Don’t Write It Off: Print Is Still Alive and Well

As the boom in social media, e-mail drip campaigns and other online marketing continues to evolve and grow, the question of whether or not print marketing is obsolete never seems to be put to bed. Before companies write off print to adopt a completely digital marketing strategy, they should stop and consider how print and digital marketing projects can actually work together within a larger marketing strategy.

Benefits of Print Marketing

These days, potential clients are inundated with e-mails and online ads advertising companies’ latest deals. Some believe that recipients are over-saturated with these promotions, which means the message is often lost when an e-mail goes unopened or is deleted.

This is where print marketing can enhance a company’s online marketing efforts. Print marketing, including mailers, brochures and sales sheets, can reinforce the messages in e-mail or other online marketing campaigns. For example, a print marketing campaign can include a QR code that directs recipients to a company’s website. Others point to the benefits of giving recipients something they can hold in their hands, which makes not only a visual impression but a tactile one.

Integrating print marketing with online marketing also helps strengthen a company’s brand recognition. Recipients may receive an e-mail or view an ad with a company’s flashy new logo, tagline and font styles, then find a mailing in their mailbox with the same logo, tagline and styles. This helps reinforce a company’s brand and increase brand recognition for recipients.

Print marketing can also lend credibility to online marketing campaigns. When potential clients receive direct mail or another physical piece of advertising, it helps show these clients that a company is legitimate and reputable.

Lastly, companies can target their audiences much more specifically with print marketing than with online marketing. A digitally printed direct mail campaign can target specific demographics and even be translated into different languages. Some companies may choose to mass market online and target market with printed materials.

How Matreks Can Help

Matreks Printing is the go-to source for Twin Cities companies that wish to integrate their online and print marketing campaigns. Matreks can help these companies match the style and logos of a print campaign to those used in an online campaign. It can also help companies choose from a wide variety of paper products and printing styles so their direct mail campaigns are effective.

If your company is ready to integrate your online and print marketing campaigns, contact Matreks Printing today at 952-746-4010.

Use Digital Printing to Quickly and Effectively Update Your Promotions

Sales, special events and seasonal promotions require Minneapolis companies to find printing solutions that are fast and cost-effective. The digital printing options at Matreks help companies quickly and effectively update their promotional materials to reflect the newest sale, latest special event and current season. Matreks can even help companies with multi-language promotional materials.

Digital Printing Is Your Company’s Choice for Quick Changes

What makes digital printing so effective for fast changes to promotional materials is the printing process itself. Unlike offset printing, which requires printers to create one master plate from which all copies are made, digital printing uses a computer file to make copies. This means a digital printing project can be changed mid-run to reflect updates made in the computer file and companies can create one, ready-to-print electronic template for promotional materials that can be updated and sent to the printer with the click of a mouse.

How Variable Data Makes Quick Changes Easy

Another feature of digital printing makes it easy for companies to change their promotions quickly and cost-effectively. Variable data printing enables companies to print customized messages on their promotional materials to target recipients with the appropriate message. For example, variable data printing makes it possible to customize an offer so long-time customers receive a higher percentage off or first-time customers save an additional $50.

Variable data printing also makes it possible to change the language of a promotion to target recipients who speak a language other than English. This means Minneapolis companies can include English, Spanish and Hmong versions of a promotion in a single run. This saves companies time and money.

When your company needs a quick turnaround on promotional materials, consider digital printing with Matreks. Matreks can deliver a high-quality product quickly and cost-effectively. To learn more about digital printing and how working with Matreks can help your marketing bottom line, contact Matreks Printing today at 952-746-4010.

Create Digital Printing Projects in a Few Easy Steps

More frequently, Minneapolis and St. Paul businesses are choosing digital printing for their direct mail and other printing projects. Matreks Printing is able to take your company’s PDF, InDesign or other file and have a completed print project mailed to you or your direct mail recipients quickly and cost-effectively.


First Step: Create a Print Project

The first step in any digital print job is to create the files for the project using your favorite graphic design program. Matreks can print projects from a variety of formats, including Quark Xpress, Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop or a full-resolution PDF. Matreks can also print Microsoft Office files, but recommends you convert these files to PDFs so font and style sheets are preserved.

You also may choose to submit a spreadsheet with your direct mail printing project. Digital printing can be used for variable data printing, which allows you to customize your direct mailings to individual clients. A spreadsheet with recipients’ names, addresses and other relevant demographic information is all Matreks needs to customize your project.

Next Step: Submit Files to Matreks

After you create the files for your digital printing project, you can submit your project to Matreks in an email. Matreks also accepts projects on CDs, DVDs, in a ZIP file or through our easy YouSendIt application.

Once we receive the files, Matreks can print, bind, and package the final product and have it shipped to you by the end of the day. Matreks can also print and send mail projects directly to recipients. Since digital printing uses the electronic project file as the proof, it is not necessary to take time out of your busy day to stop by our shop for a press check.

If you need to make changes after you submit your files, Matreks can modify the project on the fly with little or no set-up time. We can merge documents and change the quantity on the order with a simple email or phone call from you.

Get Started by Contacting Matreks

To learn more about how quickly and cost-effectively digital printing can complete your marketing and other print projects, contact Matreks Printing today at 952-746-4010. Our printing professionals will be able to answer your questions and guide you through the digital printing process.  

Upgrade Your Minneapolis/St Paul Business’s Marketing Efforts with the Flexibility of Digital Printing

With ever-increasing online services that help businesses connect with potential clients through email, some companies have abandoned their print marketing efforts for online marketing strategies. However, using all of a business’s marketing dollars for online marketing often means these companies are missing out on an effective way to connect with clients—personalized, full-color print marketing campaigns printed by Matreks Printing.

Advantages to Upgrading to Digital Print Marketing

Print marketing campaigns that are created using digital printing can help boost sales, improve a company’s relationships with its customers and even integrate with online marketing campaigns. Digital printing allows businesses to create personalized, full-color print marketing campaigns that are more effective and cost-conscious than traditional printing methods.

For example, working with Matreks, companies can create a postcard mail campaign with full-color graphics on the front and a message personalized for each individual recipient on the back. The card can even include a QR code so recipients can access a website or online catalog with the click of a smartphone button.

Digital printing allows companies to customize print marketing campaigns through variable data printing. With this technique, companies can provide their printers with digital files of their marketing project and a spreadsheet of recipient contact data that includes names, addresses, and demographic information. This spreadsheet is used to change the message on the print marketing materials so each copy is personalized to its recipient. This helps companies establish a better connection with potential and current clients.

Digital Print Marketing Cuts through the Online Clutter

As more and more companies adopt online marketing strategies like e-newsletters and email marketing campaigns, recipients’ inboxes are becoming more and more cluttered. This may prove to be an advantage for those who wisely choose to continue their print marketing campaigns. A piece of mail that a recipient can hold can have a powerful effect, especially when that recipient is overwhelmed with online offers.

To learn more about how digital print marketing can upgrade your marketing campaigns, contact Matreks Printing today at 952-746-4010.

Matreks Printing - Best in Business Awards by the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce

The Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce has a long tradition of recognizing members of the business community that support and accelerate the region. The Best in Business Awards luncheon honored four companies who have excelled, grown and supported the community in unique and meaningful ways.

2012 Honorees

•Best in Business Award Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota
•Emerging Business of the Year Matreks Printing
•Small Business Award iDream.tv
•Quality of Life Award Print 4 Change

Upgrade Your Black-and-White Marketing Materials to Color

Does your direct mail campaign look like it is coming through a 1950s television? Maybe your black-and-white brochures and proposals put potential clients to sleep. Digital color printing at Matreks is an economical way to increase the effectiveness of any company’s marketing campaign.

Until about five years ago, black-and-white printing was cheaper than color printing for large marketing campaigns. However, research and development of less costly toner and inks has drastically reduced the cost of color printing.

While the cost of color has gone down, the variety of colors has increased. At Matreks, companies can choose from a rainbow of colors, not just the standard red, yellow, blue, and green. This variety can help companies connect better with potential clients.

The Power of Color Printing

Not only does color printing make marketing materials more attractive, it can make a stronger connection with future customers. Studies have shown that people retain information presented in color better than the same information printed in black and white.

Printing in color can improve the impact of a variety of marketing materials, including direct mail postcards and other mailings, proposals and bids presented to potential client meetings and even training materials for new employees.

Color Digital Printing: An Economical Choice

Pairing color printing with digital printing can help companies make the most of their marketing dollars. Digital printing gives companies the freedom to print as many or as few copies of a marketing campaign as needed, vary the content of a campaign to customize the content to the recipient, and even change the lay-out of marketing materials mid-print.

To learn more about how the power of digital color printing can improve your business, call Matreks Printing today at 952-746-4010.

Choose Digital Printing for all your Marketing Projects

Digital printing is a great solution for short-run marketing projects like newsletters, brochures and even longer marketing tools like white papers. Digital printing allows each short-run project to be fully customizable, maximizing marketing dollars.

Before digital printing came onto the scene, businesses were limited to offset printing to fulfill their marketing needs. Offset printing required one master plate to be made for an entire run of a marketing campaign, limiting the ability of companies to tailor their marketing materials to recipients and increasing the amount of time it took to run a project. Since making this plate took time and money, to be cost-effective, companies often ordered more materials than needed.

Short-Run Projects with Big Results

Now, companies can order short-run projects of 1,000 copies or fewer with a digital printer with a fast turnaround and the ability to edit or change data while the project is being run. Since every print is an original, not a copy of a previously-made plate, companies can order exactly what they need, rather than ordering too many or too few copies.

Additionally, since every copy of a digitally printed project is a first-generation print, companies are able to incorporate variable data into their projects, creating a project that is fully personalized for recipients. A short run of newsletters that is digitally printed allows companies to add a recipient’s name and information specifically tailored to their demographics.

For example, a skin care company may be able to use demographic information like age, gender and ethnicity to personalize its newsletter content for each recipient. This fosters a better relationship with clients that may increase customer conversion.

Matreks Printing Can Fulfill All Your Short-Run Printing Needs

Twin Cities companies can count on Matreks Printing to deliver quality, fully-customizable short-run marketing projects. All companies need to do to get their project underway is email Matreks with the final, proofed copy of their marketing materials and a spreadsheet that contains the variable data for recipients. The digital printing process requires little set-up time and Matreks can get a company’s project started almost immediately.

To learn more about how digital printing can make your short-run printing project more affordable, call Matreks Printing today at 952-746-4010.