The world of business and finance gets skewered, as Bottom Liners tackles subjects such as foreign takeovers, office policies, getting a raise, and the fast-paced world of Wall Street.
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A world of images awaits you.
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Happy Non-Holidays!
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Training in Progress
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A Message From Ussery Printing |
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Printing Continues to Evolve
Digital printing has changed the graphic arts industry and continues to change it. There has been an upheaval in the workforce, skill sets, technologies, and marketing of print-based communication. Just as letterpress printing services once had to re-invent themselves when offset lithography entered the industry, printers have had to adapt to new printing technology, work-flows, print products, and value added services. Offset, by far, is still the predominant method we use for most projects, and especially those that require higher volumes of printing, pieces demanding the uppermost quality, and ones needing very exacting PMS colors. However, Digital printing allows the marketer to tailor printed pieces specifically to a demographic group or even to a specific person. And with the use of several tools now available these printed pieces can be tracked and measured.
One direct mail piece, printed digitally, we had a lot of fun with was mailed out in the shape of one of our delivery vans (see above). This particular van was colorfully wrapped and easy to spot around the DFW area. In the mail piece we asked people to look for the van, get the license plate number, and respond to a url printed on the piece that was specifically set up for the campaign. If they sent the correct number they received a Starbucks coupon. So not only did this spread the word around about our colorful van, we were also able to track who responded to the challenge and when. This gave us good metrics to evaluate the success of the mailing. Even though we are a 50+ year old printing company we continue to add services that help our clients improve their own businesses.
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Idea of the Week |
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Low-Cost Clip Art and Image
Digital clip art collections provide a great source for designers to obtain inexpensive (sometimes even royalty-free) images. If you're considering purchasing a digital clip art collection, here are some questions to ask:- Are the images in this collection compatible with my operating system and the software I use?
- Is the file format (EPS, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, etc.) versatile enough for my needs?
- Are the images of a high-enough resolution and quality?
- Are the images bitmapped or vector-based? (Vector-based images are better if you’ll need to enlarge them.)
Other Sources to Check
 As you search for images, don’t forget to check the Library of Congress web site. In addition to copyrighted images, their online catalog of prints and photographs even includes a number of quality images in the public domain, as well.
Old magazines and books are another potential source for images. Any that were published before 1923 are in the public domain. Those published between 1923 and 1963 might be in the public domain, unless the copyright holder renewed their claim. Anything published after 1963 is still under copyright, so you’ll need to obtain permission before using it.
And finally, our print shop has a number of print-quality clip art collections on file, too, which you are free to browse.
See more great ideas like this!
Click here to visit the Ussery Printing Ideas Collection.
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Marketing Tip |
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Year-Round Promotions
Because many companies focus their marketing on Thanksgiving and Christmas sales, it is easy to feel bombarded with marketing overload during the holidays. Here are a few examples of how to use creative promotions to grab your customers' attention and boost sales year round:
- Happy Birthday! Take advantage of every opportunity you have to celebrate, whether it is your company's birthday or your customers' individual birthdays. Don't have this information? Request it by creating a "birthday club" offering special discounts, promotions, or a free gift on customer birthdays. This is also a great way to build and update your customer database.
- Ground Hog's Day. While Valentine's Day is typically the feature push during February, you can get a jump start by promoting a more light-hearted holiday. For example, a fireplace business could offer a discount promo to help customers stay warm during six more weeks of winter.
- Earth Day. You don't need one particular holiday to show interest in the environment. Does your company take every opportunity to print on recycled materials, use energy-efficient appliances, install solar panels for energy, etc? If so, toot your own horn and look for creative ways to reward customers who do likewise.
- Cold weather fun. During especially cold weather it might be fun to offer a promotion based on the temperature. For example, if yesterday's high was 15 degrees, customers would receive a 15% discount on all purchases. Be clear upfront if exclusions apply.
- Choose a quarterly way to highlight a target demographic. For example, seniors receive a free piece of pie with $5 purchase in April. College students receive a free pitcher of their favorite beverage with a large pizza in October. Families receive a 15% water park admission discount for groups of four or more in August.
- Help your community with goodwill promotions. Offer discount coupons or free gifts with donation of a non-perishable food item, gently used clothes, or blood bank donations. Many people forget that non-profit organizations need donations and support year round.
- Other ideas... Has your spring sprung? Overhead door companies could offer a discounted garage door replacement to promote the kick-off of spring. Enjoying the dog days of summer? A doggy-doo cleanup company can help you relax by offering summer promotions to clean up your yard.
If you'd like help creating marketing materials to advertise your low-cost, high return promotions, give us a call today! We're full of unique print ideas to increase sales year-round.
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Uncommon Product |
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Employee Training Materials
It's no surprise that well-trained, productive employees are the key to business success. Whether you are creating an employee handbook or various training materials, here are a few tips to consider:
- Think of employee training as an investment rather than an expense. While training can be costly up front, it's a long-term investment in the growth and development of your employee team.
- Consider making continuing education the responsibility of one person in the department, who updates all training materials and staff members on current policies, procedures, and the technology relevant to the department.
- A well-written employee training manual ensures that every employee receives the same information about the rules of the workplace, your employees will know what you expect from them (and what they can expect from you), and you'll buy yourself valuable legal protection if an employee later challenges you in court.
- Create quality printed training materials, since they become valuable resources for trainees to refer to again and again once training is over. For example, if you are training an employee on an important piece of equipment, incorporate visual images that illustrate functions, examples, and example how-tos.
- Consider organizing your training materials in a three-ring binder with easily identifiable tab dividers to make it easier to update and organize information.
- Keep the reader in mind and avoid corporate terminology.
- Provide blank pages or white space for employee notes.
- If there are policy or procedure changes, consider distributing a brief information sheet (or training alert) and ask employees to update their training binder. Offer follow-up training if there are any questions regarding the change.
- To ensure your training materials are read, consider testing trainees and offer rewards for top performing employees.
- While a well developed training manual promotes consistency and ensures that important details are addressed, remember that a training manual should not replace a human trainer. It is simply a tool to assist both the trainer and trainee.
Considering your company will only be as successful as the people you work with, you can rest assured we can help you reach your goals when you trust your printing projects with us.
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