From an Idea to Reality: A Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Successful Print Marketing

Do you want to promote your business, drive new sales, or acquire new clients? In a world where digital media, never-ending email and text messages seem to dominate, the allure of a tangible printed piece remains unmatched. There’s nothing like print to make an impact and engage all the senses, which is why it continues to be effective – offering up to 112% return on investment.

A well-designed brochure, flyer, poster, or direct mail piece leaves a lasting impression on potential clients or customers. Every great printed piece starts with a spark of creativity. But often the magic of the idea gets lost in production, or things just don’t go quite as planned. That’s where your professional commercial print company is here to help. Ordering your print project online, uploading your files and trusting the outcome will be successful is one option. But collaborating with your print partner throughout the project can help ensure you achieve the desired results.

Step by step, we collaborate with our clients to take a concept from beginning to end – making great ideas a reality. Creating a custom printed piece is a blend of planning, creativity and execution.

Our goal is to work with our clients to create success. Success can be defined in so many ways, and it’s important to have a clear picture of how you will know your print campaign is successful. Is it boosted sales? More market share? Increased brand awareness? Improved revenue? To be sure your print project is executed successfully, we will walk you through the following steps:

Understand requirements

We will work with our clients to do a little marketing homework first. Determining who is the target audience will guide the tone, design, and content of the piece. What is the core message to be conveyed? What is the purpose of the piece? (Back to the clear understanding about how we defined the success of this project.)

Determine project scope

This is where we get in the weeds on a project – what exactly are the deliverables, when are they due, what is the budget? Clarity at this point creates the backbone for a successful project.

Concept Development

Our team will generate multiple ideas and concepts with a brainstorming session. This will determine the mood, tone and voice of the piece and will inspire where the final layout ends up. What typography and images will be used, and what are the brand standards will we follow?

When we’ve landed on a concept and rough idea for a layout and copy, our designer will finalize the piece. A professionally designed piece can significantly impact the marketing effectiveness and perception of a business.

Client Review

Before anything is finalized, we will ask you to review the final proof. Proofreading is key at this point. Fresh eyes can spot things that might have been missed. Revisions will then be made if necessary and the piece is ready to print.

Engineering

After a project is designed, proofed and approved, it is then engineered to print most efficiently. Imposing several duplications of the image on a larger sheet allows us to economically use the paper. At this point, if the printed piece has custom information, the data populates each piece, so it is variable printed.

The beauty of digital printing is that the press can easily process an infinite number of custom sets of information on one run. For example, a direct mail piece can have an individual’s name, address, custom photo, etc. Ideas for how to use variable, personalized print can be found here.

Finishing

Most pieces need to have some sort of finishing work. Whether it’s simply scoring and folding, or more complex processes like foiling, die cutting, or readying for mail, we are a full-service shop that will deliver a marketing piece ready to deliver results. Those results will be measured based on what the original business goals are – how did we define success?

We partner closely with our clients to bring their vision to life, guiding them through each phase from concept to completion. Crafting a results-oriented printed piece requires careful planning, creative insight, and precise execution. Our mission is to collaborate with you to ensure your project’s success. Connect with us. Our people make the difference!