you do should reflect this change of tone. This article discusses several important New Year’s Day printing considerations that can help you tap into the other big holiday that everybody seems to have forgotten. (read more)
How To Design a Brochure For Your School Event/Program
Printing brochures is a great way to tell people about an event, but you will want to keep a few things in mind when designing a brochure.(read more)
Succeed as a Graphic Designer by Specializing on a Niche
Starting a career in graphic design can be a challenge, especially when you haven't defined your unique niche. Knowing what specific area or areas of graphic design in which you wish to offer services will help you to create a more focused, and therefore, successful business. For instance, if you know that your skills are perfect for booklet printing design, start in this niche. You can always expand later if necessary.(read more)
A Compilation of Useful Online Resources for Graphic Designers
The internet offers a wide variety of tutorials and other helpful websites for graphic designers. Whether you are printing posters or designing websites, there is something out there for you, and there is no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of the wealth of information out there. (read more)
How To Promote Your Local Church Event
Whether you need to advertise a for one-time event or for an established congregation, advertising with a poster campaign is worthwhile and cost-effective. Because they are low-cost, posters allow for frequent updates without going over budget. The first step is to define what you want to accomplish with your marketing dollars, such as to grow your congregation. Once that is done, consider these tips when planning your poster printing campaign. (read more)
How To Prepare for an Advertising Copywriting Career
Those wishing to succeed in an advertising career as a copywriter may be at a loss as to how they should go about it or even where to start. Copywriting and advertising itself can be highly competitive and exclusive jobs to obtain. Here are some tips on what to pursue and also what to avoid when building your copywriting career. (read more)
How To Jumpstart a Career in Graphic Design
Graphic design is the perfect career for anyone who is self-motivated and can create original designs for the Web or for print. Whether you are currently in graphic design school or don't even know where to begin, here are the steps you need to take to jumpstart your career in graphic design. (read more)
Postcard Pandemonium
Many businesses have figured out that postcard printing is one of the most inexpensive yet effective marketing tools at their disposal. There are simply few better ways to reach so many people at so little cost. Add to the fact that many professional printing firms will handle the postcard printing responsibilities as well as the direct mailing role, and you can see why postcard printing is so popular. (read more)
New Year's Direct Mail Marketing
The New Year carries with it not only the symbol of a fresh start, but many businesses are also in a position to make significant purchases. If you have a number of business to business relationships with customers, you should strongly consider direct mail marketing around the New Year. Here are a few ideas you can consider for a New Year's marketing campaign. (read more)
Managing Restaurant Menus
One of the more exhausting and frustrating tasks that many restaurant owners and managers face is maintaining their menus. This makes menu printing an important topic for these business people, as it takes up a great deal of time. Menus often change on a regular basis, have liquids spilled upon them, or simply suffer from normal wear and tear. So here are a few ideas to get the most out of your menu printing, as well as some trends that restaurants tend to be following. (read more)
How To Develop Your Own Direct Mail Campaign
If you own a business and have never done your own direct mail campaign, this article is for you. Many businesses have found direct mail campaigns to be one of their greatest marketing tools at their disposal. The reasons are simple: direct mail is inexpensive, affective, and professional printing firms can handle both printing and mailing responsibilities. (read more)
Effective Networking with Business Cards
Arguably the least expensive and most effective networking tool that a business person can use are their business cards. Yet many people fail to follow a few simple rules that can improve their networking skills dramatically. Besides, what is the point of handing out your business cards if you are ultimately not reconnecting at some later point. (read more)
Content and Design of Newsletters
Newsletters can be used in almost any industry for connecting with customers or club members. Although newsletter printing can take a lot of time, they show recipients that their relationship with you is important. Both the content and the design takes careful consideration to create sales and impress clients, so use the following tips for newsletter printing that promotes loyal customers. (read more)
Choosing a Custom Font For Your Business Card
Because of the delicate nature of business cards, choosing the right font can be a tricky venture. The right kind of font can either intrigue prospects and set your card apart, while a difficult font can be a disaster. Prospects might decide that your business is not worth the effort of deciphering your contact information. (read more)
Choosing the Right Fold for Your Brochure
One of the first decisions to be made when planning your brochure design is the type of fold to use. It is important to keep in mind your purpose and also the limitations associated with each folding option when deciding which one is right for your brochure. Below is a guideline of brochure folds available along with advantages and disadvantages of each. (read more)
Press Kits for Musicians and Bands
What few bands realize is the importance of working with a professional printing firm. Almost every element of your press kit will need to be professionally printed. As you read through these press kit essentials, notice how almost every item requires some type of printed materials. (read more)
5 Design Ideas for Thanksgiving Marketing
Graphic designing for Thanksgiving can be slightly tricky when trying to be unique. Thankfully, this holiday provides a wide variety of ideas from which to choose when designing your marketing materials. Here are five ideas to help you design a one-of-a-kind Thanksgiving marketing campaign that consumers will gobble right up. (read more)
Biggest Booklet Printing Blunders
Booklet printing is fraught with disasters. The main point that catches most designers and small businesses off guard is that booklets are typically printed in four and eight page increments. This makes having just the right information in just the right place difficult. It’s easy to mess up on a number of levels. So take a look at of some of the biggest booklet printing blunders businesses tend to make. Hopefully you can avoid some of these mistakes and save yourself a lot of time and money. (read more)
Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations with Brochures
Fund raising for non-profit organizations is an absolutely vital part of survival. Brochure printing and advertising through direct mail is one of the more versatile and effective methods for connecting with potential donors. Brochures give you an opportunity to tell your story in full color without the limitations of size that postcards or greeting cards may present. (read more)
Choosing the Right Brochure Printing Company
Now that anyone can go online, upload their files, and order brochures, the major challenge is finding the right printing firm. How can you separate the professionals and amateurs? How do you know if your brochure printing project is a right fit for a particular company? (read more)
Printing and Style Considerations for Business Cards
A basic card, picture cards, or die cut cards are just a few examples of styles available. Each style of business card creates a different impression, so choose carefully. The following are some business card styles and printing considerations you should think through. (read more)
Corporate Identity: Design Trends and Printing
Not all corporate identity trends translate well to print. Designing and implementing a corporate identity that is not effective in print can create some serious advertising and marketing problems later. The following are a few corporate identity trends in design and some printing considerations. (read more)
Design Tips for Brochures and Flyers
It’s important that your brochures and flyers are unique, readable, connect with your customers, and include a call to action. It’s not easy to design brochures and flyers that effectively include all of these elements. So keep the following tips and tricks in mind when designing. (read more)
Tips for Halloween Graphic Design
Whether you are a designer looking for ideas for a client or a small business owner who wants to design some marketing materials yourself, Halloween provides lots of opportunities for getting creative. This popular holiday opens up new avenues of design techniques for reaching your customers and beating out the competition. The following are a few tips to raise your creativity from the grave. (read more)
Business Card Design Tips for Professional Designers
Maybe you have been designing professionally for years and just need a refresher course. Maybe you’re new to design and need a basic “how-to” article so you can give your client a good first impression. Either way, we all need reminders once in awhile to make sure we stay focused on what’s important. This article reviews key considerations you should keep in mind when designing business cards for your clients. (read more)
Direct Marketing Tips for Thanksgiving
Many businesses become so caught up with Christmas that they forget about Thanksgiving. Skip this holiday, though, and you are missing out on some valuable opportunities to show customers how much you care and also to promote your image. Holidays are a great time for incorporating fresh direct marketing techniques, and Thanksgiving is no exception. The following are some ideas on how to connect personally with your customers this November. (read more)
The Quick List for Start Ups and New Businesses
Lots of people start new businesses everyday, but a very small percentage actually succeed. The difference between the successful startups and the failures are often only the ability to drum up new business. Many great ideas from entrepreneurs fall through the cracks simply because these people do not know how or where to go get new customers. This article is a quick list to get startups going as they look for new customers. (read more)
Printing Basics: Font Tips and Tricks
When designing any kind of print advertising, there are a number of important considerations when selecting the right fonts. Font selection can make the difference between interesting and boring printed materials. More importantly, proper font selection can improve or hinder readability. In this article, we discuss basic font selection techniques as well as a couple of ways that you can experiment to create different effects. (read more)
How To Design a Creative Brochure
The initial goal of a brochure is to get noticed and be read. To meet these goals, a brochure needs to be creative not just in the graphic design aspects but in the layout and format as well. Here are a few secrets to adding that extra ounce of intrigue to your brochure design. (read more)
Basic Business Card Layout
While business card printing is arguably the simplest advertising form, it can also be the most difficult to design. The main difficulty arises from the fact that there is precious little space. You have to fit a great deal of important information onto a few square inches. You also have to reinforce your brand. All this has to occur while still needing the business card design to be visually interesting. (read more)
Graphic Design Tips for Easter Marketing
Easter time provides plenty of opportunities for connecting with a variety of customers. Any chance for you to get your clients into festive spirits can increase both loyalty and sales. The key to a successful Easter campaign is to be unique and sincere. Below are a few tips that can go a long way in filling your Easter basket with results.
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Halloween Promotional Tips
One of the biggest sales times of the year is the Halloween season, so it’s important to take advantage of this holiday with solid promotional advertising. Of all the seasons, Halloween may just be the holiday that allows for the most creativity. For example, you can go with scary themes, harvest themes, or friendly ghost themes. Depending on your customers, you can tailor a Halloween promotional theme to fit their expectations. The following are just a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing. (read more)
Print Advertising and Online Marketing
One of the worst lessons a business can learn the hard way is that online marketing and print advertising must both be used for either to work effectively. While the Internet is an incredible marketing tool in that it creates a number of new opportunities for advertising, many companies have made the mistake of dropping print advertising efforts altogether. Unfortunately, they were one of those businesses that learn the hard way that this simply does not work.
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5 Direct Marketing Tips for Halloween
Halloween is the second largest decorating holiday and the sixth largest spending holiday, according to the National Retail Federation. Take advantage of the fun surrounding Halloween with some spooky direct marketing. Below are five ways to incorporate some Halloween spirit into your business this year.
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Brochure Blunders
Large and small businesses alike often make the same mistakes with their brochure campaigns. Brochures can be an excellent way to connect with customers and to communicate details about your products and services. This is especially important when your customers do not have the time to hear face to face sales presentations.
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