PrintFirm's Blog

The dozen roses that you bought for her last year are long gone. That fancy dinner is all but forgotten by this point. Many would argue that Valentine’s Day is a commercial holiday manufactured to increase sales – and we’ll agree. Many of the traditional gifts for Valentine’s Day are either only designed to last for a short period of time, or are far too expensive. In recent years, many people have gotten smarter about their Valentine’s Day gift giving approach by creating something unique.

You can find hundreds of different suggestions online for homemade Valentine’s Day gifts that require you to assemble a variety of your sweetheart’s favorite things or pictures into a memorable keepsake. The truth is, that unless you’re a truly gifted gift maker that you’re creation is likely to end up on a list of funny pinterest fails.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t be creative with your Valentine’s gift though. No, we aren’t going to suggest that you print business cards with hearts on them – she should already have your number and contact information. Odds are that if you’re planning a creative Valentine’s Day gift, that you already have some great pictures of the two of you together, right?

Have you considered canvas picture printing?

Whether it’s a nice picture of you two from your first date or your anniversary, custom canvas picture printing makes for an easy, long lasting Valentine’s Day gift. We offer a variety of sizes, from 1ft x 1ft to 3ft x 3ft, and can even help add a little extra to the print as well. Our designers will work with you to add a meaningful saying, special phrase or important date to the picture if desired.

The mounted canvas is easy to hang with just a few nails in almost any type of wall, so the Valentine’s Day gift can be enjoyed year round. It shows thoughtfulness, planning and perhaps best of all – is an affordable project that we can have delivered to you in just four to six business days.

Going the Extra Mile

If you’re looking for something a bit more playful, you can create custom trading cards for Valentine’s Day this year. This idea is certainly unique, but we’ve seen plenty of customers come up with creative ways to customize trading cards for gifts on Valentine’s Day – and we’re sure you could too! Feel free to contact us with any ideas that you may have so we can get started on a project for you right away!

Political protests have been a part of American Culture for centuries, and don’t appear to be going away anytime soon. In the wake of President Donald Trump’s Presidential inauguration, organized political protests have taken place across the country, with many other demonstrations in the works for the coming months. For many demonstrators, this is their first time ever protesting in favor of their political beliefs and values. Even within the crowds, everyone wants to have their own voice – as we’ve seen with pictures of protest signs from events from coast to coast.

Protest signs that range from serious to comedic have generated news stories of their own. Many of these signs are homemade, unique and creative. And the awareness that they’ve generated shows how effective they can be. The best protest signs are…

• Easy to read
• Short and to the point
• Have a single message
• Use both text and images

Sometimes homemade signs aren’t that easy to read, and don’t contain images with their message in text. It can be difficult to create consistent sized lettering, even spacing and even shading without the proper tools. Further, those who aren’t artists have a tough time incorporating images into the design. Because of this, many protesters are turning to professional printed signs instead.

Unify With a Single Message

Beyond legible lettering and full color design options, bulk poster printing for political rallies is becoming more popular among demonstrators and event organizers because of the ability to unify crowds with a single message. Yes, many people will bring their own signs, but being able to hand out your poster message to everyone who came empty handed can help spread the word and include everyone in attendance.

Imagine what pictures of the event would look like if everyone had on of your poster in their hand – and many of them were with the slogan that you came up with! We’re seeing more demonstrators printing their signs professionally in bulk – but that isn’t all they’re doing.

Go Bigger, Go Smaller – Or Both!

Printing posters isn’t the only way to get your message out at political rallies. Some people decide to go smaller, and print custom round or oval stickers to hand out to attendees. Others go bigger by printing vinyl banners that they hang in a high visibility locations near the event. A combination of posters, stickers and banners together are being used by event organizers throughout the country – and now you can too!

Accountants have a tough job during tax season. Deadlines to meet, paperwork to process, clients to bill – money to make! Long hours and weekends at the office leave most CPA’s with little time to focus on much other than tax work and getting some sleep in between. It’s also the best time of year to market your business to make sure that your client base continues to grow tax season after tax season.

Odds are that you only see, or hear from most of your clients when it’s time to file their taxes annually. It can be easy to lose touch with them over the course of the year, and inevitably a few clients seem to disappear without warning each season. You can stay in front of your clients year round using branded marketing products. Some CPA’s fail to go beyond just printing high quality business cards, which are likely to fall out of sight after April 15th.

The best marketing products for tax accounts are useful for their clients, and keep your business name / contact information closeby should they need it at anytime. Including tips about what items can be deducted, reminders about important tax filing dates, and of course your phone number and email address can be a highly effective marketing tool for your accounting business.

Products That Market Year Round

• Magnetic Postcards: People don’t often toss magnets in the trash  – they stick them to a fridge or filing cabinet, and they stay there for years!
• Desk Tent Calendars: Promotional calendars are a great way for CPAs to get right in front of their client no matter the time of year. Highlighting certain dates & holidays can be helpful for clients too.
• Full Color Notepads: Everyone needs a good notepad on their desk at work. You can remind them about your business – while they write reminders to themselves! We offer 1 – 2 color custom notepads as well.

Need Help on the Design?

If you don’t already have a design, our team can make suggestions on what would work best – or even design the product for you. We’ll work with your guidance to create an effective marketing product for your accounting firm that will help you stay in front of tax clients years round. We know what works best because we’ve done it for our years of experience working with accountants and other service professionals. Don’t take it from us though – read reviews on our Yelp Page.

Marketing your business shouldn’t mean that you’re going to lose money. Some marketing ventures have more monetary risk associated with higher potential reward, while other strategies are more conservative. Most successful businesses market in both ways to grow their customer base. Unfortunately, many focus solely on risky marketing ventures hoping to get richer quicker, without balancing out their plan using more proven methods.

What if you could make money while marketing your business? Instead of every marketing dollar that goes out the door being a risk, you can actually get your customers to pay you – to market for you.

You have seen many examples of this throughout your life. One of the most obvious examples of making money while marketing would be by selling T-Shirts with your company logo or brand name on it. The customer paid $20 to advertise for that company. It’s a good deal, but not the best example of making money while marketing.

The Classic Gift Certificate Example

Imagine that you own a restaurant in a busy location. You have a loyal group of regular customers that are in weekly for their favorite meals during lunch breaks from work, but nights and weekends aren’t as busy as they used to be. Ordering, and selling custom printed gift certificates is one of the best things that you can do to market your business while making money.

There are several advantages to marketing with gift certificates. Beyond the obvious fact that you’re essentially selling a product or service in advance, gift certificates introduce new customers to your business through word of mouth endorsement. As long as you can impress the new customers as much as you did the ones who bought the gift certificate, your business will be making money and marketing at the same time.

Don’t Stop There

Let’s stick with the restaurant example for just another moment. What else would the gift certificate recipient like get with their present? In this case, you can increase effectiveness by using take out menus to market your restaurant as well. Different businesses may use different items – bookstores print custom bookmarks, kid attractions use custom printed stickers. Figure out what would compliment your products or services best and be sure to include them with your gift certificate order online today!

Most of our customers that order custom print products online aren’t familiar with the full process that we go through on our end to complete a project. Depending on the type of product a customer ordered, there can be several steps that need to be completed before we can box up the contents and ship them out. In an effort to keep our customers more in the loop on their printing orders, we’ve introduced phone call notifications as an option to improve our service.

Let’s say that you’re placing an order for event tickets, but don’t yet know how to design a custom event ticket. Our team will collect all of the pertinent information from you to create a ticket design, which will then be sent to you for approval prior to printing. Many times, this proof email gets lost in the shuffle, and takes customers days – even weeks to respond with updates or design approval. This slows down the printing process, and can leave customers unhappy with delayed delivery.

Our new phone call notifications aim to expedite the process. All customers that choose to receive phone notifications will receive calls to remind them when a printing proof is ready for review. From there, you can check your email to make sure you have received the proof, and review our design quickly. We’ll start the printing process as soon as we get your approval.

Do You Want to Make Changes to the Design?

The design team at PrintFirm has an excellent record of getting the design approved on the first pass by our customers. We make sure to listen to all of the details and elements that you want to incorporate into any of our print products, but sometimes there are still changes that you may want to make to the design. Our team is happy to work with you to review and update the design until you are happy with the product and ready to go to print.

We always encourage our customers to double, and triple check all spelling on print products. One wrong keystroke leaving a misspelling on print products can be frustrating, and delay the process of getting the corrected version in place. It’s always a good idea to have at least two people check a print proof, just to be sure.

Learn More about the Paper Printing Product Process

Some of our clients like to learn more about the actual printing process when they place an order with PrintFirm. Our friendly, knowledgeable phone staff can help answer any questions you have about a certain product, the printing process or delivery schedule. Whether you are just starting a new design, or ready to re-order a bulk shipment of business cards, we’re happy to answer any questions you have along the way.

“Boutique” and “Marketing” don’t naturally fit together. For boutique clothing stores, it can be difficult to find ways to market their wares without ruining the allure of the shop. Market too much, and you will turn customers away because your brand is no longer “cool” and doesn’t make them feel like they are buying something unique that few others can get. When marketing a boutique clothing store, you need to be more creative to find ways to get in front of new potential customers – and bring them back time and time again.

If you have new trendy clothes for sale, they’ll probably sell very well as long as you can get the right customers in the door. But don’t stop there. You need to focus on bringing those paying customers back into your boutique clothing store to shop for a new outfit at least once a season! Sometimes, it’s the small details that keep bringing returning customers back in…

Make them Want to See the Price Tag

If you’re selling one of a kind clothing, it’s likely that the prices in your boutique shop are higher than at the big box stores. In those stores, they just slap an orange price tag sticker on the collar of shirt and assume customers will buy based on the price. For you, it’s important to present a higher price with a nicer tag – a custom printed hang tag.

Many of our boutique clothing store clients end up printing custom size hang tags for their shop, because it allows them to be more creative with the design. But the value doesn’t stop at just providing the customer with a better way to view the price of the item. Once the item is purchased, that hang tag will be brought back home with the customer. With strong branding, a good hang tag can help make sure that customer remembers exactly where they purchased their new favorite piece of clothing from.

Branding, Branding, Branding

Many smaller clothing stores like to use full color, high quality custom postcards to drive awareness for their shop. Bold colors and large pattern designs that fit with the look of your store. For example, if your shop has a bright pink sign and blue walls inside, using those same colors on a marketing postcard will help potential customers more easily identify your store.

Have them Tell Their Friends

There is no marketing substitute for referral business. Word of mouth from previous customers will bring you the best type of business you could possibly want. Be sure to remind your existing customers to tell their friends & family members about your boutique clothing store and the clothes that you offer. Odds are, if they love the clothes you sell, they’ve already shared your shop with them!

You don’t need to be drafted by a professional team with a huge contract in order to have your own personalized football trading cards anymore. Anyone can create personalized football trading cards that look and feel just like the ones you can buy with your favorite pro players.

Many people start by finding free football card templates online, and trying to print them out at home. Printing personalized football cards on printer paper just isn’t like having the real thing – the paper isn’t thick enough, two-sided printing doesn’t line up – it’s just not like what you would get out of a pack of cards.

If you want custom football cards printed that you will actually share and trade with friends, you’re going to need to order them online. In order to make your football cards look professional, you will want to make sure that you include key elements that would be seen on a pro’s card.  We’ve made a short checklist of key elements you will want to include on your card.

Custom Football Card Checklist

Football card styles have changed dramatically over the years, but most still include the same elements. Here is a checklist of items you will want to include on yours…

• Player Name: This one may seem obvious, but it plays a key role in the custom design. Longer names may be difficult to read if positioned next to other card elements. In most cases, this will go along the bottom of the card.
• Player Number: From Pop Warner to High School and from College to Pro, all football players are assigned a number on their jersey. Make sure to include your player number with your card order details.
• Player Position: This can be included on the front of the back of your personalized football card.
• Player Stats: Leading the league in touchdowns? Make sure to include your key stats on the back side of your personalized trading card to make it look official.
• Player Bio: Tell us a little about yourself. Where you’re from, who your favorite players are, and about your football career. This section can be really fun to create!
• Team Name: Which team do you play for? In many cases, the team name is just as big, or bigger than the player name on the front of the card. In some cases, this may be replaced by the team logo instead.
• Favorite Colors: Most trading cards have a colored border, or frame around the front, with base colors on the back. Match these with your team colors or pick a few or your favorite to create the best design possible.

Design, Print, Deliver & Share!

We don’t expect you to have to do all of the work yourself. This will require some teamwork – just like a football team needs. With all of the checklist details in place, you can work with our in-house designers to create custom trading cards that will impress your teammates and strike fear in your opponents. Get started with a custom design today!

Attending trade shows to promote your business can be an expensive venture. Most marketing departments will tell you that you need a full booth with giveaway items and raffles to make your investment worth the buy in – but that’s not always the case. In fact, having the freedom to roam to the floor rather than be tethered to a booth could help you better target other vendors that you want to network with. For most trade shows, the cost of admission is far greater than the cost of renting booth space, but with proper planning, the value could be even higher.

This approach isn’t right for all companies, and will vary depending on the size of the trade show and other vendors in attendance – but often works for small businesses that are focused on growing. Of course, by taking this approach, you could be at the disadvantage of not having marketing materials on hand when the perfect lead comes along. With proper planning you can carry everything you need in branded presentation folders.

Full size presentation folders have four pockets, giving you plenty of room to include several different types of printed material, with options for business card slot holders as well. This option tends to work best as it holds all standard size sheets of paper. Alternatively, we do offer mini-presentation folder printing with tri-fold options that are perfect for smaller print promotional materials.

How Much Can You Fit in a Presentation Folder?

With up to four presentation folder pockets to organize, you can fit a significant amount of marketing material in each to bring to trade shows. Business sales sheets or promotional flyers to hand out would be perfect for a B2B type conference. Attending a B2C trade show without a booth would take a different approach where you may want to fill your presentation folder with custom stickers or promotional postcards to hand out.

 

Of course, you will always want to carry your business cards with you when in attendance at a trade show. Be sure to check with event organizers to make sure that you are allowed to bring in your own presentation folders before getting to the event floor. In most cases, as long as you are respectful and strategic with your approach, most organizers will be happy to have you there – perhaps researching to rent a booth at the next one!

Networking at it’s Finest

One of the best parts about trade shows is that everyone is there to network with each other. A smile, professional demeanor and custom printed promo material can go a long way for the cost of admission. Don’t limit yourself to our suggested items above either – we are a one stop shop for trade show printing needs and can help you from design to delivery!

There are certain memories that last longer than others. For many, those lasting memories include playing baseball as a kid with friends in the park after school, or on weekends in a youth league. From learning the basics of playing catch to being part of a team that wins the local championship – baseball has maintained popularity with kids for generations.

Along with playing the game often comes a history lesson on the sport’s greats. Babe Ruth, Willy Mays, Ted Williams – the list goes on. Father’s often present son’s with their baseball card collection, inspiring a new generation of fans to appreciate the history and interested in the future of the sport. For young players, nothing could be more exciting than seeing their own face on a real baseball card like their new idols.

Printing custom baseball trading cards for kids is easy, and will help them become more connected with the game. You can be sure that many kids have been left daydreaming about their future in the big leagues once seeing themselves on professional looking custom baseball cards with their name on it! There is no need to find a template to make your own baseball cards at home – PrintFirm will do all the work for you!

Stats & Stories

The problem with most print at home / DIY baseball card templates is that they don’t provide the full experience that kids get with a professional player’s card. The stats and stories on the back of the card are just as important as the action photo on the front! You can include stats of your child’s height, age, date of birth, or favorite color! If you have stats from last season (or want to make up some of your own), those elements will make this custom baseball card look just like the real thing.

The thickness / type of paper that baseball cards are made out of matters too. Simply printing from a template on printer paper at home won’t give the same look or feel that you would get from a professional pack. We use premium cardstock to print custom baseball cards for players and teams that last a lifetime – helping preserve precious memories along the way.

Hit a Homerun

Not only will your young player be excited by seeing their playing career put into card form, but they are perfect for sharing with family and friends. You can print a pack’s worth of cards (25) or more to pass out and trade with you child’s biggest fans. Ordering online is easy, and our team can help you create a custom baseball card from scratch today!