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READ THE LATEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
Pros and Cons of Using a Brochure Template
If you have decided to do a brochure printing, you may be overwhelmed by the whole process of finding a designer, copywriter, and printer. If so, using a brochure template may be a good idea. However, if you want something really creative and eye-catching, pre-made templates are probably not the way to go. Below are some pros and cons you may want to consider before committing to templates. (read more)
2010: Great Year for Graphic Designers
Several factors contribute to a bright future for graphic designers. More and more businesses are relying on computers throughout the world. Digital printing is overtaking much of the printing industry, requiring computer layout skills. And the highly competitive marketplace is pushing businesses to increase the professionalism of their advertising media, which means more work for graphic designers. (read more)
Choosing the Right Poster Size
There are a lot of things to consider when you are choosing the right size when poster printing: your budget, how much information you need to put on it, and where you plan on hanging your posters. Generally speaking, bigger is better because big posters get noticed, but there are times when small posters can be effective too. Below are some steps to help you decide. (read more)
Catalog Checklist
If you are considering a catalog printing project, you are probably feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it. Catalog printing is a massive undertaking, but the fruits of your labor can be well worth it. Here’s a quick check list you can use as you begin pulling together all the parts and pieces for your perfect catalog printing project. (read more)
Postcards and Brand Considerations
Many businesses take advantage of postcard printing due to the fact that it is an extremely cost-effective yet still an efficient form of print advertising. One area that can cause some confusion is to what extent the postcard printing campaign should focus on a particular promotion and how hard you should push your brand. These are important issues that should be thought through carefully, so read through this article to get a sense of the best way to balance brand promotion with the message of your postcard printing campaign. (read more)
Business Card Layout Ideas
Business card printing is a fundamental advertising format that you cannot afford to pass over. The cost alone makes business card printing invaluable as no other print advertising format has such a low cost per piece. But what does it matter if your business card does not communicate effectively with your customers? This is where layout of your information comes into play. In this article we talk about effective ways to put your information onto your card. (read more)
Designing Business Cards With Your Company Logo
When your business is ready to start printing business cards, make sure you don’t forget the ever important logo. There are many ways to prominently display your logo, and this article discusses a few of the more common methods. (read more)
Brochure Myths and Fables
There are many bad ideas floating around pertaining to brochure printing. These myths and fables are usually related to brochures being too expensive, only useful for direct rule, ineffective when compared to other advertising, and that brochures are only useful to businesses. As you will see from this article, these myths are simply not based in fact. (read more)
What Poster Size is Right For You
When it’s time to send your poster printing project off to the presses, you probably pose an important and common question about what poster size is right for you. Often price is the determining factor, but with professional printing firms offering bulk discount prices there are more reasons than ever before to consider all your options. Whether you want to attempt the giant sized poster printing project or stick with something standardized, here are a few considerations. (read more)
Advertising Posters on Campus
If you have ever found yourself in front of a bulletin board, you will know that some posters draw you in, while others simply do not. With so many advertisements in one space, you must be careful to make your poster stand out. Here are a few design elements and posting guidelines that will help your poster printing campaign to succeed. (read more)
What Should Your Brochures Be Accomplishing
Brochure printing is a well-established advertising media and your business may already have several brochures in use. Every now and then, it is a good idea to review and take stock of what your brochures are doing for your business. Here are some guidelines to use when evaluating the effectiveness of your brochures. (read more)
How to Design a Z-Fold Brochure
A Z fold, which is basically an accordion fold, is a great brochure folding option because it offers a lot of versatility. You can separate each element by making each panel stand alone, or you can design the brochure so that it opens out to a full spread with one large, dramatic photograph. There are a few steps to follow to make the most of your Z fold brochure printing project. (read more)
Postcards for Labor Day
Labor Day as a holiday is a bit different and has some unique considerations. There are no real icons associated with Labor Day when compared to Christmas or Easter, as examples. Short of a free day off work, there are not a whole lot of ways to connect with customers. So here are a couple of creative ideas for using postcard printing during the Labor Day holiday. (read more)
5 Ways to Improve Your Direct Mail Brochures
Direct mail brochures are an important piece of any marketing plan. Internet businesses, small businesses, new businesses all need brochures to educate consumers and build credibility. Just remember that brochure printing should work together with internet marketing, television advertising, and other print advertisements for the greatest impact. Here are a few more ways to improve direct mail brochures. (read more)
Tips for a Better Catalog Cover
The cover of your print catalog is the doorway that invites readers inside to peruse your products. How can you make sure they enter? By creating an irresistible portal that promises to give readers vital information that they can benefit from. Here are a few tips for creating that better catalog cover. (read more)
10 Direct Mail Ideas
Postcard printing is a proven method for profitably promoting products and services. The return on investment can be carefully tracked through a number of techniques, which gives business managers the opportunity to gauge the relative success of postcard printing compared to other marketing methods. Time after time, many businesses come back to postcard printing for one simple reason: it works. (read more)
How to Make Your Business Cards Keepers for Your Customers
Business card printing is a long-term advertising strategy. Ideally, your customers will keep your business card on them for a long time. So how can you make sure that your customers want to keep your business card around? Try incorporating some of these design elements into your next business card printing project as a way to boost retention of your business cards. (read more)
How to Improve Your Booklet Typography
Creating a booklet that pleases the eye is an important part of a booklet that gets read and, thus, makes sales. Typography is a major part of that design. Some people pick a font and a couple of sizes and call it good, but there is much more to a visually appealing design than that! Here are a few tips on how to improve your typography when booklet printing. (read more)
Graphic Design Tips for Catalogs
A great graphic design can increase sales. In fact for some businesses, the sales generated from advertising through catalog printing have matched and even surpassed sales from brick and mortar locations. With these design tips, you can begin increasing your catalog sales too! (read more)
Word of Mouth Marketing Success
Traditional word of mouth advertising involves doing an exceptional job and then relying on your satisfied customers to spread the word. While this is an effective method, it takes a really long time to build a successful business this way. Here are some things you can do to speed up the process. (read more)
Mistakes to Avoid When Making Brochures
Creating print brochures can be a hassle-free process if you know what you are doing. But if you have little experience with brochure printing, there's no need to despair and give up. The following list of mistakes to avoid in your brochure design process will insure that even those will limited knowledge can have professional results. (read more)
How To Give Your Old Brochures a Makeover
Brochures are your ambassadors. They promote your company, products, and services when you can’t be there to shake hands with a potential customer and explain your business for you. This simple fact is why brochure printing is often a staple in many business’ print advertising strategies. If you are considering redesigning or launching a brochure printing campaign, here are a few simple principles to remember. (read more)
Catalog Traps and Pit Falls
Putting together a catalog printing project can be one of the more difficult marketing tasks you undertake. The benefits far outweigh the headaches, but every now and again we need a reminder of what to avoid. This article touches on a few of the catalog printing issues that commonly occur. (read more)
Trifold Brochure Tips and Tricks
Tri-fold brochure printing is the centerpiece of many marketing strategies for good reason: it works! Customers are accustomed to navigating through a trifold brochure and are familiar with the layout. One of the reasons this format is so successful is that it allows your business to tell a story and guide a customer through its sales presentation. (read more)
Brochure Ideas and Tips
As a business owner you understand the need to constantly be selling your products and services. One of the most frustrating experiences as a business owner is when your customers do not have the time to allow you to give them a personalized sales presentation. They are often busy running their own businesses and simply do not have the luxury to stop. (read more)
Postcards and Response Rates
For inexpensive and effective print advertising, postcard printing is just hard to beat. With professional printing firms capable of high quality postcard printing and direct mail services, you can sit back and watch the sales come in. Of course, it’s never really as simple as all that, but postcard printing is the go-to marketing tool for many firms for a very good reason. (read more)
How To Improve Catalog Typography
A catalog's pictures are what get people's attention and sell merchandise, so they generally get the most consideration when you are doing catalog printing. However, the type you use to describe your products and tell people how to order can turn people away from your company if it is difficult to read. For that reason, how you design your type should be carefully considered. There are a few steps you should follow to create text that is enjoyable to read. (read more)
Brochure Tips for the Small Business Owner
Brochures are a powerful tool that can bring in new business, increase brand recognition, and help people refer you to others. If you have a small business, you probably cannot afford to hire a professional to design your brochure, but you still want to get all the benefits of having one. Below are some tips for making designing your own brochure much easier. (read more)
How To Design a Fitness Poster
The overall feel of a fitness poster needs to be inspiring. After all, you are trying to motivate people to go against their natural tendencies, such as giving up junk food and working their muscles. Below are some steps for creating and printing posters that motivate and inspire people to action. (read more)
How To Put More Pizzazz Into Your Brochure
Your brochure should be like a great sales person, inviting and engaging. Great sales people are actually fun to talk to, and likewise, your brochure should be fun to read. Remember that people are most interested in conversations that focus on them, so your brochure should focus on the reader from start to finish. Below are five steps to creating an engaging brochure. (read more)
Retail Print Advertising Ideas
This article discusses a few print advertising ideas to get some ideas flowing. All the different ways that a retail business could use print advertising are far beyond the scope of what we could write in one article. So let some of these print advertising ideas get you started on the right foot with some print campaigns that have been successful for other retail businesses in the past. (read more)
Graphic Formats and Tips for Posters
If you try to print a poster without proper understanding of graphics formats, you may be in for some trouble. The translation between your desktop and paper is not always what you expect or desire. Images that look great on screen will appear pixilated when used for poster printing, if the right adjustments are not made. Learning and using the proper programs and preferred graphics format for your project will insure graphics that look as stunning as you imagine. (read more)
Brochures: Glossy or Matte
A common question posed to printing professionals is whether or not a business should use glossy or matte paper for brochure printing. In reality, there is no single better option since it really depends on your project. Most people reach for glossy paper by default for their brochure printing project. This is not necessarily wrong, but there are many instances were a matte paper may be better. (read more)
Merging Mediums
With the advent of the Internet, many companies have made a mistake of abandoning advertising in print. This article discusses a number of print advertising mediums that can and should work alongside online marketing campaigns. The overall goal of print advertising and online marketing is to increase sales through exposure of your brand, products, and services. Ultimately, print advertising and online marketing work hand in hand and should enhance each other. (read more)
Common Business Card Printing Mistakes
Business card printing should be part of your long-term print advertising strategies. As such, there are a number of common mistakes that businesses tend to make when they start a business card printing project. This article discusses a number of common errors that can easily be avoided so your business card printing looks professional and represents your company the right way. (read more)
Postcards for Direct Mail
When you start putting your next direct mail campaign together, postcard printing and design should be one of the areas that receives the most scrutiny. The fact is that most postcard printing efforts end up falling short, making your postcard end up in the trash can. To really grab your customer’s attention, you can use a number of important and successful techniques. This article discusses just a few methods to make sure your postcard printing is a success. (read more)
Ideas for Double-Sided Business Cards
One of the best benefits to using both sides of the business card is that it doubles your real estate but not your cost. Two-sided business card printing should only raise your price by half of the original cost. Not sure what would work best for the back of your card? Check out the ideas below. (read more)
Postcards: The Big Picture Strategy
The following is a discussion of how postcard printing can fit into your big picture strategy for marketing. It is not one single thing that makes postcard printing so effective. Rather, it is all of these following elements working together.
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Postcard Message Ideas
In this article, we discuss a couple of messages that you can include with your postcard printing campaign. Of course, whatever message you choose should fit both your customer’s needs and your own company’s value proposition. So, think carefully when designing your message, and give these suggestions consideration as they have proven to be effective. (read more)
Print Advertising for the New Year
Coming up with dynamic and interesting new designs for the holidays can be exhausting. New Year’s can be especially challenging because it comes right after Christmas – easily the most over-advertised holiday of them all. This article presents few ideas you can use to mix up your New Year’s print advertising campaign. (read more)
Postcard Printing for St. Patrick’s Day
Direct mail advertising through postcard printing is one of the most cost effective ways for staying in touch with your customer base on a regular basis. Advertising during or around the holidays is a great way to connect your company with the positive emotions surrounding a particular holiday. (read more)
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)
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