The Power of Commingling

A small business guide to launching a direct mail campaign. Let’s begin by considering an enlightening statistic. From the moment it enters a residence, a printed mail piece has an average lifespan of 17 days. 17 glorious axial rotations shuffling around the kitchen table and narrowly escaping coffee mug rings, only to be folded up during dinner and launched like a fighter jet. Each casual glance, each physical point of contact increasing brand awareness and unconsciously driving home your message. Now consider another form of [extremely] direct mail: Email has an average life span of (wait for it) 2 seconds! Two seconds? That’s shorter than the attention span of a goldfish (five seconds). The response rate for direct mail is also about 9 times higher than that of email, rolling in between 5-9%. When combined with digital marketing efforts, that rate skyrockets to a whopping 28%. much more at source: https://www.thysse.com/blog/getting-started-with-direct-mail-services/

Edwards Brothers Malloy announced that it plans to consolidate all offset printing operations into its Ann Arbor, Mich., location by the end of 2018. As a result, it will be closing its offset printing facility located in Lillington, N.C., which will impact the job positions of approximately 100 workers employed there over the next nine-month period. “This was a very difficult decision,” said John Edwards, Edwards Brothers Malloy president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “We continue to see shrinking demand for offset printing and double-digit growth in digital printing. We want to increase our digital footprint and be sure we’re well-positioned to take advantage of opportunities and new markets.” The phased shutdown of the Lillington offset printing facility is planned to begin in April and should be completed by the end of the year, according to the company. Edwards added that the move will lead to “some” job growth in Michigan and that Lillington employees are encouraged to apply for work at its Ann Arbor location. Click Read More below for additional information.

As package printers are well aware, the packaging segment of the printing industry is one of consistent growth. Meanwhile, many commercial printers that have either found their growth at a plateau, or even on a decline, have caught onto this trend and are looking into adding packaging services to their repertoires. According to Kevin Karstedt, CEO of Karstedt Partners, the folding carton market is a good place to start for commercial printers because it relies mostly on sheetfed offset printing. But before a printer can go ahead and start printing packaging jobs on an offset press, Karstedt says it’s important for them to assess whether their current equipment is up to the challenge. “If a commercial printer only has a four-color press, they’re going to be challenged for producing packaging, unless they can produce work that is CMYK oriented, and there are no special or corporate colors,” Karstedt says. “Some older sheetfed presses also don’t handle paperboard very well, so they’re not going to be able to produce folding cartons.” Click Read More below for additional information.