by Sarah Izzo

Plan to Save

The reality of almost any business is bound by picking two of the three factors: time, quality and cost. If you need top quality fast, it’s going to cost more. If you need top quality affordably, it often will take longer.

START WITH A CONSULT

In your first steps of planning and design concept, it’s the right time to establish how the piece will produce—email, social media, direct-mail, etc. Work with the designers and production teams to discuss budget, guidelines and production time to avoid delays later.

by Sarah Izzo

What does the research say?

The studies keep piling up to reveal technology changes, but people remain the same—we are creatures of sensations and experiences. Screen displays, no matter the device and delivery, will never compare to the tactile experience of paper. Educators are rapidly concluding that children and adults focus better when reading is combined with our senses, especially touch.

What does this mean for direct mail? It’s not dead and neither are catalogs. Even the biggest online brands are turning out story-line catalogs to draw in buyers’ attentions or focus them on a targeted campaign.

by Sarah Izzo

Making Life Easier for Purchasing

The solution is here, and we have it for you free of charge. Welcome to OEX Print Online at https://print.oexusa.com. We are ready to help you set up your own online variable template - whether it is for the company business cards, name badges, apparel or a complete line of promotional/collateral materials. If you have a mostly consistent design template that you just need to order with on demand personalization—OEX Print Online has variable ability for your products!

by Sarah Izzo

The experience is often everything in promotions - and life for that matter. It is surely one of the main reasons why brick-and-mortar businesses still thrive in an increasingly online world. Why else would you go out when the need is not immediate and everything can be ordered and delivered the next day for us for the right price?

Supporting small business could be a reason (and a great one) everyone should get behind with every dollar they spend. However, people still go to the stores because they want the experience - to see it, touch it and decide to buy.

by Sarah Izzo

It defines our world, yet it is our own perception

Understanding Color

It might seem like a political statement, but this is not that article—color is just a combination of biological science and psychological perception. It is the brain’s translation of light hitting our eyes and how it makes us feel, an oversimplification to be sure but true all the same.

by Sarah Izzo

Custom Packaging and Wrappers / Seals

The great thing about packaging—it is one of the best opportunities to build your brand awareness and get your message out there. It is a guaranteed advertisement and chance to create a unique customer experience of your brand. Depending upon volume and product, sometimes the custom price is comparable to the generic. Consumers are visual and packaging is frequently a subconscious deciding factor conveying quality, confidence, and value.

by Sarah Izzo

There are two parts to any branded or decorated apparel project - the selection of the apparel and the choice of decoration. The two go hand-in-hand. The material will determine the type of decorating options you have to choose from just as much as the look you want to achieve, the size of the design and its location.

There are many types of apparel decorating that can be done separately for affordability or combined for a complex design. Here is a great article about the different types of decoration: Apparel Decorating Basic Terms and Techniques. Deciding which option is best starts with what you are trying to accomplish and how it will be used.

by Sarah Izzo

All the different types - an overview

There are many types of signage all based on the need and the use. The top two questions when determining the correct signage are:

• How long does it need to last? Temporary, Mid-Term or Long-Term

• Is it for indoor or outdoor use?

There is overlap in the solutions depending on your answers. Here are the basic categories:

Making your print POP and WOW

by Sarah Izzo

Design meeting function is the lifeblood of creative marketing. The digital age has only seemed to increase the need to up the ante on getting attention and leaving a lasting impression. To what lengths do you need to go to do that? What really has value?

Researchers are learning more every day that the tactile experience creates a greater engagement, increased attention and memorability. Studies are showing that even those heavy textbooks might be better than the laptops and some are already suggesting a reversion back to the backbreaking bookbags.

Thus, we find that a digital message gets the least amount of focus. A video engaging the sense of hearing gets a bit more attention and recall.

by Sarah Izzo

Planning to save time and money while keeping the gray hairs away

There are plenty of event checklists, blogs, websites, systems, apps and agencies dedicated to providing information on all things event planning. What we want to focus in on today is the event collateral material - the general timeline and deadlines that might be needed when you plan your event. There are a lot of moving parts to an event that can either come together easily or the train can derail in mass casualty of confusion leaving you looking for hair dye.

by Sarah Izzo

Don’t die from licking the envelopes!

Utilizing mail houses saves time and money on postage.

Christmas is almost upon us and most of our client’s holiday messages are already in the mail. The US Post Office has encouraged a private industry of mailing companies by offering postage discounts for doing part of the job of sorting. Postage discounts that can be quite significant for our nonprofit customers and absolutely worth the savings for every customer. Often the reduction in postage can offset the cost of the service making the entire experience hands off for the client.

by Sarah Izzo

Where are mailings in your marketing budget?

Did you know that Office Express offers mailing services?We have shared in the success and the proven ROI of direct mail with our customers. In these digital days printed material has proven to gain more focus from any audience. The days of catalogs are more relevant than ever so if your social media campaign is falling flat consider a printed piece.

by Sarah Izzo

It is starting to get a little chillier outside and with it the holiday season is upon us—holiday cards, calendars and branded gifts … oh my! We want to discuss these common custom printed items that come up this time of year and how to get them from OEX.

For holiday cards, you can go completely custom through your rep or the OEX Print Team - just reach out to us directly at print@oexusa.com or by phone at 248-307-1842. You can also select an existing card to custom imprint right through our Holiday Card Site at https://oex.4printing.com/. 

Do you have a company business card? How about stationery, forms, labels or printed marketing? Do you use promotional materials like mugs, exhibitor displays or branded apparel? OEX has launched a new print system to make ordering easier.

I've talked briefly about our custom printing website in the past and today I'd like to take you on a tour to show you how easy it is to use.  Our site, print.oexusa.com, has multiple functionalities. We can create a portal for your company with a document library that lists all the custom printed items that you buy from us and you can select what you need and place your order online. We can set up templates for your business cards that enable you to enter the information for the cards, see an instant proof, approve the proof and place your order - all in just a few minutes!  Don't want to set up an account?  No worries!  You can upload a file, place an order or request an estimate - all as a guest user.

Let's start that walkthrough I mentioned.  I'll show you how to place a business card order.

Did you know that Office Express has its own dedicated custom printing website?  Yes, we do! Printing doesn't have to be complicated - we make it easy for you!  On our printing site, you can send us files, request a quote or place an order.  Your company can have its own dedicated portal on our site and all of the documents and items that you regularly print can be loaded there for you to see. We can also set up templates for you to generate live proofs on popular items like business cards, which you can order instantly or send for approval internally.

A great graphic designer can take your outline or idea and turn it into an amazing piece.  Creativity is their job - and their passion.  If you submit a file that just needs a few tweaks, they can do that as well.  A little work or a lot - they can fix it for you and make it something you are really proud of.

But design work isn't free - which leads me to today's "Do."

I'm going to temporarily stray from the Do's and Don'ts that I've been writing lately to address a subject that we get a lot of questions about:  paper weights.

Paper weights can be a bit confusing.  I mean, how is it that a 65 lb. cover stock is heavier than a 90 lb. index paper?  Give me a few minutes of your time and hopefully it will be a little clearer.

Today I'm going to give you a "Don't."  Here it is:

Don't wait until the last minute to place your order.

You might think this would be common sense, but many people don't understand what's involved in custom printing and they wait until just a few days before they need the item (sometimes the day before!) and then call it in.   In reality, there are multiple steps in the printing process and these take time.  

Today's subject can actually be a Do and a Don't.  

DO:  Review the Proof Carefully

When you submit a job to a printer, they will usually send you a digital proof for approval before the job goes to press.  Make sure you check every detail on that proof - check for spelling, punctuation, alignment, fonts used, missing words, things that may have jumped off the page, etc. At OEX, we do our due diligence to ensure the accuracy of the proof, but human beings are flawed and they do make mistakes, despite their best intentions.