I just received a complimentary copy of Cross Media Marketing 101 (for 2013) by James Michelson, president of JFM Concepts and VDP Web. Right upfront, I had to give James props for his dismantling of a favored email stat that has been making its rounds in the blogs, Webinars, and PowerPoint presentations. It’s from “Why Email Marketing Is King” in the Harvard Business Review.  Most Digital Nirvana readers have probably seen it.

HBR cites response rates and average order values for direct mail + email, direct mail only, and email only that are on par. When you consider the extremely low cost to produce an email campaign, the report says, email turns out to be king — ROI that blows everything else away.

But listen to what James has to say about these numbers:

1. The stats are impossible without outside manipulation.

The respondents [to this study] were cherry picked from a much larger pool in order to get a 25% response rate. How do I know? Given one client’s data of 650,000 prospects with detailed sales and contact history, I can universally pick a slice and get a fantastic response with targeted offers and specific channels. With realistic constraints (such as not giving each respondent $100 gift card for simply visiting a link), the same cannot be said for 35,000 cold records. . . Not going to happen.

2. ROI has to be calculated using, not just the cost to implement the campaigns, but the costs to acquire the names.

How did the firm in question get that many opted-in email leads? . . . It is almost impossible to exponentially grow an email list from an email campaign, regardless how good the referral spiff is. For email to be king, something else, such as social media, direct mail, experiential events, paid search, point of sale, or a mix of many methods is required, and usually at substantial cost.

3. The report ignores other costs related to email, such as the cost of maintaining the database, accessing enterprise level email software (not cheap!), preparing collateral materials, and so on.

For the ROI calculations in the article to be of any use, the cost of gathering the email opt-ins must be calculated. . . Throw those figures into the mix and what happens to that massive ROI advantage claimed by email? Chance are the savings cited in the chart rapidly evaporate.

This analysis shows why it is so important to use the full costs of any marketing effort in calculating ROI for your clients’ campaigns (and your own) — and when evaluating the truth and accuracy of claims by reports such as these.

Kudos, James!

I recently attended the Canon Solutions America PPS Leadership Forum at its Poing factory on March 18^th & 19^th and took the opportunity to catch up with the Océ team.

Canon Solutions America, formerly Océ, frequently hosts customers, and prospects at its newly redesigned Customer Engagement Center (CEC), an entire hall in its manufacturing complex. The user friendly CEC environment included a coffee bar, tables for small group discussions, a lounge area, meeting rooms, information & hospitality desk, as well as a floor map to aid visitors in finding solutions of interest. The CEC was thoughtfully arranged and included the newest product announcements from Canon Solutions America, the Océ JetStream 5500 and Océ ColorStream 3900s with fast MICR and invisible ink.  .

The agenda included a flexible schedule with industry tracks led by industry analysts & experts. Océ clients and prospects were allowed to select the most appropriate sessions and have deep interactions with both Océ staff and presenters.

Here are a few important take-aways from my visit:

• Canon integration appears complete. Canon’s integration of Océ production printing, especially for North America appears to be successful and complete. I dined with Toyotsugu “Toyo” Kuwamura, president of Canon Solutions America, and he outlined his vision for the future Océ. His plans of continued investment and pursuit of new markets with the combined Canon/Océ solutions will extend the reach of both organizations into new markets.

• Migration to Color Inkjet successful. From virtually zero market share in 2008 in the inkjet market, to the identified market share leader (>35%) in both placements and images, Océ has successfully reinvented its product line to stay ahead of the market demand.

• Continued technology advancements. Canon Solutions America is not content to rest on past successes, and is extending its Océ ColorStream & Océ JetStream product lines to support additional applications. The introduction of new security inks, including MICR, Fugitive and Invisible, extends the toolset for secure document creation already available from Canon Solutions America.

While not new, but still visually impressive, are the clean lines and paper path of the Océ ColorStream 3000 series. During our demonstration, the front doors were left open, and the speed, image quality, and simplicity of the device was readily apparent. An Océ ColorStream prospect present noted “it’s no wonder these are the leading placement devices in its class”. Here is a photo of the inside:

Note the new, refined and slimmer drying unit. By using less water, there is less liquid to evaporate, and therefore no need for industrial strength drying units, and their power consumption and heat byproduct. In fact, Canon Solutions America reports that the Océ ColorStream 3000 series uses up to 1/3 the power consumption of alternative inkjet solutions.

In case you haven’t heard, the U.S. Postal Board has delayed the elimination of Saturday mail delivery slated to being August 5.

This doesn’t mean that the transition won’t happen. It just won’t happen immediately. Apparently, the board still supports the long-term elimination of Saturday mail, but it appears to be claiming that the USPS didn’t have the authority to change its own schedule and that legislation first must be passed to give it this authority.

The fallout?

Mailers don’t need to worry about adjusting their mailing schedules through summer and fall.

The USPS has expressed that, if it is not allowed to cut these $2 billion in costs by a change in schedule, heft rate increases may take it place.

In an article in DM News, there was an interesting comment from the perspective of catalogers, who apparently are very much in support of five-day mail delivery:

Our members say they’ll take one-day delivery if it translates into lower cost. That’s how much of an overarching concern cost is. — Hamilton Davison, president of the American Catalog Mailers Association

What do you think? Is the delay a relief or a concern?

Every single person sees color differently, as does most every single press. That reality presents an ongoing challenge for manufacturers, particularly when asked by customers to quote prices for ink and coverage.

“It’s one of the most important conversations we have with customers,” according to Guy Broadhurst, VP Technology and Client Solution for Canon Solutions America. Guy led a CSA Press Go webinar on February (date), entitled “Ink Coverage and Ink Cost – An Approach to Standardization.”

The very terms – “ink coverage” and “ink cost” – often get mistakenly interchanged, according to Guy. He cited common requests, such as, “Give me a price for 5% coverage or with this media,” or “What’s my cost per copy?”

Good, Better or Best?

There are no stock answers. The influence of paper on ink coverage is the biggest factor in inkjet printing, Guy notes. “We must ask, ‘Do you want good, better or best paper?’”

Interestingly, the cost per impression rises as quality of paper decreases.  Multiply that difference over a 5-year period, and your ink cost rises considerably as quality of paper decreases. 

The Only Option

Guy now injects “an objective component” into what has traditionally been a subjective decision. His new standardized approach uses these criteria:

1. Provide the best fidelity — the paper that offers the greatest color gamut.
2. Print a defined color patch using all colors as a defined percentage of the sheet, and provide the exact cost. This becomes the control for comparing vendor to vendor.
3. Ask for a targeted color and variance allowed, measured by a deltaE. The difference of 1 DeltaE can mean hundreds of thousands in extra costs.

Subjective measurements have skewed the conversation for too long, Guy asserts – much to the customers’ detriment. It’s time introduce objectivity into the equation for measuring print quality.

I just flipped through today’s stack of mail on the counter. There was a lot of it — flip, flip, flip — but only one envelope caught my eye. That is because it was addressed to me . . . twice.

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro

Heidi Tolliver-Walker

It was from an industry name I recognized, so I opened it. It was an invitation to attend a data analysis seminar.

I wondered if the company putting on the seminar had cleansed its data recently. I haven’t been Heidi Tolliver-Nigro in nearly two years. One would think that the double name would have been flagged and cleansed at some point. Not to mention that I now much prefer my married name over my former married name. So much for the “personal” part of the data.

It’s just a somewhat humorous reminder that, in this industry, it’s important to walk the walk and do it well. I’m quite sure that this company knows what it is doing, that the seminar will be professional and useful, and this was just an oversight. But when the competition is nipping at your heels and data management is becoming less of a differentiator than it used to be, you don’t want to be making oversights like this.

When was the last time you cleansed your customer, prospect, and contact database?

A few weeks ago, a direct marketer asked me about the value of direct mail versus email. We often address “ROI” issues like these in Marketing AdVents, the monthly newsletter of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DC), of which I am editor. The answer is, of course, “Let’s find out.”

You’ll hear direct mail advocates argue that nothing works as well as a targeted letter containing the perfect response device, mailed to the right recipient. In the April issue of AdVents, Kevin Mills, director of membership for the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, put it this way: “With more than 15 years of experience developing marketing strategies to increase membership and member benefits, I have the most confidence in direct mail … Direct mail provides legitimacy to our organization and its cause, and provides the vehicle for email and social media campaigns to be successful.”

Quite a few association marketers and fundraisers feel this way and some point to statistics like those found in the 2012 DMA Response Rate Report. This report collected data from 481 survey respondents in July 2012, concluding that, “Direct mail response rates outperform email. Direct mail has the lowest cost per lead or order of media distributed to lists.”

CMI quoted the same data in its August 2012 post about the effectiveness of direct mail in marketing to health care providers. And the GRI Marketing Group picked up the 2012 Channel Preference Study conducted by Epsilon, which noted that “direct mail is the preferred channel for consumers to receive brand communications – because they can read the information at their convenience.”

More recently, in February this year, Chief!Marketer noted that “direct mail is still a bargain for marketers … with results that boil down to lists and data, offers/messaging, creative and copy, and timing.”

Other marketers make a different, but also strong, case.
Studies like this from Hubspot in January 2013 suggest email can outperform direct mail, hands down. Quoting Harvard Business Review’s article “Why Email Marketing Is King,” Hubspot points to email marketing’s low cost, measurability, and the “choose-your-own-adventure” response a recipient can take.

To keep up with back-and-forth conversations like these, follow the 20,617-member Direct Mail Group on LinkedIn and any of numerous email marketing groups, including Email Marketing Gurus, Email Marketing Roundtable, and the grand-daddy 470,000-member  eMarketing Association Network.

So what’s the bottom line?
No contest. In this multi-channel world, no single channel choice is ever first or final. As savvy direct marketers would say, “Who knows? Who cares?”  It’s easy to find out what works best for us: Let’s TEST!

Like many others, you may have thought of LinkedIn as a place meant for posting resumes and searching for jobs. Think again.

LinkedIn just may be the best online marketing venue in the business – especially if you have a business-to-business company.

Launched in 2003, LinkedIn has recently emerged as a bonafide marketing behemoth within the social media landscape. It surpassed both Twitter and Facebook as a platform for posting marketing content, according the Content Marketing Institute report, 2013 Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends.

LinkedIn has recently amassed an astounding 200 million members. Plus, it acquires 172,800 new members every day. LinkedIn also generates the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate — 2.74% — nearly three times more than Twitter and Facebook, according to a 2012 HubSpot study.

If you’re like other business owners, you know that you need to build an online brand presence. But, like many, your eyes glaze over at the infinite number of social media options.

So, let’s simplify this. If you had to choose just one social network for marketing your business online, LinkedIn would be a pretty good place to start. It’s easy to set up. It’s free, unless you spring for the Premium plan, and it won’t take up your entire workday to follow or maintain. Here are some simple action items:

1. Sign up. If you haven’t already done so, stop everything and set up a LinkedIn account for your company. By the way, a newer, sleeker LinkedIn Company Pages, launched last year, makes it easier to connect your business with those 200 million other users.
2. Introduce yourself. Write a company profile with strong, relevant keywords. Let people know who you are, what you do, and how to reach you. Maintain your page with regular company updates and news.
3. Join LinkedIn groups. (FYI: My favorite LinkedIn feature.) Join LinkedIn groups — either within your industry or in those you’re targeting to grow your business. See what people are talking about and sharing.
4. Build contacts. LinkedIn is ultimately a great place to network. Invite people you know to be “contacts” and, likewise, accept invitations from others to join their contact list. LinkedIn etiquette generally frowns on asking complete strangers to be contacts, but you may ask existing contacts for referrals to their connections.
5. Contribute. While LinkedIn is generally a promotion-free zone, it nonetheless encourages you to share and respond to relevant news, trends, observation and opinion with your groups and contacts. It’s a great way to build brand awareness for you and your company and widen your network of professional connections.

So, thinking about giving LinkedIn a try?  Good call. May be the best thing you do today for your company.

Editor’s Note: Bob Boucher is President of Boucher Communications. A communications professional for 30 years, Bob is an experienced marketer, copywriter, journalist and content generator for enterprises and agencies. He has spent much of the past 20 years in the graphic arts and digital printing industries.

It’s a bit incongruous. The first thing you see is a Gillette ad showing Kate Upton in a seductive pose with the headline,  “How does Kate Upton like her man’s body styled? Read her mind,” with a QR code inside the thought bubble. Then you see the headline to The Business Insider article the ad is used to illustrate: “The 15 Worst QR Code Fails of All Time.”

I have a very hard time imagining that this QR Code was not scanned by every red-blooded American man not offended by that kind of thing. Even more odd was the fact that the article dubbed QR Codes “the gimmick people love to hate.” Maybe, but I’m quite certain that Gillette is hating QR Codes all the way to the bank.

The ad was offensive. It was tacky. The content to which the QR Code pointed was juvenile. But the use of QR Codes was effective and illustrates QR Codes used well.

Why? Whether you agree or disagree with the approach, it caused readers to engage with the ad—and it did so while reinforcing Gillette’s brand. Most likely, the content was created specifically for this advertisement much like the supposedly “nude” millisecond shot of model Laura Stone for the Calvin Klein campaign produced by The Ace Group a number of years ago.

One of the best practices for QR Codes is to provide alternative ways to access the content for people who don’t want to scan the code. Gillette didn’t do that. If people wanted to see it, they had to scan the code.

I haven’t talked to Gillette or its agency,  but from talking to Val DiGiacinto at The Ace Group, I know why TAG did it for Calvin Klein back then. They were going after a specific demographic that matched the demographic of QR Code scanners and they wanted the viral sharing that comes with mobile access. TAG’s Calvin Klein campaign was enormously successful, and I imagine this was, too.

It’s funny that The Business Insider chose this ad to illustrate its commentary on QR Code fails. But it did so, I’m quite sure, because it knew that the ad’s tantalizing use of the QR Code would draw people in to read the article. So it used a powerful and well-planned “the gimmick people love to hate” to great effectiveness and its own gain.

Interesting how that works.

This week we look at the Awesome Spiral Accordion Mailer – it’s a must see mailer! Design by CSG Creative in Alexandria, VA. and produced by ITP in Elizabethtown, PA. This 2-part direct mail piece features a post card and circular piece that fits inside a mylar envelope, mailed first class. The circular piece unfolds in a spiral accordion patterns which opens to reveal a rectangular piece. The color and design accentuate the fold which highlights the expert nature of this piece. Scored and hand-folded – the final product is worth the effort.

Take a look for yourself!

The March 1^st issue of In-Plant Graphics had an article titled “Inkjet Summit’s Unique Format is a Win-Win.  The article talks about the upcoming invitation-only three day event for  ” for senior managers and business executives who want to understand how current and future inkjet technology trends, software, consumables and finishing solutions are and will impact their businesses and help them shape their visions and strategies for the future.”

Each of the past two Drupa events, in 2012 and 2008, was dubbed the “Inkjet Drupa” by many experts. Inkjet installations are increasing and projected to increase rapidly through 2016, driven by the conversion to digital print, growth in color applications, and system flexibility.  In November 12, 2012, David Zwang stated, “It is estimated that there were 46.1 billion color digital pages printed in 2010, and that number will jump to nearly 130 billion by 2015. While this estimate is comprised of all digital print pages, more importantly than the market share growth is the fact that the value of that digital print has jumped sharply, bringing better returns to the global print market.”  With all this hype, print business leaders have been considering the options and need for Inkjet Color printing, and considering migrating from their offset print or black and white digital.  They have been seeking answers.

What is of great interest at the Inkjet Summit is the potential for these senior operations and business leaders to get up close and personal with a number of the leading suppliers at one time.  Unlike Graph Expo and Drupa, the seriously interested leaders will have full access to leading suppliers in a small group environment.  In addition, unlike a one-on-one interaction with a single supplier in a typical sales meeting, the representatives from the user side and the service and equipment providers will be able to meet and compare all at one time.

The attendees will also have access to and hear reports from key independent industry leaders and experts who will be facilitating the event.  Finally, if they dare, the attendees will be able to meet and collaborate with their peers.  Yes, collaborate with their peers!  I hope this happens, because after all our real competition is those who would move everyone away from print to other communication media.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who is attending this event when it is over, as I truly believe the organizers have a formula which should help print not just survive but thrive in this highly competitive time.
 

The Inkjet Summit 2013 event will be held April 9-11 at the exclusive Ponte Vedra Inn & Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL and is organized by Printing Impressions, the leading trade publication serving commercial printers, and nGage Events, the leading producer of specialized hosted model events.  The Inkjet Summit is an invitation-only, hosted event designed for senior managers and business executives who want to understand how current and future inkjet technology trends, software, consumables and finishing solutions are and will impact their businesses and help them shape their visions and strategies for the future.

“Our goal is to bring together suppliers of inkjet solutions with qualified attendees who are serious about investing in these solutions, into an environment facilitated by experts,” commented David Pesko, senior vice president at nGage Events. “Attendees will learn from experts, suppliers, and most importantly their peers on how to approach inkjet and how to be successful. Our event format accomplishes this and it shows in the attendees confirmed thus far and the overwhelming requests we receive daily.  This event is truly a win-win for sponsors and attendees.”

As the interest in inkjet printing continues to grow, print providers and corporate enterprises are seeking guidance from industry experts, peers and market leaders to help them develop sound business strategies, understand their technology options, and make major investment decisions concerning inkjet printing capabilities.  Vendors are also looking for ways to better identify and develop more intimate relationships with those buyers specifically interested in inkjet solutions.  Inkjet Summit’s unique format provides sponsors with Boardroom and 1:1 meetings with executives intimately involved with strategy, purchasing authority and buying intentions.

“Canon Solutions America is pleased to sponsor the Inkjet Summit. The format enables us to meet 1:1 with qualified decision makers who are serious about inkjet solutions,” stated Francis McMahon, vice president marketing, Canon Solutions America, and Production Printing Solutions. “With Océ inkjet production printing solutions making up approximately 32 percent of the worldwide inkjet market, our customers know they can count on us to partner with them for success.  This event gives us the opportunity to discuss and understand specific customer issues and work with them to ensure they have the right capital investment strategy and solutions needed to profitably produce books, magazines, direct mail, transaction, and transpromo.”

“Inkjet technology is a disruptive technology that will touch everyone’s life in the future,” relays George Promis, vice president, Continuous Forms Production Solutions and Technology Alliances, Ricoh. “Bringing industry integrators, developers and businesses face to face is important to exploit and help direct its future. Ricoh is proud to participate in the inaugural summit.  It’s a unique opportunity to build and strengthen relationships with a diverse group of output solution businesses and share our view on what the future holds for inkjet and its ecosystem.”

I recently had a very interesting conversation with James Michelson, president and founder of JFM Concepts, about text messaging in the printing industry. We were talking about multichannel marketing and how text messaging fits in.

Michelson wanted to talk about the use of text messaging in a way we rarely hear it being talked about—to gather email addresses. It went something like this:

1. Pick a venue (Jumbotron, direct mail, poster).
2. Offer a great incentive.
3. Ask people to respond by short code.
4. As your reply, send a link where they can sign up for the offer.
5. On the landing page, ask them to provide an email address to receive notification of their prize and opt-in to additional communications from your client.
6. Include content on the landing page that reflects the value of the content to the respondent so that they want to opt in and continue to receive email communications beyond notification of their prize.

This isn’t going to be the approach you use for all SMS short codes (QR Codes can be used to do the same thing), but it’s one that works in an unusual way — text messaging to gather emails!

Kudos (again) to James Michelson for his willingness to share great ideas with the industry!

I recently did some research around the industry on the impact of the upcoming Saturday First-Class mail stoppage. In the end, the consensus seems to be that it might be highly inconvenience for awhile, but marketers will figure it out.

One of the biggest concerns is for bill payments since consumers will have one less day for their payments to arrive. But Gene Del Polito, president of Postcom, made an interesting observation. If that’s a concern, why not make paying bills easier? Free online bill pay (that is one of my pet peeves — billers who charge for online payments that save them money and improve their cash flow anyway) or pre-paid BREs if they aren’t offering them already.

If all someone has to do is drop a check in the mail and not worry about finding an envelope, addressing the envelope, and applying a stamp, it’s that much easier (and faster) to make the payment.  The easier it is to respond, the less impact the Saturday First-Class mail stoppage will have.

I thought it was a good point. How about you?

Oddly enough, with the digital tsunami drowning us, print has taken on a fresh personality. What some once derided as “junk” is becoming semi-precious.

That thought prompted me to consider options for less-often-seen print marketing. Here’s my list.

1. Personalized print products used post-purchase to bolster relationships. We’ve got the usual, of course — gifts, coupons, invitations, t-shirts and totes, etc. — but how about an age-appropriate personalized puzzle for the kids or a set of monogrammed note cards.

2. Transpromotional customer service relationship building — for example, mailing a personalized pen with a refund check or a useful informational brochure with the bill from the doctor’s office (10 Healthy Foods) or auto service center (The Truth About Oil Changes)?

3. “Handwritten” notes on embossed stationary that say something personal. Isn’t this the reasoning behind the very effective notes and cards given away in fundraising appeals– that you can’t throw them away? Could this be expanded to “We’re so glad you dined with us on August 31. It was a pleasure to have you.”

4. Certain printed products are more difficult to find than they used to be (for example maps, comic books, small books). Covenant House uses little books very effectively in communicating to select patrons. What “must save” value-added print can you offer to strengthen the bond?

5. “Real” photographs: How often do we see these lately? When personalized to either the individual or the customers’ locality or hobby, who can throw away a photograph? The line here can easily cross from cute to creepy, so generic-personal would be the right balance.

6. If my personal experience is any example, local magazines are experiencing a huge comeback. We see these distributed everywhere: free, colorful, and totally geared to the local market. These magazines are supported by advertising, not subscription. What’s the lesson here for marketers?

7. Personalized 3D-printed products. We’ve done personalized product printing for years with premiums, t-shirts, and self-publishing, but imagine the “thing” possibilities we will soon be able to print and sell! It’s a brain boggle, from gadgets, to jewelry and clothing, to household items, to art, to things we never thought of (yet). Catch some ideas here from the 3d Printing Examples on Pinterest.

What’s in your press?

Years ago, I wrote about a study conducted by the Digital Printing Council on the lamination (or non-lamination) of direct mail and how the various toner-based presses fared in the mail stream. The topic is still around apparently, since it is kicking up quite a storm in one of the industry discussion groups.

The poster expressed frustration that the USPS had been “particularly cruel” to his non-laminated direct mail piece and was looking for advice on the best way to create scuff-resistant mail.

Here are a few interesting responses:

Well, being in the lamination business for 25 years, you know what I would suggest. Not sure what USPS did and not sure what type of DM you did, but coatings may still scuff. Lamination will certainly preserve the piece from tearing or the ink being scuffed. It will add to the cost, but so will coating or even bagging your piece.

(Chuck Thompson, Business Development Manager, Cosmo Films)

If you print digitally and mail, without coating or laminating, you will get scuffing and poor looking pieces. I see from your profile that you are from the manufacturing side of the industry. Welcome to the user side. Toner does not absorb into paper. It sits on top and is easily rubbed off by rollers . . .  Next mailer, budget for coating or laminating or have it run on old fashioned offset lithography.

(Ed Keenan, Owner, Document Depot [NYC])

Ryan’s dilemma may create an interesting opportunity for him. DM users are always searching for ways to improve response. It is possible that film lamination could add visual impact that would do just that. For the next mailing try laminating half of the pieces, then mail using an A-B split (every other name receives the laminated piece). Code the labels, address, or response piece to show which lot generated every response. You may be surprised at improved results.

(Mike Burrows, President and Owner at Burrows Consulting, Inc., Washington D.C.)

Other suggestions included printing on synthetic substrates, using offline UV, and to keep costs down, using a lighter weight stock and laminating only on the messaging side and leaving the address side uncoated.

What was interesting was that, once the suggestions were proffered, they solicited responses from other group members who found that, at least from the technical side (not the marketing response side), it didn’t seem to matter whether the prints were laminated or not or printed on synthetic stocks or not. It’s so nice to have a consensus, isn’t it?

What’s your experience?

I read an interesting article today on Printing Impressions’ Digital Printing center which surveyed in-plant managers on their purchasing processes. The article prompted managers to reflect on what they wish they had done during the purchasing process of digital color presses. Benefits from digital color presses are abundant: the ability to finish jobs quicker (and cheaper), the ability to produce higher quality printed outputs, the ability to incorporate variable data printing, etc.; but the purchasing process can still be scary. The last thing any manager wants is even the slightest form of regret after a major business decision and hefty purchase. Therefore, I’ve tried to distill the major themes from executive answers into a few key points:

1. Do your research. The average purchase decision ranges from a few weeks to a few months. During this time, consult every source of information possible. Visit the websites of vendors you are interested in, view their press demos, and compare the press spec sheets. Sales representatives are valuable sources of information, especially since they should be considered experts on the machine they are trying to sell. But we all know they are not entirely impartial and a purchasing decision could be better informed by seeking out balanced and neutral information from other industry experts. Which brings be to #2.

2. Consult your network. Seek out the opinion of industry people who do the same type of work you do. This can be done through existing personal relationships with other print operations or through consulting your online network in the form of LinkedIn groups. A quick search of Digital Printing Group on LinkedIn reveals that numerous print professionals choose the online option, inquire about specific products, and receive thoughtful and detailed replies.

3. See your options print in person. This was a major theme as nearly every manager polled highlighted the need to see the press perform in person. What was interesting in these recommendations is that most managers recommend viewing the machine in a working business location as opposed to the vendor showroom. Doing so gives the added advantage of being able to speak with machine operators and owners akin to #2 on this list. If you do not personally know anyone who operates the machine you are interested in viewing, your sales rep can likely make a connection for you and help schedule a visit. Some managers even mentioned running their own jobs on machines – either in a showroom or at another organization – to see how the machine performs on their specific projects and to better understand the workflow from start to finish.

4. Research the cost of operation and consumables. Don’t forget that the purchase price is not the only price consideration when purchasing a new printing device. You’ll also want to take into account the cost of consumables – like toner – as well as relevant costs per click, electrical costs, etc. Make sure you have a complete understanding of the true cost of operating the equipment.

5. Consider training and service reputation. Make sure to ask your sales rep about the training that comes with a purchased product. Robust training makes your operators more knowledgeable, significantly reduces the time spent to ramp up a new machine, and reduces errors that may occur during the early days of implementation. Some vendors even have business development programs which may provide additional sources of value by helping you make the most of your new purchase. You should also be critical of the vendor’s service capabilities and reputation. While you want to avoid complications, you also want a vendor who can respond quickly and effectively and has a proven reputation of doing so, in case complications do arise. Again, consult your network to learn about your vendor’s service reputation.

Happy purchasing!