Tag: print communications

- by Chris Sykes

Print Ain’t Dead!

In this digital age, the print industry has taken a hard knock. In adversity however, there is always opportunity and print, as a marketing medium is once again claiming its niche.

The new generation of digital printers allow businesses to personalise their mailings and printed collaterals. Highly personalised mailers can be created based on an individual’s personal preferences, purchase history and/or location.

High-end digital print is now more economical and affordable with the ability to match the quality of traditional litho presses. The biggest advantage though is the ability to print ‘on-demand’. Businesses no longer have to hold stocks of brochures or leaflets, they can simply call off the quantity they need for a specific campaign, event or meeting.

Volume’s print production facility in Reading is a seeing resurgence in print and direct mail. If you or any of your family is a Reading FC season ticket holder, you’ll have received a personalised mailer inviting you to renew your season ticket for the 2012/2013 season. These were printed on Volume’s 7-colour digital press. It allowed RFC to ‘talk’ one-to-one to its fans delivering a more informed and intimate experience. So successful was the campaign, RFC will be adopting this tactic in future communications.

Breathe life into your marketing communications

If you want to know more about digital print and how it can add value to your business’ marketing tool kit call Chris or Derek on 01189 393838 or email print.team@volume.co.uk

- by Rachel Adams

Print ain’t Dead (honest)

In a digital age, full of digital communications and digital conversations – it’s sometimes easy to forget the joy of a simple letter or package through the post. Stored in an over-stuffed drawer I have birthday, valentines and congratulations cards spanning back to 1999. I keep them for sentimental reasons, but I don’t keep sentimental emails in a special ‘memories’ folder.

That’s the beauty of print or what we now call ‘tactile communications’. They can give us a sense of excitement, bring back memories and make us feel special. That’s why it’s so disappointing when spam fills up our letterboxes with ill-considered and badly designed mails that don’t consider our needs, wants and preferences.

Print isn’t dead, it’s just often misused and abused. Here at Volume we have the capability to create completely personalised direct mail material… and no, this doesn’t just mean adding the customer’s name at the top of the letter.
So, let’s put this into practice. I’m guessing at some point you’ve probably ordered a pizza from your local take away. Having once ordered a pizza, subsequently you probably received their latest menu through the post. With personalised print, why send a whole menu when the pizza company could send a personalised voucher for your favourite pizza? This not only potentially reduces postage costs, but also means you’re more likely to react to the menu or voucher because it means something to you!

Our clients are already seeing the benefit of this, and personalised print campaigns are hot off the printing press (quite literally) with more coming through the pipeline. Those customers are using it to retrain loyalty, improve open rates and make sure that customers are reacting to their content.

The best print campaigns are not only personal but they can also be fun too! That’s why for a client we recently created this ‘dress up’ direct mail (pictured below). This allowed people to ‘pop out’ the clothes and attach them to Fred as they pleased.

So when people tell you print is dead, think about how much you value print. On Tuesday if you receive an e-card instead of a Valentines card, tell us then that print is dead. Print is moving with the times: becoming more fun, more personal and more competitive. It sits in a support role for digital – not to compete against it.

To find out why print ain’t dead, visit our website or follow our print Twitter feed.