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1. An Urgent Printing Service in London

   22 February 2022 22:26 Leave a Comment

   Do you have an urgent printing job that simply MUST be turned around super-fast? If so, Southside Print can help. Subject to timing and workload, we offer:

   • A same day printing service in London;
   • Next day delivery for many locations* in the UK;
   • Next day print & dispatch, for arrival anywhere in the UK* in 2-3 days;
   • Plus our usual fast turnarounds for less urgent printing.

   Same Day Printing Service for London

   More often than not, we can turn around printing on the same day for local customers, particularly if we’re given advanced warning and artwork files are supplied according to pre-agreed timetables. If you’re in London, we can courier your printed jobs to you later on the same day, or they will be available to collect from our print shop near London Bridge and Borough, London SE1. Depending on the size of your printing job, the latest we’d usually need your artwork files and sign-off to proceed is 1pm, but obviously the earlier the better with timing being so short.

   Printing Needed Within Just Hours?

   If your print job is even more super-urgent, talk to us. Depending upon workloads and existing commitments, it may even be possible to turn around some jobs within just a few hours. While it’s not quite a while-you-wait service, it’s the next best thing.

   Next Day, 24-Hour Printing Service

   24-hour print turn around is also available for those jobs that simply must be with you the next working day, wherever you are in the UK. Our 24-hour print service will suit companies, organisations and individuals anywhere in the UK* as we can dispatch via overnight courier for next-day* delivery. It helps, of course, if we are forewarned so that we can clear the decks, ready for your job and to ensure that we have the right paper/volume ready. It works best when our clients hand over artwork files and/or give us sign-off to proceed no later than the times that we will have pre-agreed. Usually, the latest we’d need them is 1pm, but it does depend upon the size and complexity of the print job.

   * ^{Subject to availability. Some areas of the UK, for example more remote islands, may not be eligible for next day delivery via overnight courier, simply due to the limitations of the courier services themselves.}

   Next Day Dispatch (2-3 Day Service)

   This is similar to the above, except the printing is dispatched the day after we receive the artwork and order to proceed, so will usually take a day longer to arrive with customers. We usually require artwork files and sign-off to proceed no later than 3pm on the first day.

   We are a Green Printer!

   Did you know that Southside Print is a very green printer? We’re even attaining ISO 14001 accreditation. There are not many eco-friendly printers around who will also be able to turn around printing super-fast, so bear us in mind next time you require urgent printing that’s also produced in a sustainable way, using recycled or eco-friendly materials and green processes.

   We Can Print Virtually Anything

   Whether you require printed brochures, booklets, posters, annual reports, manuals, stationery, banners, exhibition displays, mailers, menus, newsletters or anything else, we can almost certainly print it.

   The Very Best Quality & Service

   Our quality and service levels are superb and you don’t even need to take our word for it — our full suite of 5 Star Trust Pilot ratings speak for themselves.

   Do You Need Urgent Printing?

   If you have an urgent printing requirement and are looking for a super-fast printer that’s also high quality, reliable, eco-friendly and competitively priced, please get in touch so that we can schedule your print job in.

2. Top Tips for Printing on a Budget

   24 January 2022 22:37 Leave a Comment

   Sometimes a printed sales or marketing job simply needs to be as economical as possible. The quality still needs to be high but, for whatever reason, the production budget is particularly tight this time. For example, maybe you’re a start-up with limited budget, or two years of the pandemic have knocked your business for six. Or, perhaps you’re exhibiting at a trade show, already spent most of your budget on the space and stand, and forgot to order printed marketing materials to hand out to prospects. Well, worry not — there are always ways to save money when buying print on a budget. Take a look …

   Go Thinner

   Have a think about the thickness of your paper or card. Does it really need to be that thick? Dropping from, say, 170gsm to 150gsm, 135gsm or even less will save you money and that saving could amount to a significant one, especially if you are producing a large print volume.

   Posting Your Print?

   If your printing is going to be posted, its thickness, size and weight are even doubly important. It would be tragic if your printed item was just a fraction over Royal Mail’s size and weight threshold, forcing you into the next price band. For example, if your printed piece is too large for standard First Class mail and sneaks into the ‘Large Letter’ band, sending just 500 out to prospects will cost you around £220 more in postage than it would otherwise have done. That’s not even allowing for additional costs like larger envelopes. So, some careful pre-planning of size, shape and paper weight can save significant money on postage when you get it right.

   Ditch the Fancy Finishes

   Do you really need that lamination? Or the rounded corners? Or the integral pocket for inserts? Eliminating luxuries at a time of need will save you money, for sure. It’ll also speed up production and that might also be critical if this print job has been left to the last minute.

   Paper Finishes

   Textured paper will almost always be more expensive than untextured. So, if you’re on a budget, forget laid paper, watercolour paper textures, onion skin textured paper and the like — it’s likely to add a significant amount to production costs. So, keep it simple when budgets are slim.

   Going a step further, there is even a huge variety of untextured papers. Trendy uncoated (or ‘offset’) papers look organic and fresh, but they’re likely to cost quite a bit more money than more standard coated papers, which are produced in higher volumes at paper mills. In other words, the more ‘run-of-the-mill’ papers will help to save you money.

   Branded vs. Unbranded

   Do you really need to use that paper brand? There really are some lovely branded papers and cards out there, but when budgets are tight, any good commercial printer will be able to steer you towards a non-branded stock that could be a fraction of the price, but look every bit as good as the big brands.

   Size & Format Considerations

   Keep an eye on paper size/format to avoid paper wastage. What do we mean? Well, printing based on ‘A’ sizes (A4 and A5 etc.) will generally be cheaper to produce than bespoke sizes. That’s because there is less wasted paper/card produced when printers use the most commonly available paper sizes. So, perhaps that square brochure is not such a good idea if you are on a tight printing budget.

   Brochure Binding

   If your brochure or catalogue needs to be bound because it’s multi-page, consider the binding mechanism carefully. A folded brochure (e.g. 4 pager, multi-page ‘roll’ fold or even a ‘map’ fold) will generally be cheaper to produce than something that needs a separate binding stage. Even saddle-stitching (essentially stapling) will save money compared to wiro binding, velo binding, perfect binding and so on.

   Ganging up

   ‘Ganging up’ is a great way to save money on print. The term refers to printing several jobs at the same time, on the same sheet. In this way, less printing passes (and, in the old days, less printing plates) are required because jobs are printed simultaneously. Once the large, multi-job, sheet is printed, it can then be cut down into it’s separate elements. An example would be A4 four-page brochures being produced at the same time as, say, A4 and/or A5 leaflets, all printed simultaneously on an SRA2 or SRA1 sheet. Some simple mathematics will be required to work out how many copies are produced of each, but ganging up certainly saves money when the maths and volumes work out nicely.

   Top tip: Ask us for advice!

   Photography & Illustration

   If your brochure, leaflet or mini-catalogue requires photography or illustrations, there are potential ways to save money there too. Decent photographers and illustrators are expensive, to be frank. However, there are many ‘royalty-free’ image libraries that can offer high quality stock photos and illustrations for just a few pounds each. Adobe Stock, for example. They have literally millions of photos and images to choose from and you can even pay-as-you-go rather than having to sign up for anything long term.

   Perhaps you need bespoke product/pack shots, though? These days, with ‘photo light tent’ kits available for less than £100 online and handheld mobile phones offering ample sharpness and resolution, it’s possible to get professional-looking pack shots produced entirely on a D.I.Y. basis. All on a low budget.

   Print Management

   Professional print management should also save you money. If someone like Southside Print manages all your print, for the entire year, then savings can be made. That’s through a combination of things like ganging up, using print-on-demand so nothing goes to waste, and delivering several jobs at the same time to save on delivery costs. Going local also helps with delivery (if you’re in or near to the London SE1 area, our printing services are close by).

   Multi-use & Reusable Print

   Make your print multi-use. For example, perhaps you have a mini catalogue as well as a brochure. Well, combining the two into one printed document could save you money on production.

   Similarly, making your printing reusable will also mean you don’t have to keep reprinting. For example, display graphics, laminated print collateral and banners can all be reused. Storing carefully will also extend their shelf lives.

   Choose Your Printer Carefully

   Choose your printer carefully. With Southside Print you will come to know that we are always competitively priced. What’s more, even when we print on a budget, our printing quality is superb and it’s also fast. Take a look at our 5 star Trust Pilot reviews and 5 star Google reviews and you’ll soon see this for yourself.

   DIY Design & Artwork

   If you know what you are doing, have a good eye for design and have the right (professional) software, you could consider producing your design and artwork entirely in-house. That’ll save you from spending out on professional design externally. However, it’s a tricky one because a poorly executed design can be a false economy. If the look, design and feel of your printed piece looks poorly executed, unattractive and confusing in terms of communicating your sales or marketing proposition, then it doesn’t matter how well it’s printed or how cheap it was to produce. Indeed, it could end up being a waste of time and money if the design and messaging is wrong. So, we suggest that the design of your printed piece is perhaps one area that you should not scrimp on even when budgets are tight. That’s unless, of course, you can ensure it’s going to look professional, clear in terms of message and technically correct using any in-house capabilities. If not, Southside Print offers a professional design and artwork service and we’re here if you need us.

   It’s all a Balance

   It’s all a balance, of course. You don’t want your sales and marketing collateral to do your product or service a disservice, so exactly where and how you save money needs careful consideration.

   Competitively-Priced, High Quality Printers & Designers in London SE1

   Southside Print can help with advice, of course, and our advice is totally free. We are a digital printer, large format printer and offer a complete range of print-related services near London Bridge. Print and design quotations are also free so, if you would like to request a free quote, have any questions or need advice, please get in contact and we’ll be happy to help.

3. Using Print to Support E-Commerce

   22 October 2021 23:00 Leave a Comment

   Does your company or organisation have an online shop? If so, are you making the most of it from a marketing perspective? Does the online shop feature cross-sells, up-sells, recently viewed products, wish lists, live chat and a simple e-news sign-up to build a re-marketing list? Does it have voucher code functionality, a customer review facility, a decent user experience and an easy-to-accomplish check-out and payment facility? These are all the kind of things any decent e-commerce store should have if you are to get the most from your online shop.

   How About Offline?

   If you’re not using printing to support your e-commerce store, you are missing a trick. Printing, combined with your e-commerce operation, can make a huge difference to your success. We’ll explain how and why …

   Example:

   You receive an online order for a product. You dispatch it the same day with a packing slip and an automatically-generated email confirmation. It arrives the next day.

   Perfect surely?

   Well, not really. The speed and efficiency of your fulfilment offering is impressive, for sure. However, you have missed many golden opportunities if that’s all you do when dispatching online orders to customers. Take a look …

   How to Make the Most out of Online Orders Using Print

   1. Printed Branding

   Firstly, think about brand recognition. A good, well-recognised brand is worth its weight in gold if you get it right. Thinks of Virgin, Ted Baker, Apple and even an organisation like The National Trust. Each has a brand that’s instantly recognisable. You could put their logo on almost anything and it would instantly make that product more desirable. So, the lesson here is to ensure that your brand looks great in the first place (our talented graphic designers can help with that), but also that it’s presented to best effect on everything the customer sees when they receive their order. The packaging should be well-designed and showcase your brand. So should the packing slip; labels too. That’ll all help with brand recognition. Keep doing that and your brand should become more and more popular and valuable over time.

   2. Cross-Selling, Up-Selling & Repeat-Selling Through Print

   As well as the nifty packaging and attractive paperwork, ensure you give your customer every opportunity to remember your e-commerce shop and brand. You can do this through the inclusion of a variety of printed materials:

   • Include 2 or 3 attractive business cards or postcards for your customer to keep for future use. These are something that’s easy and compact for them to keep, ready to remind them to visit your store again in the future. Including more than one also gives them the opportunity to pass one on to a friend or relative (that’s free marketing for you).
   • Take this a step further by including a compact but beautifully designed brochure about your brand or product(s). What’s the history? Is there a U.S.P. — something unique about your product or brand that sets it apart? What is the mission or ethos of the company? If it’s green make sure you tell your audience in the copy. Make your brand relevant, and the message and presentation engaging, and your customers will buy into it.
   • Top Tip: One immensely worthwhile item to include with orders is a catalogue or mini catalogue. These are a great way to showcase additional products that the customer might have overlooked online. Such marketing pieces can include nicely shot product photos and descriptions along with quick/short links for online purchase — or order forms for offline ordering. As well as encouraging sales, printed mini-catalogues are also a great way to sell off discontinued products that are still in stock, or sale items that you’re keen to clear.
   • Include a discount voucher or code, to encourage them to make another purchase. Even better, make it time-sensitive, so they’re spurred on to act (i.e. buy again) without delay.
   • Include a printed ‘refer a friend’ offer of some kind. This could be printed on any of the above but might be easier to notice if it’s a on separate card, simple leaflet or coupon. It’ll stand more chance of success if there’s some sort of incentive for both the customer and the friend they are referring, so have a think about what you could offer each.
   • Printed loyalty cards are also a good thing to send with orders, especially if you also offer a service. They are yet another way to keep customers coming back again and again to buy more!

   Including printed items like these, with every online order, is a great way to remind your customers about your brand and products. It’s also a way to help customers ‘buy into’ the brand, feel part of it, and for the business to become much more tangible and real. After all, there is a real bricks and mortar business, with real people, behind most online shops. Printed collateral like this will help your offering stand out from the crowd and become memorable. At the end of the day, that means repeat business, more profit, and a likely increase to your business’s value as it grows. What’s more, before you know it, you’ll have both an online store and be supporting it with a parallel mail-order business. One shop suddenly became two in effect, with only modest extra cost and effort. Don’t forget to take that a step further, too, by bringing in all the relevant social media channels. Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, for example, are brilliant for lifestyle type product marketing, without it looking too ‘salesy’.

   Printers in London Bridge, SE1

   If you are looking for high quality, reliable printers in London Bridge, please do get in touch. Our print shop is located in Tabard Street, close to Borough High Street, just a short distance from London Bridge station. We supply digital printing, large format printing and we’re also a very green printer. Quotes are free, so please do get in touch for more information.

4. Sustainable Printing for the Environmentally Conscious

   23 June 2021 22:49 Leave a Comment

   If you are an environmentally conscious individual or represent a business or organisation that is, Southside Print can help by providing environmentally-friendly printing. More and more people are rightly concerned about the impact that their buying choices have on the environment. With temperatures and sea levels across the world rising, long-frozen ice caps melting and the world’s biodiversity under enormous threat, it’s becoming increasingly important to make good choices about where and how products and services are produced. Indeed, many companies and organisations across the globe now have sustainability policies in place to ensure that they are sourcing services and products only from environmentally-responsible, sustainable sources. That includes, of course, paper-based products and printing services. Well, at Southside Print, we supply sustainably-produced printed products for many environmentally aware clients including individuals, charities, green businesses, certified B Corporations (B Lab/B Corp) and so on. Our ‘green’ printing is perfect for anything from brochures, leaflets, annual reports and posters to large format printing, banners and letterheads — and much more.

   Sustainable Printing at Southside Print

   • All paper used at Southside Print is FSC accredited (more about that below).
   • It’s also at least 20%-30% recycled.
   • Customers have a wide choice of sustainable papers, card and board to choose from, including 100% recycled options and even some eco-friendly paper stocks that contain no wood pulp at all.
   • We recycle all paper and card off-cuts, whenever it’s possible, throughout the year.
   • We use only the most energy-efficient printing and finishing machinery and technologies.
   • Our printing is fully digital, meaning we don’t use nasty chemicals in our print processes.
   • Even our website is hosted on green servers, which use energy from renewable sources and the most energy-efficient server technologies, resulting in minimal CO₂ emissions.
   • When delivering finished print orders around London, we even use ‘green’ couriers whenever possible.

   FSC Accreditation

   We mentioned that all our paper is FSC accredited. This means that our papers, cards and boards are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as containing wood or pulp from responsibly managed forests and/or from recycled post-consumer waste. That’s important to us and our many environmentally aware clients.

   Paper — The Eco Facts

   Some studies suggest that there are misconceptions, particularly amongst young adults, around sustainability in the printing and paper industry. The truth, however, is very positive and, indeed, the paper industry is one of the few that is genuinely and inherently sustainable.

   “The paper industry is one of the few that is genuinely and inherently sustainable.”

   • Over 12½ million tonnes of paper are used in the UK every year. About 80% of that is recycled, which is incredible when you think about it.
   • About 57½ million tonnes of paper per year is recycled in Europe [2019 data], with up to 78% of it being recycled there.
   • European forests are actually growing rather than shrinking. In the last 15 years or so, they have grown by more than the equivalent of the land mass of Switzerland — that’s a growth rate of about 1,500 football pitches every day.
   • Paper can only be recycled 5 to 7 times before the fibres become unsuitable in the production of ‘new’ paper, so the role of new wood fibre/pulp from the FSC managed forests is essential.
   • The biggest use of wood from the world’s forests is for fuel (logs etc.) — that accounts for 50%. Meanwhile, 30% of timber is used in the manufacture of more industrial products like furniture or in construction. Only about 13% of the world’s wood is used in the manufacture of paper.
   • Printed paper products are one of the lowest greenhouse gas emitters in today’s world of electronic communications. In fact, they produce just a tiny fraction of what is produced by the ICT industry itself.
   • Over 60% of forests in the EU are FSC certified (or PEFC equivalent), with over 42% of Europe being covered by them. (PEFC is similar to the FSC, with both independently verifying that wood fibre used in paper production has been sourced from sustainably managed forests).
   • 71% of wood and 83% of pulp purchased in Europe for paper production is either FSC or PEFC accredited.

   For more details about the incredible sustainability of paper and printed products, download an excellent 26 page report by the organisation Two Sides.

   “From newspapers to magazines, from photocopies to leaflets, we believe Print and Paper cannot be beaten for attractiveness, impact and sustainability.”

   Your Eco-friendly Printing Supplier

   So if, like us, you believe that sustainable, eco-friendly choices are crucially important, then Southside Print can help with all your printing requirements. We’re a high quality printer in Borough, London SE1, near London Bridge, but we can supply anyone, anywhere. We care deeply for the environment and are keen to do everything we can to help others improve their ‘triple bottom line’ (social, environmental and financial) whilst also playing our own crucial part to help Planet Earth. Please do consider us if you would like to produce environmentally-friendly printing materials for your sales, marketing, corporate or private needs. Choose an appropriate button below to make contact and we’ll be happy to help.

5. Printers in Borough, London SE1

   14 October 2019 10:49 Leave a Comment

   We are printers in Borough, right in the heart of London SE1. Based in Tabard Street, Southside Print offers high quality printing to individuals, businesses, shops, charities and organisations across the Borough & SE1 region. So, whether you’re a resident who needs personal stationery, a cafe that needs printed menus, a pub that needs posters to promote gigs, an SE1 charity that needs fundraising literature, a shop that needs printed booklets or catalogues or one of the many businesses in the Borough that requires sales and marketing collateral, we can help. We’ll print everything for you at the highest quality, for a competitive price. What’s more, our turnaround times are hard to beat and we offer free local delivery and a click and collect service for those close by.

   Further afield?

   Perhaps you’re a little bit outside the Borough region. No problem! We print for companies and organisations everywhere in the UK and abroad and even have a web print shop where anyone in the world can order popular items like stationery, posters, brochures, leaflets and bound documents 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Simply choose your desired options, submit your payment and we’ll take care of the rest. And don’t forget that ‘click and collect’ service for local customers.

   What can we print?

   We can print pretty much anything you can think of! For example, brochures, catalogues, letterheads, business cards, compliments slips, NCR (multi-part) order pads, menus, posters, display graphics, exhibition panels, signs, newsletters, annual reports, leaflets, flyers, booklets, brochures, labels, stickers, wedding invites, postcards and a whole host of other printed items. In fact, if it’s produced by printing ink on paper, chances are we can supply it.

   The Borough

   

   The Borough is an extremely cosmopolitan community, with a really good buzz about it. You have Borough Market right at its heart and there you can pick up anything from gifts to fruit, vegetables, street food from around the world, the finest delicacies and much more. Pubs, restaurants, cafes and other eateries abound and throughout the Borough you have a huge abundance of shops including independent traders and high street brands all competing for the attention of shoppers. All these businesses and traders need to be at the top of their game to attract passers by so it’s important that they get their message across in window displays, inside and on their printed promotional literature. Many of them also hand out flyers in the SE1 streets. We can help with all of that not only by producing the finest print, but also by making it look a million dollars in the first place, courtesy of our in-house graphic designers. That’s where we can make a real difference in your ROI (return on investment) to ensure that you communicate your service or product USPs (unique selling propositions) and key messages clearly to your prospects. That’s how you are most likely to turn them into paying customers. Supplying your own artwork? That’s OK too – we’ll simply check your artwork files and let you know if we spot any issues. We can also supply printed proofs, of course, so you can check how things look before committing to the full print run.

   Are you a business owner in the Borough who needs the best local printer?

   Well, you have just found the best printer in the region, in our opinion and our great Google reviews seem to agree. Call us on 020 7378 6754 or send us a message here and we’ll be delighted to discuss your printing and/or design requirements, without obligation. You can request a print quotation online here or, if you’re ready to proceed, upload your artwork here and let us take care of the rest. We’re 2 minutes from Borough Tube and just a ten minute walk from London Bridge station. Find our location here if you would like to visit for a one-to-one chat – it would be great to meet you.

   ========

   Image credits: All images are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
   Main image: Borough High Street by IIya Kuzhekin.
   Blue plaque by Spudgun67.
   Grand entrance to Borough Market by Garry Knight.
   Shops in The Borough by Øyvind Holmstad.

6. The Value of Great Graphic Design

   13 December 2018 18:06 Leave a Comment

   Never underestimate the power of graphic design. It has the power to either make or break your sales and marketing efforts. Too many people dismiss design as an unnecessary expense but, in reality, it is incredibly important to your bottom line. As such, it deserves an adequate allowance of both time and budget otherwise you risk wasting both those precious commodities entirely. In this post, we’ll explain why skimping on your graphic design budget may represent a fool’s economy. Not convinced? Read on …

   Think about it for a moment: what is the single most important thing that world-dominating companies like Apple have at their core? Answer: excellent design. Without that, their products would simply be buried in an ocean that’s littered with hundreds of mediocre products. Excellent design lifts them high above the competition and also makes their products desirable. And once converted, famously few Apple customers ever go back.

   It’s the same for printed sales and marketing pieces, adverts and packaging. Looking mediocre is a sure fire way for your promotional efforts to be completely overlooked in the ‘din’ of other mediocre efforts that compete in your marketplace. Excellent design, in contrast, will both attract and entice your potential audience so they notice and desire your product or service, not those of your competitor. Yet so many companies miss this simple opportunity by seeing design as an unnecessary expense rather than the incredibly powerful marketing tool that it is!

   Let’s break down the main components of graphic design …

   Good Design = Good Communication

   Graphic design is about much more than how your sales and marketing pieces look. Good graphic design primarily has great communication at its heart. It’s all very well if your leaflet, brochure, poster or packaging looks attractive, but that’s no good to anyone if they don’t understand, in an instant, what it’s all about and what is on offer. So, one of the first considerations of any good graphic designer is to identify what the core message is and then to communicate that message prominently to the prospective audience. A good graphic designer will also pick out any secondary and subsequent message elements, making sure that each is communicated with the appropriate weighting in the sales or marketing piece. Using this hierarchical approach to the prominence of elements and messages will mean that the prospective customer knows where to look first and thereby learn quickly what is being offered and why.

   Good graphic design primarily has great communication at its heart.

   Features & Benefits

   Once the product or service being offered has been made clear, another job of a good graphic designer is to make sure that the features and benefits of the product or service are also clearly communicated to those taking a closer look. Features are no good alone, of course; the prospect needs to know how those features will benefit them — so don’t forget to include your product or service’s benefits in the printed text.

   Looking Good

   Then, of course, the printed communication needs to look eye-catching and attractive. The right graphical and typographical styles, photos and/or illustrations need to be presented in such a way that they catch the eye, communicate all the right messages as outlined above, all in a pleasing way. The ‘tone’ of the design also needs to be right. If your product or service is a luxury one, then the design and printed output needs to ooze quality. If your product or service is an inexpensive bargain, then the designer needs to pitch the design just right so that it looks high quality overall but does not look or feel too expensive. This fine balance is all part of the job of a good graphic designer.

   Feeling Good

   Part of that balance is, of course, the paper, card and print processes used in the final printing. Some printed items look better on textured papers and cards, others work better on uncoated stock and still others might look best on standard paper with, say, a matt lamination. There are many paper options and many finishing options to choose from, so good graphic designers will also be able to advise on what might work best for your particular product or service — and production budget. The optimum result will be a printed item that both looks and feels good, without breaking the bank.

   It’s All a Waste without a CTA

   Once all of the above has been considered, then you’re well on your way to ‘converting’ your prospect’s interest into an actual sale. However, there’s one more thing that needs to be included. Remember to communicate what the prospect needs to do next. So, great graphic designers will also ensure that there is a section on the printed sales or marketing piece that encourages the onlooker to do something, e.g. to contact you, the supplier, or to fill in an order form, or to visit a website or other location where the product or service can be purchased. Without that Call to Action (‘CTA’), the entire process has been a wasted opportunity.

   A Balancing Act

   So, great design for printed promotional literature is a fine balancing act on the part of the graphic designer and any copywriter involved. Indeed, more often than not, a good graphic designer may identify areas where the copy needs to be fine-tuned a little once the design stage has commenced and all the elements have begun to be placed into position.

   Professional Graphic Design Help in London SE1

   If your company or organisation does not have in-house design and artwork capabilities, then we have a high quality, affordable solution for you. Southside Print has in-house graphic designers who produce high quality design and artwork day in, day out for our clients. It’s a core part of what we do here at Southside Print, along with printing of course. We don’t mind whether you have a clear visual and completed text at the ready, or come in with just a rough sketch and a few notes about what you’re looking to achieve. Either way, our designers will work their magic and turn your ideas into a work of art — and a great communication tool to boot. Alternatively, you may produce the design and finished artwork entirely yourself — and that’s fine too. If it’s print-ready, your artwork file can be uploaded to our systems here.

   For professional graphic design help, call us on 020 7378 6754 or contact us here and we’ll be delighted to help. You can also request a design and/or printing quotation here, without pressure or obligation. If you live or work in London Bridge, Borough or the SE1 region of south east London, you are welcome to drop in to discuss your next design and/or printing project with us. We’re at 27 Tabard Street, not far from the junction of the A2 and A2198.

7. The Benefits of Printed Newsletters

   16 October 2018 10:29 Leave a Comment

   Newsletters are simple and inexpensive to print yet can convey an enormous amount of important information to recipients. This makes them ideal for both ‘internal’ marketing (to keep staff and stakeholders up to date) and external marketing of your products or services to clients and prospects. As such, they constitute a very useful and versatile component of any sales and marketing strategy.

   Benefits of Physical Newsletters vs. Electronic

   Another key benefit of physical, printed newsletters is that they are easy to pick up and put down at any time. This allows readers to dip in and dip out of articles whenever they like. Compare that to e-newsletters, which tend to be forgotten the moment they’ve been buried in your in box by more recent emails. The traditional newsletter beats electronic versions hands down in this respect.

   Printed newsletters are also far more versatile from the distribution perspective. While e-newsletters arrive only at your handheld device or desktop computer, physical newsletters can find themselves in front of their target audience in a much wider variety of ways. They can be handed out, mailed through the post, left on coffee tables, offered to visitors via company foyers, reception desks and waiting rooms, handed out with other sales and marketing literature like brochures and price lists, used as inserts in other publications and distributions — and so on. Physical newsletters also require no Wi-Fi or data signal to work, so can be perused pretty much anywhere, any time. Try doing all that with an electronic e-newsletter — it’s simply not possible!

   Add-ons

   Physical, printed newsletters also lend themselves to additional add-ons. These include things like tear-off order forms that people might find useful if they want to order your products or services and those can even come with pressure-sensitive glue and postage pre-applied. All that needs to be done after filling in the form is for the page to be folded so it sticks together in a kind of pre-built envelope, ready to post. Other add-ons include coupons for special offers or voucher codes that the customer can use in-store or via a website. Another great thing to build into a printed newsletter is an element that the recipient might find useful to keep, for example an integral poster, calendar of events or table of key dates for the year ahead. That’ll be a useful reminder of your brand, product or service, all year round.

   Newsletter Sizes & Formats

   The most cost-effective sizing recommended for newsletter printing is to use one of the ‘A’ sizes. For example, A4 is the most common one used in the UK commercial world. However, A5 and A3 are also feasible while still making the very most out of standard sheet sizes available to printers like us. It goes without saying, though, that there are many other options including square newsletters, triple-page ‘roll fold’ newsletters and so on.

   We can, of course, also fold newsletters in half so they’re easier and cheaper to post out, particularly if they don’t contain too many pages and are on paper that’s thin enough to fold when there are multiple pages. It’s a fine balance, though; as one wouldn’t want to make the pages too thin, otherwise you’d start to see what we call ‘show through’ i.e. the ghost of the reverse side of the printed page slightly showing through to the front face that’s being read. There are a great variety of paper thicknesses, weights and finishes to choose from, though, so just ask us about the options.

   Paper Finish

   At Southside Print we offer a very wide range of different paper stocks for your printed newsletters. We have traditional ‘coated’ papers, which allow graphics and photos to be detailed and punchy. Coated stocks come in finishes like gloss, satin and matt and can be white or tinted in colour. We also have uncoated papers that look perhaps more contemporary and natural, with a lighter look because ink contrast is lower on uncoated paper due to the way the paper absorbs the ink. We also have a huge variety of textured papers and recycled stocks too. What you choose will all depend upon the look and feel you’re going for and the budget you have in mind for production.

   Contact Your Newsletter Printer in SE1

   We are always more than happy to give you professional guidance, pricing options and any samples. Simply call us on 020 7378 6754 or send us an emailed message here. We also have an online form that you can fill in if you’d like a printing and/or design quote, and an artwork upload form here if you have large artwork files that you’d like to send us electronically.

   Southside Print is a commercial printer based in Tabard Street in London SE1, close to Borough and London Bridge stations. We offer a huge range of digital printing for sales and marketing purposes, large format printing for posters, displays and exhibition graphics, a full print management service, a direct mail service, a graphic design service and an online print shop where you can order and pay for printing online. The online print shop currently accepts orders for business cards, leaflets, letterheads, compliments slips, stationery, brochures and posters but we will be adding more and more products all the time.

8. ‘Click & Collect’ Printing in London SE1

   22 August 2018 12:20 Leave a Comment

   As we said in our last post, one of the great things about our new online print shop is the ability to order and pay for your printing 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. So, even if it’s the weekend, a Bank Holiday, Christmas Day or 3am in the morning, you can still order your printing without needing to leave your home or office. Of course, you can also order on the go from your mobile device.  Either way, you can then tick one more thing off your ‘to do’ list, safe in the knowledge that your job is now already heading into production.

   What’s even better, though, is that companies and organisations close to London Bridge, Borough and SE1 can ‘Click & Collect’. There are several benefits:

   ‘Click & Collect’ is Convenient

   When ordering online, simply select ‘Collect in store’ in the Delivery section and then you can collect your printing from our London SE1 shop as soon as it’s ready. Collect at any time during our office hours (9am to 5.30pm week days) or call us to see if we’re likely to be around outside of those hours. Click & Collect means you don’t need to wait in for a delivery and also your printing is going to be as fresh as the moment it came off the printing press.

   Click & Collect is Faster

   Another huge benefit of Click & Collect is that you can usually get your printing a day sooner than is possible with the ‘delivered’ option.

   True 24/7 convenience for print ordering in London & SE1.

   Re-Order with a Couple of Clicks

   Once you’ve ordered once from our new online print shop, you can log in at any time to see a record of current and historical orders. This makes re-ordering a breeze — simply find a previous order in your account and re-order it without having to start again from scratch. That’s both convenient and a great time-saver!

   Rescue Unfinished Orders

   Even incomplete orders are included in your order history! Let’s say you were running late for a meeting or were interrupted at the last minute so couldn’t complete your online order. No problem at all — as long as you were logged in when you began, simply log in again when you’re ready to resume and you’ll see your unfinished order right there in your free account. Simply click ‘View’ against the incomplete order concerned and take the final steps to finish it off. With just a click or two, it’ll be queued in our system and heading directly to production.

   Know When your Print will be Ready

   You’ll know when your order will be ready right away. On every print product order screen, it shows the date that your printing will be ready. In fact two dates are shown — a ‘collect by’ date and a ‘delivery by’ date. So, simply choose whether you would like to collect from the shop or whether you’d prefer to have your printing delivered to your door (usually one working day later than the collection option). Either way, the price is the same*.

   Online Printing – from Business Cards to Stationery, Leaflets & Posters

   Whether you opt for Free Delivery or Click & Collect, you can order an ever-growing selection of printed products. At time of writing, these include* business cards, stationery packs, letterheads, compliments slips, leaflets (folded or unfolded) and posters (A4 to A0 sizes). Coming soon to the online shop are brochures in a variety of formats (wiro-bound, saddle-stitched and perfect bound) and flyers. Take a look!

9. Direct Mail – The Golden Opportunity is NOW

   21 June 2018 13:03 Leave a Comment

   One of the biggest ramifications of the new GDPR legislation is that marketing departments are going to need to re-think the ways in which they contact prospects and customers. In view of this, we believe that there will be a significant increase in the use of direct mail in the coming months and years. In fact, an incredible marketing opportunity exists right now for those who act fast, ahead of the competition.

   Direct Mail

   In complete contrast to digital and online marketing, Direct Mail is a marketing approach that uses physical, printed promotional materials, which are posted to clients and prospects through the mail. Such marketing pieces can include anything from leaflets, postcards and newsletters to brochures, catalogues and even boxed samples. They can also include personalisation, for example showing the recipient’s name within the actual printed content, creating added impact.

   The key steps needed for a typical direct mail campaign include:

   • Developing a customer database and/or purchasing a mailing list of prospects;
   • Copywriting, designing and artworking the mailing piece itself;
   • Printing the mailing piece;
   • Stuffing envelopes, addressing or labelling and/or otherwise assembling the finished components of the mailer, as applicable;
   • Dispatching the direct mailer to the customers and prospects. This can be door-to-door or posted to individual addressees …

   Then crucially, of course, you need to be ready to handle any responses when they come in. Analysing the results is also extremely worthwhile so that you can learn from the data and improve things in your next direct mail campaign.

   Professional Help

   Southside Print can help with many of the steps above. Once you’ve supplied us with your mailing list or database, we can turn that into printed labels or, indeed, use a kind of ‘mail merge’ process to personalise envelopes or the direct mail pieces themselves, so that they’re ready to pop straight into the postal system.

   With our own in-house graphic designers, we can also make sure that the design and artwork of your marketing piece really looks the business and conveys your promotional message in the best possible way. Clearly and speedily communicating the right message is, after all, just as important as snazzy graphics.

   Southside Print are primarily commercial printers, so we can ensure that your printing looks attractive and professional and uses the most appropriate materials, finishes and weights. The weight of your direct marketing piece is crucially important, in fact. Should too heavy a paper or card weight be used, then you might find that your postage costs suddenly escalate. This factor requires careful consideration in terms of not only the thickness and weight of the paper, but also the size. Being a millimetre or gram over a certain threshold can add extra postage costs. When you are sending thousands of direct mail pieces, even just a few extra pence of postage on each item can cost you a small fortune in extra charges, particularly if your recipient database is significantly large. Care needs to be taken and this is one of our great fortes at Southside Print.

   Response Rates

   So, what kind of response rate can you expect from a direct mail campaign? Well, it all depends upon factors like how closely suited your mailing list is to your product or service and how good your marketing ‘offer’ is in the first place. Also, of course, it depends upon whether you are mailing a ‘house’ list of existing customers (who will be more likely to respond) or an entirely new prospect mailing list, for example one supplied by a professional list provider.

   All in all, though, the traditional wisdom is that the average response rate from a direct mail campaign falls typically into the 1% to 5% range, with “an attractive cost per acquisition” according to the Direct Marketing Association (‘DMA’). According to a recent report by the DMA, direct mail significantly outperforms all digital channels, by a long shot. This may, indeed, become even more true now that the GDPR data rules have come into full play. ‘House’ lists usually glean a 5.3% response rate while ‘prospect’ lists typically result in a 2.9% response rate. In contrast to this, digital response rates are significantly lower in comparison (online display advertising 0.9%; email 0.3% [prospect list] to 0.6% [house list]; social media 0.6% and paid search 0.5%). Quite a difference! Cost per acquisition with Direct Mail was shown to be favourable too. However, direct mail was not an outright winner in this respect, being outperformed for that metric by email and social media marketing campaigns, which makes sense given the economy of using those platforms, at least until now — the fortunes of email marketing in particular may soon change now that the new GDPR legislation is in force. Indeed, recent reports from the Royal Mail and other direct marketing associations show that a combination of direct mail and email usually results in the very best results for sales and marketing promotions. So, it makes more sense than ever to integrate both into your marketing strategy.

   Direct Mail Formats

   Another DMA report showed some very interesting and useful data in respect of formats, with oversize envelopes coming in top position with a 5% response rate. Postcards came in second place with a response rate of 4.25%, ‘dimensional’ (non-flat) pieces achieved 4%, catalogues came in with a 3.9% response rate and standard sized (e.g. C4) envelopes achieved a 3.5% response rate.

   Overall, the report showed a 15-17% ROI which, in terms of marketing channels, is a strong return on investment for a standalone campaign.

   Your Biggest Direct Mail Opportunity is NOW

   The really good news is that your competitors are likely to have neglected direct mail in recent years, in favour of digital marketing. So, if you act before your competitors, break the trend and capitalise on the gap left by the recent GDPR legislation changes before your competitors do, you could see an ROI significantly higher than the report’s stated 15-17% range. It will be extremely interesting to see the results for Direct Mail in a year’s time, in fact.

   The re-birth of direct mail is, in effect, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that marketing departments should embrace before everyone climbs back on board! With direct mail having already increased in the last two or three years, even before the GDPR legislation came into force, the opportunity for really significant success is right now.

   Contact Southside Print

   Contact Southside Print in London Bridge for more information on how we can help you with design, printing and dispatch of your direct mail pieces. Call 020 7378 6754, request a quotation here or simply send us a message here and we’ll be happy to help you to make the most of this unique opportunity. Learn more about our direct mail services here.