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Five Tools Print Shops Can Use to Improve Profitability
You can run a print shop with an off-set press or a digital printer, but you can’t run a profitable shop unless you bring in-house the tools that will help you take projects to completion. It’s one thing to print pages, but what if your customer wants you to bind them? You printed 5,000 sales letters, but now the customer wants to take them somewhere else for mailing? You’re losing out on some valuable revenue by not having a couple extra machines around your office. Add extra profitability to your shop by offering each of these services.
- UV Coaters. Adding a UV Coater will give you the capability to apply hi-gloss, satin or matte coating almost on any printed sheet. There are many configurations to the available coaters on the market. Sizes range from 18” to 30” with a modular design to allow for added components like automatic feeders. This is also an environmentally friendly way to apply a finish to your printing. There’s even one line of UV coating that is 99.9% VOC free – exceeding all environmental air quality regulations. Add that to your marketing and get some new green-minded customers.
- Binding Machinery. Whether it’s low volume presentation binding or high volume commercial applications, binding machinery is a low-cost, yet crucial component to a successful shop. Prepare a presentations or proposals, books or newsletters with the look and feel your customers desire by having available comb, coil, wire or perfect binding. If you bind it, they will come.
- Letter Folders. Add fulfillment services to your shop. Every office needs to send mailed statements, invoices and other marketing material. If it’s going out in a traditional envelope style, there’s a folder to automate the process. These machines fold thousands of sheets per hour. There are tabletop models for low volume or floor models for high volume, but they’re all easy to setup and operate.
- Document Mailing Equipment. While you’re folding some projects, you might as well run an inserter for others. Save time and money by speeding up your mail processing. Inserters and pressure sealers keep your jobs in a neat sequential order so they’re ready for outgoing mail bins. Some inserters can fold and stuff up to five different sheets and BRE’s at 4,000 sheets per hour. Plus, a pressure sealer adds a whole new product type to your offerings.
- Laminators. Laminating adds durability and professionalism to any printing project. Toner, ink jet and UV inks alone are not very durable, but by adding even a thin laminate coating you can prevent ink cracking and insures a long handling life to a piece. Lamination also adds to the look and feel of your work You can impress customers and upsell projects like printing for photos, charts, posters and signage.
Improve your profits by adding to your catalog of finishing services. Lloyds of Indiana has competitive prices and a variety of models in each of these categories.
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.
4 Ways Restaurants Can Use New Printing Technology
Restaurants are always looking for a way to stand out from the crowd. Once you get people in the door, how can you enhance their experience so they want to return again and again? We’re assuming the food is already great, so what can you do to in the print world to improve your image and enhance your reputation?
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
Only a few restaurants take advantage of direct mail, so the ones that do stand out from the crowd. Purchase a “radius mailing list” of all residential addresses within 3 miles of your restaurant. Or if you’re attracting a lunch crowd, get the list of business addresses within the same radius. You can get more specific, and identify households with children, or with single people, people who make a certain income, etc. Then, create specific offers to the different types of households. The variable data technology will let you print each offer for each type of household: the homes with children get the “free children’s meals on Tuesday” offer, and the businesses get the “free soft drinks for parties of 4 or more” offer. Thanks to variable data printing, these can even happen on the same run, which cuts down on your printing time.
2. UV Coated Business Cards
UV coated business cards are all the rage among entrepreneurs and small business owners. The cards are ultra-glossy, thicker, and the colors pop. They’re not expensive, they only seem like it. Use these cards for special “manager-only offers. Hand them out to friends and regulars, and invite people to share them. Give them to event planners and business owners who need a place for their corporate lunches, meetings, and special events. The printing process is done by a machine right after the cards have been printed. This way, everything happens at once, which makes the process easier.
3. Frequently Update Menus
Some restaurants have had the same menu for years, and others update their menus every day. What do you do if you only change your menu every season, or even every month? You could go to a special menu printing company, or you could go to their supplier and work with someone who can get you a better price. Just create your menu, or work with a graphic designer, update it as needed, and send the print file off to your trusted printer. They’ll print the pages, and cut them to size for you. And with today’s digital printing technology — the same kind we used for the direct mail postcards — you can update your menus as often as you’d like for a reasonable price.
4. UV Coated Menus
I really like the menus that are UV coated, rather than laminated or stuck in the menu pockets. They’re thinner, less bulky, and just seem more simple, attractive, and elegant. And believe it or not, they’re not that expensive. The same technology that’s used for the UV coated cards is used for these UV coated menus. It just happens during the printing process, so it doesn’t cost a lot or add a delay in production time. So they stand up to spills, don’t get easily bent or dog-eared, and can last a good long time.
UV Print Finishing On The Rise
Boasting a double-digit growth in the last 10 years, UV coating technologies have reached rock star-like popularity with both customers and print professionals.
And, as is the case with rock stars, they have their raving fans, cautious observers, and critics.
Enter cold, hard data: Nothing like black-and-white stats to pull back the curtain and give us a snapshot of the reality behind the buzz.
First, some background: The survey compiled input from 137 respondents, 42 percent of which were owners, managers, engineers, and chemists in the industrial finishing realm. Remaining respondents were shop floor workers and other job shop personnel.
The majority of respondents (62 percent) affirmed they would “definitely” or “probably” consider investing in UV technology within the next five years, with 40 percent identifying production speed as the single greatest benefit. Performance and cost/energy savings came next, with 23 and 18 percent of responses, respectively.
Curiously, just seven percent of participants indicated they would not invest in UV in the next five years, identifying a lack of knowledge about the technology or implementation expenses as their rationale.
What does that mean for you?
Consumers demanding high-gloss, low-cost print finishing — even green printing — can now turn to a growing number of your competitors who have embraced UV coating technologies.
And because these early UV adopters are equipped to deliver slick, green printing faster and at lower costs, it’s harder to justify the slower turnaround, lower quality and higher costs associated with other alternatives.
Where do you fit in the picture? Consider that, by resisting the UV coating wave, you may be missing out on opportunities to boost your ROI and your customers’.