BlockbusterPrint.com Blog – Page 31 – Online Printing Services for Business

A Glimpse at the Process & Benefits when You Print EDDM Postcards

The United States Postal Service (USPS) encourages the use of EDDM or Every Door Direct mail services, which is why it pays to print EDDM postcards if you want to promote your business. Here, we will have a glimpse at the EDDM promotional process and its benefits for entrepreneurs – whether they have a small or big business venture.

EDDM: The Process

The goal of the USPS providing EDDM services is to help business owners promote their brand within the local community. Whether you are having a big sale, opening another store in a new location or if you want to bring more customers to your doorstep, you can print EDDM postcards. Through USPS’ EDDM, printed ad materials like postcards are distributed to every home along a specific route. If you have a barbershop, for instance, the postcards you had printed out will be mailed by USPS to every house within the area – thus the name Every Door Direct Mail.

EDDM: The Benefits

Next, what are the benefits of EDDM? When you print EDDM postcards to promote your business, you can enjoy these perks:

No need to put together a mailing list.

One of the biggest challenges of marketing any brand is putting together a mailing list which you can use to reach out to customers. With EDDM, there is no need for you to collect email or mailing addresses. By simply identifying the carrier route and the date when you’d like the postcards to be sent out, the USPS will assign a mail carrier to deliver your marketing message to every household in the area.

Enjoy excellent marketing results within a reasonable budget.

The fact that you’re distributing marketing material to everyone within the vicinity of your business makes your marketing campaign highly targeted. Another bonus is that USPS has great rates so this advertising technique is very affordable.

Have a flexible print marketing campaign.

Finally, you can print EDDM postcards or any other marketing material that you’d like within your target area. After having them printed out, simply arrange them into bundles, attach a facing slip, then deliver the marketing materials to the nearest USPS branch. After making a payment, the postal service will handle the delivery of your marketing message to every household within your target area. It’s that easy.

Key Characteristics of Effective High-End Business Cards

Are you thinking about distributing high end business cards to your clients? If yes, you are on the right path because high-quality cards equate to a better impression of your brand in the minds of your customers and clients. As compared to thin, barely readable business cards, spot gloss business cards that are made using the offset printing process is the better choice. Not only will customers be impressed with your brand, but they will also equate it with the quality of services or products that you are offering.

So how can you say that a business card is high-end? Here are some of the characteristics of high-end business cards:

• It is readable, accurate, and well-designed.

Even if you are in the creative field, there is no need to go gaga over crazy-looking fonts – especially if they are not readable. Your goal in creating a business card is to indicate all your necessary contact information, so it should be readable. High end business cards are also designed in such a way that it reflects your image as a brand. More importantly, the information should be accurate and complete. You can skip the office address if you are a purely online business. If you’re a real estate agent, you need to include your contact number and email address. Also think about including your social media information, especially if this is one of the main ways that you interact with customers.

• Close attention is paid to the even the smallest details when printing out the card.

Another key characteristic of high-end business cards is that they are printed with close attention to detail. The US standard size of spot gloss business cards is 3.5”x 2”. With very little space, every typographical error or printing mistake will painfully stand out.

• There are special features to make the card stand out.

In a stack of plain linen business cards, what will make high end business cards stand out? Unique features like rounded edge, or plastic or recycled paper material are a few examples. Spot gloss business cards are also considered high-end cards because gloss is added to outline specific areas like logos or a name. Do take note that some features are only available if you will go with offset printing, so it is better to choose offset printers in the first place.

If you want attention-grabbing, high-end business cards, go for something like spot gloss business cards that will truly make your brand stand out.

Must-Remember EDDM & Postcard Printing Tips

EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Mail marketing. It can be part of your business’ print promotional campaign where you can finish a 4 x 6 postcard printing task and have it mailed out to every door within a specific address. If you have a line of organic products targeted towards women, for example, EDDM will work because there is a large percentage of households with women. On the other hand, if you are offering a service like real estate brokering, you might be better off going with a targeted 4 x 6 postcard printing and marketing list. Not all households would have owners who are interested in selling or buying property, so it makes more sense to create a targeted list first.

Whether you decide to launch an EDDM or a targeted 4 x 6 postcard printing mailing campaign, here are a few tips to make it more effective:

• Invest in high-quality postcards.

When looking for a 4 x 6 postcard printing company, go for offset instead of digital printing. There might be some extra cost involved but considering the professional look of the results, offset is worth it in the end. The images are razor sharp and there is a wider color palette that you can use in the design, not to mention more options in terms of paper finish.

• Include a call-to-action.

Be it an EDDM or a direct mail marketing campaign, you must know what to write in the postcard in the first place. The smallest postcard size available is 4” x 6” – which gives you very limited space to work with. The call-to-action should suit your marketing message, and it should be attention grabbing.

• Test a small portion of the market first.

What’s good about postcard marketing is that you can use it to test out a small portion of the market first. If you are launching a new scent, for example, you can mail out postcards as discount coupons to your first 100 customers first. If you get a good response, that is when you can mail out the same postcard to the rest of your mailing list.

• Be aware of hidden costs.

Lastly, EDDMs are usually part of a printing package offered by companies working with the United States Postal Service. When taking advantage of printing and mailing packages, make sure that you are aware of all the costs involved. Also take note of the size restrictions – you might have to spend more when mailing jumbo postcards as compared to the standard-sized ones.

Will You Really Save Money with DIY Inexpensive Business Cards?

If you’re a small business owner, you might think that you are saving money by purchasing a desktop printer for all your printed marketing needs instead of ordering inexpensive business cards from professional printing companies. Although there might be some advantages to taking the DIY or do-it-yourself route when it comes to printing promotional materials, there are a few downsides to it as well. In the next section, we will look at the pros and cons of DIY versus professional printing.

DIY versus Professional Printing

• DIY Printing

DIY or do-it-yourself printing involves purchasing a decent desktop printer so that you can print out business cards, postcards, brochures, flyers, and similar marketing materials. Using a computer desktop printer may allow you to produce inexpensive business cards but when it comes to results, nothing beats the quality of professional printing. Business cards will make a huge impression to your customers because it’s a representation of your brand. If your desktop printer can only produce business cards that look homemade, your clients and customers will definitely not be impressed. Perhaps the only exception is when you are offering affordable products or services, so you want to create business cards that are quite simple.

Another disadvantage of DIY printing is that you still have to spend money on the hardware, paper, ink, and maintenance. If you have inexperienced staff, they might not set up the printer properly so instead of saving money, you might end up wasting even more of it due to rookie mistakes.

• Professional Printing

With professional printing, you can order inexpensive business cards without compromising on quality. There are many professional printing companies that have a purely online ordering process, so you won’t even have to visit their office. You can make use of their online design tools or downloadable templates so that you can create a design for inexpensive business cards. They might be inexpensive to order, but the results are still professional-looking and impressive.
In the end, any extra investment on hiring a professional company to print inexpensive business cards is still worth it. By leaving it to the pros, you can have high-quality business cards that will impress your customers – without spending any more than what’s necessary.

The Importance of Call-to-Action when Creating an Every Door Direct Mail Campaign

You’re a business owner and you decided to use every door direct mail (EDDM) service when mailing out postcards. This is a good decision on your part because with EDDM, you can print and send out postcards to every address within a specific area, without having to pay too much for the service. Now, when it comes to postcard mailing services, no matter how many times you send out postcards to the recipients, it will all be for naught if you do not have a call to action. Remember that you have very limited space when it comes to sending out postcards using postcard mailing services. You need to maximize the available space in such a way that the reader of the postcard will be triggered to act after taking a good look at your offer.

Check out our list of tips on how to create a call-to-action when sending out printed material for every door direct mail marketing:

• Based on the product or service that you are offering, would every door direct mail marketing work? Or are you better off creating a targeted list first, then looking for postcard mailing services? Let’s say that you are offering a specific service like pet grooming. For this, EDDM might not work because not all households in your area would have a pet dog. It’s better to establish a targeted mailing list first. If you have a general merchandise store, it does make sense to send out postcards to every door in a specific area – because every family might have something that they would need from your store.

• Go for the tried-and-tested offers like offering freebies, discounts, free one-month trials, buy-one-get-one-free offers, or free shipping.

• Phrase your offer in such a way that the reader will be compelled to take action. It makes sense to include a deadline – something like “this offer expires 15 days upon receipt”. That sense of urgency will bring the user to respond to your call to action immediately.

• Whatever it is that you are offering, make sure that it is valuable and relevant to the recipient of the mailer.

With postcard marketing, you have very limited space so make sure that the content is attention-grabbing. Also pay attention to the details when designing the card – make sure that the overall design reflects the image you are portraying as a brand. Finally, look for postcard mailing services that updates you with the status of the delivery so that you can track the results of your every door direct mail or targeted mailing campaign.

Launching a Direct Mail Campaign? What You Must Know about the Costs

If you’re thinking about using a direct mail service to send out postcards to your existing or potential customers, you must be aware of all the costs involved. Why would you want to use direct mailing service in the first place? If you are newly launching a business, for example, you may not necessarily have a mailing list so that you can introduce your brand to your target market. For this, you can use EDDM or Every Door Direct Mail marketing. Depending on your location, you can send out postcards to every address within the vicinity. Using the postcard, you can introduce your brand and maybe even include a discount code that they can use when purchasing your product or service. With very little effort on your part, you can use postcards and direct mail services to introduce your brand to potential customers.

With this type of marketing, remember that there are still hidden costs involved so make sure that you are aware of them. Cost-wise, here are the things that you need to know about direct
mailing service:

– Consider the costs of printing out the postcards. There are offset or digital printing companies which can also offer you direct mail services. Are they in partnership with the United States Postal Service or another courier company? If yes, can they offer you a discounted package for printing the postcards and the direct mail service?

– If you already have a preferred printing company, you can get a separate prospect lists provider. These usually small businesses utilize analytics to identify which customers are the best fit for your products or services. They will then generate a list that you can use for your direct mail campaign.

– If your printing company does not offer direct mail services, check with the USPS if they can offer you discounted rates for sending out mail in bulk. Also ask about other features like tracking the progress of the mail, and the estimated delivery time. – If your printing company does not offer direct mail services, check with the USPS if they can offer you discounted rates for sending out mail in bulk. Also ask about other features like tracking the progress of the mail, and the estimated delivery time.

Another thing to remember when printing out postcards and using them for direct mailing service is that there are postal companies that have certain restrictions. You might be tempted to send out jumbo postcards to grab the attention of a customer – but if you end up paying more for the mailing service, then it might be a better idea to stick with the standard sizes and just focus on content.

By doing your research, you can launch a successful direct mail marketing campaign using postcards, without being surprised by hidden costs.

Combine Direct Mail Services with Postcard Printing to Boost Your Business

Do you know about direct mail services? If you’re a business owner, you can include postcard printing as part of your printed promotional marketing efforts. Combine this with direct mail services and it can surely give your business a boost. But what exactly is direct mail marketing? For this, a mail service like that of the United States Postal Service (USPS) is used to deliver postcards to your target market. It can be an EDDM or Every Door Direct Marketing campaign where all addresses in one area will be sent the material. Or, it can be a more targeted campaign where only existing customers will receive the mailer. No matter which of these two techniques you end up applying, what is important is that you take full advantage of the benefits of direct mail services and postcard printing in general.

How to Make Postcard Printing Effective

Now that you already know the basics of direct mail services, here are some tips on how you can make postcard printing more effective:

• Your message should be short but sweet.

What’s your goal for postcard printing in the first place? Are you a real estate agent who would like to generate leads? If yes, create compelling content on the first page of your postcard and make sure to include a call to action. If this call to action is to call a 1-800 number, state that explicitly on the postcard. In short, your message should be direct and, well, short.

• Invest in offset printing.

With postcard printing, you have two options: digital or offset. In terms of quality, nothing beats offset printing because high-tech printing presses are used. Remember that you have very limited space to write content in or print images on with postcards – so the print should be as sharp as possible.

• Opt for the standard or be bold with unique postcard sizes.

With postcard printing, you have the option to go for standard sizes like 4” x 6” or go bold with huge postcards measuring 6” x 11”.

• Make sure that the overall design reflects your brand.

Include your company logo in the design of the postcard. Make sure that the text does not look crowded on the space, and the overall design should reflect the image that you would like to project as a brand.

• Be consistent!

Finally, consistency is key. Use direct mail services frequently that your customer remembers you – but not so often that they would consider it spam mail. By combining direct mail with postcard printing, you have an effective way of advertising your brand without having to spend too much for it.

Make Your Mark as a Brand with Business Postcards

If you’re facing the challenge of needing to acquire repeat customers, can you overcome it by printing business postcards? Definitely! Here, we will look at the reasons why you should include postcards in your print promotional campaign – and how you can use it to establish customer loyalty.

First, what exactly is postcard marketing? When you order business postcards from printing companies, you can use them as a tool for direct marketing. When you’re mailing out business postcards, you already have a targeted market who is bound to respond to your call-to-action. Let’s say that you are relaunching your brand and you would like people to visit your store. How can business postcards help? Mail them out to the immediate community where your business is located. To entice them to take action and actually go to your store, make the postcard double as a discount card. Tell them that by simply presenting the card, they are entitled to a 15% discount when they visit your store at a specific date.

Second, why is business postcards marketing so effective? Since you already have a targeted mailing list, you are bound to get a response from your audience. It may not be immediate, but the results of your marketing effort will work more on establishing customer loyalty. This benefits your business in the long run. Another reason why this type of marketing is effective is that it is equally effective in terms of costs. As compared to mailing out sales letters, there is no need for you to put postcards inside an envelope – the message can be read outright.

If you want to test a new product, you can order postcards from an online printing and send it out only to a small fraction of your mailing list. If you receive a positive response, then you can increase the number of recipients.

As you can see, ordering postcards from online printing companies is a great business decision because you will enjoy numerous benefits. When looking for an online printing company, make sure that they have plenty of experience in printing out not just postcards, but other promotional materials as well. Other things to look for from an online printing are the turnaround time, costs, printing process used, postcards size, materials, and finishes available.

If you are consistent in mailing out online printing business cards, you can make your mark as a brand because doing so is a great way to establish customer loyalty.

Build Brand Loyalty by Mailing Out Business Postcards

After building a business from the ground up, the next thing that you need to do is ensure that your business will last – something that you can do by establishing brand loyalty through postcard printing. Let’s say that you are formulating organic beauty products. Your target market might be interested with the newness of the product so you have huge initial sales – but how can you sustain that? This can be done by establishing loyalty to your brand. How can postcard printing help you accomplish that? Through business postcards, you have an effective and easy way of reaching out to your target market.

Here are more reasons why you should mail out business postcards, whether you are offering a line of products or useful services:

• Business postcards are versatile.

You can use business postcards to introduce a new brand. You can also use it to announce an event, greet customers on holidays, or turn it into a discount coupon or voucher.

• Postcard printing is cheap.

There are many postcard printing companies that you can get in touch with – not just to order the postcards but also mail them out for you. Available in different sizes ranging from 4’ x 6” to 6” x 11”, postcard printing can be part of your print promotional campaign and it won’t set you back a lot in terms of costs.

• Mailing out postcards is a highly targeted form of advertising.

More importantly, mailing out business postcards is one of the highly targeted forms of advertising. If you will distribute flyers out on the streets, for example, you won’t know if the person you are handing it to is even interested with what you have to offer. With a targeted mailing list, you will send out these postcards to people who could be interested – or area already buying your products or paying for your services. This means that the money you spent on postcard printing will not be wasted. It might not produce immediate sales results but as you establish customer loyalty through postcard printing, your business will benefit in the long run.

Business Card Printing 101 for Small Businesses

If you’re a small business owner or a start-up company, do you still need business card printing or is it enough to have a website and social media presence? Even if you’re a purely digital business, you still need to complement your online advertising with print advertising. Business card printing, for example, is something that you can easily do. It’s cheap, effective, and business cards are tangible – which means that it is something that customers can hold in their hands, making your brand mark easily into their minds. So how can you go about the process of business card printing? Here are a few steps to follow:

1. Include your logo and only the necessary contact information.

Before you can look for a company that can print business cards online for you, the design of the card should first be prepared. For this, make sure to include your official logo. For the contact information, you do not have to include everything. Skip your office address if you’re a purely online business. If you do have a physical office, do include the address and contact number – as well as your online information. For entrepreneurs, your name, job title, email address, phone number, and maybe a short tagline will do.

2. Design the card in such a way that it reflects your brand’s image.

When you print business cards online, make sure that you already have an official logo which you need to incorporate in all your printed promotional materials. Also, there are print business cards online companies that have templates which you can download or online design tools that you can use for business card printing – take advantage of such features. Design your card in such a way that it is a clear reflection of what you are all about as a brand.

3. Decide on the material, finish, and overall look of the card.

The next thing to do when you print business cards online is to decide on the material and finish. The most common is paper cards but there are varying thicknesses – from 14-pt. to 32-pt. paper stock which is as thick as a credit card. For the finish, you can take your pick from fabric-like textures like silk, cotton, suede, or linen. There are also unique features for business card printing like rounded edges, spot UV treatment, foil stamped cards, or materials like plastic and recycled paper. Pay attention to the small details and make sure that all the tiny elements you incorporate in the design of the card contributes to a coherent whole which is a perfect reflection of your brand.

4. Look for a good printing company.

Finally, look for a company that will print business cards online for you. There are ones using digital printing presses while others use the offset printing method. The latter produces more professional-looking results, while digital printers are cheaper and get the job done. Also check on the turnaround time, quality of customer service offered, and the minimum number of cards that you can order.