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Marketing trends come and go, but there is one thing that remains constant: personalization works. Today, 71% of consumers actually expect a personalized buying experience and companies that integrate customization experience better results. And this doesn’t only apply to digital experiences: print marketing strategies like direct mail can also benefit massively from customization. Here’s how to enhance your print marketing campaigns with an element of personalization.

Direct Mail vs Email

There is no question that email has become the dominant method for brands to communicate with their customers and online ads are now the norm for targeting new client bases. But the rise of digital marketing has created an interesting dynamic. Instead of print marketing going the way of the dinosaur, the omnipresence of digital marketing has actually breathed new life into direct mail opportunities. Why, you may ask? A little something called digital fatigue.

Ambre Zachmann, Ecommerce Marketing Specialist at Printing for Less, sums it up well, “as a marketer, I am constantly being bombarded with email after email. We are seeing ‘digital fatigue’ in full force as our email efforts aren’t performing as they once were. To stand out, more people are realizing that direct mail is the way to go.”

Not only is it more and more difficult to grab the consumer’s attention using screens because of the high saturation of online marketing content, physical media like direct mail creates a stronger emotional response in people. It makes sense: if you receive hundreds of emails but only receive a few pieces of physical mail, you will spend more time looking at the print in your hands.

In fact, direct mail can have open rates as high as 90%, while a good open rate for email is closer to 20%. Moreover, direct mail has a response rate of over 36 times greater than email. With personalization added into the mix, the potential only grows.

Why Personalize Direct Mail?

Personalizing direct mail gives your marketing campaigns a major boost by engaging with consumers one-on-one. The logic here is simple. “If someone calls ‘hey you’ in a crowd, you probably won’t stop and look,” says Ambre. “But if they call your name, you are more likely to turn around. The same is true for prints or any marketing materials. You want the customer to feel like you are talking to them directly.”

When a customer sees their name on a piece of mail or is given an exclusive offer, it grabs their attention and helps them to form a connection with your brand. “If someone feels like they are being addressed specifically, they tend to value the communication more than if they receive a generic message that could be to anyone,” adds Kristi Eby, Printing for Less’ National Account Executive.

This feeling can pay dividends to your business. Just adding a name to direct mail has been shown to increase response rates by 135%. And personalized marketing in general is associated with higher performance: a McKinsey & Company study found that companies that prioritize personalization bring in 40% more revenue than those that don’t. It’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Let’s Get Personal

The next question is how to personalize direct mail? There are a ton of options at your disposal and many ways to get creative with customizing mail. Here are a few tried and true suggestions:

Add a name

Adding a name to direct mail is by far the easiest and most common way to personalize your marketing prints. It lets the customer know that there is a specific reason they are receiving that piece of mail, setting your brochure or postcard apart from mass-distributed flyers or emails.

Product deals

If you know someone is interested in your products or services, send them an exclusive offer. This can be particularly effective if you know a specific product they have been looking at. A special promotion will encourage the recipient to make the purchase and feel valued by your brand.

Demographic customization

You can also use demographic indicators to tailor your message to the consumer. “A different demographic may be more receptive to a different type of messaging,” says Printing for Less Mailing Expert Wes Kirk. “For instance, you would appeal to homeowners in a different way than renters.”

Interactive offers

Make things more engaging for the consumer by adding an interactive element to your direct mail and combining it with a special offer. One Printing for Less customer sent out mailers with discounts hidden under a scratch surface. “Adding this extra level of engagement along with the discounts really paid off,” Ambre says. “Our customer saw an increase in calls about their services.”

Referral incentives

Reach out to existing customers with personalized referral incentives. Kristi highlights a recent campaign that used this tactic: “I had a customer send personalized greeting cards to their recent customers with a QR code that linked to a referral bonus incentive. If the recipient scanned the QR code and referred a friend or family member, they could receive a $75 credit. The campaign was effective: it doubled as appreciation for current customers and helped expand their clientele.”

When personalizing direct mail, always remember that there is a fine line between making a consumer feel seen and making them feel exposed. So avoid including any sensitive information or too many personalized details in your direct mail unless the client has given you information or consented. “Consider how the recipient would feel about your company knowing more sensitive information before you include it in direct mail,” Kristi recommends.

Personalized Mail with Printing for Less

Thanks to digital printing technologies, adding a touch of personalization to direct mail is not only possible, it’s easy. Get in touch with the team at Printing for Less to explore our personalized direct mail printing services and get your next campaign off the ground and into people’s mailboxes.

The power of color in marketing is hard to understate. It’s not just about looking good, different hues and palettes can actually evoke certain feelings and convey different meanings. Colors are therefore integral to a brand’s identity and play a huge role in influencing how consumers see and experience brands and products. That’s why it’s important that brands think about their marketing colors mindfully. Our guide to seasonal color palettes can help you find the right hues and tones for your brand based on season. 

Why Incorporate Seasonal Colors Into Your Marketing?

The idea that colors can influence our mood and perception is rooted in human psychology.  In Ancient Egypt, people used colorful rooms as a form of therapy. More recently during the 20th century, color psychology was formally explored by scientists using brain activity and heart rate measurements to understand how people respond to different colors..

Seasonal color theory builds on the foundations of color psychology and integrates the four seasons. In the context of branding, seasonal color theory suggests that shifting color pallets with the seasons and holidays can trigger different emotions.

Think about it, who doesn’t love the holiday season? Printing for Less’ Director of Sales Katie Younge expresses her excitement for all things Christmas saying, “I feel like it [holiday branding] gets you in the spirit. Personally, I love Christmas. It’s my favorite. So when things are really Christmassy and festive, I’m like “yeah, I wanna go Christmas shopping.” Ultimately using holiday color schemes can remind your customer’s the holidays are coming and get them thinking about shopping for gifts for their loved ones.

Christmas isn’t the only time brands can utilize seasonal vibes to give their marketing a refresh. Use updated color palettes year round to keep customers engaged with your advertising campaigns no matter the season. 

The Four Seasonal Color Palettes

Spring Color Palette

Spring, the season of blossoms and renewal, is associated with bright, light colors that have a degree of richness.If your businesses is thinking of doing a new spring time campaign, go for vibrant greens, corals, rose reds, bright teals, and yellows. Spring is an easy one to keep aligned with your brand because you can always use your original branded colors and dim them down into pastels, keeping them on brand, but still refreshing.

Summer Color Palette

The summer season color palette is all about contrasting with the heat of the weather. Cool, muted tones—like grays, dusty pinks, watery blues, and greens—convey calmness and often feel rejuvenating. Consider a 4th of July campaign or just a beginning of summer campaign and lighten up your color palette. Everyone looks forward the start of summer and having a summer campaign can help get costumers ready for (arguably) the best time of the year.

Autumn Color Palette

Warm, earthy tones that bring us a sense of coziness are a signature of the autumn color palette. You only have to look out your window in the fall to get a sense of the season’s colors: natural oranges, reds, and golden yellows, as well as rich greens and browns. Getting your color palette a little moody for the fall evokes feelings of nostalgia that can make customers more inclined to shop.

Winter Color Palette

The winter season color palette is all about strong cool hues, like highly saturated reds, blues, greens, purples, and yellows. Winter is arguably the easiest (and best) time to switch up your color palette since customers are eager to do a little holiday shopping.. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Boxing Day, Ōmisoka, or just the cold weather, there are plenty of reasons to feel festive and tons of color hues to choose from.

How To Incorporate Seasonal Color Palettes

Like any marketing strategy, there are best practices when integrating a seasonal color palette. Let’s take a look:

Make Sure the Colors Align With Your Brand

The first and most important step in incorporating a seasonal color palette into your marketing is to make sure the colors align with your brand’s identity and message. Yes, it can be fun to switch it up for the seasons, but be sure not to steer too far away from what your business represents.

Use Secondary Color Palettes

Once you’ve established your brand’s central color palette, you can start to think about a secondary color palette. Secondary color palettes are a great way to change up your marketing, particularly at certain times of year like the holidays. These colors should feel like an extension of your brand’s classic palette, not a departure. Ambre Zachmann, Printing for Less’ eCommerce Marketing Specialist, sums it up by saying: “Brands should include a seasonal palette, but it has to be on brand and look cohesive.” We recommend trying different hues from the same color scheme for your secondary color palette.

Refer To a Designer

If you’re still unsure about what seasonal color palette is right for you, or what specific colors to integrate into your branding and marketing, it’s never a bad idea to speak to a professional. Designers have a deep knowledge of color theory and can help you find seasonal colors that look great together while still aligning with your brand’s personality.

Request Free Proofs

You can spend weeks choosing the perfect color palette for your brand only to find out that they look different when printed out. That’s why we always recommend requesting a printed proof early on. “Blues and purples can be particularly hard when printing, because the tiniest shift in magenta levels can make blues look more purple and vice versa,” Ambre explains. Printing for Less offers free proofs so that brands can ensure that their palette will match on screen and in print

No Matter The Season, We’re Here to Help

A successful brand is one that understands itself well and knows how to flawlessly convey its message and offerings, through logos, slogans, designs, and—of course—color. At Printing for Less, we are here to help your brand come to life with posters, brochures, business cards, and more. Our team is dedicated to recreating your brand’s unique color palette—no matter the season—across all printed materials. Reach out to an expert today and start planning your next seasonal campaign.

The holidays are a’coming, and so is the mail. In the steady stream of bills, a holiday card can be a very welcome site for the eyes of a customer.

Holiday season is prime time to check in with customers and share a little gratitude. It’s why big name companies still send holiday cards, and why local businesses will continue to send holiday cards well into the days when our streets look like something out of Blade Runner.

Still, putting together the perfect holiday cards for businesses is no easy feat. That’s why we’ve decided to  put on our holiday hats at Printing for Less, and share our festive insights below.

Why Send Holiday Cards?

Holiday cards aren’t just a gimmick, they can be a sincere token to show customers that you value them. Sending a small memento that reminds people they’re cared about will always be well received. Just think about the times that you’ve gotten a card in the mail, it probably made you smile or added a snippet of cheer to your day.

Holiday cards also make good business sense. Emotions play a big part in decision making. By spreading some joy to your customers, they’re more likely to remember your brand and associate positive feelings with it. That association is a strong step toward conversions. Likewise, sending a holiday card is a powerful way to stand out against competitors: it’s a chance to showcase your brand’s personality, build deeper brand loyalty, and highlight your human side.

As a side note, holiday cards have been making a comeback. Millennials are increasingly purchasing and sending holiday cards, embracing the personal touch they carry. Don’t assume then, that if you’re targeting a younger audience, they won’t be interested – holiday cards are in fact, cool.

Holiday Card Customization Tips

Like any form of messaging, if you want customers to respond well to your holiday card, you need to ensure time and thought goes into the process. Below are a few tips from our paper professionals about how to make sure your holiday cards are signed, sealed, and delivered with love.

Make It Personal 

Our E-commerce Marketing Specialist, Ambre Zachmann, says that personalization is essential for a holiday card campaign. Customers should feel like their card was uniquely designed for them, not just sent out to the masses. How? Well, Printing for Less offers variable data printing, where businesses can change a postcard to say “Hello (name)” and address the person. “We can be really specific with the variable data,” says Ambre, “you could include a product someone purchased last year or even state your closest store to someone’s address.”

Be Prompt 

Although it can be tempting to leave your holiday cards to the last minute, doing so can be risky. In the United States alone, nearly 1.3 billion cards are sent every year. The flurry of the holiday season means supply chains can get backed up and deliveries often take longer. To guarantee that your cards arrive in a timely manner, prepare your campaign at least a few months before November.

Katie Younge, Director of Sales at Printing for Less, comments that “the earlier you start your campaign, the better. And, you can always call us to ask about the timelines of production and shipping to clarify dates.” A good alternative is to opt for an envelope-free holiday card, as envelopes can slow down the mailing process. 

Be Inclusive 

Whatever aesthetic you use in your holiday card, remember to be inclusive. The text, images, and overall appearance should speak to everyone. Not all people celebrate in the same way during the holiday season, so select elements that are generally appealing and neutral. A good example is a card that reads “Happy Everything” or “Wishing you joy.”

Add a QR Code

Big things come in small packages. And by now, the world is all too familiar with the mighty QR code, so why not incorporate it into your holiday card curation?

Ambre recommends utilizing different mailer sizes. “We’re really used to seeing typical sizes for promotions and mailers, but by using a larger sized postcard, you can make your message stand out more.” She also suggests adding a QR code to your holiday card, allowing customers to scan the code and immediately access your website – you could even make a special holiday season landing page to send them to.

Elsewhere, James Casey, our Account Executive, says that a simple foil stamp can do wonders for holiday cards, as it brings some sparkle and feels expensive in customers’ hands. He also stresses the importance of having a holiday-themed call-to-action. “Include something like ‘Find your gifts here’ or ‘Get your holiday shopping started here’ and then point to a street address or a QR code,” James adds.

Some Examples We Love 

The abundance of holiday cards means there’s no shortage of inspiration for your masterpiece. 

Brooke Seidel, Sales Manager at Printing for Less, recalls a card that had the family’s photo outline printed in shiny material with a foil trim. “Behind the family photo, the rest of the postcard was a matte print, making the family focus really obvious.” This attention to detail and strategic placement of the photo is what made the card seem extra personalized, and while you probably won’t have photos of your recipients on file, you can highlight things that you know matter to them in the same style.

Ambre also notes that self mailers can strike a particular chord with people around the holidays. “It’s a card that’s folded together, and you can include something inside the mailer like a peppermint hot chocolate.” Any additional gift will go a long way with audiences, especially if it relates to the season and has a certain coziness to it.

There it is, the holiday card code, cracked. Whatever design and campaign you choose, keep it authentic, true to your brand tone, and be considerate of the diverse ways people spend the holidays. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you spread holiday cheer to your customers shoot us an email at info@printingforless.com. We’d love to connect.

When it comes to print marketing, it’s all about grabbing people’s attention and standing out. You don’t want your brochure to be forgotten among the masses and you certainly don’t want your business card to end up at the bottom of the stack. That’s why it’s important to get creative with your print marketing—with design, and with print finishes. Extra touches that can grab someone’s attention for even a second longer will make a difference and make your brand unforgettable. Here are our favorite print finishes and some tips on how to make the most of them.

Foil Stamping

Foil stamping is a great way to make your print marketing materials stand out. The process uses a heated metal die and a foil stamping machine to add a metallic finish to your print. Gold and silver lettering or line art provide a hint of glamor, while holographic foil has a fun and futuristic appeal. We recommend using foil stamping for crisp lines—like lettering—and for larger design elements rather than small details. Printing for Less’s eCommerce Marketing Specialist Ambre Zachmann recommends, “using a red foil around the QR code or a metallic arrow pointing to the QR code” to make it pop. Check out some more design tips for foil stamping here.

Embossing 

Many people think of print marketing as a two-dimensional medium, but it doesn’t have to be. Embossing is a century-old technique that uses a pair of dies to create raised design elements, or reliefs on a sheet of paper. The three-dimensional effect is most often used for professional print media, including business cards, stationery, and certificates. However, it can also add texture—not to mention a hint of class—to postcards, invitations, brochures, and more. Our embossing services are versatile: you can choose from several different edge effects, including straight, curved, or sloped edges, and can even integrate multiple embossed layers in a single design. Moreover, you can combine embossing with foil stamping for added visual and tactile intrigue.

Die Cuts 

While it may sound rather technical, die cutting is really just like using a cookie cutter for paper. Using custom-shaped blades, we can cut virtually any shape into your print materials for some added dimension and, in some cases, function. You can die cut the outline of your logo on a brochure and overlay it on a contrasting page to make it distinctive; you can cut out a shape on your business card to make it more tactile; you can create an interactive slide and reveal card; or you can make functional cuts for door hangers. There are countless options at your disposal. Ultimately, integrating a custom die cut will help set your print media apart from the competition and help make your brand more memorable to those who encounter it. 

Custom Folds 

When we talk about folding in print marketing, there are the obvious go-tos, like tri-fold brochures and folded cards. Don’t get us wrong, these are great, but there are also countless other ways to fold paper to enhance your marketing materials. Custom folds are a low-cost way to add dimension and even interactivity to your prints. For example, you can strategically integrate folds to create a reveal effect for the reader, you can also create expandable or 3D shapes. As Ambre says, “I think the best print finishes are actually foldout interactive pages. Invite your reader to unlock a secret by unfolding your piece. Or I’ve also seen a custom mailer that could be unfolded into a huge poster for kids to color in.” 

Lamination 

If you’re looking for a consistent, professional print finish that adds durability to your print materials look no further than lamination. Specifically, liquid laminate. Also known as UV coating, liquid laminate consists of a transparent liquid coating that is applied to paper and cured, forming a thin durable coating. Not only does lamination protect your print materials from fingerprints, scratches, and scuffing, it also makes them moisture and sun resistant. In terms of a visual effect, you can choose either a high gloss or matte finish, both of which enhance the color and quality of your design and add a soft feel. Lamination is great for high-touch prints, like business cards, brochures, and menus, as well as posters and signs that require durability.

Soft Touch 

Take your print marketing to the next level with a Soft Touch® coating. Like liquid lamination, this print finish increases the durability of your prints, making them resistant to fingerprints and scuffing. But the real value of Soft Touch® is its tactile appeal. Best paired with high gloss paper, Soft Touch® adds a rich, velvety texture to your prints that will make customers’ fingers linger for a moment longer. It can also enhance visual aspects, particularly dark colors, which become more luxurious with the velvet-like coating. Soft Touch® can be applied to your entire print—whether it’s a business card, postcard, brochure, or catalog—or selectively to create dynamic visual and tactile contrasts on the page.

Spot UV 

There’s a reason Spot UV is one of the most popular print finishes available today. The quick-drying (and eco-friendly!) coating imparts glossy details onto your print, resulting in a stunning contrast as well as unique light-catching effects. “If you have a really bright image on the front of your print, you could add Spot UV to it so it stands out even more and catches people’s eye,” explains Printing for Less Account Executive Kristi Eby. There are many ways to use Spot UV to your advantage. We recommend using the glossy print finish with matte paper for the greatest contrast, or combining it with Soft Touch for higher impact.

Finding the Right Print Finish

If you’re still unsure which of these print finishes is the best for your marketing campaign or brand materials, the Printing for Less team is more than happy to help. Give us a call to chat about your needs and we’ll explain which of our print finish options can best benefit you.

When it comes to Thanksgiving, the bigger the better, and the more the merrier. Twenty pound turkeys, cups brimming with spiced cider, tables overflowing with rich, seasonal food—indulgence is very much the theme. But why stop at food? Deck out your table this holiday and shower your guests with all the festivity they can handle with these festiveThanksgiving printables.

Set your table with personalized name cards

Adding personalized name cards to your Thanksgiving table is not only a great way to spruce up your decor, but it also relieves guests from having to awkwardly navigate who to sit next to when the time comes to take a seat. As a bonus, your guests will feel well taken care of when they see their name at their designated seat.

 There are countless Thanksgiving place card ideas. You can go for something classic and formal, like calligraphy on printed cardstock, or something a bit more fun, like a die-cut place card in the shape of a leaf, or a name tag fitted onto a tiny pumpkin. 

For extra Thanksgiving flair, top off each place card or place setting with seasonal greenery, like rosemary, pinecones, or cranberries for an added pop of color and smell. At the end of the night, you can even invite your guests to take their place card home as a souvenir.

What’s better than leftovers? A recipe!

It’s great to send guests home with leftovers, but why not give them something that will last, like a custom recipe booklet featuring your mouth-watering stuffing secret, your sweet and savory yams, or your grandmother’s renowned pumpkin pie? It’s a special Thanksgiving printable that will remind your guests of your party for years to come and allow them to recreate and share your trademark Thanksgiving dishes. 

We offer booklet printing services that are perfect for bringing your personalized recipe book to life. In addition to the usual options—like booklet size, type of paper, and binding—we have several special printing effects that can take your Thanksgiving printable to the next level, such as spot UV. With this coating, you can add selective glossiness to your prints, creating a dynamic contrast on the page.

“Spot UV is really easy to work with! It’s something that catches people’s eye,” explains Brooke Seidel, Quad Lead at Printing for Less. “For example, if you already have something designed, it’s really simple to put fall leaves as a spot gloss in the back of the design.”

Look ahead to the new year with custom calendars

When Thanksgiving rolls around at the end of November, it’s a good reminder that a new year is right around the corner. In anticipation of new and exciting things on the horizon, printing a series of custom calendars can make the perfect gift for your dinner guests. 

If you’ve got a knack for photography, pick your favorite photos from each month of the past year and use them for calendar pages. Think budding flowers for May, pumpkin patches for October, etc. Alternatively, fill the calendar with funny or sentimental photos of you and your Thanksgiving guests from over the years. It’s a great way for everyone to keep their loved ones in mind all year long.

Calendars come in many shapes and sizes. For instance, you can choose a compact desktop calendar or a wall-hanging calendar with larger images. You can also pick from a variety of print finishes, including high-gloss UV or soft touch coatings, as well as embossed pages, foil stamping, or metallic inks.

Bottle up fall flavors with custom hang tags

Surprise your Thanksgiving guests at the end of the evening with a little something sweet to take home. Make a batch of autumn-inspired cranberry cordial, fragrant rosemary syrup, or everyone’s favorite pumpkin spice mix. From there, all you have to do is bottle it up, and attach a custom hang tag to the bottle, in the style of Alice in Wonderland’s “Drink Me” potion.

Hang tags are a great way to not only indicate what’s inside the bottle, but also to share kind words of thanks, a recipe, or an anecdote. Did you make the rosemary syrup from home-grown rosemary? Say so! Does it go well mixed into a particular cocktail? Share the recipe!

For a small gathering, you can opt to make your own tags, but for a bigger crowd why not print a batch of hang tags or bottle neckers? The tags will elevate your take-home gift and allow you to show off your personal brand and creativity.

Give thanks with a custom greeting card

In the spirit of giving thanks, send each of your guests a greeting card in the weeks following Thanksgiving to thank them for celebrating with you. You can always go buy a box of pre-printed thank you cards, but a custom card will show your family and friends how grateful you are to spend time with them and take your host rating from A to A+.

As with our other printing services, our greeting cards and postcards can be personalized in many ways, using die cuts, special inks, and coatings. “You could die cut fall leaves on a postcard, or you could use UV coating, or incorporate an interesting folding,” says Ambre Zachmann, eCommerce Marketing Specialist. “I’ve also seen soft touch included in fall campaigns. It’s adding a soft, almost velvety touch to a piece. Imagine soft fall leaves on a card.”

“Greeting cards are a great option around Thanksgiving,” adds Printing for Less Account Executive Kristi Eby. “We can even handle all the shipping of the cards or gifts.” Indeed, at Printing for Less we not only can print your custom thank you cards, we can also take care of mailing them. 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Printing for Less team!

Printable products—like place cards, booklets, calendars, bottle tags, and greeting cards—can up your hosting game and elevate any holiday. Give these ideas a try this Thanksgiving and see firsthand how impressed your guests are. If you need any help with Thanksgiving printable designs, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team of experts, we’re here to help!