For Thanksgiving, if you’ve not thought about sending out cards, it’s a wonderful way to stand out in your clients’ mind.

If you really want to imPress (pun intended), how about sending your favorite clients a Stainless Steel Carving Set?

Talk about starting a dinner conversation with your name and logo printed right on the knife case for everyone to see.

If you want to be a little more generic, you could also go for some fall-themed hot-beverage mugs.

For Hanukkah, how about a season’s greeting card?

If you want to stay top-of-mind with your clients throughout the year, how about a Jewish Heritage Executive Calendar as your Hanukkah gift to them?

Have your employees show their true company pride by hanging an ornament (featuring your logo) on their tree. Perhaps you have an office Christmas tree you’re looking to decorate, wouldn’t your company ornaments make a nice addition?

Depending on how much you’re looking to spend, you can give your clients some wonderful gift boxes full of yummy holiday treats.

And of course, there’s still plenty of time if you’d like holiday and/or Christmas cards. Many of them are customizable.

Are you looking to stand out? Let the promo product experts at imPress Printing help you make the best of your marketing dollars.

Today we call that fragrance printing. It’s done by mixing chemicals into inks and/or paper coatings. And it really works. Whether you’re a perfume manufacturer or make cookies, you can give your customers a taste (figuratively) right out of their mailbox.

Have you considered if you’re reaching multiple senses in your printed material?

Visually, the colors you use will have a huge impact on how your message is perceived.

Here’s another chart, which also points out that different countries and cultures have some different meanings, connotations, etc. for colors.

Not all papers are the same

What kind of paper are you using? Nothing says cheap like a thin business card. At the same time, you don’t want paper for some items so thick it requires extra shipping.

Do you want a glossy finish or perhaps you want a more natural look? If you’re a non-profit raising money, you want to look organized but not like you’re spending thousands of dollars on some flashy mailer.

Have questions or need some help reaching your customers’ senses? Let the experts at imPress printing help!

With that said, have you ever thought about sending Thanksgiving holiday cards? If you have sent them, what was the reaction? It’s a growing trend partly fueled by companies wanting to beat the ‘traditional’ holiday craze.

Unlike the mid-December card mailing, Thanksgiving cards are more likely to be read and not lost in the shuffle.

If you’re in the business of standing out, this might be a great way to go.

You can still have the traditional holiday and happy new year wishes, but you frame it in a way that has a different punch.

Ready to try it out? Have imPress Printing help you choose and customize your company’s Thanksgiving cards this year.

Seriously, nothing beats avoiding that last-minute holiday card writing stress.

Unless you’ve used them before, you might be surprised how modern green printing techniques are.

Recycled papers are great for the environment, but these days when practically everyone is using them, it’s almost cliché.

Have you ever tried printing on hemp paper? How about sugar cane, bamboo, mango, banana or coffee? The paper is made by mixing the plants with post-consumer waste.

Now that you have fancy eco-friendly paper, what about the printing itself?

Soy inks, which are made from soybeans, have many advantages. First, they’re not made with petroleum like traditional inks. That makes your products even easier to recycle. They are also said to have more accurate colors.

Even the printing itself can be green. How about hiring a printer that runs off of solar power? imPress Printing can help you find a company that uses renewable energy sources.

And make sure you tell your customers what you’ve done on the printed materials.

Want to give your customers an additional incentive? How about offering a donation to an environmental group for each campaign response?

Remember, your green initiatives shouldn’t be limited to printing. Earlier this year, we told you about some green products to make your business stand out and show your green side.

QR, or quick response, codes are a perfect example of how traditional print is marrying with web development to keep businesses progressing (or at least make them seem like they’re part of this century).

For some of you, QR codes may be old news, but don’t worry if you’ve never heard of them before. That’s why we’re here! The principle is similar to the bar codes you find on your supermarket items (remember how much fun the self-scan can be?). This time, though, the scanner is your smartphone.

Here are some ideas (remember imPress can help you set your own QR code (they’re free) and add them to all your printed materials):

A sign can only say so much. Perhaps you’re selling a home. How much can you write on a flyer or brochure without making someone’s eyes cross? Use a QR code and those who want to know more will scan the code and learn everything they ever wanted from a related website.

Trade show with a punch. Add some pizzazz to your trade show table or booth. Instead of overwhelming potential clients, show them how savvy you are with a QR code. They see your awesome printed material and when they want to know more, they are sent directly to your awesome site! (You do have an awesome site, right? If not, check out IntelliSites Web Design.)

Promo items that jump off the table. If you want to be noticed, add a QR code to your promo item. Entice clients to see more or link them to a web page with a contest. The possibilities are endless. It’s a great conversation starter, too.

Grow your Facebook fan base. Looking to add more friends to your Facebook page? Instead of just saying you have a Facebook page, link your potential clients directly to your page. They’ve already taken the first step so they’re that much more likely to become a fan since they’re already on the page!

Want to try something but need some advice? Let imPress help!

Watch any couple prancing around Bed, Bath, and Beyond as they create a wedding gift registry. About 35% of the joy they are experiencing is due to their overflowing love for one another, 25% can be attributed to anticipation of the super cool gravy boats and cheese graters they are soon going to receive, but at least a full 40% is the fact that they get to scan things with a special scanner gun.

When you incorporate QR codes into your direct mail marketing materials, you’re taking your marketing to the next level – by using the newest technology, by helping your targets to spend more time thinking about and interacting with your brand, and most importantly, by providing that special scanner gun experience.

And…What’s a QR Code?

We mentioned QR codes in a previous entry, but as a quick refresher, they’re those little square barcode-like deals that are starting to turn up here and there. The camera function of smartphones can scan them and apps can decode them and send the person who scanned them to a specific website. So at the end of the day, it’s a barcode that’s really a hyperlink.

These babies are useful for advertising purposes because you can use them to direct your targets to your website, or even a specific page of it if there’s a special promo going on or if you have a certain element of your business that you want to highlight.

The “Look What My Phone Can Do!” Factor

Now, smartphone users are well aware that their phones are cool. And most of these lucky folks aren’t afraid to explore all the funky things that their phones are capable of. So by including QR codes in your printed marketing pieces and letting smartphone users know that they can play “scanner gun” with their phones by zapping these codes, you’re more than likely to get a few takers.

This is especially true while QR codes are just starting to make their way into the marketing world. After all, not all smartphone users have had the opportunity to scan any QR codes yet, so your chances of getting your code scanned right now are pretty good. Even if they’re just scanning the QR code because it’s something new and fun to try, you’ll be getting people to spend time on your website who may never have made the trip otherwise.

So drive traffic to your website, show off how cutting edge your company is, and provide your targets with some of that “Nah-nah-I’ve-got-a-scanner-gun-and-you-don’t!” delight. Talk to your pals at imPress about how you can include QR codes in your printed materials.

Now, we’ll have you imagine something just slightly less cool but actually possible.

Imagine what it would be like if you could go to your computer, type a few letters and click a few times, and know your printed materials are on their way.

That’s the power of print on demand.

Print and Promotional Items in TurboDrive Mode

Print on demand technology is a system built for large companies that need to order printed materials and promotional items often. It provides the company with a personalized online dashboard made up of templates of all of their printed pieces. This allows orders to be taken quickly and without the back and forth that is often required when developing printed materials.

If a company that used print on demand were to, for example, hire a new employee, the technology would make it simple to get new business cards and stationary in the works right away. Typically, a company with a new hire would have to call the printer, send over the new employee’s information, wait for a proof, approve the proof, and send it to print. But using a print on demand dashboard saves everyone time by skipping some of these steps. Since the template is readily available to the company itself, someone from the company can just enter the new information, look at the online proof that is generated, and get the printing going in a jiffy.

It may not quite as sweet as the magical telepathic instantaneous abracadabra scenario described back in our first paragraph…but it’s pretty close.

From the Wii to the Facebook status, technology is making it possible to move away from the tangible and spend a lot of time in a virtual alternate reality. But are we eventually going to completely abandon the real world of things we can touch and taste and experience?

In a word…No.

And In 73 Words…

Let’s face it…humans are sensory creatures. And we don’t like letting our sense of sight have all the fun. We like to slip our feet into fuzzy socks, feel the warmth of a fire, and smell the aroma of our coffee. And there’s no way that viewing clipart of some dude drinking a cup of joe by the fire in his toe socks is ever going to satisfy us in the same way.

Tangible Lets Your Senses Play

We get some of that sensory appeal from printed items, too. Printed materials are the tangible way to relay messages. Because we can hold postcards and brochures in our hands, we can experience their unique textures. Some printed materials are even enhanced with 3-D features or scents to give our senses more playtime. Heck, you could even pop a postcard in your mouth if you really wanted to.

Although the same messages can be communicated through the digital world, a computer screen just can’t provide textures, smells, or that special paper-y taste.

Printing is Forever

The permanence of printed materials are another reason they won’t be bumped into the world of the obsolete. That beautiful wedding invitation or Christmas card can be cherished as a keepsake for years in a way that an image on an iPhone cannot. And the army of scrapbookers and sentimental grandmothers out there would never stand for a world without print.

A Bright Future for Printing

Virtual significant others, virtual flowers, and virtual food fights on Facebook still have not replaced the real things. And we’re pretty sure e-vites and e-mail aren’t going to totally take over the communication world either. There are plenty of occasions where electronic communication is helpful, useful, and maybe even preferred. But you’ll never be able to run your hand over it the way you can with a high quality printed piece…and that’s why print is definitely here to stay.

A friend of ours recently opened a piece of mail from her homeowners insurance company and was appalled. The envelope contained a letter and a brochure. And both of them would have been better left unsent.

The letter was a typical form letter recommending that our friend consider insuring her car with this company. The message was not out of the ordinary, but the mistakes were. Sentences within the letter ranged from poorly written to actually grammatically incorrect, and the letter concluded with the assertion that this insurance company would be “happy to suite your needs.”

The brochure, believe it or not, was worse.

Instead of hiring a printing company or even using a desktop publishing program, the geniuses running the operation opted to construct this brochure elementary school art project style. That’s right, folks, someone actually sat down with a gluestick and got busy gluing the graphics onto the brochure by hand. The sloppy edges were a dead giveaway that someone tried to save a few bucks.

What You Send Says a Lot About You

The well-meaning staff of this insurance company thought that they were sending out marketing materials, when in actuality, these pieces were the opposite of marketing. Instead of luring our friend in and getting her interested in a new service, the company made her question their credibility as an insurance company. She couldn’t help but wonder, If I ever actually need to make a claim, will they try to fix my house with a gluestick?

Don’t let your printed pieces send the wrong message. There may be some aspects of your business that can be handled with DIY jobs, but designing and constructing marketing materials probably isn’t one of them. Professional designers and printers will make sure that your printed pieces actually bolster your company’s image instead of bringing it down.

And if there are any holdouts out there who still want to make their own brochures, we beg you to avoid puffy paint, pipe cleaners, glitter, crayons, and gluesticks.

Yeah, we haven’t, either.

Even though humans have these awesome brains that can do all sorts of ridiculously complex things, most of us are happiest when we keep things simple and let our brains relax. In fact, we tend to go out of our way to make sure our brains don’t have to do any extra work.

Don’t Make Them Think!

Enter Steve Krug, author of the popular web design book Don’t Make Me Think. Krug makes many great points in his book, but the title really says it all.

Krug points out that when people visit a website, they just don’t want to have to push their brains to the limit. If you want an effective website, Krug believes that you have to set it up in a user-friendly way that will spoon feed your point to the site’s visitors. Web surfers, he argues, are not going to read paragraph after paragraph of text on a web page; they are going to scan the page to find what they need and move on.

Krug’s book specifically focuses on web design, yet the point he makes carries over to print advertising as well. When you send out a postcard or a brochure advertising your business, you can’t expect its recipients to devote much time and brainpower to reading it. You really have to get your call to action out there in a big way if you don’t want your audience to miss it. In other words, don’t present the information in a way that requires your direct mail recipients to use their brains; tell them precisely what you want them to do and why they should do it.

Maybe one day, putting our brains into high gear will become trendy and we’ll spend our spare time solving calculus problems instead of playing Minesweeper and watching reruns of Jersey Shore. But until then, you’ll definitely have the most success with your marketing efforts if you follow Krug’s advice and keep your message straightforward and simple.