Displaying 100-199 of 434 articles
Published January 25, 2023
Where are marketers’ budgets increasing and decreasing in 2023? Two studies, R. R. Donnelley’s “Optichannel Opportunity Report” and Neil Patel’s “How Marketers Are Spending Their Money” paint a consistent picture. The money is going where the proof of ROI is.
Published January 18, 2023
Have you ever wondered how the big CPGs determine which packaging designs work and which don’t? For many, it’s as much science as it is creative. To get insight into just how much science can go into it, take a peek at Quad Graphics’ Package Insight division.
Published January 11, 2023
For their New Year’s marketing resolutions, many companies are committing to making better use of Google Analytics to track their traffic and evaluate their marketing efforts. Google Analytics can be a powerful tool, but if you don’t dig deep, it can be misleading, too.
Published January 4, 2023
HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Report 2023 takes a look at the changes expected for marketers in the coming year. Specifically, there are seven fundamental shifts HubSpot sees occurring among marketers (and impacting everyone else) in 2023. What are they?
Published December 15, 2022
If there is a story in interactive print these days, it’s accessibility, both for service providers and for their customers. The range of applications is staggering, from 3D product visualizations and virtual try-ons to AR filters, virtual brand ambassadors and 360 tours. Heidi Tolliver-Walker walks through the various platforms and applications.
Published December 14, 2022
What will consumers be thinking in 2023? How will they behave and what will drive their decisions? Answering these questions was the goal of GWI, an audience targeting company, in its U.S. “Connecting the Dots” report.
Published December 7, 2022
Every year, What They Think offers insights into the print production outlook for our industry. This year was no exception. Our webinar “The Print Production Outlook: The Digital Transition Continues” looked at production technology shifts and the trends driving them. Sponsored by Canon Solutions America, the webinar was moderated by Richard Romano with presenter WhatTheyThink European Section Editor Ralph Schlözer.
Published November 30, 2022
Contributor Heidi Tolliver-Walker takes a deep dive into using an AI writing engine like Jasper to develop content for use by members of the commercial printing industry.
Published November 16, 2022
In today’s marketing world, content is king, and marketing in the printing industry is no exception. But printers aren’t writers, a challenge compounded by the fact that printing industry content tends to be highly technical. Coming up with content is a skill of its own. Where do you find it?
Published November 14, 2022
The Mariano Rivera Foundation’s Print Design Packaging Development Program has been gaining steam since it launched in early 2021. New trainees are finding jobs, and printers are finding qualified employees. Now, as the program grows, a new training center is set to launch in the Premium Color Graphics’ Carlstadt, NJ facility in January 2023.
Published November 2, 2022
Merkle has documented a significant disconnect between how well companies think they are doing with their customer experience capabilities and what customers actually think. Why does this disconnect exist? Merkle’s Q3 2022 Customer Engagement Report seeks to answer this question and provide solutions for how to fix it.
Published October 31, 2022
What is the value of augmented reality in the world of marketing? For Joe Zeff, president of Joe Zeff Design in Pittsburgh, it’s to help his customers tell better stories. Heidi Tolliver-Walker looks at some of Zeff’s recent AR projects.
Published October 26, 2022
In the world of sustainability, perception is reality. Sustainability sells, so perception matters. In the printing industry, what creates the perception of being one of the most eco-friendly printers? What can we learn through the lens of Google rankings?
Published October 19, 2022
Everywhere you look, brands are promoting their sustainability to woo a public that increasingly cares about the topic. But caring about something and allowing it to influence their shopping decisions are two different things. How much do these values actually impact how consumers buy?
Published October 12, 2022
Have you considered implementing a company-wide recycling program? As part of a sustainable industry, it’s important for printers to consider. But doing so will take some research. It might not be as easy as you think.
Published September 28, 2022
Summary of the second half of WhatTheyThink’s August 24 webinar “Interactive Print: What’s Working in the Real World (2022),” moderated by Heidi Tolliver-Walker and featuring presenters Joanne Gore of Gore Communications and Joe Zeff of Joe Zeff Design. Part 2 of the wrap-up focuses on Zeff’s presentation on his use of augmented reality in his Pittsburgh-based graphic design business.
Published September 21, 2022
Summary of the first half of WTT’s August 24 webinar “Interactive Print: What’s Working in the Real World (2022),” moderated by Heidi Tolliver-Walker and featuring presenters Joanne Gore of Gore Communications and Joe Zeff of Joe Zeff Design. This article focuses on Gore’s presentation looking at the evolution of QR Codes from misused novelties to truly useful marketing tools and how to use them successfully.
Published September 14, 2022
Even as we cover increasingly sophisticated digitally driven and data-driven applications, it’s important to remember that traditional business still exists. This includes business forms, and while that business is shrinking, it does still offer profitable pockets of business that commercial printers might want to explore.
Published September 7, 2022
For Sleep Number, direct mail retargeting is nothing new. A switch to a new partner, however, has turbo-charged its success, and it is now seeing 44% incremental sales rates.
Published September 6, 2022
The Mariano Rivera Foundation brings mentorship, life skills, STEM education, and vocational training to at-risk youth. Thanks to support from industry vendors such as EFI, KonicaMinolta, Ricoh, Idealliance, Printing United Alliance, and Adobe, it will funnel much needed talent into the printing industry, as well. Heidi Tolliver-Walker provides an update on the first class of graduates.
Published August 31, 2022
Even as the use of QR codes has become normalized thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, we still see some pretty bone-headed implementations. A look at three use cases in light of three important best practices.
Published August 24, 2022
Movable Ink’s second annual Audience of One consumer survey has many takeaways. It continues to confirm what we’ve known for a long time: Consumers want you to market to an audience of one. But it has some other takeaways about customer loyalty and customer preferences related to product purchases that are just as important.
Published August 23, 2022
It’s finally happened. Print and marketing firms are incorporating augmented reality (AR) into their marketing tool kits. Not just for fan engagement and brand building, but as a business problem-solving and revenue-driving solution. Far from AR competing with print, it’s driving it. Contributor Heidi Tolliver-Walker looks at several case studies that launched AR experiences from print.
Published August 17, 2022
What, exactly, are NFTs? Do they matter to us in the printing industry? This article offers a simplified explanation of NFTs and examples of what they look like in the real world.
Published August 10, 2022
Augmented reality has reached a tipping point, and it’s one that is increasingly affordable, accessible, and highly relevant to even the average print shop. AR has become a way to offer solutions and help your clients sell products and engage audiences in real, practical ways.
Published August 3, 2022
As video continues to grow as a marketing tool, often eclipsing text and images in terms of its power and effectiveness, there has been a rush to embrace it. But video isn’t like print or other marketing content. It’s its own animal, requiring dedicated focus by printers and their clients looking to capitalize on its power.
Published July 27, 2022
An increasing number of companies are releasing re-use + refill packaging lines. Is this just for large companies like Proctor + Gamble and Unilever? Or is it time for small and mid-sized companies to take up the mantle, too?
Published July 20, 2022
When was the last time you thought about influencer marketing? It’s a powerful marketing tool, and it’s growing. For PSPs, influencer marketing should be seen as a channel like any other. There are plenty of ways for PSPs to add value to an influencer campaign.
Published July 13, 2022
How do you incorporate QR codes into a successful marketing campaign? You don’t make it about the QR code. You make it about problem-solving. Heidi Tolliver-Walker highlights several great use cases from a MindFire webinar that provide great problem-solving insights—whether you are incorporating QR codes or not.
Published June 29, 2022
Is it possible to create effective AR scenes without a team of tech-savvy designers? Or spending tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars? Is AR finally ready to be used even by small and mid-sized shops to solve business problems for their customers? Here is a step-by-step look at what it took to create an AR holotwin and a QR code showing the final result. Readers can judge for themselves.
Published June 22, 2022
Think augmented reality is just for brand-building and entertainment? Think again. It is now being used to drive real, practical results for businesses, educational institutions, and nonprofits. Here is a look at how AR jump-started engagement with one college’s recycling program.
Published June 15, 2022
What is the state of retail personalization in 2022? A study conducted by Coresight Research on behalf of Sailthru shows significant disconnects between what retailers think is important and what consumers think is important. The survey, “Retail Personalization in 2022,” looks at the difference in perceptions between consumers and retailers on a variety of issues related to retail personalization and data privacy, as well as areas such as loyalty programs and channel usage.
Published June 8, 2022
In this follow-up to last week’s article, Steve Falk, president of Prime Data, discusses how his company determined its carbon footprint, how it came to be the first carbon-neutral direct mail house in the world, and invites members of the industry to use its tools to come up with their own carbon footprints to do the same.
Published June 1, 2022
Is it possible to know the carbon footprint of direct mail? Canada-based Prime Data decided to find out. It invested in research to determine the footprint of direct mail in its home country as a foundation to understanding the company’s own role in the larger ecosystem and what to do about it.
Published May 25, 2022
Infegy’s Trust Index gives a look into the companies with the highest trust levels based on its analysis of social media conversations. This leads to the question: How, exactly, do we measure trust? Is quantifying it even possible?
Published May 18, 2022
The Printing Industries Alliance has released a new report, “Recruitment, Retention, and Pathways to Employment in the Printing Industry” (April 2022), that looks at the realities of the hiring gap in the printing industry and practical solutions for addressing it. Here are seven takeaways from that report.
Published May 11, 2022
Older Americans, representing 100 million consumers and more than half of the nation’s wealth and annual spending, are being overlooked by marketers. Two reports from Alive Ventures, “Growing Older Better: Insights and Opportunities” and “State of the Market 2022,” challenge the stereotypes fueling this oversight and shine a spotlight on the opportunities that you can share with your customers.
Published May 4, 2022
When a 50-something in Colorado making $100,000 per year starts to look more like a 30-something in Connecticut making $50,000 per year, it leads us to wonder: what role does demographic targeting play in today’s world of direct marketing?
Published May 3, 2022
When you want to create an authentic replica of one of the most famous and treasured historic artifacts ever discovered, where do you turn? If you are the curators of the Shroud of Turin, you turn to EFI Reggiani. Heidi Tolliver-Walker looks at this unique printing project.
Published April 27, 2022
Is augmented reality (AR) ready to explode onto the marketing scene? It’s already deeply embedded in enterprise applications, where it is being used to speed, simplify, and reduce errors in a wide variety of training, service, and maintenance operations. It’s important to be aware of these uses, since the more commonplace a crossover technology becomes in the workplace, the faster it will make its way into the consumer arena, and AR has become SOP for many enterprises.
Published April 20, 2022
With 70–80% of a buyer’s journey already complete before they hit your website, how does your site stack up against others? Contentsquare’s 2022 Digital Experience Benchmark Report provides important benchmarks for buyer experiences. While focused on B2C websites, the lessons translate to all industries, including ours.
Published April 6, 2022
Ambika Anand Prokop is the author of Greenfeet Guides, a growing series of travel guides for parents who want to help their children more deeply and emotionally engage with cultures and landscapes around the world. She has also been on a sustainability journey that has led her to understand the value of evaluating printers based not just on their website claims, but on in-person conversations.
Published April 4, 2022
Augmented reality is no longer a niche technology used for entertainment and brand-building. It has evolved into a true revenue-generating tool. For printers looking for opportunities to build new revenue streams, AR has arrived.
Published March 30, 2022
As the printing industry struggles to maintain a pipeline of new talent, keeping the talent we have becomes all the more important. A new survey on the value of “workations” illustrates one simple way that print providers can retain the talent they have.
Published March 24, 2022
In the United States, more than one in five children live in poverty. In the printing industry, finding qualified employees and maintaining the pipeline of new talent into the workforce remains one of the top challenges. A bridge between the two is the Mariano Rivera Foundation. Heidi Tolliver-Walker explains the benefits of this foundation, and what it can mean for finding the next generation of industry employees.
Published March 23, 2022
Sixty percent of Gen Zers want to shop in the metaverse. What on earth does that mean? How does it apply to printers?
Published March 16, 2022
As sustainability becomes bigger business, the emergence of recyclable, compostable, and other eco-friendly plastic alternatives for use in packaging, signage, and mailing is growing, too. But making those investments count may take a commitment on the design end, as well.
Published March 9, 2022
As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and move into the endemic phase, many printers are taking stock of their businesses, asking, “What’s next?” For some, working with a print distributor might be a great option.
Published March 2, 2022
Trends toward sustainability and cause marketing could be a ticket to differentiation in the packaging market. Check out this nutritional supplements and skin care company to see what this looks like.
Published February 23, 2022
Jordan Patterson, vice president of Virtual Packaging (Grapevine, TX), shares his experience working with a Landa S10P Digital (Perfecting) Press—how they’ve used it, what their experiences have been, and what new markets the press has opened to them.
Published February 16, 2022
Augmented reality (AR) has been growing in packaging, nonprofit, and retail, but it’s been used primarily for branding and engagement and much less for direct sales and fundraising. But that is changing. This article looks at one revenue-generating AR application: the use of holotwins to promote the Utah Black Business Expo.
Published February 9, 2022
The USPS continues to add expanded features to its Informed Delivery service, but based on the USPS’s own year-over-year customer satisfaction data, are these new features actually creating a better user experience?
Published February 2, 2022
What is the metaverse? Why does it matter to our industry now? With real-life applications and accessibility to even small print shops and agencies, the metaverse something that we should all be paying attention to.
Published January 26, 2022
Clients are increasingly looking for vendors who “walk the walk” when it comes to sustainability. A look at EcoPrint, a printer committed to environmentally responsible services, as an example of how one shop does this well.
Published January 19, 2022
The USPS continues to add expanded features to its Informed Delivery service, but based on the USPS’s own year-over-year customer satisfaction data, are these new features actually creating a better user experience?
Published January 12, 2022
Paul Hudson, CEO of Hudson Printing (Salt Lake City), shares his rationale for investing in a Landa S10P—why now, why the Landa, and how he expects it to impact his business.
Published January 5, 2022
In a large-scale field study conducted by Harvard Business Review, a luxury e-commerce retailer found that by adding print catalogs, it increased sales by 28% and inquiries by 77%. It also yielded a direct ROI of 600%.
Published December 15, 2021
Miss the “Landa Nanographic Printing in the Market” webinar on November 3? Here is a recap of Landa’s portion of the presentation, giving an update on its expansion, its installed base of users, and what it’s learned about the crossover points with offset.
Published December 8, 2021
You’ve seen the data for the effectiveness of augmented reality (AR) for sales and marketing. This isn’t due to novelty. There is real psychology to why it works.
Published December 1, 2021
If you haven’t noticed, the emphasis on marketing to Millennials is shifting. Today, it’s all about Gen Z. One of the fundamental characteristics of Gen Z, however, is that they distrust the brands trying to market to them. What does that mean for marketers?
Published November 10, 2021
A look at the most recent USPS Informed Delivery update, including updated user stats, the latest open and click-through rates, and new features.
Published November 3, 2021
Workplace satisfaction matters. Unhappy employees equal higher turnover. Higher turnover equals higher HR costs and, especially in the printing industry, real concern about the ability to fill open positions. A workplace satisfaction survey from Parallax, while focused on the digital services industry, shines a spotlight on issues that many other employers should consider, including those in the printing industry.
Published October 27, 2021
Part 2 of a two-part series based on the What They Think webinar “Print Production Outlook: Tracking the Turning Points.” In Part 1, presenter German Sacristan of Keypoint Intelligence analyzed Keypoint and other data on the industry’s growth and key turning points, including the shift to high-speed inkjet. In Part 2, Sacristan analyzes the current and future state of industry applications, as well the state of packaging and labels.
Published October 20, 2021
Part 1 of a two-part series based on the WhatTheyThink webinar “Print Production Outlook: Tracking the Turning Points.” In Part 1, presenter German Sacristan of Keypoint Intelligence analyzes Keypoint and other industry data on the state of the industry’s growth and key turning points.
Published October 13, 2021
The United States Postal Service’s Informed Delivery Service is not only growing in subscribers, but it is expanding in services. Its interactive campaigns now offer marketers the option to replace the grayscale scan automatically provided with the service with a full-color “representative” image of each mail piece instead. But is this an option that mailers should rush to embrace?
Published October 6, 2021
According to a new survey by Insightly/Zogby Research, consumers would rather have a tooth pulled, learn a TikTok dance with their kid, and wait in line at the DMV than resolve an issue with a company’s customer service department. Why? Because companies are over-confident in their customer relationships and are more interested in talking than listening.
Published September 29, 2021
In case you haven’t noticed, the USPS’s Informed Delivery (ID) program has been growing quietly but steadily. It has grown not only in numbers, but also in trust among ID users. Features have been enhanced, and more PSPs are quietly promoting it as an extra value to their customers.
Published September 22, 2021
“Enhancing the Print Customer Connection,” a new report from NAPCO Research/Canon USA, 2021, finds that print quality and customer service may not help printers hold onto customers the way they think. Print management, tracking, and reporting tools may be equally or even more important.
Published September 15, 2021
If your clients are waiting to start their holiday marketing, you might want to send out the alert: Holiday shopping is likely to start earlier this year.
Published September 8, 2021
Didn’t make the August 25 lunch-and-learn “Interactive Print in the Real World: What’s Really Working?” No problem. Here’s a roundup of the presenters’ main points.
Published September 1, 2021
Round-up of key data points from WTT’s lunch-and-learn “Interactive Print in the Real World: What’s Really Working?” The data reinforce why AR is not an up-and-coming technology, but rather one that is already here—and a force to be reckoned with.
Published August 25, 2021
Merkle’s Q3 2021 Media Insights Report looks at the fundamental changes brought to the U.S. economy by the COVID-19 pandemic—changes that remind us that, even once the U.S. economy is back at full steam, it may not look exactly like the economy that existed before the pandemic.
Published August 23, 2021
We’ve been hearing that print is going interactive for years, not just with QR codes, but with technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and near-field communications (NFC). Some of the applications are truly astounding, but are they relevant to the printing industry at large? Heidi-Tolliver-Walker looks at some examples of how “interactive print” is relevant to commercial printers.
Published August 18, 2021
Even as CMOs’ 2020 marketing budgets were being slashed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, CMOs were hopeful that those budgets would bounce back in 2021. But Gartner’s just-released “CMO Spend Survey” tells a different story. Not only are budgets not bouncing back, but they have dropped to the lowest level in the history of the survey. Is there any good news for PSPs in here?
Published August 11, 2021
To what extent is this industry merely talking about relevance-based personalization and to what extent are we actually doing it? Insights from Who’s Mailing What!, a national database of direct mail, raises some interesting questions.
Published August 4, 2021
As the U.S. economy continues to bounce back, “state of marketing” surveys are giving conflicting pictures. One says marketing budgets are falling. Another says they are rising. What to make of this conflicting information?
Published July 28, 2021
Paper and packaging companies are not only consumers of natural resources, but they are striving to be protectors of them, too. Here are five “feel good” stories about how members of the paper industry are doing their part.
Published July 21, 2021
Until recently, growth and excitement around augmented reality (AR) has been limited among printers since the barriers to entry were high, and other than for SnapChat filters and niche applications (such as gaming), few consumers were using it. Even as AR experiences became more robust and effective, they required an app, and marketers found that people don’t want to download apps. Now AR has developed a symbiotic relationship with QR Codes, and that changes everything.
Published July 14, 2021
Why has one QR code usage gain traction when others haven’t? What lessons can we learn from it? Can QR code use be turned into further print work, even if the code itself “steals” certain types of business?
Published June 30, 2021
Recently, Keypoint Intelligence released data from a new vertical market survey that reflects how a classic concept—unboxing—has become today’s news. No company illustrates the power of unboxing more than Apple.
Published June 23, 2021
For many printers and their clients, QR codes offer many opportunities for improved customer engagement and better customer service. But for some industries, they could actually represent the potential for lost business for printers, too.
Published June 16, 2021
The Who’s Mailing What! Database contains an astounding wealth of information about direct mail. The database is growing by leaps and bounds, currently containing more than 130,000 mail pieces and with 13,000 mail pieces added every 30 days. Because these mail pieces are searchable, you can slice and dice the database any way you want—by industry, by sub-category, by search term, by color, by mailing format, and the list goes on.
Published June 9, 2021
Arnie Kahn, president of PrintLink, a recruitment firm specializing in the printing industry, shares his insights on the challenges of maintaining the pipeline of skilled workers into the printing industry, along with some of the solutions and opportunities that a good staffing agency offers.
Published June 2, 2021
It’s rare that a survey is the bearer of truly good news, but the recent consumer attitudes survey out of McKinsey is one of them. Here are seven nuggets of good news from the survey that should make the grass a little greener and the sky a little bluer this morning.
Published May 26, 2021
A new Shoppers.com study finds that Americans are more likely to boycott a brand due to their political positions than they were one year ago. So be careful how you post, share, and comment on your social media pages. You could be driving away potential customers.
Published May 19, 2021
How careful are you with sharing information about your company, your sales practices, or your processes and technologies in public, thinking, “Nobody knows me here”? Could you be giving away compromising information without realizing it?
Published May 12, 2021
If you were asked to come up with a list of ways that QR codes can be used in marketing, how many could you list? Could you come up with at least 10? As QR codes see a resurgence, being driven by everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to USPS postal promotions, it’s time to take stock of how they are being used, as well as the opportunities that are being missed.
Published May 5, 2021
This is the third in the series about what can be done to keep the pipeline of new talent flowing into the printing industry. In this article, we look at the relationship between the graphic arts schools (or lack thereof) and the local printers and the profound impact this has on the pipeline.
Published April 28, 2021
Following up on last week’s article on the current state of high school and trade school graphic arts programs, what can be done to keep the pipeline of new talent flowing into the printing industry? Has anyone asked the teachers of high school graphic arts programs on the front lines? Here is a selection of responses to a query about what can be done from their perspective...and they had a lot to say.
Published April 21, 2021
Jeff White, director of development for the Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation, solicited insight on the dwindling pipeline of skilled labor from the teachers of graphic arts programs at the high school level. The results reveal why printers can’t wait for someone else to fix the problem.
Published April 14, 2021
Do you have a client who seems to be doing everything right in its direct marketing campaigns, yet its metrics are not what they should be? Before the client pins the blame on you, they might want to check two potential culprits that lie between the campaigns and the sale: the website and the call center.
Published April 7, 2021
Who’s Mailing What! recently released its report “18 Direct Mail Trends for 2021,” with predictions from leading industry experts about what they are seeing on the horizon for this year. First on WMW!’s list is “more sophisticated personalization.” But what, exactly, does “more sophisticated” mean?
Published March 25, 2021
We all know that content is king. Connect with your audiences using the right content and you’ve got engagement, attention, and sales. But that’s if you are sending the right content, and one survey shows that in the B2B market, there is a disconnect between what buyers need and what marketers are sending—and a big one.
Published March 23, 2021
There are lots of reasons to encourage your customers to beef up their in-store signage and displays. Great marketing. Safety and regulatory compliance during COVID-19. But did you know that really good signage can also make your customers less price-sensitive?
Published March 16, 2021
Consistently, surveys show that giving back to the community increases a brand’s favorability among buyers. Never has this been more true than during the pandemic. That’s why stories like “Mactac Gives Back” resonate so deeply.
Published March 9, 2021
Customer product reviews are a powerful tool in e-commerce, and positive reviews often make the difference between someone making a purchase or not. Those reviews are in the public domain, so why not use them in print marketing, too? This company did.
Published March 4, 2021
What is an identity graph and why does it matter? In a nutshell, it is the “next generation” customer identity management. Think of it as marketing’s version of an FBI profile.
Published March 2, 2021
Takeaways from a recent webinar on assessing continuous-feed (CF) inkjet for your print operation.
Published February 24, 2021
A closer look at a case study from Postcard Mania with takeaways for other print providers about boosting their own direct mail business.
Published February 10, 2021
Even if printers are not in the market for a new marketing automation system, tracking the new and updated features of available platforms provides insight into where marketing is going and what they (and their customers) need to watch, both now and in the future. One such change is the increased use of AI to speed and simplify the identification and understanding of customer journeys. As COVID-19 ramps up and consumers tighten their belts (again), the timing couldn’t be better.
Keypoint Intelligence Study Highlights Global Production Software Revenue Growth Through 2028
Enhancing Direct Mail: The Impact of Personalization and Specialty Print in a Digital Era
Artificial Intelligence and What It Means for Marketers
Vertical Market Research from Keypoint Intelligence Uncovers Key Industry Trends
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