Maui Printing Company

One of the primary objectives of any marketing campaign you run has nothing to do with selling your product or service. While these will always be important, equally necessary is your ability to sell yourself as a company. People want to know more about the people who work in your business and the values and ideals that you have. They want to be able to look at you as an authority. Pulling back the curtain and providing a "backstage" glimpse into your product or service is one of the single, best ways to accomplish both of these things at the same time. The Benefits of the Backstage Approach One of the major benefits of this type of "backstage" approach is that it helps position you as a true authority on a particular topic. It's one thing for you to SAY that a product performs X, Y, and Z functions - it's another thing entirely to prove it by providing an unprecedented look into the design and development process. You can shed insight on your decisi...

According to a recent survey conducted by Gleanster Research, managing the overall content creation process was the single biggest challenge that most medium- and large-sized companies faced on a daily basis. To make matters worse, 36 percent of respondents indicated that they were missing deadlines on a regular basis, significantly derailing their efforts as a result. Luckily, the exact cause of these types of issues also happens to be one that is easily avoided. By creating an editorial calendar, you essentially create the backbone of your entire content marketing strategy. Your entire team can reap the benefits in a number of important ways. Why You Need an Editorial Calendar On the surface, an editorial calendar is a calendar that outlines the specific due dates for all important content launches well into the future. It's a wonderful, visual way to see where you stand and what you need to do in terms of your short-term and long-term goals. Underneath, however, ...

Can 1:1 Personalization Beat Out Electronic Media? Cell phones. iPods. Blackberries. Laptops. PDAs. Personal computers. TiVo. Where, in the ever-expanding marketing mix, is there room for print? Is it even relevant today? In a recent study conducted by IBM, new forms of media will grow at a 23% compound annual rate over the next four years—nearly five times the rate of traditional media. Why should marketers include print in their next campaign? Just because forms of media are growing doesn’t mean they are more effective. The Print Council, a commercial printing industry support group, recently put out a brochure, “Why Print? The Top Ten Ways Print Helps You Prosper,” listing ten reasons marketers should include print. In this article, we look at several of those reasons as they relate to a specific type of print—1:1 personalization—with our own take on why marketers can’t live without it. Print is for keeps. Unlike e–mail, which gets automatically ...

Every entrepreneur, and I do mean every, has had a taste of failure at one time or another. The slam-dunk business idea that landed flat. The star product that fizzled out. It happens more often than you really hear about, but to those individuals that it's happening to, the "failures" can be seriously disheartening. If you're feeling a bit down about a business venture that didn't go as you planned, don't lose hope. Countless well-known and successful individuals have achieved their dreams despite multiple setbacks. Their stories are sure to inspire you. Henry Ford Best known for the most ubiquitous automobile on the road today, Ford founder, Henry Ford had a rocky start. Early on in his life, Ford worked as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. It was during this time that he built the first gasoline-powered horseless carriage in a shed behind his home. Due to a number of factors, including controversial views on politics and b...

Too many marketers look at the content they're creating as "one and done." You spend a huge amount of money designing the right print mailer, send it to all of the relevant people on your list, and then never think about it again, right? Wrong. The truth of the matter is that this content is still high-quality because you wouldn't have sent it out into the world if it wasn't. It's a shame to write it off so quickly, especially when you can use just a few, simple techniques to increase its overall return on investment beyond what you originally thought was possible. If you want to guarantee that you're getting maximum mileage out of your marketing content, there are a few, key tips that you're definitely going to want to keep in mind. Repurpose Whatever You Can Creating a piece of high-quality, original content from scratch is not only expensive but time-consuming. This isn't exactly a secret, but it is a problem that marketers are c...

A few months ago, Mark Zuckerberg treated his staff to a movie night. The film...Pixar's Inside Out. The Facebook staff watched in confused amazement wondering who these emotions were and more importantly, where is the big, blue and white like-button thumb? A few individuals voiced what everyone else was thinking...wouldn't it be swell if Facebook allowed people to have more than one possible emotional reaction to the things they see and read? A legendary hack-a-thon ensued, spanning an entire month. The result? We now have the choice to not just like something, but to LOVE something, laugh at something, or express shock, sadness and anger. To express our new emotions, all we have to do is hover over the traditional blue and white thumb and six new emojis emerge. For mobile users, simply hold down the thumb and your new emojis will appear. From a social standpoint, we are all feeling liberated at our ability to express more than one emotion without the necessity of ...

Whether you work in a small business or a huge corporation, every time you send a letter or hand out a business card, your materials convey a marketing message. Your company's visual identity or “brand” differentiates your business from others and identifies you to your customers. The colors and designs you use in your marketing materials all become part of your brand. That’s why it's important to consider these design decisions carefully. For example, when you think of UPS, you think “brown,” and when you think of IBM, you think “blue.” Target stores are associated with red and John Deere tractors are green. In each case, the color is closely associated with the company’s logo. Color triggers an emotional reaction, so it's a powerful tool in branding. Your branding also should be consistent with your industry. If your business is in a somewhat conservative field, such as accounting or financial planning, for example, your visual image should be businesslike an...

There is no question about it. Variable data printing (VDP), or 1:1 print marketing, is no longer the experimental, niche technology that it once was. Even so, there are many marketers who have not yet migrated to VDP because they are concerned about return on investment (ROI). Budgets are tight. Traditional direct mail is predictable, even if it’s not high return. What if the risk doesn’t pay off? Fortunately, there are steps marketers can take to maximize their success. These steps can be summed up on one phrase: cross-channel marketing. If you look over the vast collection of case studies from successful VDP marketers, one trend that stands out is that marketers are pairing their 1:1 print marketing with Internet and email components to boost the strength of the overall campaign. This has become a particularly effective approach for campaigns that involve some risk, such as prospecting. Real-Life Examples Pantone, a leading provider of color systems and te...

Your Partner in Commerce Do you ever wish you had a powerful business partner, one that could offer advice and counsel, as well as work to improve the local business climate? Well, you just might have access to one. An often untapped resource for graphic design firms and their clients is the local chamber of commerce. Chambers of commerce offer a variety of services for their members, such as a directory of local businesses, monthly networking events and access to discounted rates on health insurance to name just a few. A chamber of commerce is an organization, typically at the state or county level, whose primary purpose is to improve the business environment within their given geography. The missions of local chambers of commerce include lobbying local or state governments on behalf of local businesses as well as offering its members a range of business services. Companies and sole proprietorships must become members of their chamber before they can avail t...