Print to Add Polish to Nonprofit Fundraisers

Nonprofits of all sorts will soon be hosting the last outdoor fundraisers of the year, and just as soon they will be preparing for the events they host at the end of the year. When they’re planning their events, they should also be planning the print that adds a great finishing touch to their fundraisers. Here are our choices for the print pieces that will add profit to your customer’s next nonprofit fundraiser.

Posters
Are your customers trying to get the word out to a wider audience? Posters could be the best way to raise interest in their community events! And with a variety of quantities available, posters could also be a colorful addition to event promotion even in smaller communities.

Announcements and Postcards
Some of your customers’ events focus on previous donors or top donors, and announcements and postcards are a great way to add polish to those event invitations. Choose postcards for a more informal feel, or use announcements to make the occasion feel a little extra special.

Brochures, Rack Cards and Sales Sheets
Whether your customer wants to include them with a mailing or wants a piece to show donors what their gifts will be doing, informational pieces are an essential way to get the word out about the good work that they do. Brochures, rack cards, and sales sheets are classic pieces that can include text to show off essential statistics or photographs that highlight the people who benefit from a nonprofit’s work.

Event Tickets
If your customer is hosting a raffle or fundraising event, event tickets are essential! These tickets feature practical details like perforated ends for easy raffle use and numbering to make it easy to keep track of attendees. Even better, when your customer chooses full color print they can help make their nonprofit’s branding more memorable.

Folders
Whether it’s organizing instructions for volunteers, putting together forms and information for donors, or keeping documents organized afterward, branded folders are a good way to keep organized. As a bonus, using branded folders is a good way to add that extra touch of professional polish to every document.

Badges
Speaking of event volunteers, badges are a great way to show which people at your customer’s event are working and which are simply attending. Choose labels as temporary name tags for events with a lot of short-term volunteers, or consider window badges, chalk badges or erasable badges  for flexible badges that can be used at event after event.

Banners, Signs and Other Décor
Once your customers are actually at their event, indoors or out, it’s time to personalize the space. Banners are a great fit for events indoors or out, adding a splash of color in your customer’s choice of a variety of styles. Freestanding a-frame signage can guide attendees through buildings, personalize stages and accent sidewalks outside outdoor event venues.

Do you work with customers in the nonprofit sector? Which print products are their favorites? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

Good, Better, Best: Forms and Personalization

A personalized form offers your customers a variety of benefits: brand recognition, tailor-made information, the ideal size, and more. However, your customer’s form choice has a big impact on their opportunity to personalize their forms, and some forms offer more personalization potential than others. If your customer is looking for the opportunity to create something perfect for their business, this is your guide to the options they can explore!

Good: Personalized Formatted Forms
When your customer wants just a bit of personalization, formatted forms are ready-made for a variety of different uses. Register forms, receipts, purchase order forms, and sales order forms are all flexible options that many customers can use. Repair and road service forms are more specialized.

And, while we say this option is good, it might be the best option for your customer—it depends on what precisely they need. Formatted forms allow your customers to include text to personalize their forms with information like their company name, address, and phone number. When your customer wants a simple form that simplifies the design process, these could be the forms for them.

Better: 1-Color Custom Forms
If your customer is looking for more control over the content of their forms, 1-color custom forms are a great option. These forms are printed in black ink and offer your customer the ability to design their form from scratch, so unlike formatted forms your customer can choose which information to include and which information isn’t relevant. They can choose the size of form that works best and the number of parts they want on each form.

Custom forms are also available in a wide variety of quantities. For your smaller customers, quantities as low as 250 are available. For larger customers, quantities of 2500 are available in our standard offering, and you can contact us for quotes on larger orders.

But there’s one type of form that offers even more personalization potential…

Best: Full Color Custom Forms
Custom full color forms offer your customers the peak of personalization potential. Not only do these forms offer them the opportunity to design their form from the ground up, they also allow for a wider variety of colors and imagery. Full color gives your customers the chance to personalize their forms with their brand colors, full color logos, or images of their products. They can use this versatility to boost their brand, highlight new products, and more.

Which forms are your customers favorites? Do they love the ease of a formatted form, or do they prefer custom forms? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

5 Direct Mail Statistics Your Customers Should Know

a personalized printed direct mail envelope in a mailbox surrounded with icons representing statisticsWith every year, your customer has more and more options for their marketing campaigns. Email, print ads, television ads, digital ads, and direct mail all compete for their time and budgets. However, direct mail is an essential tool for their marketing campaigns, and the statistics prove it. Here are five direct mail statistics that your customers should know!

1. 90% of Millennials Think Direct Mail Advertising is Reliable
Millennials might be a digital generation, but they definitely value the information they receive in the mail! Not only do 90% of them think that direct mail advertising is reliable, more than half of consumers in this age group have made purchases based on direct mail offers. 50% of millennials surveyed also ignore digital ads, compared to only 15% of millennials saying they ignore direct mail. You can learn more about how this age group responds to print in this whitepaper from the US Postal Service.

2. Adding a Person’s Name and Full Color in Direct Mail Can Increase Response By 135%
According to Canon Solutions America, personalization and color can make a huge impact on the effectiveness of a campaign. And no wonder—we all love the feeling of receiving a personalized piece, and full color print can help your customer’s postcard catch consumer attention among plain white envelopes.

3. Direct Mail With Digital Ads Yield 28% Higher Conversion Rate
Direct mail pieces don’t have to work on their own—in fact, according to NonProfit PRO, when your customer pairs their digital ads with direct mail, both are more effective! This makes direct mail and digital ads a great team, and it also makes a direct mail piece an important way to boost the effectiveness of your customer’s digital ad.

4. 18.4% of Former Customers Respond to Direct Mail
If your customers are looking for a way to bring back customers who haven’t done business with them in some time, direct mail is a great way to get them to respond. According to the US Postal Service, direct mail will bring nearly 1/5 of former customers back to give your customer’s business another look.

5. Oversized Envelopes Attract 6.6% of Household Responses
According to the DMA, oversized envelopes have the greatest household response rates over other mediums. Their impressive 6.6% of household responses is followed by postcards at 5.7% and letter-sized envelopes at 4.3%.

Are your customers ready to start building their direct mail campaign? We’re here to help. With a wide variety of postcards available and more arriving soon, your customer can create an extraordinary direct mail piece that is sure to gain attention in the mailbox. Click here to explore the selection of postcards available online, or check out our catalog for more information.

Were any of these statistics a surprise to you? Do you think there are any statistics that we missed? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

The Anatomy of an Event Ticket

Have your customers taken a closer look at their print? While it can be easy to think of their print pieces as a simple piece of paper, the details of their print piece are essential to creating a great print piece. This is especially true of event tickets. That’s why we’re breaking down the details of an event ticket and what makes tickets a great tool for your customer!

The Stock: Stylish Color or Brilliant White
The foundation of great print is a great stock, and event tickets start with a white stock that provides a great foundation for vibrant full color print. Your customer can also choose white, yellow, or blue stock for a spot color event ticket to add a bit more color to a simple and readable design.

And speaking of print…

The Print: Perfectly Suited to Any Event
Full color print is a great choice for event tickets. It can be used to coordinate tickets with event décor, highlight your customer’s branding, or show off a relevant photograph. Not only does this make the event ticket more visually interesting, it also gives your customer a chance to create an exciting look for their event. That can be a great way to build buzz for fundraisers or community events long before the day arrives.

And if your customer wants to keep things simple, we have an option for that, too! Spot color print is readable, and your customer can choose from three different stock options that are a great fit for raffles, community events, and more.

The Cut: Conveniently Sized With a Perforated End
One of the details that your customers should pay close attention to is the perforated end of their event tickets! A perforated end makes it easy to divide raffle tickets from matching stubs or to show that drink or game tickets have been redeemed.

The Numbering: A Practical Addition
Whether your customer wants to keep track of the tickets sold for an event or needs conveniently numbered raffle tickets for a fundraiser, numbering is a useful addition to any event ticket. If you want numbered tickets from Navitor, we offer this practical addition to your customers’ event tickets through our catalog.

The Order: Online or Catalog
Are you ready to place an order for your customer’s event tickets? Choose the ordering option that works best for you! Event tickets are just a click away on the Navitor.com online ordering tool, or you can order them through our catalog. Our online ordering tool includes options like instant proofing and simplified reorders, while ordering through our catalog allows your customer to choose additional options like numbering.

What details do you think are most important to creating a great event ticket? What do your customers love most about their event tickets? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

Door Hangers are Perfect for These 5 Markets

When your customers are thinking about their print order, door hangers might not be the first thing they think of—but they should! Door hangers are a perfect fit for a wide variety of different markets, from hospitality to education. Here are five of our picks.

1. Hospitality
When you and your customers think of door hangers for the hospitality market, you probably think first of a “do not disturb” sign, but that is only the beginning of the possibilities! Whichever option your customer in the hospitality market chooses, flexible full color print allows them to match the print piece to your customer’s brand and décor.

Door hangers can be used to create practical room service menus that can be filled out and left on the door to order breakfast. They can be used in a bed and breakfast to let guests know what the next day’s schedule will be. They can be hung on bathroom doors to tell hotel guests where to put towels they intend to reuse. They can be left on doors to say that a room has been cleaned—and, for an added personal touch, your customer can feature which member of their staff prepared the room for the next day.

2. Political
When your customer’s political campaign is planning a door-knocking campaign, they should always have a leave-behind for when a voter isn’t home. That’s where door hangers come in! Not only are they a great way to give high level information about a candidate’s position on key issues, but full color print makes it easy to include necessary personal touches like a photograph of the candidate or the colors for their campaign.

3. Lawn Care
Whether your customer is working on a marketing campaign or wants an additional touch point for lawn care services done while homeowners are away or while businesses are not open, door hangers are an excellent option. For marketing campaigns, they can be a great leave-behind when visiting neighborhood houses. They are also a great touch point if lawn care services have been done on a weekend or while homeowners are away—personalized with your customer’s brand, they’ll add a polished finishing touch to the work done.

4. Car Dealerships
Your customer might not think of a door hanger as an essential for a car dealership, but it can be! Door hangers can easily be hung from rear view mirrors to convey essential information about a car and to add a branded look to the showroom floor.

5. Education
Testing at any level of schooling can be a challenge, but door hangers can make the process run more smoothly. Whether your customer works in school administration or produces standardized tests, door hangers can be a good way to prevent interruptions during essential testing times.

Are there other markets that should look into door hangers? What do you recommend? We’d love to see your advice in the comments below.

Bringing in a Heavyweight: Navigating Paper Weight and Thickness

When your customer is creating a print piece, often their stock choices are one of the biggest factors in how that project fits into their budget. With stocks labeled with both points and pounds, though, it can be tricky to decode what these labels mean. Luckily, we’re here to help! Here is a little advice on navigating lightweight stocks, heavyweight stocks, and everything in between!

Pound vs. Point
Two of the most common measurements for paper are pound (lb.) and point (pt.), but it can be challenging to know what this stock information means. What really makes these measurements difficult to navigate is that they are literally measuring different aspects of paper.

Pound is a measurement of how much a one ream of a paper stock weighs; weights range from 20 to 80 pounds for bond paper and 50 to 140 pounds for card stock. Point is a measurement of the paper’s thickness, with each pt. equal to .001 inch—14 pt. paper, for example, measures in at .014 inches thick.

With both of these measurements, though, you can be sure of one very important thing: the bigger the number, the more heft the stock will have.

How Do These Stocks Measure Up?
Unfortunately, it can be hard to match up thicknesses and weights because the measurements simply aren’t easy to translate. For example, 12 pt. cardstock weighs in at approximately 100 lb., but they aren’t exactly the same thickness. Your best bet is to focus on the type of paper first and the weight or thickness afterward.

This confusing set of measurements also means that your customers might have a hard time visualizing the stock thickness when they’re just reading numbers. After all, unless they are looking at stocks that are both measured by weight, the comparison is a challenge. That’s part of why swatch books are so important to have on hand when you’re making a sales pitch—they allow for easy stock comparisons.

Keep an Eye Out for New Heavyweight Champions
We know that many customers are looking for heavier paper options—that’s why we’ve got exciting new stock options coming soon! Keep an eye on your inbox for news about new stock options in a variety of different weights. And, if you’re not signed up to get Navitor’s emails, take a moment to sign up or update your email preferences.

Do you have any other questions about how to navigate stock choices? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

Brochures vs. Sales Sheets: Which One is Right For Your Customer?

Sometimes the print piece your customer needs is obvious. It might be the perfect business card or just the right promotional product to make their business memorable. However, the right product doesn’t always jump out at you. Sometimes it takes some thought. This is especially true when those print pieces are seemingly very similar—like brochures and sales sheets. That’s why we’re running down the questions you should ask to help them decide whether brochures or sales sheets are right for them.

Do They Want Their Piece to Stand Alone?
If your customer wants to create an informational piece that will create a big impact right away, flyers are a great choice. Their large, unfolded size and vibrant color allows them to stand alone, catching consumer attention and informing at a glance.

Brochures, on the other hand, are a better fit for customers who want a larger number of informational pieces to be displayed in one place. Their more compact folded size makes them easier to display in a compact tradeshow booth, as a part of a tabletop display, or at the front desk of their business.

Will Their Customers be Reading Now or Later?
If consumers are going to read their piece now, your customer might want them to get directly to the message. Sales sheets are the perfect way to deliver that! With no folds to undo, they are easy to read immediately after they are received.

Brochures are a great option for customers who want their piece to be read at a later date because of their more compact size. However, if your customer is creating a folder of informational pieces or sending a piece along with a mailing, a flyer might still do the job—just remember that its size makes it harder to stow in a tote bag.

Who Will Be Reading This and How Familiar Are They With Your Customer?
If your customer is looking for a great introduction to their business, flyers printed on sales sheets are a great choice. With a large size, vibrant color and no folds standing between the reader and the information in front of them, they can be a splashy introduction to your customer’s business or to a new product.

Brochures, on the other hand, are a good option for consumers who have a little more of an idea what they’re getting into. Whether your customer has had a chance to chat with them at a tradeshow booth or they’ve had an introduction to the company but still need to get to know the products, a little more knowledge is often the incentive that consumers need to open the brochure and discover the information inside.

What questions do you ask to help your customers make a decision about their print order? We’d love to see your suggestions in the comments below.

Perfect Print for Real Estate

Whether you’re working with a small realtor or a large company, print is an essential part of their repertoire of sales tools! Print pieces add professionalism to their office, help bring together open house events, and more. Here are our top suggestions for print pieces perfect for the real estate market.

Signage
With versatile full color print, different styles to suit different budgets, and a freestanding style that makes them easy to display in front of houses, yard signs are a classic print piece for the real estate market for a reason! Full color plastic yard signs are a lightweight and eyecatching option that your customer is sure to love. If your customer wants to make a bigger investment in their signage, on the other hand, they should consider full color metal yards signs; these durable signs are easy to reuse time and again.

Business Cards
Another business classic that real estate professionals should keep on hand is a business card. They should particularly look into including realtor photos on their business cards because it is one more way to reinforce the personal connection that realtors build with home buyers.

Folders
No matter how many homes are on a buyer’s list, it can be hard to keep their information straight. Offering them a branded folder is a great way to keep that information organized and to add a polished finishing touch to the home buying experience. Branded folders can also be used to hold paperwork, create welcome packets to be given at closing, or to hold files in the office with professional polish.

Promotional Products
Promotional products are an ideal way for your customers to get the word out about their business. Your customers in the real estate market can attach key fobs to keys at closing, give business card magnets to remind new homeowners of their realtor’s contact information, and hand out a variety of other promotional products at community events to connect with new buyers. They can also create personalized napkins perfect for adding a branded touch to any refreshments offered at an open house.

Labels
In addition to more traditional uses like address labels and name labels, labels are also a popular addition to open house events. Use labels to personalize water bottles at the refreshment table, seal paperwork, and more.

And this only scratches the surface of what print can do for the real estate market. Want more ideas? Consider requesting a copy of our property management vertical market kit for your next sales meeting!

Are there any other products that you would recommend for real estate? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

4 Tips For Perfect Poster Design

Whether your customer is looking for a way to promote their event in the community, wants to create posters to inform their clients about special offers or summer sales, or simply wants to create more striking décor for their space, poster design can be a challenge. When you are called upon to help them create a design for their upcoming event or promotion, use these four tips to create a striking poster design.

1. Stick to the Most Important Information
A poster might be a large print piece, but that doesn’t mean you should cover every inch with information. A good poster gets its message across clearly, and the best way to do that is to focus on a small amount of information. For example, if your customer is using their poster to promote a fundraiser, their poster should include the essential information: what kind of event it is, when and where it will be held, and other essential information like sale details or ticket prices.

This goes double when a poster is going to be displayed on a crowded bulletin board or in a busy space. If the people reading it only have a moment to see what it says, focusing on the information that is most important will ensure that it is memorable even in a busy location. And speaking of location…

2. Keep Location in Mind
Is the poster you are designing going to go in a specific place? It’s important to keep that location in mind. If the poster is going to be displayed on a community bulletin board, for example, you’ll want to create an eyecatching design that will capture attention. If it’s going to be displayed in your customer’s place of business or at their event, they might want to create something that matches their brand or event décor.

3. Use Your Colors
With full color print, the options for color on your customer’s poster are nearly endless. That’s why color is one of the most useful tools in creating an effective poster design. Your customer can use bright colors to add energy and excitement to their sale, use seasonal colors to highlight a seasonal event—think red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July—or use high contrast colors for a more readable design.

4. Take a Step Back
Think about where you see posters. Sometimes you walk right up next to them, but sometimes you see them from across the room. That’s why a poster should be as visually impactful from a distance as it is from nearby. No matter what your customer’s poster is for, it’s important for that poster to be appealing from a variety of vantage points. Don’t get bogged down with the little details as you design—take a step back, too!

Do you have more tips for designing a great poster? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

Promotional Power for Your Customers is Just a Click Away!

Is your customer looking for a way to promote their business this summer? Will they be promoting their business at a tradeshow, networking event, or local fair? Do they want to tell their customers about new products? Some of the best options are only a click away! Here are just a few of the options that you can find on Navitor.com.

Why Buy Online?
Ordering through Navitor.com allows you to benefit in a variety of different ways. The direct web-to-press path of orders allows your order to be completed faster, and digital proofing allows you instant access to a PDF proof for you and your customers to review before you finalize your order.

Buying online also makes it easier for you to reorder your customers’ favorites. Online reordering means that you can place a reorder from any location where you have an internet connection and your artwork will be where you need it when you reorder. If you want to know more about reorders, check out our quick guide to learn more.

Promotional Products with Power
If you haven’t taken a look at the promotional products we offer on our website, you could be missing out on easy ordering and reordering of some of our most popular options! Napkins are a popular addition to events where food will be served like open houses or banquets, and calendars are a classic option that your customers should keep in mind throughout the year. Drinkware and bags are popular and practical, and a variety of options are available online. Silicone card sleeves are a great fit for customers looking to promote their business and create something with high tech appeal.

Picking Up the Pace with Print Pieces
When your customer is preparing for an event, promotional products are a promising way to bring people into a conversation. However, it’s essential that they support promotional products with print to keep that conversation going! Brochures and sales sheets are ready-made for the job. Not only do these print pieces offer your customer the opportunity to pair informative text with full color images, but they’re portable enough to tuck into promotional bags, folders, invoices, and more.

Pocket Sized Print for Promotions
Is your customer looking for a smaller print piece for their summer promotional goals? When they want to highlight a single new product or focus on the high points of what their business offers, smaller print pieces could be the perfect fit. Bookmarks are a great choice for showing off the features of new products, and they offer the versatility of full color print on a convenient small canvas.

Which print pieces do your customers use to promote their business? Which are their favorites? We’d love to see your recommendations in the comments below.