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Digital printers need scoring machines
One of the problems with any kind of print is that if you try to fold an ink-heavy page, like a solid black cover, the ink will crack and break. Folding puts a lot of pressure on a sheet and stretches the ink laying across its surface. The last thing you want is an unprofessional finish to an otherwise slick piece, right?
To ensure a crackless fold and to maintain image integrity, pages need to be pre-scored before they’re folded. Scoring weakens paper fibers by indenting fold lines. The direction of your paper grain is probably the single most important factor to take into consideration when scoring paper. Scoring across the paper’s grain encourages the sheet to crack rather than the ink. This makes your fold look clean and allows sheets to fold flatter.
When shopping for a scoring machine, you want to consider the number it can be programmed for on a single sheet, its speed, and of course, the width of paper it will accommodate. Lloyd’s has some nice machines to choose from, and our staff is knowledgeable enough to help you find the scoring machine that will keep even your heaviest folds, crackless under pressure.
Direct mail shops can use perforation machine to offer different options
Despite some claims, direct mail is not dying. It continues to be a valuable medium to reach a variety of audiences for impression-based marketing and direct response. As a printer you know that direct response must include a reply device, sometimes including a business reply envelope (BRE).
For many companies and especially nonprofits, direct mail campaigns include a pre-perfed, tear-off sheet to include with their response device or invoice. Many printers buy pre-perfed paper from their suppliers, but they pass that price on to you, and your choice in stock can be limited. You can save money over the long run and offer a greater variety of materials to your customer base by simply purchasing a perforating machine.
It’s not like you’re going to have to hire another specialty trained staff member to run your perf machine. They’re easy to feed, most come with memory settings and they run fast – some run more than 5,000 sheets per hour. The settings are also often customizable, so your perforation doesn’t have to be standard. It can fit the customer’s needs.
So save some time waiting on perf paper orders from your supplier. Add value to your direct mail clients. And, increase your profitability by providing one more flexible service to your repertoire.
Lloyds of Indiana has some great options for low-volume and high-volume perforation machines. Check us out for competitive pricing and great service.
4 Ways Insurance Agents Can Use New Printing Technology
Insurance agents, especially the independents, are constantly looking for new ways to reach new customers. They’re not only competing against other insurance agents, but against every other advertising and marketing message that’s out there. So how can you stand out, especially if you’re on a limited budget?
With today’s new printing technology, it’s possible for even the smallest independent agent to make a great impression. Here are a few ideas.
1. Variable Data Direct Mail Postcards
Direct mail is still effective, especially as fewer companies use it. The less mail people get, the more yours will stand out. You can purchase mailing lists based on a person’s age, marital status, number of kids, and you could send an individualized postcard that lists a basic insurance plan and costs for that person. The variable data lets you change the information on each individual postcard, without extra printing costs, or a lot of creative work. Yes, variable data costs more than regular printing, but the improved ROI makes it worth the extra expense.
2. UV Coated Business Cards
These are all the craze in the business world and networking circles. They’re shiny, thicker, and generally nicer than their non-glossy counterparts. And they’re really not that expensive. Your print shop can apply a UV coating during the printing process. The UV coating will make the colors pop, so use this chance to create some very colorful, vibrant cards.
3. Variable Data Brochures
What if you were given a brochure printed just for you? How would you feel? Pretty special, right? You can create that same feeling in your customers by using variable data brochures, but on glossy paper. Thanks to today’s digital printers, you can run thousands of brochures, but individualize each of them for your clients. Using the same techniques and ideas as the variable data direct mail, you can create variable data brochures. Add additional information like photos, home values, maps, and even photos that relate to your customers’ interests and concerns.
4. Car signs
Thanks to today’s wide format printing technology, printers can put UV-cured inks on nearly any surface. In our own shop, we’ve printed these special inks on ceramic tiles, plywood to make signs, and even a door. So it’s easy to print a car sign on magnetic film, which you just put on your car door, and take off when you need to. We’ve seen insurance agents who had vinyl lettering on their rear windows and vinyl signs on their doors. But the vinyl lettering is usually one or two colors. But, with UV-cured inks we can print full color. Put your photo, logo, phone number, and website on the sign, and your car can be your business card as you drive around town.
5 Ways Realtors Can Use New Printing Technology
Realtors are always looking for new ways to find buyers for their homes, whether it’s the Yellow Pages advertising, sponsoring a little league team, or putting your face on a bus stop bench. A lot of Realtors are trying to find new ways to reach out to people, thinking that the old school ways just aren’t working.
But there are some new printing technologies that can make you stand out from the crowd. Here are a few we can recommend:
1. Variable Data Direct Mail Postcards
Direct mail is still effective, especially as fewer people are using it. That may sound counterintuitive, but think about it. The less mail everyone gets, the more your piece will stand out. And you can make it really stand out by customizing a postcard for each recipient. Rather than just printing their name and address, what if the entire postcard could be tailored to them, addressed to them, and include photos that will appeal to them? Variable data postcards improve direct mail read rates significantly, and can help you find new buyers and sellers.
2. UV Coated Business Cards
You may have seen them, the high-glossy, ultra-shiny business cards. They seem thicker, classier, and just, well, successful. But they’re really not that expensive, they only seem like it. It’s possible to have a UV coating applied during the printing process. The coating makes the colors really pop, so this is your chance to create some very colorful, vibrant cards.
3. Glossy Sell Sheets
Typically, when people think of brochures, they think they’re expensive and require an order of 5,000 sheets or more just to be cost effective. Not anymore. Thanks to the new digital printing technology, you can print as many pieces as you need. Plus, it doesn’t cost any more to print to glossy paper, so sell sheets look high-end and very professional. But don’t just stick these out in the box in front of the house. Save them for open houses and special clients. Use them especially for high-end homes, to give it that extra touch of class.
4. Variable Data For Sale Signs
I’ve driven through neighborhoods before, and stopped at the houses for sale to read the sell sheets, but found they’d run out. I’d like to know more about the house, but will often forget to visit the website or come back later to see if any more sell sheets are available. So what if you could have a permanent sell sheet in place that told people the main features of the house? By printing to a large piece of gator board or even plywood, you can create a truly “hard copy” of your sell sheet that’s always around. Work with a print shop that has a wide-format printer to create these sales tools, and add a new tool to your marketing toolbox. The ink is UV-cured, which means it’s weather- and fade-resistant, and you’re limited only by your own imagination in terms of design and color.
5. Car signs
With the same wide format printer, it’s possible to put UV-cured inks on nearly any surface. We’ve printed on ceramic tiles, plywood, and even a door. So it’s a snap to print a sign on magnetic film, which you can easily put on your car door. We’ve seen Realtors who have vinyl lettering on their car windows, but that starts to peel and crack after a summer. But, the UV inks, which can also be coated using the same technology as the UV Coated Business Cards, will last for years. Put your photo, logo, phone number, and website on the sign, and your car can be your business card as you drive around town.
Using “Theory of Delays” to Stop Wasting Time, Start Increasing Revenue
I was recently given an article by Vincent Bozzone at Delta Dynamics, Inc. (you can download the PDF version here) that has me rethinking how we manage our processes around here. According to the article, the two main theories in workflow and process management are Lean Manufacturing and Theory of Constraints (TOC).
Lean manufacturing is all about reducing inventory in mass production, by using on-time delivery of raw materials and supplies. TOC is about eliminating constraints that bottleneck the workflow in a job shop environment — someone doesn’t show up for work, or a customer changes some specs, and you’ve got a bottleneck.
But what do you do if you’re a custom job shop? Unless you’re the bottleneck, there’s really not much you can do to be lean or focus on TOC.
Bozzone says that by concentrating on the Theory of Delays (TOD), custom job shops can improve performance by cutting lead time. That by eliminating delays in the total business process will shorten the amount of time it takes to get paid. Shorter lead times lead to increased sales, reduced costs, and increase your overall capacity.
For printers, especially custom printers (and aren’t we all these days?), Theory of Delays sounds like something we’ve been complaining about for years. But Bozzone is telling us how we can focus on even one or two areas to improve performance. It all depends on how we look at our shop, as a manufacturer or a service company:
Recognizing this difference is very important because if you approach the challenge of improving the performance and profitability of a job shop with the idea of it being a manufacturing company, you will naturally look for ways to improve how it produces product. On the other hand, if you approach it recognizing it as a service company, you will look for ways to improve how it satisfies market and customer demand.
So what are some common delays found in most print shops? Quoting is usually a problem for shops, because the owner usually has to okay the quotes, but is busy racing around trying to get the day’s projects done. One solution might be to give your staff permission to approve their own quotes, as long as they’re under a certain dollar amount — say $500 — which will lighten the approval load for the owner, and shorten the quote time for the customer.
Maybe there is a delay on the floor because work that was completed at one stage of the operation is still sitting at the station, waiting to be picked up by the next operator. Examine your process, and see if there is another way to resolve this delay. Have the first person deliver the stock to the next station. Post a job board in a public area, and make everyone mark off when they’re finished. Ring a big bell. Just do something to let the next person in the operation know it’s their turn.
By focusing on the areas that cause you delays in the entire business process and not just on the manufacturing process or supply inventory, you can find other ways to shorten the time from “quote to cash,” and come up with new ways to increase revenue and capacity, but without spending longer hours in the office.