Demystifying Basic Paper Terms

There is a bewildering variety of printing papers available, and deciphering a print quote can seem like reading a foreign language. Here are some of the most relevant terms you need to know. Basis weight is the weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of a paper at its basic size, or the size of the uncut sheet supplied to the printer. For example, the basic size of book paper is 25 x 38 inches, and a ream weighing 70 pounds would be 70-lb. book paper. Sometimes metric is used: 70-lb. book paper is equivalent to 104 g/m2. Cover, card, and other thick stocks are often specified by thickness, measured in “points.” This is often abbreviated “pt.”— for example, “8-pt. cover.” One point is 1/1000th of an inch, so this means that the stock is 0.008 inches thick. Paper grade refers to the end use of that paper. Bond paper is used for letters and documents, book paper for books, offset for offset printing, and so on. Digital presses generally have their own grades. Thicker grades include cover, bristol, tag, and index. Paper is often coated during manufacture, which improves the reproduction of fine halftone screens and color fidelity. C1S means “coated one-side,” which is useful for labels, packaging, and other materials destined for single-sided printing. C2S means “coated two-side” and is preferred for two-sided commercial printing. Brightness refers to the percentage of light that is reflected from the sheet’s surface. Basic white copy paper has a 92 brightness. Brightness by component wavelength (red, green, or blue) is also determined for papers, as papers can reflect different amounts of certain colors, imparting a color cast to a printed piece if you’re not careful. Looking to learn more about paper? Just ask!

Using Print to Drive Social Media

We often think about print and social media as being competitors, but print can be one of the greatest drivers of social media engagement, as well. Take a lesson from Skinny Cow, which uses print to drive participation in its social media and mobile contests. To engage consumers, the company offers daily giveaways. To participate, consumers must purchase a Skinny Cow product such as cheese or ice cream bar at a retail location. Consumers type in the barcode or six-digit game code from the box or wrapper to see if they have won. They can tweet about the contest to gain an additional chance to win. By printing codes on its product packaging, Skinny Cow drives traffic into its retail stores. Once consumers have provided their mobile numbers to enter the contest, it can begin to send them push notifications, as well. Tweeting multiples the impact of the campaign at no additional cost. Printing personalized barcodes and game codes on boxes, labels, and wrappers is a simple operation and can be adapted to many different consumer products. Codes can be overprinted or, if you are printing in small quantities, digitally printed right onto the package. You can also print personalized barcodes, QR Codes, or promo codes on napkins, cups, and other disposable items used by the consumer. If you don’t produce the types of consumer products that lend themselves to these types of promo codes, you can drive foot traffic by printing generic codes or “secret URLs” on office, in-store, or even trade show displays, banners, and signage. Change them out frequently to prevent sharing. Print and mobile / social media don’t have to be competitors. In fact, print may be one of the primary ways consumers find you on social and mobile media.

Why use pURL's

Why Marketers Should Use PURLs by Jason Hornik, contributing writer, Inside Direct Mail Weekly Consumers are most likely to pay attention to messages that speak to them personally. Personalized URLs deliver just that. Adopting pURLs as a marketing tool can make every message more relevant to each recipient. Used optimally, they help sellers approach behavioral targeting both online and in the mailstream. Personalized URLs, which combine dynamic online page building with two-way data streams, are unique Web addresses that include customized information such as a target’s name or user ID. Customers and prospects who log onto their own pURLs see content served specifically to them based on prior behavior, life stages, segmentation, demographics and any other data a company may have. As consumers view products, read, play videos, browse, click and purchase online, their activities are fed back into the marketer’s data pool. This new intelligence can be used to make subsequent communication even more pertinent. Though data is still preliminary in this field, response rates for direct mail with pURLs are reportedly up to 5 percent, versus typical industry averages of 2 percent to 3 percent. Additionally, site visitors who use a pURL tend to stay engaged longer and have higher conversion rates. The more marketers know about customers, the more they can deliver messaging that causes them to act. Therefore, pURLs create a feedback loop that benefits marketers and customers alike. If pURLs sound enticing to you, take these steps to discover their value: 1. Focus on analytics. Many services are springing up that offer marketers the ability to customize URLs for prospects and customers, but be sure the back-end analytics are also state of the art. For p-URLs to work, there must be a feedback loop between driving transactions and improving data, and they must be leveraged intelligently with your goals and metrics in mind. 2. Put this project on the front burner. The way technology moves, we can assume that pURLs will become commonplace at some point. The benefit of initiating pURLs now is that when everybody else is doing it, you’ll be doing it better, having already established a feedback loop between yourself and your customers. They'll already understand that your business meets them with the best offers, personalized to their needs. That’s the beauty of pURLs.

Is Direct Mail Marketing Still Effective In This Internet Age?

Is Direct Mail Marketing Still Effective In This Internet Age?
From streetdirectory.com/etoday

If you are an advertiser, you may wonder if direct marketing is still effective in this internet age. Direct mail marketing involves sending information to a potential client and waiting for a response. Most of these mailers usually involve a coupon or discount of some sort. Does this still work?

The answer is “yes.” And for many reasons. Direct mail marketing should never be discounted in favor for internet marketing. While a business should leave no stone unturned when it come to marketing, direct marketing is more effective than internet marketing.

One reason why direct mail marketing is still effective is that people tend to have a little more faith in what they get in the mail than what they see online. Despite the fact that over 80 percent of Americans are now connected to the internet, many people still shy away from doing their banking online, making online purchases or trusting any online marketing. This is partly due to the fact that online marketing is still relatively new, people generally are a bit wary of new things and they have heard horror stories of people being cheated online.


People trust the mail. When you send something through the mail, it better not be fraudulent. Mail fraud is a serious crime and can carry a prison sentence. This is one reason why direct mail marketing is still effect - people can trust it.

Another reason direct mail marketing is effective for advertiser is that customers can hold the coupon or mail product in their hands. It is tangible. They can look at it for a few moments and may even decide to hang it on their refrigerator for future use. Not everyone who wants to have their carpets cleaned wants to do so at that second. They are more inclined to call you than try to find a website, when the information that they need is right there.

Still another reason in favor of the effectiveness of direct mail marketing is that it is easy to understand. Many people still find surfing the web very confusing. They may not understand how to use a search engine properly. Even if they know how to search, it can be a while before they get the business they are looking for. With direct mail marketing, they have the product in front of them. There is no coupon for them to print out on paper and the information is right there for them.

Although the internet is good for marketing, do not discount direct mail marketing for businesses at all. People still make a habit of rifling through their mail. They like to look at coupons and also look for something to read. With direct mail marketing, you also have the potential to put an idea into their heads that they would not have otherwise looked for on the internet. Advertisers who are wondering if direct mail marketing is still effective in this internet age should know that it is not only effective, but looks like it will remain so in the years to come.

Print is Effective

Choose Print!
Studies show that print on paper not only gets read (a whopping 80% of households read or scan the advertising mail they receive), it also drives both new and repeat business. In fact, 39% of customers tried a business for the first time because of direct mail advertising, while 70% of customers renewed a business relationship because of a direct mail promotion.

Print Provides a High ROI
A Direct Marketing Association study showed that direct mail advertising gives businesses a remarkable 13 to 1 return on their investment (“ROI”). Printed catalogs have been shown to provide a 7 to 1 ROI and an impressive direct order response rate of 2.24% for printed catalogs, as compared to just 0.48% from emails. In fact, a study conducted for the Art Technology Group found that 60% of consumers surveyed make purchases via printed catalogs at least four times each year.

Print Drives Online Sales
Print on paper can be a major driver of online sales. An iProspect study found that 67% of online searches are driven by offline messages, with 39% ultimately making a purchase. Shoppers who receive a direct mail piece directing them to an online site spend on average 13% more than those who do not receive the printed piece. Printed catalogs associated with online sites have been shown to boost online spending by 28%.

The facts cannot be ignored: Print on paper builds brand identification and powers sales. It’s no wonder print media is still the workhorse of successful marketing and advertising campaigns.

Article taken from Choose Print.
For more information on the effectiveness and sustainability of print and to view their sources, please visit them at www.ChoosePrint.org

Do what you say.

I'm just finishing up on the layout for our latest magazine publication. It drives me crazy when people don't follow through with what they say they are going to do. It makes my job so much harder, and ends up raising the prices for others.
I always do my best and in my business, we go beyond extremes to keep our promises. Chromatic does what we say, I do what I say. I wish others would do the same.
Just my rant for the day.

Print This Email!

I don't want to hurt any feelings, but I can't stand it anymore.
Are you one of those people who print this at the end of your email messages?:

"Please consider the environment before printing this email."

This is an agenda driven statement that is completely false and has been blindly passed around now for years. It states that you are uninformed and don't know the real facts.

Try something like this instead, part or all:


"It's okay to print this email. Paper is a renewable and recyclable resource. The forest products industry plants more than 1.7 million trees per day. For every tree that is harvested, several more are planted or naturally regenerated."

If you really care about the environment, the paper you use should be carefully chosen. It should be a domestic sheet and be SFI, or FSC certified. You can plant additional trees by printing with Chromatic and using the Green Print Alliance logo as well.