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  • Promotional Products That Elevate Customer Experiences in Hospitality

    Promotional Products That Elevate Customer Experiences in Hospitality

    Travelers have a range of choices to pick from when deciding on the hotel, property or lodging to book for a business trip or family vacation. When making their selection, guests weigh several factors beyond price, ultimately seeking an accommodation that will best caters to their needs and provide an exceptional experience during their stay.

    This is especially true when fostering repeat visits from guests as a result of the personalized service and loyalty programs provided. Thoughtfully selected promotional and gift items are an elegant, delightful, and memorable way to create a positive relationship both during and after a guests’ stay. The perfect promotional products serve to keep your property a preferred choice when your guest begins planning their next trip.

    To make your promotional and gift items create stronger and longer lasting impressions, give guests products personalized around their behaviors, preferences, and past experiences. It’s important that every item you offer reflects your brand and instills the image of your hotel that you want your visitor to carry with them. Promotional gifts can also demonstrate your hotel’s commitment to environmentally sustainable practices and social responsibility when they are sourced from eco-friendly suppliers and align with the values of your clientele.

    By leveraging the data that you collect from your guests and similar audiences, you can anticipate what they will find useful and the type of gifts that fit in with their lifestyle. Managing and optimizing this data requires a centralized database that can track customer activities, identify up-and-cross sell opportunities, manage promotional gift and loyalty programs, and evaluate performance.

    Qualities to Look For in a Hospitality Gift Supplier

    It’s important that you find a hospitality promotional products partner who understands the industry and can help you devise strategies that are based on experience, technology, and, of course, creating an unforgettable item for your guests. Here are a few factors to consider when making your choice.

    • Product Quality – The gifts you give reflect your property and if they are made from inferior materials or suffer from poor craftsmanship, that is how your guests will think of your property. Always strive to give items that will last and be appreciated.
    • Product Range –  Your gifts can run the gamut from drink koozies to fashionable robes. You want to turn to one reliable supplier to satisfy every order from pens and notepads to custom scented candles, luxe hoodies and fleece tops.
    • Customization – You want your promotional gifts to be customizable to spread your brand beyond your property. You can customize apparel and products with a gifting partner like Marketing.com that can make your items consistent with your brand through embroidery or direct to garment options.
    • Experience and Trust – Work with a promotional gift company that understands not only the impact of corporate and loyalty gifting on your guests, but also current trends to set your brand apart. Partner with a company that has the ability to quickly adapt and find affordable solutions to meet any gift you wish to give.

    Promotional Items Your Guest Will Love

    Personal Care Items

    Show your concern for the personal well-being and comfort of your guests by providing them with personal care items that help them de-stress and unwind while under your roof. With the rise of bleisure travelers, many guests are extending business stays and appreciate the added luxuries that help them to relax. Potential branded gifts include:

    • Candles
    • Room Sprays
    • Bath Bombs
    • Manicure Set
    • Eye Masks
    • Toothbrush Cleaner
    • Travel Lint Brush
    • Hand Sanitizer
    • Lip Balm
    • Spa Kits
    • Body Wash
    • Cosmetics Kits

    Drinkware Items

    No matter where your guests travel, they’ll want to take along quality coffee or water drinkware to stay alert and hydrated. Travel-friendly drinkware that is reusable or collapsible makes it likely your gift is the one they want by their side when they hit the road for the day. Potential branded drinkware includes:

    • Flip top foldable water bottle
    • Stainless steel straw set
    • Vacuum Insulated Bottles
    • Sling cooler
    • Koozies
    • Tumblers
    • Luxury Suite Amenities
    • Sustainable Drinkware
    • Stemless Wine Glasses

    Apparel Items

    Give your guest branded apparel items and they not only will remember you, but they will act as unofficial brand ambassadors and billboards when they wear your gift out and about. Consider items that your guests will consider high value or will treasure as a souvenir from their trip. Potential branded apparel items include:

    • Bathrobes
    • Towels
    • T-Shirts
    • Sunglasses
    • Fleece Tops
    • Velour Slippers
    • Hoodies
    • Ball Caps
    • Acrylic Socks

    Custom Tote Bags

    Everybody loves getting and using tote bags to carry all the other items they pick up along their travels. Studies have shown that tote bags have high staying power and get used by the people who receive them as gifts. Potential branded tote bags include:

    • Boat Tote Bags
    • Canvas Totes
    • Laminated Tote Bags
    • Drawstring back packs
    • Personalized Backpacks
    • Mesh Totes
    • Multipurpose Travel Bags
    • Travel Accessory Bags
    • Sports Bags

    It’s usually that extra special little touch that makes a big difference to help your property stand out from your competition. Finding the perfect promotional items to share with your guests distinguishes you from the crowd and gets your establishment remembered first when it’s time for guests to plan their next vacation or business trip. Marketing.com can help you connect the dots at every stage of the hospitality promotional gift strategy and provide complete services from branded product printing to kitting, fulfillment and shipping.

  • How Through Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) Fits Into Your Tech Stack

    How Through Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) Fits Into Your Tech Stack

    For your products to reach customers, you rely on indirect sales through an ecosystem comprised of retailers, dealers, franchisees, distributors, agents, value added resellers (VARs), and influencers. However, managing and scaling marketing campaigns for your local partners can require different platforms for SEO, CRM, paid advertising, email, and social media in order to share consistently on-brand marketing materials. In addition to digital branding, it’s vital that direct mail, printed signage, and all print marketing material and promotional products remain brand compliant as well. To ensure the ROI on all marketing efforts, you will need analytics capabilities to translate large amounts of performance data into actionable insights that can be leveraged to strengthen strategies for growth, audience development, and collaborations with your partners.

    Getting the job done requires a tech stack of specialized tools that execute messaging and brand compliance across thousands of local partners throughout a diverse and distributed network. Fortunately, you don’t need to go to numerous platforms to manage each facet of your campaign and gain an overview of everything that’s happening with your local partners. Simplifying and integrating your national-to-local marketing tech stack with through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) is the next important step toward improving efficiencies across your entire channel partner system.

    What is Through Channel-Marketing Automation?

    Through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) provides a way to make marketing simple for both brands and their local partners. From one central dashboard, brands have the ability to align strategic, innovative, AI-powered technologies with successful integrated marketing initiatives. That means you can scale your national campaigns into personalized, local marketing efforts while maintaining brand compliance throughout every phase for your one-time promotions or on-going marketing campaigns. Optimizing engagements through automation helps you become more strategic about marketing costs and gives your local partners the support they need to showcase your products.

    Local retail partners get local marketing automation with personalized solutions and managed services that improve their marketing performance, help them generate awareness and demand, and drive their growth and revenue. TCMA makes it easy for them to stay on board and market your products to their customers effectively.

    Enterprises Benefit from TCMA

    From one, easy-to-read dashboard, enterprises can share marketing resources and content with their channel partners for brand consistency and compliance. It provides robust tracking capabilities to determine ROI of marketing dollars invested and improve decision making across your entire spectrum of partners. Features can include digital asset management, campaign management for channel partners, co-op funds management, and marketing analytics. It makes it easy to order brand-compliant printed materials from one central location.

    Benefits of TCMA include:

    • Increased efficiency for both enterprises and partners that lets them focus on what each does best through every step of the process from design to execution to measurement.
    • Ensured brand consistency for all marketing materials across every channel and with every local partner.
    • Scalability and adaptability allow you to react to changing market conditions quickly and assign assets to campaigns and programs that are successful and show potential for growth.
    • Strengthened relationships with partners based on cooperation and collaboration to create a winning customer experience.
    • Ability to replace and consolidate the tools in your tech stacks to manage partners more efficiently and faster.

    TCMA Encourages Fuller Partner Buy-In

    TCMA removes the complexity of organizing and sharing strategies and content and overcomes the concerns of local partners who may lack experience or feel overwhelmed in the evolving environment of multichannel marketing. TCMA can immediately help them build credibility with customers and develop a more engaging experience for shoppers regardless of whether it occurs in a brick-and-mortar establishment, through a website, or at an ecommerce site. 

    TCMA gives your local partners:

    • Access to your library of marketing collateral to accompany new product launches, seasonal campaigns, and other brand initiatives. You can give them the ability to order and co-brand brochures, ads, promotional signage, and digital and social posts through an easy-to-use dashboard.
    • Automated email campaigns generated from landing page leads, loyalty programs, customer and prospect behavior, and website visits.
    • Relevant content and co-branding opportunities for local market-specific campaigns, product-targeted promotions, and lead-generation activities to drive local customer experiences.
    • Real-time analytics and reports that let them see and appreciate the advantages of your TCMA and realize the impact that your relationship with them makes on their sales revenue.

    What To Expect From Your TCMA

    The key features of your TCMA should include:

    • Multi-channel marketing integration. Through one dashboard, you can manage brand-consistent digital, print, signage, social media, email, web content marketing, and other media to reach targeted audiences with consistency and accuracy.
    • End-to-End Automated Campaign Management. Invite collaboration and input at every stage of national-to-local marketing efforts. Expand on capabilities to plan, execute, measure campaigns, and communicate seamlessly throughout campaigns to adapt to changing market conditions.
    • Streamlined Content Availability. Give local partners easier access to approved marketing content to ensure brand consistency. Allow partners to customize the content within brand guidelines for their local audiences.
    • Robust Reporting. Both you and your partners should be able to gain insights from marketing metrics so that together you can craft strategies for continued growth.
    • Co-marketing budget management. Easily track fund allocation for greater transparency and more effective use of market development funds during joint marketing efforts.

    Steps To Implementing Your TCMA

    The best TCMA provides ease-of-use, relevance to marketing objectives, efficiency, and adaptability to engage, incentivize, and retain diverse networks of channel partners. Consider the following to stay ahead of your competition and drive revenue for both your enterprise and your local partners.

    1. Determine Needs and Fit
      Find TCMA that aligns with your goals and plans for growth and has the resources to handle the many tools that comprise your tech stack today. With through channel marketing platforms, like Marketing.com’s Dot™, you get simplified management of content, online ordering, data and analytics for complete campaign management. Make sure the platform is easy to implement to ensure wider adoption across users and has the functionality to streamline your most important processes. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to your unique challenges managing partner growth and brand consistency, so find a TCMA that can be customized to support your long-term business objectives.
    1. Get Buy In from Stakeholders and Key Partners
      Your TCMA will impact different stakeholders across your operation that may include sales, IT, data security, and legal. Work with them from the start to understand their needs, the measurements the rely on to make informed decisions, and their expected success benchmarks. Get input from your local partners on the through-channel marketing issues that matter most to them. Be sure your TCMA is easy for them to navigate and that management of content and your fund program is streamlined.
    1. Communicate Regularly With Local Partners
      Long term success depends on your relationships with your local partners. Don’t stop marketing your TCMA to them. Keep them excited and continue to show the ways through-channel automation is delivering results that matter to them. Resolve issues quickly and keep partners engaged in improvements to your through-channel platform as markets and technology evolve and innovate.

    If you expect your enterprise to remain competitive in today’s marketplace, you will need a TCMA that improves productivity, lowers costs, allows for collaboration, and empowers local partners to scale your national campaigns to match their markets. Marketing.com’s Dot™ provides a robust through-channel marketing platform that will help you accelerate growth and nurture stronger relationships with your local partners. Contact us today.

  • How To Drive Foot Traffic with Direct Mail For Retail

    How To Drive Foot Traffic with Direct Mail For Retail

    Attracting customers can be the most challenging aspect of making a business successful. For many retailers, this means attracting a steady stream of local shoppers into their store. According to a Forbes report , more than 93% of consumers typically travel 20 minutes or less to make their everyday purchases.

    Direct mail can improve retail foot traffic to your store with local targeted mailings that are customized by region and by audience using personalized variable data print. Innovative retailers are able adopt location-based targeting to build community and brand awareness, create lookalike audiences based on existing customer characteristics, build out loyalty programs, and use personalized promotions with strategic direct mail campaigns that draw customers in by offering value. Automated marketing platforms make it easy to coordinate direct mail with digital and social media campaigns for wider audience reach, thus increasing the effectiveness of each channel. According to the USPS, marketers saw their ROI increase by 60% when combining direct mail with digital channels.

    In this blog, we’ll explore the impact of direct mail on driving foot traffic to retail stores and present the benefits of using direct mail for local marketing and promotions to create a personalized shopping experience. First, let’s cover a few of the basics.

    What is Direct Mail?

    Direct mail is printed communication, advertising, and promotional material that businesses send to prospects and both loyal and lapsed customers. This material includes postcards, direct mail letters, self-mailers, catalogs, and booklets. Large and small retailers value direct mail because of high open rates and the ability to finely craft personalized messaging using existing customer data. According to Fundera, for every $167 that marketers spend on direct mail, they sell an average of $2,095 in goods and services, an ROI of 1,300%.

    Why is Direct Mail Effective?

    Direct mail works because homeowners enjoy receiving mail; they trust the promotional and marketing material they receive in their mailboxes. A Direct Marketing Association (DMA) study determined that nearly 60% of homeowners in the U.S. consider direct mail a good thing. Direct mail is not just embraced by older consumers! A Gallup study found that 95% of millennials enjoy and look forward to getting direct mail every day.

    Direct mail is unique among marketing channels in that it brings a tangible element to consumers. Design and layout play a crucial role in its success. Businesses can choose from a variety of formats and sizes, and add texture through finishes and coatings. Utilizing a commercial print partner for your direct mail needs deliver eye-catching colors and sharp images. These factors create an emotional connection that other channels can’t provide.

    A strong call to action (CTA) such as redeeming a personalized coupon, responding to a special offer, or attending an exclusive event drives a response and interaction with your store. This places an emphasis on the ability to customize and personalize the CTA using demographic, geographic, and behavior-based data so that the recipient finds it impossible to resist. Applying customer data, lookalike and regional information can be combined with variable data print options to ensure your direct mail piece is engaging to your consumers.

    Direct Mail Choices for Businesses 

    Most retailers have the option of deploying three types of direct mail campaigns, based on budget, time, and degree of data optimization.

    • Saturation Bulk Mail remains one of the most affordable ways for a retailer to reach a large population throughout a location to increase brand awareness across a wide geographic area.
    • Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is one of the many programs offered by the USPS that allows businesses to map the relevant ZIP codes of their audience by age, income, or household size and, as a result of the competitive rates offered by the postal service, get their promotions delivered directly into the mailboxes of the customers for less than the cost of a first-class stamp.
    • Targeted Direct Mail lets retailers use curated lists of prospects and customers to send very personalized messages built around specific criteria to more effectively target households and produce significant returns. Automated marketing platforms have made it easier for businesses to manage data, variable data printing provides seamless personalization of content, and unique QR codes and program codes can track engagement.

    Smaller businesses with limited resources or direct mail experience often work with local marketing experts that offer a range of direct mail and digital services. Innovations in technology have made it easier to specifically target households within certain neighborhoods. These professionals can help retailers manage direct mail costs by sending coupons and ads through shared mail envelopes to targeted households.

    5 Ways to Increase Foot-Traffic

    1. Personalize Content, Coupons and Offers
      Use text and images that reinforce your brand’s identity with the lifestyle of your prospect. You can create singular pieces by incorporating names, personal information, and customized images.
    • Add maps, upcoming events, and local landmarks that distinguishes the mailer and sets it apart from the other pieces in the mailbox.
    • Send coupons and offers based around your customer’s priorities. Upsell with promotions based on previous purchases and celebrating milestones in your relationship with them.
    • Include QR codes or personal URLs (PURLs) that bring digital content into the mix and add an interactive engagement with your store.
    • Personalization is a key factor in the proven success of direct mail for reengaging with once-thought lost customers and offering them a compelling reason to return. According to a recent ANA study, 70% of customers surveyed have re-started a relationship because of direct mail.
    1. Boost Loyalty Program Engagement
      According to Invesp, 69% of consumers say choice of retailer is influenced by where they can earn customer or rewards programs. Customers recognize and appreciate when the businesses they frequent pay attention to their needs and are engaged in building a better experience for them through loyalty programs. It’s easy for emails to loyalty program members to get overlooked in a crowded in-box. Your direct mail piece and recognized branding can easily stand out among the few other direct mail pieces homeowners receive in a typical day.

      Send rewards to your loyalty program members with triggered direct mail that adds value to every visit to your store. Direct mail is tangible proof that your relationship with them matters and provides an incentive enjoy the benefits and cost-savings your program offers. You can add tracking codes to monitor what brings them back and continue to fine tune your mailings with every new purchase.

      You can add the fear of missing out into your direct mail by including limited-time offers and invites to ‘can’t-be missed’ events that only your customers can enjoy. The timing of when your mailer reaches your loyalty program member is important, which makes having an automated marketing platform that tracks and triggers mailings that your customers want to receive important.

    1.  Create Compelling Promotions and Events
      You can use direct mail to create curiosity around special sales, promotions, and events at your store and invite prospects to join in the fun. Direct mail works because your audience can hold on to it until the big day as a physical reminder. The piece can include important contact information, dates and times, and maps to make it convenient for customers to respond.

      The local nature of many direct mail campaigns provides opportunities to synchronize campaigns with print signage like billboards and banners in high-traffic areas. Research has shown that a message must be seen at least seven times before it is remembered. Coordinating direct mail and promotional signage improves the effectiveness of each and increases visibility and recognition both inside and outside the home with multiple reminders of your store, promotion, or event.

    1. Integrate Direct Mail with Digital and Social
      Adding email, digital content, and social media strategies to direct mail campaigns enhances the credibility of the messaging on those marketing channels. Brand reach and engagement are streamlined across all the devices your customers use to connect with you. Your prospects are more likely to act when they encounter consistent messaging across different media.

      A multichannel marketing approach lets you combine the trustworthiness of direct mail with the immediacy of direct and social media marketing to achieve greater results than if deployed separately.  One way to connect print and digital is with QR codes or Personal URLs (PURLs) in print materials that lead to websites, landing pages, and immersive AR experiences and make it possible to track, collect, and analyze the effectiveness of print campaigns in real time. Through channel marketing platforms, like Marketing.com’s Dot™, allow simplified management of data and analytics for complete campaign ROI tracking.

    1. Measure Key Metrics for Success and Continually Optimize
      Identifying the key performances indicators for your campaign will provide you with the best measurement of success based on your goals. One of the most basic metrics to track is response rate to the direct mail piece. This will determine the effectiveness of the CTA and show your return on investment. Another common measurement is conversion rate, which can tell you how many people made a purchase or became customers, based on your method of tracking. You may also want to measure the cost per response to help budget future campaigns.

      Customer lifetime value shows you how well direct mail performs as a channel in creating loyal customers. The data you gather throughout your direct mail campaign can help you improve future campaigns and guide you to make smarter, more informed decisions on all your marketing strategies.

      To increase foot traffic to your store, follow the example of successful retailers in your community with direct mail strategies that attract more prospects and bring loyal and local customers through your doors. Marketing.com can help you connect the dots to create memorable and profitable direct mail campaigns and integrate your marketing efforts across all of your marketing channels.

  • Comprehensive Guide to Choosing The Right Commercial Printer

    Comprehensive Guide to Choosing The Right Commercial Printer

    Your business has a lot riding on the outcome of your commercial print projects. Every detail matters when presenting your business to your audience. Businesses need a commercial print partner that can take the valuable time and money spent on your project, planning, and design to produce high-quality final products that make the difference in the way your customers perceive you. Beyond simply providing printed material, building a partnership with your commercial printer offers a long-term strategic and collaborative relationship that can provide valuable insights, recommendations, and support that drive success for your business.

    Securing a partner with a G7certified commercial print location means less stress about the quality and look of your printed material.  In the long run, a strong relationship with an experienced print shop will continue to save you money, reduce risk, and help your projects run smoothly.

    Before we share steps you can take to find a commercial printer, here are a few reasons why relying on a commercial printer can help drive success for your business:

    1. Gain From Print Industry Expertise
      A key to a successful project is using a trusted commercial printer that provides expertise when planning and producing your printed material. They’ll be able to spot potential problems before they arise, and even help you avoid mistakes altogether. Working with an experienced print shop lets you concentrate on the artwork and design elements while they handle making the final product look and feel exactly as you intended.
    1. Improve Efficiency
      It’s likely you have more than one print project to manage throughout the year, whether you require signs for seasonal promotions, envelopes or labels, banners for trade shows and conventions, constantly changing retail promotions, direct mail campaigns, or marketing materials. A good commercial printer has the technology and experience to find cost savings through effective inventory management, high speed production, and print on demand (POD) capabilities. As your relationship grows, a good commercial printer can come to anticipate your needs and scheduling requirements.
    1. Speed and Convenience
      It’s convenient to have a local commercial printer that you trust when emergencies arise, or last-minute projects need to look great and be produced quickly. Commercial printers, like Marketing.com, can also handle many facets of the print process and help you streamline everything from design to distribution in one print shop. Through-channel marketing platforms let you quickly share files with your printer to cut down on additional steps in the process. A print shop that provides print on demand (POD) is always prepared to react quickly and support targeted marketing campaigns.
    1. Avoid Costly Mistakes
      If you lack experience managing large print projects, it can be easy to make a mistake throughout the process of selecting the right materials, substrates, and finishes, keeping inks and colors consistent, handling multiple design files, or making sure they’re in the right format. Post-production, inventory must be managed, maintained, and protected from damage – and ready to ship whenever needed. Instead of trying to do it on your own, a professional printer can streamline the entire process.
    1. Use the Right Materials
      The feel of your commercially printed material can be every bit as important as the look. With a variety of paper stocks, a commercial printer can find the right solution to fit your business and impart the image you want to project to your customers. They’ll help you locate sustainable materials that are durable as well as inks, substrates, and finishes that are eco-friendly. Utilizing the right materials allows your printed products to make a difference in the way your customers and prospects see you.
    1. Stay Current on the Latest Industry Trends
      Working with an experienced commercial printer brings you the opportunity to capitalize on the latest innovations and print capabilities. Applying industry trends adds unique and memorable elements to your print material by integrating digital experiences. Including a printed QR code on direct mail, product packaging, labels, and signs can help you generate more website traffic or send customers to personalized landing pages.
    1. Reduce Unnecessary Spending
      Utilizing a commercial printer eliminates your efforts to purchase production materials to coincide with marketing needs. Commercial printers offer a solution so that your campaigns are quickly accessible and ready. Not only do they secure better prices and have material readily available, but they also have capabilities to inventory or warehouse your project – removing your cluttered office space. Many commercial printers help you access better direct mail rates through USPS promotions and offer other cost savings efficiencies with kitting and fulfillment services.
    1. Limit Risk
      Accidents happen, merchandise gets damaged, supply chains temporarily break. You can limit the disruptions they may cause to your day to day when you work with a commercial printer. An experienced printer, like Marketing.com, can help you catch problems through quality control procedures to inspect design files and materials throughout each production stage. Using ISO standard quality practices, G7 certified printers can spot errors that might arise from print quality or color variances that could result in printing delays.
    1. An Invested Partnership
      Commercial printers only look good if the product they deliver reflects their craftsmanship and professionalism. A print partner who knows your business inside and out can offer tailored solutions that meet your unique needs. Over time, as they become intimately familiar with your processes, goals, and challenges, they can provide suggestions and recommendations that streamline operations and improve outcomes. partnering with a trusted vendor can lead to innovation and continuous improvement. This partnership creates an environment where new ideas are welcomed and implemented for the success of your project.

    How To Find the Right Commercial Printer For You

    More than providing print services, a commercial printer should be a trusted vendor and strategic partner, Here are key points to take into consideration when choosing the commercial printer for your project:

    What Kind of Expertise Do They Have?

    Do they have experience working in your industry vertical, whether it’s healthcare, hospitality, franchise, finance, non-profit, retail, or education?  Commercial printers that serve your industry are intimately aware of trends and best practices that may be unique to your space.

    What Services Are Offered?

    Does the print shop offer offset printing, digital printing, variable data printing, and POD? Can they print wide-format for your banners, wallscapes, or billboards? Do they provide finishing services in-house? It’s important that your commercial printer can deliver the type of printing services you require. It can also be a benefit if your commercial printer can provide direct mail services and kitting and fulfillment. Working with a printer like Marketing.com that provides all services under one roof eliminates the need for multiple vendors and transit cost and time between services, as well as provides a single point of contact that is closely aware of all your projects.

    Is Their Work Quality?

    You can ask for samples to help you choose which company meets your needs. Inspect the products produced by the print shop, especially pieces that you’ll be using in your marketing campaigns. Is the printer G7 certified to maintain color accuracy and resolution with images and designs? Discuss quality procedures that occur at each step in the production process.  

    How Do You Communicate with their Customer Service Team?

    There can be a lot of moving parts to manage in your print projects and the relationship with your printer could involve many stages of review and revision. It’s important to find a commercial printer who has standards as high as yours, is responsive to your inquiries, and provides timely and useful communication throughout the project. You want a commercial printer that solves problems, and not create them.

    Is Their Pricing Competitive?

    Cost, although important, is only one factor that should go into your decision on which commercial printer to work with. What’s most important is that your business is getting value for its money. Will the print shop also include services like folding, die-cutting, or laminating without adding costs? Make sure that printers’ quotes are based on the same paper grades, inks, and finishes to prevent lower-quality materials from affecting bids. Identify what’s most important to you, and focus on finding a commercial printer who fills those needs affordably.

    Can You Count On Them?

    Find a commercial printer who fits the needs of your business and can accommodate the requirements for all your different projects. Utilizing a commercial printer with multiple locations, like Marketing.com, allows you to experience the best of two worlds: you can take advantage of the buying power and vast capabilities of a large company, as well as have the local presence of a production facility and team members in your neighborhood.

    Are Security Protocols in Place?

    If protecting sensitive data is a priority for your business or your clients, it’s vital to find a commercial printer that maintains security protocols, compliance, and certifications such as HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC 2 Type 1, or ISO 27001. Look for a print shop that has knowledge of the federal and state regulations, or GPO Level 1 certifications as well as standards specific to your industry. It’s important that the confidentiality of your data is secure through every phase of the production workflow.

    Are They Eco-Friendly?

    At some point, your print collateral will need to be recycled. Environmental and sustainable practices matter to customers. Working with a commercial printer that adequately recycles waste, and offers sustainable stock and substrate options can make an impact with your customers.

    Beyond providing printed material, developing a partnership with your commercial printer establishes a long-term strategic and collaborative relationship. This relationship offers invaluable insights, recommendations, and support that contribute to your overall success. With their expertise and guidance, you can navigate the intricacies of print projects more efficiently and effectively, ensuring that each piece reflects your brand’s values and resonates with your target audience. Marketing.com can help you connect the dots to find the ideal commercial printer to meet all of your print marketing requirements regardless of where your business is located.