With some of the Tweets about imprinting variable data onto offset shells, I thought it would be a good time to focus on the printed piece as it is a key aspect of any comprehensive marketing and communication strategy. In this article, we will look at three of the types of printing we might use in an effective marketing campaign. Specifically, offset printing, digital printing and hybrid printing.
OFFSET PRINTING:
Offset printing, or traditional litho printing, utilizes a process whereby ink is put onto a roller so that a printing plate can pick up the ink and create an image on a blanket. The stock (paper) rolls onto the blanket and the image appears on the paper. For full color printing, this process often utilizes four primary colors to build all of the other colors that we see. These colors are cyan, magenta, yellow and black. That is why you will sometimes see four-color process printing referred to as CMYK. You can also use spot colors if your job requires an exact color match (leave a comment of you want to know more about spot colors). Logos and other corporate identity collateral tend to use spot colors as it can be seen as a differentiator.
Offset printing is generally used for longer, static runs. By longer runs, I refer to a greater number of sheets, or pages, that need to be printed. By static, I mean that every imprint is the same. There are many types of offset presses. They range from small one-color presses that can handle a sheet size of 8½ x 11 to much larger web presses that can print everything from the daily newspaper to millions of copies of books. There are also a variety of specialty presses that can print envelopes, raised printing and more. When you have a print job, make sure your print service provider has the right equipment to run your job as economically and efficiently as possible.
Take-away 1: offset is a good option if you need a lot of the same document.
DIGITAL PRINTING:
Digital printing, the sector of the printing industry that is currently experiencing the most growth, was introduced in the late 80s. At that time, the only digital printing available was black and white. Today, in addition to black and white digital, there are many other options. These include toner-based digital color, ink based digital color, and a process that we are all familiar with, inkjet technology. However, unlike the inkjet printer you might use at home, production inkjet presses can produce hundreds of pages per minute with some capable of doing thousands.
The key aspect of digital printing, as opposed to offset printing, is that in digital printing each sheet can be customized. Digital printing is more economical for shorter runs (fewer copies) because there are no plates, there is much less waste and the color is (generally) accurate on the first sheet off the press. Also, the document comes off the press dry, so turn-around times are much shorter. Before you start sending those nasty emails, I am placing DI Presses in the offset category because they can only produce static throughput.
As a way to save on logistic costs, many companies are now producing marketing collateral in smaller lots so that there is no inventory to track and store and no risk of obsolescence. Additional cost savings can be realized when a web-to-print solution is used, saving administrative time, proofing time and allowing many small orders to be aggregated into large orders, lowering the overall cost. Again, this is the result of digital printing’s ability to handle short run work with high quality results.
But short run work is only a small part of what digital printing can do to help your company effectively communicate (although there are a lot of printers who don’t seem to understand this). If we have customer or prospect data we can use it to create individualized, personalized, relevant printed marketing collateral that is different for each of your recipients. So while you may be selling the same product, say a pair of jeans, the copy and the images that you want to use to sell to a 22 year old female in New York City will be very different than those you want to sell to a 50 year old male in Douglas, Utah.
Digital printing allows you to take advantage of variable data printing. While I cringe saying this, in its most basic form variable data printing is analogous to a mail merge program you might use on your home computer. Again, before the nasty emails start raining down on me, I must point out that true variable data printing is far more complex and requires experienced programming. The mail merge reference is merely an analogy with which lots of us are familiar. The ability to print personalized, high speed, high quality, full-color collateral means digital printing can create mass marketing pieces that are unique for each recipient. This type of personalization has been shown to significantly raise response rates. And when used as part of a cross-media campaign, the same creative work can be re-purposed to be used in personalized landing pages (PURLS) and email.
TransPromo, which I might have mentioned a few times, is a sophisticated variable data print application. This can be a color digital image on a white piece of paper or it can be an imprint on a preprinted shell. And that is a good segue…
Take-away 2: Digital print is good for short run and personalized variable data projects.
HYBRID PRINTING:
Hybrid printing is a combination of the best qualities of both offset and digital printing. Hybrid printing takes the cost effectiveness of offset printing for large four-color runs and combines that with the increased response rates personalization and customization make possible by adding a digital black and white or even full color, imprint. While inkjet is starting to close the gap, black and white digital printing is less expensive than color digital printing. Therefore, if you are able to create a four-color process shell, you can then utilize black and white digital print to create personalized pieces in a more cost-effective manner.
This application is great for form letters, gift appeals, personalized offers and coupons with bar codes. This is a great application for personal URLs and even QR Codes. This allows tracking and measuring of the results of your marketing campaign, a must for real success.
Color gets attention, but digital color can be expensive. Offset is static, not personalized or unique to the recipient, and does not get the higher response rates marketers need. Hybrid printing solves this dilemma by using color from the offset process and the personalization from the black digital process. You get the benefit of both processes and the cost effectiveness of both processes.
Digital imprinting on offset shells is also a good way to leverage data for TransPromo solutions. Use offset to print a large quantity of static shells with a company logo or other brand information that requires color. You can then use your data to imprint the statement data onto the color shells. It is a solution that has worked for decades. Still, in my own opinion, TransPromo is even more effective with full color digital. With pricing on color digital dropping faster than President Obama’s approval ratings, your company would be wise to consider a move to full color TransPromo. With co-marketing, any cost increase from the move to color can be offset by sharing some of the white space on your outbound documents. If you would like more information on this, please let me know by email or just leave a comment.
Take-away #3: Hybrid printing is good when you have a lot of full color pieces to produce, but the personalization can be done in all black.
WHICH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
The answer to the question which process is right for you will depend on what you are trying to accomplish. Talk to your vendor and explain your goals. A good vendor will take the time to listen and help you plan the most effective and economical campaign possible.
Questions, comments, disagreements. I would love to hear what you think. Please leave a comment.