It may be sooner if the project is new and a budget hasn't yet been established. But eventually your printer will need to provide you with the cost.
In order to give you an exact price, your printer needs to have firm specifications for the job - the finished size, the paper, the number of ink colors - and whether the job will require any post-press operations like trimming or folding or special applications like die cutting or foil stamping. They also need to know the quantity to be printed. With this information they can give you a firm quotation.
Before the specifications are firm, the printer can provide an estimate. An estimate differs from a quotation in an important way - it is the best guess about the cost, but it is not considered binding like a quotation. Estimates are useful for establishing a budget or for determining whether the planned project fits within costs that have been established previously. If the estimate exceeds your budget for the project, ask for suggested changes to the specifications that will help bring the two closer together.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
What's Most Important in Choosing a Printer?
If you've asked this question before, you may recall advice about selecting a printer based on any number of factors - equipment or price or length of time in business or number of employees or any combination of these and other criteria.
Taken together, these criteria help you predict whether the printer you are considering has the capability and capacity to do your work, and whether you have the necessary budget. But relying on those factors alone doesn't address what we think is the most important basis for selecting a printer - the likelihood that you can depend on the printer.
We suggest something different. Whether you buy printing occasionally or often; whether you consider yourself an expert or a novice; whether you understand printing technology or not; in the end, the most important factor is outcome - did the printing you ordered arrive on time, at the price agreed upon, and to the quality standards you expected. Between the time you placed the order and the printing was delivered, did you worry about the job or were you able to move on to other tasks, confident the job would be delivered as expected?
We suggest that if you had to micromanage the job, that's a sign you're with the wrong printer - even thought the equipment, price and reputation of the printer may appear to be a perfect match with your needs.
Taken together, these criteria help you predict whether the printer you are considering has the capability and capacity to do your work, and whether you have the necessary budget. But relying on those factors alone doesn't address what we think is the most important basis for selecting a printer - the likelihood that you can depend on the printer.
We suggest something different. Whether you buy printing occasionally or often; whether you consider yourself an expert or a novice; whether you understand printing technology or not; in the end, the most important factor is outcome - did the printing you ordered arrive on time, at the price agreed upon, and to the quality standards you expected. Between the time you placed the order and the printing was delivered, did you worry about the job or were you able to move on to other tasks, confident the job would be delivered as expected?
We suggest that if you had to micromanage the job, that's a sign you're with the wrong printer - even thought the equipment, price and reputation of the printer may appear to be a perfect match with your needs.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Is Direct Mail Dead?
Examining the success of traditional and online media channels in driving purchases, ExactTarget's commissioned 2009 Channel Preference Study found both young and old are still directly influenced by direct mail for the purchase of an item or a service more than any other channel.
The second annual study on the topic of consumers' use of different channels for interpersonal communication and their attitudes toward marketing communications, conducted by Forrester Research for the on-demand e-mail communications software company finds:
Three of four Internet users surveyed say they were directly influenced to purchase an item or a service thanks to a direct mail piece (76%); TV came in second at 67% and email third at 58%. Other influencing variables were: Infomercial on TV - 39%, Phone - 17%, Social Media - 8$, Text messaging - 7%, and Instant Messaging - 5%.
In addition; three-quarters (75% of 25 to 34 year olds have made a purchase resulting from direct mail. An almost identical number have been directly influenced by a tv commercial. Young adults, 18 to 24 years old, are also most likely to be influenced by direct mail (62%), with older consumers even more likely to have made a purchase as a result of this channel. The only exception is for teens, where direct mail-influenced purchases (55%) are second to television commercials (62%).
Across every age group, email is third on the list of channels evaluated (in terms of percentage of consumers who have made a purchase as the direct result of a marketing message), behind direct mail and television commercials. Teens are least likely to have made online purchases through email (36%).
The second annual study on the topic of consumers' use of different channels for interpersonal communication and their attitudes toward marketing communications, conducted by Forrester Research for the on-demand e-mail communications software company finds:
Three of four Internet users surveyed say they were directly influenced to purchase an item or a service thanks to a direct mail piece (76%); TV came in second at 67% and email third at 58%. Other influencing variables were: Infomercial on TV - 39%, Phone - 17%, Social Media - 8$, Text messaging - 7%, and Instant Messaging - 5%.
In addition; three-quarters (75% of 25 to 34 year olds have made a purchase resulting from direct mail. An almost identical number have been directly influenced by a tv commercial. Young adults, 18 to 24 years old, are also most likely to be influenced by direct mail (62%), with older consumers even more likely to have made a purchase as a result of this channel. The only exception is for teens, where direct mail-influenced purchases (55%) are second to television commercials (62%).
Across every age group, email is third on the list of channels evaluated (in terms of percentage of consumers who have made a purchase as the direct result of a marketing message), behind direct mail and television commercials. Teens are least likely to have made online purchases through email (36%).
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