For example if you had a document which had a solid background colour printing from edge to edge, to print it without bleed means that it only has to move a fraction of a millemetre and it will result in an unsightly slither on one or more edges.

A designer needs a few hours to design a masterpiece that looks and appears perfect on screen. But it’s a very poor final result if there is a tiny even less than 1mm white unprinted border around the edge.

Its not the printing which is the problem, it’s the awkward task which the guillotine operator has trying to cut the document to size, if this was being done on a single sheet using a scalple, which is normally how the designer would proof it to their client. A guillotine trims 1000’s at a time, and ther is no machine in the workd which can avoid part of the pile of sheets having some movement, the tolerance can be up to 0.25mm.

To manage this problem, all print companies use a slightly bigger sheet paper to print your design and cut it with perfect measurement in the perfect size. In this regard, you can get some perfect design that you are looking for.

This extra is called ‘bleed’. When the deign is created its made slightly bigger than its needed, especially any background colurs or images which meet the edge of the page.

Alternatively we could print the whole document 1% larger in order to create bleed, but this tends to cause problems with important information which is close to the edge of the original page size, this can result in a messy final document which has altered the original design created by the designer.

So by adding the correct bleed this issue is resolved.

The designer needs to increase the edge of the document by 3mm on all edges. This means that an A5 document which is normally sized at 148.5mm wide x 210mm high, needs to be increased to 154.5mm wide x 216mm high. This is printed and then trimmed back to the original A5 size and therefore any movement on the guilotine is not noticed in the final printed sheets.

A word of warning however, if you are asked to re-supply artwork to include the bleed edge, its not always possible to just increase the document size to make up the bleed. As mentioend before this can cause the important elements of the design to run very close the edge of the trim, and in some cases be trimmed off all-together.

Ideally its best to keep important elements of your design at least 5mm away from the trim edge. This is only to avoid the design looking cramped and unprofessional but also increase the risk of image or text being lost when its trimmed.

As some designers refer to this area the ‘quiet space’ of any designs.

Crop Marks

Due to all the reasons mentioned above, the guillotine operator is required to know the perfect measurement and area of the sheet to cut up the paper. This they do by using ‘crop marks’ or ‘trim marks’ to indicate the edge of any printing documents. These are thin and short black lines are a visual reference for where the deign ends, especially a design with bleed, which will be difficult to see where the intended design finishes and where the bleed begins. Crop marks are usually placed slightly away from the bleed area, this is so they do not print. Crop marks which join together propose a similar problem to that of no bleed, if the document moves either on the press or on the guillotine then its likely the crop marks will be printed and show in the final design, so by offsetting them its possible to allow for tolerance in the movement of the paper.

The second normally involve choosing the medium that is right. Albeit printed leaflets, a poster or even a printed brochure. When we ask why they have chosen this particular printed literature as opposed to other available mediums they often don’t have an answer. The medium needs closely relates to the message. Different mediums are used for different messages. You need to put across the right message in the right medium in order to gain from the product. You wouldn’t put sales figures for an annual report onto a poster; likewise you wouldn’t advertise a nightclub theme night using a 12 page booklet. Choosing the right size and format for your printed promotion is not rocket science, but choosing the wrong format will either make or break your marketing push.

The third approach, which normally involves the market, should ensure that the right audience is targeted. If you are selling to companies you need to talk to the right people in those companies. If you are selling to consumers you need to interact with the right consumers. You need to be clear who you want to reach. There are three things you need: the right message, the right medium, and the right market. The last factor that affects direct marketing is the right psychology.

It is quite possible to write a brilliant sales piece, choose the right medium and to send it to the right people – but still have no sales. This is because of the way you set out your letter, email, brochure, web page or blog. This will have a huge impact on how many people read and respond to it.

This psychological issue is bit hard but it can be understood. For instance, if you write a sales letter and start with a large headline that covers a quarter of the page with nothing else around it to confuse the eye – your sales will then shoot up. Indeed I have come across sales copies go from no response to a certain response percentage just by having this change. So there it is.

All you need is:

• The right message,

• The right medium,

• The right market and,

• The right psychology.

Get those four things right – and you are home and dry.

Brochure printing and booklet printing are the same thing, they are just referred to differently by different people.
A sheet of A4 paper folded in half becomes a 4 page or (4pp) A5 leaflet. Multiples of this 4pp are then printed and stapled together to make a booklet or brochure. So as long as your document contains multiple sheets bound together then it falls within a booklet / brochure category.
Some people deem a brochure more important or more corporate than a booklet, this is not true, its is all down the content of the booklet or brochure. An 8page A4 design full of corporate financial statistics is the same if it’s called a booklet or a brochure – it is completely down to what the customers or designer wants to call it.

We have brochure printing and booklet printing on our site – because that’s how some phrase it when goggling for a supplier, so you are welcome to call it what you want!
A booklet or brochure becomes a book if it has a hardbound cover. This is normally used instead of stitching or stapling is not viable. A document with more than 52pp (printed pages) is usually becomes tricky to fold especially on material above 150gsm, so in these cases alternative binding methods are used, such as perfect binding.

Do you call a round bread roll a bap or a cob?. A Potato is a potato until you call it a spud?

These items fulfill exactly the same purpose – to communicate information, how well is all down to how good your message is written and designed.

You wont be able to win customers in a prize draw, but it can be a bit of a lottery.
Having an idea regarding how you want to be seen by your potential customers at least give you a starting point. Your company’s image is very important, but what you are offering regards services or products is really key to approaching new customers.
If your potential customers are being left to create their personal opinion of you then there is a risk of you losing customers as they have created the wrong message. For such reason your targeted customers may think that your products as well as service are not aimed towards them or they are much expensive or too cheap as well.
Positioning can determine the kind of consumers who drawn towards your promotional message. Well, a discount carpet warehouse can promote with basic leaflet printing that feature big bold lettering as well as simply drawn line diagrams. However, if the similar company design its leaflet by using crafted copy, costly printing techniques and class photography, their targeted customers will take one look and presume their products and service were luxurious items with an expensive price tag. For this reason the targeted customers will look for other services.

The position of your business will be determined by several factors:

The position of any business in the marketplace will be determined by several factors such as price, quality and professed value of your service and products. However, the most successful people are those who are always honest as well as act to their strength. Placing yourself at the end of the luxury market, you may demand top price but if the professed value of your service does not match with your positioning, then you will have great difficulty in order to generate sales. In fact there are a lot to say regarding the make up for low profit margins via increased sales.

The quality and design of your leaflet printing required to reflect on the customers:

Whatever positioning that you decide you need to make sure that your target customers impulsively knows that they are shopping from the perfect shop. The quality and design of your promotional literature required to reflect as well as enforce your selected positioning. In this regard, you can collect leaflets, brochures, adverts and websites form company which having same market position and also with similar target audience. If the literature portray of your company is not in a similar light, then you should look to have a trip back to your drawing board.

Most of the people do a mistake while designing the leaflet or advertise by using the company name or logo as the crucial element in their design. Well, it is nice if your target customers are made through the existing customers as they have already much experience about your service and they also well aware regarding your logo and interested to find out more. If you are really looking to draw new customers, then your company’s name and logo is not enough. Because it is absolutely nothing means to your target audience. Well, it does not mean that you should not add your logo in your design. You can read many experts’ advice what the most prominent parts of design are. You should always remember that you will have only 1 chance to grab your possible customer’s attention and you can’t miss the chance at all.

The growth of digital printing technology has brought with it technical advancements, options and exciting features to commercial printing. With these advancements there has also been introduction of some confusion in the market and it is important to know the advantages and disadvantages of the new way of printing and compare it to the traditional offset lithography so that you can make and informed choice for your project.
It is important to note that offset lithography is the most common type of printing for large volume commercial work. In this process, the correct image is printed onto a plate and it is then offset or transferred from the plate to an elastic blanket and finally to the printing surface. This process is based on the repulsion of oil and water and the image to be printed gets ink from rollers. The non-printing area around the image attracts water and stays ink-free.
Digital printing eliminates a lot of the mechanical steps outlined above for the offset printing. There is no need to make films and color proof or manually stripping pieces together and making plates. All this is done digitally in a breeze.
It is therefore important to examine the pros and cons of each method so as to know the one best suited for your project.

Advantages of Digital Printing

•    Shorter turn around
•    Every print is the same. Accuracy is better achieved with fewer waste and discrepancies due to the elimination of the manual process.
•    Low-cost small volume printing. As the unit cost of every quantity may be more than with offset printing, included set up costs in digital printing results in lower costs for some print processes.
•    A Data Printing which is variable is a kind of digital printing which is customizable. Using a database or external file’s information, graphics and text can be modified on every piece without slowing down or stopping the press. For example, personalized letters can be printed with a different name and address on each letter. This type of printing is used primarily for direct marketing, customer relationship development and advertising.

Advantages of Offset or LITHO Printing

•    High image quality
•    Works on a wide variety of printing surfaces including textured material and up to 450gsm (digital printing only usually allows up to 350gsm)
•    The unit cost decreases as the quantity increases.
•    Offers quality and cost-effectiveness in high volume jobs. Digital presses come very close to offset printing in terms of cost/benefit ratio for high quality work, but offset printing still leads in high volume production.
•    Modern offset presses use computer-to-plate system of printing as opposed to the traditional computer-to-film system which increases printing quality by far.
To further clarify and help you in your decision making use the checklist below:
•    Quantity: Offset printing comprises of a full cost load. Short runs may have a high unit cost but as the quantities increase, the offset printing unit cost decreases. Incredibly short runs with digital printing can cost a much more reasonable amount; while huge quantities are likely to have a lower unit cost.
•    Printing medium: the options are increasing continually with the digital printing system, but offset printing still has the most flexibility. Whether it is on special paper, different finishes, unusual printing surfaces or just a unique size, offset printing can do it all.
•    Color: The use four-color process printing is common in digital presses. If you require black ink or one or more coloured ink, offset printing may provide a more reasonable solution. If you require four-color printing, digital may provide better solutions in cheaper up-front expense.
•    Still on Color: Offset printing will provide you excellent results if you plan on printing using the Pantone® Matching System as it uses actual Pantone® inks. Digital printing simulates the color utilizing a four-color matching method, so some digital printers may give less precise color matching.
•    Turnaround: If you need it yesterday, digital printing offers the fastest output and delivery.
•    Proofing: Digital provides precise proofs because what you see is an example of the real printing. Offset printing cannot offer accurate color proofing as it is a very expensive task indeed.
•    Customization: Without question, digital printing offers the most affordable printing for customized marketing/advertising materials, direct mail pieces, letters and many other such materials.
Summary
Make sure you talk to your printer before submitting your work for printing after you have used the above information to make your choice.

Lowest Price – if you can make your product cheaper than your rival then do it. In my opinion, I am not a fun of selling my products at cheap cost since someone else can always come along and sell at a much lower price, then eventually you are in a downward spiral for doing it for free.

High Quality – if your product excels more than your rival’s or is produced with top quality materials, then you can use this fact to boost your sales. For instance, compare Marks and Spencer’s food to their rivals from the packaging to the wholesome top ingredients, the quality is clear. It may charge them a little more than their rivals, but it will sell more in the market.

Superior Service – if you provide higher quality services than your rivals, most people will prefer your services than your rival’s. This works for specific markets that deal with mostly services such as beauty salons, mail order, tradesmen and many others.

So what if your service or product is similar to your rivals’? However, there are always contrasts. The best thing to do is to use them to your advantage.  You want to always stay ahead. So what can we do in this situation? One is to offer something unique that no other corporation has ever offered. There is an explanation why computer shop ‘A’ offers to excel more than their rival’s price for the same product by a certain percentage, while company ‘A’ provides a free of charge printer. So until you get a company with similar package, you will not spend any money. But, what if you have a similar product for sale as the shop up the street? Unless your potential customer knows the origins of you and your rival’s product, plus customer service and manufacturing process, then you cannot use this to your advantage.

However, you must be honest about your product. For instance, if I say to my readers that my product is extensively steamed to maintain cleanliness and purity (like containers for cosmetic cream), it does not matter if a similar company does the same thing up the street, but the fact that they do not advertise make it a USP in your potential customer’s eyes.

Here are some more USP examples.

•    I am the only car serviceman that will purchase your car if you are not fully pleased with our services.

•    Delivered in half an hour or we will pay for it.

•    No Furniture company will offer you free delivery apart from us.

•    Our recipe is highly classified, only I and other two people know it in the whole universe.

As with most ways for up copy results, research is essential with your USP. Sometimes your USP is apparent especially if your product is copyrighted. Other times you have to do some research in order to find it and use it to your advantage. Here is where diligence and personal selling qualities really help. Let me give you an instance to display what I am saying: If your company trades beanbag chairs for the little ones. So you, being a good salesperson, choose to trade these beanbags personally to customers before you start making the copy of your leaflet. After finishing twenty unique levels for your product, you notice that three quarter of those you visited asked if the chair eventually breaks. Since the chair is meant for the young one, it only natural that parents would be anxious about their child rolling on it, jumping on it or any other things that children do that might break the chair. So when you make your copy, ensure you address such problems.

For example you can write: ‘Our firm beanbag chairs are triple bonded for guaranteed break-proof performance.’ Moving to the most important part of your leaflet printing…the title, if you want to increase your response rate tremendously, focus on your title (I bet you have one). So the reason for this five times as many people read your titles than the content of your copy. In other words a title promotes your copy. No one will stop doing their daily chores to read your copy unless you offer them a nice reason to read it. The title is the most significant section of your copy. This is because your response rates can rise tremendously by not only having a title, but also making the title interesting and catchy in the eyes of your targeted customers. The key thing here is the target customers not everyone. Check this example: ‘Latest powerful Gloves Safeguard User against Hazardous Waste’ so in this case will the headline attract everyone? Of course not, and in the title you are not addressing everyone but those who deal with hazardous materials. The targeted readers will be pleased to hear about this latest gem. They may go further and inquire about your product only because they were pleased with the title of the copy. In the case that you sell gloves more than a particular purpose for instance gardening, then you can make a new leaflet with the title targeting the other customers who use gloves for a different purpose. This will make you touch everyone in their respective fields. It has always increase sales to target people as one than a whole crowd.

Going back to titles…where can you get the best titles.  One way is to look at the leaflets which have performed well and stood the test of time. You look for adverts that are frequently written in Newspapers and leaflets that you normally receive via mail most of the time. How do you know they are successful? Due to the fact if they were underperforming the producer would have never bother making them again and again. So how could you borrow the ideas of other successful leaflets to your own? Simple, make sure your title is straight to the point and has the feeling of urgency. It should talk to your targeted readers only. The other thing which is pretty important is the appearance of your title. Ensure the font of your title is large, bold and not similar to your content’s font. Generally, longer titles tend to attract more people than shorter ones, even when targeting more conservative customers. The last thing is never copy other titles exactly.

Long time ago a young man entered a BMW dealer’s salesroom to look at the latest 3-Series. He had cash, and he was eager to make a purchase decision. But he could not choose between buying the BMW or a similar Mercedes from the dealership next door. A salesperson approached him and soon noticed the man was indecisive and suggested that he maybe able to help…

“Tell me what you prize most about the 3 Series,” said the salesperson. “It is a very fast car with an incredible speed that is why I like it.” said the customer

After asking a few more questions regarding the customer’s lifestyle, the salesperson discovered that the young man was in a new relationship. So what did the salesperson do? The obvious, he changed is tone accordingly, to use the young man’s weaknesses to help him in his cause. He told the young man how delighted his new partner would be when he returned home with this new sporty saloon! He created a mental picture in the young man’s mind of him and his partner driving to the shores in the 3 Series.

How all his buddies will envy his life because of the car? And immediately the man realized it and the salesperson continued nailing his story. Before you realize it, the young man handed over the cash to the BMW dealership, in general he was bought into buying the car by the salesperson! The salesperson discovered the young man’s inner desire and took full advantage to help his cause until the young man realized that the 3 Series is more important than his money.

I know your outlook… the young man stated he like the car since it poses an incredible speed, didn’t he? True, he did. However, in reality what he wanted was a car that would delight his partner, buddies, and in his thoughts to make them adore him even more! In his mind he compared speed with excitement. Not that he wanted unlimited speeding tickets, but because he thought that excitement would make him more appealing and admirable. The young man was helped by the salesperson to realize this fact. And the latter knew how to use the former desire to force the sale. Now, where does the research come handy? Well, an excellent salesperson knows which question to pose to the buyer that will help him uncover the buyer’s inner desires. Sadly, when you are creating a copy for leaflet, you do not have that comfort. Therefore, it is extremely important to know beforehand the wish, desires and needs of your prospective customers. If you have not done your research, your potential customer will keep their cash rather than spend it on your products. In short your leaflet fails because of poor marketing research. It has been stated numerous times: people hate to be sold, however, they enjoy purchasing. And they make the purchase based on passion only.

Then they pardon their resolve with a reason, even after they are already convinced. So be certain to defend your passionate pitch with sense to boost that justification at the close. And while we are on the topic, lets us discussed a little about viewed ‘hype.’ Most ‘conservative’ promoters have considered ‘hype’ as the thing of the past, it does not work anymore. What they should discover that hype itself is not that successful. Some inexperienced copywriters frequently add lots of adverbs, adjectives, exclamation marks and bolding in their leaflets as they try to compensate for their lack of research or for not completely understanding their potential customers. If you do your work correctly, some adverbs or adjectives are not needed in order promote your sale. However, I think you would concur that supporting your copy of leaflet with some evidence and credibility will go a lot farther in persuading your potential customers than ‘sweet words’ alone. I stated sweet words, since there are specific adjectives and adverbs that have been known to make a difference when used. But, when they are repeated too often in leaflet they become less influential and mislead your prospective customer.

To explain this lets start with an A0 size of 841mm by 1189mm,  half of this size is A1, half of A1 is A2, half A2 is A3, half A3 is A4, half A4 is A5, half A5 is A6, half A6 is A7, and last of all Half A7 is A8.

Commonly paper is supplied to print companies from the paper mills in much larger sheets than A0, it may be delivered in sheet sizes such as 4A0 (4 x A0) or 2A0 which is 2 x A0 but unless you are a large format printer, in which case this size of material is supplied on a roll – then its more for it to be delivered common that its supplied slightly over-sized A0.

What is SRA sized paper?

Oversized paper is usually referred to as ‘SR’ for example SRA4, this is when paper is slightly larger than the intended size required for the final job output. This is done for reasons of ‘bleed’ and crop / registrayion marks. Any job which is printed in full colour edge to edge, needs to have a bleed area which allows the document to be trimmed slightly oversized and then its trimmed  back after printing to the desired size.

This is to ensure that there are no unsightly slithers of white around the edge of teh document which is highly probably if you tried to print an A4 document with full colour from edge to edge, and then try to trim this document to size. The document would only have to move a fraction of a mm on the guillotine for example and this would spoil the final job. The ‘bleed’ area or tolerance is created by using an SRA sized paper which is slightly larger.

This approach focuses on the product instead on the idea of grabbing the reader’s attention. And for over 30 years experience of work writing adverts, its known that the success of an advert depends on the attention grabbed

For instance, if your product that has factor X within it and considering that the factor X is not unique but what’s important to you is one main reason that will make people go for your product and not go for another person’s product. So at the end of the day, your temptation will be to say that you have X in your headline and also in the sentence that opens your statement.

I cannot deny that the approach can work but factor X is already known to most of the people. On the other hand it is also offered by the firms. So people are not going to read the advert because they already know what factor X is. The solution is to come up with something unique, something that is a bit ambiguous or amusing or may be an element that is different in your product and is also not known like factor X

There is always a protest every time I mention such a thing, that’s the main problem, but if only they avoid ignorance and realize that readers of either sales letters or mails neither start reading at the top nor read very word written.

But they rather skim and consider the only the first four words of each paragraph, and will end up picking bits that has remained. What is read after the headline is the end paragraph or ps.

What do you sell on if you can’t sell on the benefits?

What I would urge people who don’t believe me and would continue with their product description, is for them to try out one of the A/B experiments

If you can’t sell on benefits, what then can you sell on?

As stated in the previous email, the old proverb that talks of selling on benefits instead of the features was true as it has always been. In addition to that, the point that one needs to offer benefits that other firms don’t offer.

In my last email I suggested that the proverb on selling the benefits and not features has always been true until now.  However I also made the point that one needs to offer the benefits that cannot be offered by other firms.

This is often hard because it is normally difficult to get particular benefits for some products and services that most people will not claim.

So what should you do?

Most firms retreat into a description of the product features or services offered by them. This is what is known as announcements advertisement and they do not actually work in general.

However, there are other many alternatives

One of the approaches that one can use is by writing an interesting question through the headlines. Take a look at this, if you are selling computers that are most expensive in the market, you might write something like

What can be the most effective way of reducing computer costs?

Such a headline will draw the reader’s attention close because of the fact that there is reduction of costs. You can then state about false economy that comes with buying cheap computers because programs develop each day and if you find a cheap computer that won’t break down then it might end up being slow as you upgrade.

Or what I would have written in the headline instead is; what is the simplest way one can double the number of response you should get from marketing directly?

Writing great adverts take time and require little experience but it is worth if you want it to work.

QR codes (or ‘Quick Response’ code) is a unique barcode, and can not only be read by QR equipped barcode readers, but by smart phones as well. They are much more complex than an ordinary bar code, and have the potential to encode a huge amount of data. Instead of just storing numbers, QR codes can encode text, email addresses, phone numbers, digital business cards, website links and much, much more. While this technology is undoubtedly impressive, perhaps it is unclear what it can do for your business.

Here are a few examples of how QR codes can help with marketing in the real world:

- Business consultants could add a QR code to their business card, so that potential customers can scan the card with their smart phone.  After doing so, the client will be able to instantaneously add the consultant’s contact details their phone book.

- An estate agent could place a QR code alongside property listings and on for sale signs. That way, any interested parties who see the code can scan it and receive more details about the property and agent’s contact details direct to their phone!

- Mail order companies may want to put QR codes in their catalogue, and link them to each individual product for sale. This allows customers to place items in an online shopping cart just by scanning a particular code, saving time and money when it comes to processing orders.

- Event organisers can use QR codes to reach their target audience, by attaching the code to posters and leaflets advertising the event. This way, no one has to remember all the specifics, they can just scan the code and be sent straight to the website for the event (where they can even buy tickets!).

These are just some of the ways that QR codes can help a business reach potential and existing customers quickly and effectively. But there are so many other uses for QR codes, and people are employing them more and more when they want to boost their marketing efforts. Best of all, the codes are simple to make yourself, and free, allowing you to transform the way you reach potential customers forever!