Peter The Printer: Printing & Marketing Tips

What Does it Take to be a Successful Entrepreneur?

2012-01-27T13:03:00.000-06:00

Many books and articles are written by and about successful entrepreneurs, with great information about what it takes to succeed. If it were possible to distill all of that information into a few words, it might be this: Being a successful entrepreneur really just boils down to solving problems and being resilient enough to find answer without giving up.

Persistence. Sweat. I was talking to my good friend and amazing real estate agent Jan McNulty the other day -- and we were talking about luck in business. Of course we both concluded that the harder that we worked, the more luck we had. (I think Jan got "lucky" over 40 times in 2011.)

As Thomas Edison famously said: "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward." Hopefully, you won't need 10,000 attempts to find the solution you're looking for, but many people give up after only a few tries.

Whether you own a new company, have been in business awhile, or are an employee with the desire to become successful, the next time you run into a problem, take the initiative to find a solution. Be persistent, and don't give up at the first sign of resistance. Yes, that is easier said than done. There are many entrepreneurs, but not nearly as many successful ones. Those who succeed are champion problem solvers and have the will to not take no for an answer.

What Are Your Product Photos Saying?

2012-01-24T20:48:00.000-06:00

If a picture's worth a thousand words, have you ever thought about what your photos are saying? We live in a visual age, where images surround us. Whether on your website, marketing materials, billboards, or ads, the photos you choose to represent your products and services are very important. Here are a few tips to ensure your photos are saying what you want:

Don't photograph your products on a cluttered shelf. Rather, depict them in use in an appropriate abstract environment or on a clean white background.

Save your originals, and don't reduce their file size. You never know when you'll need to re-purpose images, such as if you want a low-res image from your website to work in a high-resolution print brochure.

Take a lot of photos when you have the opportunity. You may be surprised how a new angle or different lighting can change the appeal and appearance of your products.

If images don't do justice for your products, don't use them. Consider posting a "photo coming soon" placeholder, rather than posting a poor-quality photo. But do so only if you fully intend to post an image later.

Adjust the resolution of photos on your website to ensure they won't slow the load time for the page. Nothing is worse than a great photo nobody has the patience to download and see.

Use intriguing photos to supplement Facebook posts and create additional interest. Organize these photos into albums for easy viewing, and use relevant album names, such as "new products," "seasonal promotions," and so on.

R.I.P. Kodak -- Will the World End for all in 2012?

2012-01-20T07:37:00.000-06:00

There are doomsday predictions that say the world will end this year. We won't be able to validate those predictions either negatively or positively until this time next year (if there is a next year!). But one thing is certain: Sadly, 2012 will be the end for some businesses.

While going out of business is an unfortunate reality that happens in many industries -- with technology changes and a sour economy (especially in a down cycle like we've been experiencing for way too long now), it does NOT have to happen to your business.

So how can you keep from becoming part of the statistics in 2012? Make a real commitment to marketing your business.

Marketing does not have to be overly complicated or require a large budget. It might be as simple as figuring out the ideal prospects who would purchase what you sell, then targeting those prospects with relevant messages via as many marketing channels as your budget allows. If your budget is tight, focus on a niche group. Start small, and grow your business from there.

If you don't have one already, start a marketing calendar today, and set up a plan for various marketing activities that you will do throughout the year. (Plum Grove gives out free wall calendars to clients every year at this time -- while supplies last.) Be encouraged and proactive, so we can all look back at this time next year and chuckle about the latest doomsday predictions.

An Internal Newsletter Your Team Will Love

2012-01-17T07:41:00.001-06:00

While newsletters are a great way to build relationships with customers, many companies overlook the team-building opportunity an internal newsletter offers within their own doors, as well. Internal newsletters are a great way not only to learn more about colleagues, but also to keep employees informed about company news, events, and other important announcements. Electronic newsletters can work but may not reach all staff, and don't have the impact of ink on paper -- but ink on paper can cost a bit more. Here are a few tips for creating an internal newsletter your employees will love:

Create a plan by defining the frequency of your newsletter (such as monthly or quarterly) and the types of articles or sections you'd like to include. Also develop a template you can easily modify for each issue.

Encourage teamwork by assigning a few people to specific parts of the newsletter each month, such as pulling company stats (sales volume, incoming calls, trade show outcomes, etc.), writing feature articles about company events, and so on.

Create an idea library. Stockpile various ideas, photos, jokes, quotes, seasonal graphics, etc., to save time down the road.

Acknowledge employee birthdays, corporate anniversaries, new hires, promotions, etc.

Consider offering a "message from the president" to make employees the first to know about new products, company changes, initiatives, etc.

Highlight successes. If a department had an outrageous month, highlight their achievements, and offer a company-wide congratulatory message.

Share encouraging survey results, customer compliments, and thank you notes from appreciative customers.

Consider a Q&A section where employees can submit questions and have a leader provide answers in an open forum for all to see.

Use an "employee spotlight" article to help staff members get to know their colleagues better. This type of article can range from information about the employee's position within your company to their personal hobbies, interests, and the like.

By creating an internal newsletter that encourages team-building and focuses on the successes of your employees, you can not only increase communication amongst your colleagues but also boost employee morale and give your team something fun to talk about around the water cooler.

What other ideas can you think of for an internal newsletter? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

7 Rules for Prospecting in 2012

2012-01-10T08:02:00.000-06:00

The best way to not only survive the recession but to actually thrive in it is to bring in new clients and new business. Growth is possible, even in this economic climate.

The lifeblood of all businesses is gaining new clients. Acquiring new clients is challenging enough in any environment, but especially today. The lack of new clients is often the primary cause for the decline and failure of a company.

To get new clients, you must look for prospects who fit what you do best. Here are seven rules for prospecting in today's environment. Following these rules will make it easier to start new relationships that will lead to new opportunities in 2012 and beyond.

1. Do This, and You Can Forget All the Other Steps!

You must have heard by now that all you have to do to get new business is to send a few tweets and Facebook posts, then sit back and wait for the hordes of leads to flood your website and your phone lines, right? Inbound marketing can fix all of your company ills by solving all the lead generation problems. Old school prospecting is a thing of the past. Your leads will now pursue you. No doubt you have read and heard about all of this, and for those who believed it, it wasn't too long before frustration set in. Thousands of dollars later, the realization came that these are half-truths. Sure, there is a place to mix in these tactics, but to really succeed in growing your business, nothing can replace real prospecting that leads to real relationships that open the door to real opportunities.

2. Have a Plan.

You will never know where you need to go if you don't have a plan. This is an old rule, but it applies as much today as it did in the past, and it will continue to apply far into the future. You must know the profile of the person and the company you can profitably do business with. You must set real goals and have a realistic plan to achieve those goals. Know what you want your ideal client to do as the next step when you are prospecting, and use that as your objective. Break it down to a step-by-step process, and track your leads to see where they stand in your sales lead funnel.

3. Research Before You Make the First Call.

Do some homework on your potential prospect before the first call or meeting. Know who the decision makers are, and try to find out their hot buttons ahead of time. The more you learn, the better your chances for making a connection and bond. You may never get that chance again. But don't waste too much time researching. If you stop all of your prospecting activities to research, your pipeline will grow stale, and you will halt your momentum. So do your research, but don't stop your prospecting.

4. Decide What Methods to Use.

Which are the best methods to use for lead generation? The best way to open the door to a relationship with your ideal client depends on the prospect. Some will like phone calls, some will like email, some will prefer direct mail, some will only respond to referrals, and some will respond to a business or casual network environment. Don't just rely on one method. Use as many as you can, and vary your approach. Let your prospect decide which one is best for them.

5. Just Do It.

Doing everything you need to do once you start the process of prospecting is not easy. Get help where you need it. It doesn't matter if your process is not perfect. Can't get an appointment to see the top decision maker? Go for the second in command. Do whatever is necessary to keep the activities moving forward. Work hard, but also work smart. Use all of the productivity tools and help you can get. But whatever you do, don't let anything stop your momentum. Keep your eyes on your goals.

6. Make Them an Offer They Can't Refuse.

Great. You are filling your pipeline and getting appointments. Now what? You will greatly improve the odds of getting your prospect to say yes if you have a compelling proposition that adds real value or potentially solves a problem for them. Why should they do business with you over any other similar company that wants their business? Why should they choose you and invest their limited time with you? How are you going to help them grow their business and improve their business results? In other words, you must answer the question: what's in it for them?

7. Ask Questions and Follow Up.

Ask great questions and (more importantly) listen to their answers. Take notes so that if you can't give answers instantly, you will be able to get back with them with the correct information later. Most of the prospects you meet will be juggling multiple tasks just like you are. It is very easy to forget about you and your proposal. Follow up relentlessly until you get an answer. Of course, you don't want to be a pest, but at the same time don't take a lack of response as a negative answer. Be respectful, but don't give up easily. These character traits are what set apart the top achievers from the also-rans. If you learn these skills and master them, your prospect pipeline will never dry up.

3 Simple Ideas for your Marketing Success in 2012

2012-01-09T08:53:00.001-06:00

Marketing for businesses can fall into several categories. Marketing that's too complicated can lead to never getting it done, while marketing that's ineffective can lead to its early demise. Neither of these scenarios helps a business achieve the ultimate goals for successful marketing: leads and sales.

Fortunately, effective marketing does not need to be complex in order to yield results. Follow these three steps to build a sustainable marketing program.

Step 1: Get Found

It's simple. No matter how great your service or business is, it won't matter much if your customers can't find you. Just as important, they have to be the right kind of customers for your business and your products. Your company needs to be found in the places your customers frequent the most. Your customers don't spend all of their time in one space, and neither should you. Get the word out about your business through effective multi-media campaigns.

Step 2: Convert

Capturing their attention is only the first step. In order to make it effective, you must get your prospect to engage with you somehow. Your content and sales information has to turn tire kickers into buyers. Get them to act by making a great offer. It doesn't necessarily have to be a discount; it can be an offer for free information or anything that your prospect finds valuable in order to help them make a decision about what you sell. Engage them and offer them value before you ask for a sale, click, or call. But do ask for them to act.

Step 3: Analyze, Test, Improve, & Repeat

The only way you can improve your marketing is to constantly track, test, and tweak. Constantly work at improving the results. But above all remember that consistency is the key to any successful marketing. You must have an active marketing calendar that takes into account where, how, and what your customer wants to learn about your company.

Marketing your company is really not that hard. Successful marketing requires that you educate your prospects and provide value. Build trust and provide real information that truly helps them. Do that consistently, and you will realize that marketing is not as difficult as it seems.

Making Connections

2012-01-03T11:51:00.000-06:00

Inside every human being is a desire to connect in real and tangible ways. This desire for connection permeates everything we do and every decision we make: even our decisions of what to buy and when. We respond to ads because we connect with them somehow. A spokesperson, scene, or catchphrase resonates with us and makes us laugh, or cry, or both. Emotion is much more powerful than reason. Just ask any politician trying to get elected.

A soldier sits down in a quiet moment to listen to a recordable storybook his child sent from home.

A team of clydesdales pulls an iconic wagon into New York City, then bows silently before the Statue of Liberty in reverence.

A couple drives frantically to the top of a parking ramp. The man jumps out and signals his confused girlfriend to follow, just in time to... miss the airplane banner flying by, asking her to marry him.

Each of these commercials (and many others like them) tells a story that, at first glance, has little to do with the product they're selling. Instead, they show the product (or in the case of the clydesdales, a symbol of the product) in real-life situations that make it far more relatable than a simple product shot or feature list ever could.

Here are links to the three commercials I mentioned in this post. A quick warning: If you haven't seen these, you might want to have a box of Kleenex nearby for the first two. Feel free to list some of your own favorites in the comments at the end of this post.

"Active Duty" Hallmark Commercial

9/11 Tribute from Budweiser

Wherever Life Takes You (Chevy Cruze ECO)

Plum Grove Printers and its sassy sister division Freakin’ Genius Marketing named winner of Nine 2009 Graphic Design USA Awards

2009-09-21T09:18:00.003-05:00

Hoffman Estates, Il. Freakin’ Genius Marketing and Plum Grove Printers are proud to announce that nine award winning designs were chosen from over 8,000 entries as winners in the art and design category.

Sponsored by NewPage Corporation, The 2009 Graphic Design USA Award Certificates were distributed by Awards Director Rachel Goldberg and Publisher Gordon Kaye.

“We are extremely proud of our design team lead by Creative Director Linda Bond with designers Lisa Olivero and Robert Frank. Every member of the team brought home at least one award,” said Plum Grove Printers CEO Peter Lineal. “Great design gives our clients more effective marketing with higher response rates, better branding and greater long-term impact.”

Freakin’ Genius Managing Partner Lori Gertz added, “Great design doesn’t necessarily mean pretty but it always means effective. These entries won awards because they work to reach the client’s goals of effective return on investment, that’s key in every one of the designs we create.”

The award winning entries were:
1.Spiritual Care Collaborative – Spiritual Care Collaborative Logo (Logos, Trademarks and Symbols)
2.Association of Professional Chaplains – Healing Spirit – Spring 2009 (Publication Design)
3.Association of Professional Chaplains – Membership Brochure (Brochures and Collateral)
4.Association of Professional Chaplains – Professional Chaplaincy – Reaching New Heights-2010 Logo (Logos, Trademarks and Symbols)
5.Freakin’ Genius Marketing, A division of Plum Grove Printers, Inc. – Pocket Folder & Business Card (Corporate Branding)
6.JCYS Northwest Family Center – 2009 Summer Camp (Direct Mail and Direct Response)
7.Chicago Crime Commission – Ambassador for Safety Public Election Campaign (Direct Mail and Direct Response)
8.D & S Communications – Time Out Brochure (Brochures and Collateral)
9.Strategic Learning Initiatives – 2008 Annual Report (Annual Reports)

About Plum Grove Printers and Freakin’ Genius Marketing:

Both firms were awarded a total of 9 graphic design awards for work on behalf of their clients, including several well-known national charitable and not-for-profits.

Located in Hoffman Estates, Plum Grove Printers, has over 30 employees, and is a full-service business printer providing art and design services, printing services, copying, bindery and mailing services. The firm has 4 designers on staff; 6 printing presses including a one-color letterhead press, a 4-color web (roll) press, a 5-color large format press, and a digital press; a complete bindery; and an addressing and mailing department. Founded in 1980, the firm, which was recently honored by the state as one of only two Green Friendly Printers in the state of Illinois has been active in the community through their charitable grants program and involvement in chambers of commerce and other organizations. For more information, contact Plum Grove Printers at 847-882-4020.

Freakin’ Genius Marketing is a Sassy new strategic marketing division of the 29-year old printing company. Freakin’ Genius Marketing uses a four step customer-centric operating model that helps clients achieve the measurable results they expect from their marketing. Clients improve their results and control costs by knowing who to market to and how to market to them. Freakin’ Genius Marketing’s expert Strategic Planning delivers branded messaging from idea through execution in conjunction with 5-Star Marketing Solutions that address unique client needs. For more information, contact Freakin’ Genius Marketing at 847-882-4234.

Unemployed? Seek Relief at Your Print Shop

2009-01-20T11:51:00.003-06:00

Peter the Printer Offers Free Resume and Business Card Printing to the Unemployed

In the face of mounting economic uncertainty, Hoffman Estates-based Plum Grove Printers is offering some relief to the unemployed: free business card and resume printing. The 29-year old firm offers 100 custom business cards, 50 resumes, 50 pieces of blank stationary, and 50 blank envelopes to the unemployed through the Career Assist program on its website, http://PlumGrovePrinters.com.

"Unfortunately, this program has been very popular," said founder and CEO Peter "the Printer" Lineal. "Here in the printing industry, we see how the hard times in American economy have touched everyone's life. People have been really hurting with unemployment. Our business has managed to weather the storm, and we're happy to give back to the community and take some of the sting out of the job search process."

Users can typeset business networking cards online and upload their resumes. There is no charge unless the user requires shipping.

Lineal hopes his Career Assist can be a model for other printers around the country, and has promoted it through trade associations.

"We want other printers to take this model and apply it to their local communities. Free resume and business card printing can mean alot for someone caught in the downsizing, with a mortgage and family."

Plum Grove Printers specializes in full color printing, digital printing, direct mail, bindery, and mailing. The firm was founded by Peter Lineal in 1980 near Chicago, IL, and has been repeatedly recognized as one of the Top 100 North American Printers by Quick Printing Magazine. Plum Grove Printers also operates a chain of self-service custom printing websites at http://www.PeterThePrinter.net. In December 2008, Plum Grove Printers received Illinois' highest environmental award, the Governor's Pollution Prevention Award, recognizing its comprehensive green-friendly printing program.

Printing Firm Receives Highest State Award for Environmental Protection

2008-12-11T13:38:00.003-06:00

The State of Illinois recognized Plum Grove Printers, a small printing firm that transformed itself into green business leader.

Hoffman Estate, IL (PRWEB) December 12, 2008 -- The Illinois Department of Natural Resources honored Hoffman Estates-based Plum Grove Printers for its significant achievements in protecting the environment and boosting the economy. The Governor's Pollution Prevention Award was presented at the print shop on December 1st, 2008, the anniversary date of the opening of the firm in 1980. This is the 22nd consecutive year the awards were presented by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.

Plum Grove Printers designed a 20-point program to reduce waste and increase sustainability through each aspect of production. The program includes buying only renewable power, using soy based inks, increasing the availability of quality recycled papers to its clients, and offsetting 100% of paper use with donations to the Nature Conservancy to protect old growth forests. The program actively encourages employees to think of new ways to increase eco-friendliness, like using real coffee cups instead of disposable dishware in the company lunchroom.

"My son Matthew was really involved in environmental stuff in college," explains Peter Lineal, who founded Plum Grove Printers 28 years ago. "During a summer internship Matthew analyzed our entire business looking for green opportunities. We knew we could do more but needed someone to focus on the task at hand."

Firm President Kim Evans said, "We knew we could do better. If you just work on it a little bit, you can be a whole lot greener than you were before," she says. "We're a factory with a staff of about 35, but now we only produce the equivalent of two to three garbage cans a week.

Lineal continued, "Matthew is currently in the Peace Corps in Honduras working with the local population and Nature Conservancy to protect and strengthen the National Parks and forests of Honduras. We now support him through the Nature Conservancy program in that country."

Plum Grove Printers promotes its green-friendly program to businesses through its websites, http://www.PlumGrovePrinters.com and http://www.PeterThePrinter.net, and through free use of its award-winning Green-Friendly logo.

The program also shows that green manufacturing is not prohibitively expensive. "We've seen less than a 2 percent cost increase," says Lineal. "But we have had to push our vendors to carry recycled paper stocks. Mills have universally responded to the demand, and in most cases, the pricing is almost identical. Many don't carry the recycled paper because it's inconvenient. If you don't ask, and you let them get away with not offering the eco-friendly options, then shame on you."

About the Governor's Pollution Prevention Awards & Illinois Sustainable Technology Award:

The Governor's Pollution Prevention Award is the state of Illinois' highest award for green-friendly sustainable business.

For the past 22 years, the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) has worked with the Illinois Governor's office to recognize outstanding pollution prevention efforts in our state. These annual awards are presented to businesses and organizations in Illinois that have successfully reduced the generation of gaseous, liquid, and solid waste. The Pollution Prevention (P2) projects this year saved the companies and organizations millions of dollars in material and disposal costs. The companies and organizations also prevented hundreds of tons of waste materials from being released into the environment and saved millions of gallons of water from being sent to treatment facilities.

(Excerpt from award ceremony)

Printing uses trees, and while trees are a renewable resource, printing still has an environmental impact. Plum Grove Printers has always recycled and avoided practices that were less than environmentally friendly. But the company decided that was not enough. In 2006, with the assistance of a college student on a green-friendly summer internship, Plum Grove reinvented itself with a multi-point program of going green.

Plum Grove Printers reviewed all aspects of the materials, energy, and supplies used in the printing process. This included examining the manufacturing, waste, and spoilage in an effort to come up with an affordable program of going green. Moreover, Plum Grove wanted a program that would encourage vendors and other partners to consider the environment as well. Plum Grove implemented an eco program that encourages customers to consider the environmental aspects of their finished products and to consider how they could help gain themselves recognition and build a wave of environmental awareness among businesses and the community. The program has resulted in a successful partnership with customers in practices such as shipping and ordering methods that cost the consumer less and help minimize environmental impact when compared to traditional ordering, production and product delivery systems.

About Plum Grove Printers:
Plum Grove Printers specializes in full color printing, digital printing, direct mail, bindery, and mailing. The firm was founded by Peter Lineal in 1980 near Chicago, IL, and has been repeatedly recognized as one of the Top 100 North American Printers by Quick Printing Magazine. Plum Grove Printers also operates a chain of self-service custom printing websites at http://www.PeterThePrinter.net].

Direct Mail: the Facts

2008-01-09T13:53:00.000-06:00

It's 2008: time to shake up your business, guide new customers to your services, and affirm your relationship with your existing client base. Is Direct Mail Marketing the right tool to grow your business? Consider this thumbnail primer on Direct Mail:

Old fashioned, or Timeless?

In the digital age, mailings may seem clunky, old-fashioned, and expensive. Despite this perception, investment in Direct Mail is growing -- sales resulting from mailings hit $421.3 billion in past years, and are projected to increase by $8.3 billion. There's a reason why you receive so much direct mail-- advertising by mail can work with rare effectiveness and distinct benefits.

Targetability

With direct mail, an advertiser can target potential customers down to the finest detail-- based on income, interests, household type, education, and lots more. Nearly every household and business on the market is within reach, giving you an audience with your ideal market.

Maintenance & Tracking

Direct Mail builds and reinforces existing consumer relationships through personalized mailings. Response rate is easily tracked through coupon redemption, return-card/call-back options, or other call-to-action fulfillment. You can gauge the effectiveness of your campaign and adjust it in a way that print advertising, for example, makes difficult.

High Impact, High Response

Because your message reaches prospects interested in your services, and because your advertising

is tangible and engaging, the response rates for Direct Mail are exceptionally high. 50% of Direct Mail recipients read it immediately, and of those, over 40% find the information they received useful; consumers spend on average 10 minutes reading direct mail. Such rates are unthinkable in email marketing!

Costly, but Cost Effective

Ahh, but email marketing is much cheaper. This is true: with mailing list, printing, and postage, Direct Mail has a higher cost-per-thousand than many promotional methods. Because you're reaching the right audience with detailed information targeted to them, however, and because your mailing encourages customer interaction, wastage rates are very low. And Direct Mail is not prohibitively expensive: at PetersPostcards.com, our direct mail postcards site, we can print, address (to a fresh, targeted mailing list), and mail full color postcards for $.28/piece, or even less! This is considerably less than even search engine marketing to give you face time with your best sales prospects.

Direct Mail is not for every marketing need, and works best coupled with sharp copy, and the right call to action. For speaking to your ideal marketing audience, promoting your brand, and filling the parking lot, good old Direct Mail has a lot of life left!

Cordially,

Peter "the Printer" Lineal

Proudly Hanging 3 National Design Awards

2007-12-20T14:00:00.000-06:00

We're proud to announce that our Design Department has won three 2007 American Graphic Design Awards, which recognize outstanding achievement in graphic design. The awards, presented by Graphic Design USA magazine, honor specific top works from advertising agencies, graphic design firms, and publishing departments across diverse graphic design media, including print, internet, broadcast graphics, and logos.

Linda Bond, our Design Department Manager, created the pieces recognized by the awards: a full color real estate brochure marketing a home for sale, an issue of Healing Spirit Magazine (the 36 page full color publication of the Association of Professional Chaplains), and a logo signifying Green Friendly Printing.

A Real Winner!

The success of the Green Friendly Logo has been a source of special pride for us. We needed a logo to signal our commitment to environmentally responsible printing, and that our clients and peers in the industry could freely use to demonstrate a green friendly pledge. The logo is attractive and fun, and we're seeing its being adopted throughout the industry.

Linda has been with Plum Grove Printers for 13 years and leads an art department recognized by American Graphic Design Awards each of the past five years. Plum Grove designers Lisa Olivero and Rob Frank have also been decorated with awards.

Congratulations, Linda, on this prestigious recognition!

Wishing you all a loving and happy holiday,

Peter the Printer

Holiday Cards: Right About Now

2007-11-15T15:06:00.000-06:00

In the name of a less stressful Holiday season, let's do some quick math: you want your Personalized Holiday Cards to arrive during the week and a half before Christmas. This means you want to have your Holiday Cards in the mail between December 5th and December 10th. It takes about a week to custom print and deliver cards to you, so to make sure your happy holiday message decks halls, you should place your holiday card order . . . right about now.

At PetersHolidayCards.com, you have the complete holiday card catalogs of two top studios, Carlson Craft and Birchcraft, organized neatly online. You will find your holiday cards by style (from humor to patriotic to elegant to party invitations), and typeset the cards (and envelopes!) easily online. You'll find it's never been simpler ringing out your warm holiday message to your associates and loved ones.

This holiday season, we're donating 10% of holiday card profits to a charity of your choice. In addition to this donation, we're discounting 20% off all custom holiday cards printing.

The clock's running down on other holiday products, too-- including Promotional Calendars for advertising and Imprinted Business Holiday Gifts.

Don't look now, but Thanksgiving is a week away. We at Plum Grove Printers and Peter the Printer wish you and your families a very happy holiday!

Peter "the Printer" Lineal

2008 Marketing Starts Today

2007-11-12T15:43:00.000-06:00

Its January 2nd, 2008. Across America your best sales prospects are waking up, grabbing a cup of coffee, and glancing to the calendar-- a new calendar for the new year. If that calendar is imprinted with your company logo and contact information you will stick around throughout 2008-- maintaining Top-of-Mind Awareness. Consider the results from a recent Promotional Products Association survey:

55% of people questioned said they keep their promotional products for more than 1 year.

76.1% of respondents could recall the advertiser’s name on the promotional product that they had received within the past 12 months.

75.4% of respondents said they kept their promotional products because they were useful.

Promotional Calendars make an elegant, useful business gift, and an excellent advertising tool. At PetersCalendars.com you custom imprint a variety of calendars, easily, affordably, and entirely online.

Photo Wall Calendars Full color Photo Calendars with imprinted bottom contact strip. From $1.05/piece		Desk Calendars Compact, tasteful, full color desk calendars make a stellar business gift. From $.87/piece
Pop Up Calendars Unique 3-D calendars stick out of the crowd. A sure-fire addition to your client's desk. From $.53/piece		Jumbo Wall Calendars You see them on office walls all over-- huge commercial calendars in a variety of styles. From $1.78/piece
Magnetic Calendars They stick around-- to refrigerators, desks, and filing cabinets. With tear-away contact card to personalize for your area. From $.59/piece		Every Calendar Page can be Custom Imprinted with your Logo, Photo, & Contact Info.

Get your Imprinted Calendars to your clients and leads before the New Year and reap the profits throughout 2008!

Peter "the Printer" Lineal

Other Holiday Season Products . . .

Personalized Holiday Cards Printing

Business Holiday Gifts

Why Direct Mail Postcards?

2007-11-06T14:37:00.000-06:00

Postcards Hit With Impact.

Direct mail postcards catch the consumer's eye quickly with professional design, conveying relevant information and your unique sale proposition. With only a second to grab a customer's attention, the size, simplicity, and color of business postcards have an immediate effect; there is no envelope screening your message from your potential clients. The continual exposure of a postcard marketing campaign will have an outsized effect in building brand recognition, increase familiarity with your services, and increase your sales.

Postcard direct mail marketing campaigns can be Affordable.

We go out of our way to provide the lowest prices possible on full-color, custom postcards that professionally convey your message. The low postage rates on the cards, coupled with our using every applicable postal discount, means you can mail to a client every month for a year for much less than $10!

Custom Postcards are easy at Peter's Direct Mail Postcards.

Our online software walks you through the process of creating the piece exactly to your specifications: choosing the size, uploading your art, navigating your mailing options. We can help you create a targeted mailing list, too, tailored precisely to your needs.

How to Target your Best Sales Prospects

2007-11-05T11:57:00.000-06:00

Imagine you are in a room of 100 strangers plucked at random from the entire U.S. population, and you are trying to start up a conversation about, say, baseball. How many of these folks, plucked from all walks of life, do you think would want or be able to engage in this conversation with you?

Now imagine another room of 100 strangers, placed together randomly except for their being sports fans. How many people in this room do you think you'd be able to engage in conversation about baseball? Maybe 30 people in the room only like basketball or hockey, and another 40 people have only a passing interest in baseball. This still leaves 30 people who like to talk about baseball, and might be happy to speak with you about it, for no other reason than their interest in the topic.

When you are applying your energy and resources in taking your marketing message from person to person, you want to be communicating with the audience most receptive to what you have to say. There's a world of sales prospects out there for whom your product or service represents a solution to a problem, a delightful luxury, or a very useful tool. If you can stack the room with 100 of these leads, you'll be overwhelmed with new clients.

Direct mail marketing cannot deliver you only the addresses of those people ready and eager to buy your special Widget X, but, like the room of sports fans, it can give the addresses of people who have bought other types of Widgets, the addresses of people with the means to buy Widget X, the people whose lifestyle would be made much easier by Widget X. Probably a good number of these prospects would be interested in Widget X.

The Business Holiday Gift Dilemma

2007-10-31T11:25:00.000-05:00

The seasons turn, and the Great Dilemma of the Holidays begins to unfold: what gifts to get your valued business colleagues, associates, and clients. A thoughtful holiday gift connects you warmly with your business sphere, but finding the right gift for your professional associates can be difficult. Here are some ideas and guidelines as you start your Business Holiday Gift shopping:

Food gifts are always a hit. Colleagues of all types will eat and enjoy chocolates, candy jars, meats, popcorn tins, wines, and food baskets imprinted with your company logo.

Modest holiday gifts can convey a classy holiday message without breaking the bank. Personalized candles, mugs, ornaments, and beauty products are affordable ways to reach out to your holiday "Nice List," especially if its a long one.

Do not hesitate to get upscale gifts for close business friends and special clients. Engraved golf clubs, crystal, and lavish gift baskets show your gratitude for the special relationships that make your business life possible.

Our Business Holiday Gift solution, www.PetersAdSpecialties.com, makes it simple to find these personalized gifts you want. You can search within a gift category and price range (say, logo imprinted gift baskets for less than $10 per piece) to find the right gifts fast and easy. Search our online catalog of 100,000s of personalized gifts and find the creative holiday gifts you want.

Here's to a calmer, less stressful holiday shopping season!

Peter "the Printer" Lineal

Other Holiday Season Products . . .

Personalized Holiday Cards Printing

Imprinted Promotional Calendars

Business Holiday Cards Store Says: Choose Your Charity

2007-10-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

Peter the Printer's personalized holiday card website, re-launched today, gives shoppers custom control of their printing and charitable giving.

Hoffman Estates, IL October 10, 2007 -- Peter the Printer celebrated the re-launch of its personalized Holiday Cards website today, Peters Holiday Cards, with 20% discount off all printing and a 10% charitable donation of all profits. In a completely online and automated process, shoppers choose from hundreds of Christmas and Holiday card designs, typeset the card (or choose a verse template), and customize the card's envelope. The custom holiday cards store provides a self-service solution for businesses and Christmas shoppers, who will send out close to 2 billion holiday cards this Christmas season.

As well as the 20% discount off all holiday card printing, the store will donate 10% of every order's profit to a charity of the client's choice. Christmas shoppers and corporations may choose from a list of accredited charities, or suggest a charity to donate the proceeds from their order.

"Our clients choose the charity so they feel connected with their donation," explained CEO Peter "the Printer" Lineal. "We prize this opportunity to promote the spirit of giving, as well as some of our favorite, most worthy charities."

Peters Holiday Cards returns as one of the most popular Peter the Printer web services. The firm operates over a dozen do-it-yourself custom printing websites, which offer easy, online design and discount prices on products as diverse as imprinted business holiday gifts and promotional business calendars. Lineal believes that the broad selection and smooth functionality of the holiday cards site explains its success.

"Business Holiday Cards, especially, need to strike the right tone," continued Lineal. "They are not about sales, but about human connection with clients, employees, and friends. We offer the complete catalogs of two of the largest holiday card studios, providing a rare breadth of choice to establish the right personal tone. From humorous holiday cards, Thanksgiving cards, animal cards, to religious cards, Christmas photo cards, and beyond, we offer a simple method to create thoughtfully personalized holiday messages."

"Ordering custom holiday cards is suddenly easy and stressless. We have boiled what used to involve multiple phone calls, in-person proofing, and weeks of wait, into 15 minutes of work or less, with your holiday cards shipping within 3 days. The transformation in this business is amazing."

Peter the Printer, as well as its parent company, Plum Grove Printers, has an involved history with the charitable and not-for-profit sectors. The firm offers a year-round, no-strings 14% off discount to all registered charities and not-for-profits, and counts numerous churches, synagogues, and Boy Scout troops among the beneficiaries of this policy.

About Peter the Printer

Peter the Printer operates web-based, self-service custom printing and marketing services at PeterThePrinter.net. The full-service printing company was founded by Peter Lineal in 1980 near Chicago, IL. An industry-wide leader in environmentally-friendly printing, the firm has been repeatedly recognized as one of the Top 100 North American Printers by Quick Printing Magazine. Peter the Printer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Plum Grove Printers, Inc.

###

Small Press Printer Leads by Example in Environmental Responsibility

2007-10-03T13:44:00.000-05:00

Peter the Printer has drafted an initiative to show that truly green printing is possible.

Peter the Printer, a division of Plum Grove Printers, Inc, announced today a sweeping environmental initiative designed to transform the Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based firm into an industry leader of green printing. The multi-faceted initiative emphasizes strict recycling, renewable resources, and donations to reforestation programs, to minimize the impact of consumption while cutting waste. Peter the Printer, with over 30 full-time employees, wants to become an example of what an environmentally-friendly small business printer can look like, and inspire other printers to take up its initiative.

"Green printing is a very exciting frontier for us," said CEO Peter Lineal. "Environmentally sound industry is possible. It is marginally more expensive, but well within the means of small press printers to adopt green policies. We want to demonstrate how to do it. We want to prove to the world, and ourselves, just how environmentally-friendly we can be."

The initiative calls for changing consumption and waste patterns, increasing staff environmental-consciousness, and designing the firm's new production building to be eco-friendly. Plum Grove Printers is now powered by 100% non-carbon sources, including 60% wind power. The firm intends to increase its use of recycled paper to 90% of its total tonnage, and aims to have a 99% recycling or reuse rate with inks, rags, and incoming packaging and containers. The initiative also calls for completely offsetting paper usage by donations to the Nature Conservancy and the Printer's National Environmental Assistance Center, which replant trees while protecting high-conservation forests.

The company will be producing a brochure outlining cost-effective ways for other small press printers to go green, and offers general use of its Green Friendly logo (available for free download at PeterThePrinter.net

About Peter the Printer and Plum Grove Printers : Founded in 1980, Plum Grove Printers, green friendly Chicago printer] features an award-winning design studio, full mail/bindery services, digital printing, and traditional offset and web printing. Since August, Plum Grove Printers has launched the first dozen of about 50 self-service printing webstores anchored at PeterThePrinter.net. The firm has repeatedly been named one of the 100 Top North American Printers by Quick Print Magazine in its 25 years in the northwest Chicago suburbs.

Promotional Calendars Keep You Around

2007-09-05T10:56:00.000-05:00

It's hard to wrap your head around, but soon will be the time to start thinking of end of year advertising promotions-- and few promotional products have as much staying power as Business Promotional Calendars. An advertising calendar keeps your contact information available and in front of sales leads for the entire year, ensuring that you'll be around when prospects need your services.

Today we're relaunching PetersCalendars.com, giving you the Custom Promotional Calendars to make a winning impact with fast, easy design. Our advertising Calendar site offers four custom imprinted calendar styles--

Photo Wall Calendars -- Choose from 20 photo calendars (including wildlife, automotive, golf & more), imprinted with your company logo & info.

Magnetic Calendars -- With tear-away pages, magnetic calendars stick to fridges & file cabinets. A cheap custom calendar.

Pop Up Calendars -- Truly unique, these 3-D promotional calendars are a sure bet for your clients' desks and home. Pop Up Calendars come in a rainbow of styles.

Desk Calendars -- Small & attractive, custom desk calendars make a good, useful promotional product.

Commercial Calendars -- Large commercial wall calendars, perfect for clients to write on.

Envelopes Made from Corn

2007-08-13T12:08:00.000-05:00

Every day across America, tens of millions of window envelopes are manufactured and printed. As of this July, businesses at last have the choice to use window envelopes made from environmentally-friendly materials: Blue Corn Window Envelopes. Moving away from corrosive, non-biodegradable plastics, the windows are made from a corn-based resin and have a slight blue tinge. The paper in the envelopes, while not recycled, is FSC certified paper fiber (a recycled fiber envelope would fall apart in the mail!). Blue Corn Window Envelopes cost the same as normal window envelopes.

Our Green-Friendly Policy Making Waves

The commercial availability of Blue Corn Window Envelopes is a proud victory for the Green Friendly program launched by Plum Grove Printers. It has been possible to produce these envelopes for a while, but they had never been made or ordered until weeks ago. A cycle of "I won't make them until somebody orders.

Plum Grove President Kim Evans and Peter Lineal (me!) receive Clean Air Counts certification, which recognizes Plum Grove Printers as a committed partner in reducing Chicagoland air pollution by 5 tons of emissions per day.

I won't order until somebody makes them" kept the envelope out of use until Cindy, our representative at our envelope wholesaler, Lewis Paper, inspired by our policy, invested in 100,000 #10 Green Friendly window envelopes. These are our envelopes of choice and can be yours, too!

Make Environmental Friendliness your Business Priority

Our Green-Friendly program means both being a Clean Printer and showing by example how low-cost changes in business practice can significantly reduce your environmental footprint. Curbing the environmental impact of your envelopes is one small way to be a more responsible business while signaling commitment to shared, important values to your clients and business partners.

Your Proud Printer,
Peter

The ABCs of Direct Marketing

2007-08-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

By Peter "the Printer" Lineal

How to Select Your Prospecting Mailing List

We hear it again and again in the printing industry: We need to mail every month without fail if we want our business to thrive. Almost all of the big, successful printers have ongoing direct mail campaigns. And there are many newsletter services that offer their creativity to you at a fraction of the cost of you doing the conceptualizing, writing, and art yourself. All it takes is the desire and a good mailing list of prospects.

Your existing and past clients are your number one prospects to sell more products and/or services. Past quotations also are a valid source of list building. But to get things rolling, you can either build your own list from street address directories, chamber of commerce lists, yellow pages, etc., or opt to buy a list from a professional list broker. The benefits of choosing a list broker are having the most accurate mailing list information available, being able to curtail your list to include the most fruitful prospects, and convenient and fast delivery.

Pinpoint Your Target

Once you've decided to use direct mail as part of your total promotional plan, you'll need to select an appropriate mailing list. Pinpoint your target audience as precisely as you can before you begin the mailing list search process. Do you want to reach businesses, consumers, or every mailbox in the neighborhood of your store or business? Do you need names only or will just the addresses do; do you need titles of those in business; could you use telephone numbers for follow-up calls? Other available and very useful information includes level of sales, years in business, number of employees, credit worthiness, and much more. Do you want the list sorted by zip code, city, county, business size, or some combination of these criteria?

The value of direct mail marketing lies in its ability to connect you directly with the audience most receptive to your message. Imagine a room filled with your ten best clients, and ask yourself: do these ten clients overwhelming come from certain industries? Are they mostly women? Do they have similar lifestyles or economic situations? Are they mostly apartment dwellers? A well-designed mailing list serves as a doorway into this room, allowing you to tell these likely clients about your services or products.

Never Buy, Only Rent

You never buy a mailing list. You only rent it. You can rent a list for one-time use or multiple-use (more than one mailing in a 12-month period). If you want to mail only one piece to each name, then one time is enough. But more often than not you'll want to re-mail to the same names and need multiple-use rental. Renting the list for multiple mailings allows you to selectively mail to prospects and track response for future re-mail and phone follow-up. Of course, once a prospect has responded to your mailing, he is "yours" to keep and develop.

Evaluate All Costs

Be sure to get an accurate idea of all the charges involved with a mailing. Cost per thousand, sorting charges, media charges, data conversion charges, labeling costs, etc. Only then can you accurately determine the total cost of your promotional piece by adding, printing, stuffing, folding, metering or stamping, paper stock, labor, in-house management, etc. Peter's Business and Consumer Mailing Lists include a handful of the most popular selects free of charge, but when many additional selects are included on very large lists, the cost per name can add up fast.

Consider Alternatives to Buying New Consumer or Business Mailing Lists

Examine your needs: would you consider sending your mail piece to every address in a neighborhood? Though not as focused as a carefully crafted consumer or business mailing list, neighborhood lists can be a very cost effective means to get your message out. The cost per address is considerably less than in other mailing lists, and by coordinating with mail carrier routes the United States Post Office offers a considerable rebate in postage, potentially saving you big bucks. Its not for every mailing, but definitely an option worth considering. (We offer neighborhood mailing lists at our webstore PetersNewNeighbors.com.)

Another way to save yourself the cost of a new mailing list is breathe new life into your old mailing list. Almost 20% of Americans move every year, businesses move or go under, people pass away, so the addresses on your mailing lists don't stay fresh for very long. Its very inexpensive, however, to vet your mailing list of changed addresses; we offer a mailing list cleaning service at PetersListScrub.com that gets rid of the old addresses (saving you the cost of a new mailing list and a lot of wasted printing) while consolidating your list to make you eligible for postal rebates.

About the Author:
Peter "the Printer" Lineal is founder and CEO of Peter the Printer webstores, a division of Plum Grove Printers, inc. He's been in the business of printing and mailing for 25 years and can be reached at peterl@petertheprinter.net.

Consumer Mailing Lists

Business Mailing Lists

Mailing Lists Home

Custom Business Promotional Products

2007-07-25T09:08:00.000-05:00

Shop for more
Business Promotional Products

Pens

Magnets

Tote Bags

Mugs

Shirts & Clothing

Keychains

Mousepads & USBs

Magnets

Golf Balls

MUCH MORE!

Custom Promotional Printing at
Peters Ad Specialties

Giving to the Givers

2007-07-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

Somebody has been quietly doing a lot of heavy lifting in our communities: the charity and Not-For-Profit sector. Non-profits are a front line in fighting for what's meaningful to our society: stopping hunger through shelters, soup kitchens and food drives, teaching adults and children to read through literacy programs, fundraising for disease research, operating arts projects, running church charities and volunteer programs, and much more.

Enrich...and yet not-for-profit organizations are usually operated on a shoestring budget. A ton of energy and organization is spent trying to locate and sustain the resources needed to do their job!

We give Discounts Every Day to Not-for-Profits

For over 25 years Plum Grove Printers has served as an extension of Non-Profits' toolbox, providing our range of print and mail services at 14% off for all recognized charities and not-for-profits. The discount extends to all Peter the Printer webstores in addition to other discounts. This is our modest way of furthering the noble work of these organizations.

But it adds up. We are proud to say that we are on pace to donate $52,000 of in-kind print and mail services for 2007.

If your church or charity is not registered with us yet, please give us a call at 1-866-PETER-02 or send an email.

Best,
Peter the Printer

Advertising Works in Strange Ways

2007-06-19T10:51:00.000-05:00

The Tale of a Tee:

I got the phone call mid afternoon a few weeks ago. John, a long time client (24 years!) who became a good friend was calling from Tampa.

“You’re never going to believe this,” John starts.

“John, why are you calling your printer while you’re on vacation? You should be on the golf course,” I scold.

“Well I was and that is what you’re not going to believe. I am out with my son Phil on a great course down here and I step up to the tee on the Par 3 Signature hole – a beautiful hole with a tough island green. Wind in my face I launch a 6-iron right at the pin. Anyway I am short and it goes plunk in the water. (Editor’s note: For you non-golfers you should know that they frequently put the wrong distance on golf courses just to make it hard to select the right club…)

“I take another ball and a longer club and scrounge around the tee box for somebody’s tee – and I come up with a Plum Grove Printers purple tee. At that Phil and I just laughed and laughed.”

Of course it would be the perfect advertising story with the perfect ending if John got a hole-in-one using our tee. Let’s just say the ball didn’t go for a swim with the fishes.

Plum Grove Printers has given these tees out at Chamber golf outings and other events for a few years as an ad specialty with the idea that somebody meets you and then sees your company name a bunch more times when they play golf we will wind up with some name recognition and maybe they’ll think of us when they need printing. I never thought about the residual advertising value of our golf tees traveling around the world making sales calls for us in tropical places.

I wonder how that tee got to Tampa?

Sincere Regards,
Peter the Printer

Top of Mind Awareness with Top of Desk Promotions

2007-06-11T09:08:00.000-05:00

Imagine: you run an ad in the newspaper for your business. Your client
reads the paper, pulls the ad, and leaves it lying out in their house.
Every few days or weeks they return to it, re-read it, and admire it.

Seem unlikely?

Yet this happens with promotional messages everyday in the form of
hotel stationery, magnets from the local pizza place, mouse pads from
trade shows, charity t-shirts, logo mugs, and more. These are custom
printed Ad Specialty products.

Ad Specialties make elegant, useful corporate gifts, offering thanks
to your clients. As Promotional Products the gift gives back -- Ad
Specialties build Top of Mind Awareness, keeping you around when
clients need your services, even years after contact.

We have a mall of 350,000 custom printed promotional items at
www.PetersAdSpecialties.com --- a catalog easily navigated by product
type, style, and price range. You can put your company logo on pens,
shirts, hats, magnets, tote bags, golf balls, air fresheners,
holograms, frisbees and much more online.

Wondering what your business logo would look like on a particular
baseball cap or USB flash drive? Our Ad Specialties store has software
that shows your logo immediately on every product we offer. It's an
instant proof that makes promotional product shopping a lot of fun.

Thanks for the Boom Times

2007-05-03T13:05:00.000-05:00

Back in December 1980, I founded Plum Grove Printers with one printing press and my own two hands to work it. 26 years later (some of them pretty lean times), we're growing at an explosive rate and I thank you -- my friends and clients -- for your continuing trust in our quality printing products and services.

From New Production Facility to New Personnel -- A Growth that Goes Deep

In 2006, we grew by over 12% from 2005, and so far in 2007 we've increased our Chicagoland business 28% (!) and 14% overall over our 2006 numbers. It's a growth that touches every part of our operations and is keeping us very busy.

Plum Grove Printers has been adding staff and production space to keep up with demand -- we doubled our sales personnel in 2006, as well as increasing full-time customer service, production, and information technology staff. We plan to break ground on a new 15,000 sq. foot production facility in late-2007, more than doubling our Hoffman Estates campus to 24,600 sq. feet.

How do We Hack it in an Age of Cheap-O Copy Stores?

We are a marketing-oriented printer and understand the importance of quality, consistency, and fair prices to you. The majority of our staff has been with us for over 10 years, so we know how to dependably provide printing that's on time and right. We have a world-class design staff, and a personable, service-oriented ethos.

There are more important things than printing, though, and responsible citizenship is our prerogative. This year we formally instituted a 'green-friendly' program to make us one of America's most environmentally-friendly printers, and we continue to discount printing for religious organizations and charities. Currently we are aiding the Little City Foundation with its book drive; drop your old books at our office, with our drivers, or at the other locations listed here.

The Amazon.com of Printing & Direct Mail

In 2006, we diversified our products to offer advertising specialties, increased direct mail, and, most substantially, new web resources that will be the future of the firm.

We want to change the way people buy their printing, to give them the convenience and control of online purchasing. With www.PeterThePrinter.net, and the dozens of custom printing and marketing products we already offer online, we want to become the Amazon.com of printing & direct mail. We hope to enjoy the growth of Plum Grove Printers long into the future.

Thank you for making it all possible, for bringing me a long way from that cold evening in 1980.

A Stamp That Lasts Forever

2007-05-01T13:48:00.000-05:00

The Post Office is my business partner. Every month we mail a million postcards, letters, and magazines for our clients, and if one gets lost, you know who gets the blame. I sometimes feel like a farmer, who has the weather for a business partner.

Big Changes In My Partner’s Business

The price of stamps has been steadily increasing: 13 times in 32 years, and set to rise again from 39 cents to 41 cents. With the cost of gasoline and transportation, and the automation of so many transactions, it is not a big surprise that the Post Office needed to increase rates.

There are some common sense reforms hiding behind a price increase: stuff that costs more to deliver will be charged more money. My Postal Partner continues to invest major dollars in machines to improve productivity, speed the mail and enhance service. From now on rates may go up every year by a little bit (FedEx and UPS go up by 3% or 4% every year like clockwork).

To decrease the impact of these small increases on consumers, the Post Office is introducing a First Class stamp that's valid forever. Making its debut on May 14th, a Forever Stamp purchased in 2007 (for 41 cents) will be sufficient to mail a letter in the year 2012, 2050, or beyond (when the price of letter stamps will be 41 dollars). The days of plastering your letter with 1-cent stamps to meet the latest stamp price are over.

You Can Minimize the Postal Increase Bite – and We can Help!

Here are a few things you can do:

1. ListScrub™ your mailing list – it’s dirt cheap and pays for itself in postage savings – and we guarantee it. Visit http://www.PetersListScrub.com/ for information.

2. Design Your Mail Piece to Automate. The Post Office says, “We’ll give you big discounts if you give us a piece of mail that runs through our machines.”

3. Make sure the address you are mailing to really exists. My Postal Partner says, “Give me a good address and I will give you a big discount.” Some postal costs have gone up by fractions of a penny – and one of the categories of mail we have huge volumes in has even gone down. Visit my partner’s website at http://www.usps.gov/ for lots more information. Or give us a call at 1-866-PETER-02 -– we’re glad to help!

Happy mailing,
Peter

Custom Promotional Products Get Easier with New Online Service

2007-04-16T09:54:00.000-05:00

Online distributer Peter the Printer improves Advertising Specialty printing with new web service offering thousands of custom promotional items.

Hoffman Estates, IL April 13, 2007 -- Peter the Printer announced today the launch of http://www.PetersAdSpecialties.com, offering printing of over 350,000 custom promotional products online. Marketers will receive discounts of up to 40% off all Advertising Specialty items for the site's opening.

Peter's Advertising Specialties gives marketers a dizzying variety of customizable products for brand promotion and trade show giveaways in a searchable database. Marketers navigate common custom products like promotional pens, mugs and work shirts by the price they would like to pay, product features and manufacturer. The ad specialties can be customized with a message or corporate logo online.

"Peter's Advertising Specialties is unique marketing service," explains CEO Peter "the Printer" Lineal. "The quantity and variety of custom promotional items is really astounding. For example, we offer thousands of styles of logo magnets, but also really exotic things like custom air fresheners, holograms and logo toothbrushes. You can comparison shop all the different Custom Product Suppliers to find the one that's right for your business."

"Custom Promotional Products are an affordable means to have a lasting branding impact on your sales prospects. Your business message and logo will linger before your client's eyes for weeks or months, building top of mind awareness for your marketing message. And for our opening, we're offering a sale discount that -- depending on order quantity -- can exceed 40% off your Advertising Specialty products."

The arrival of http://www.PetersAdSpecialties.com coincides with a boom for custom promotional product printing. The 2006 spending on marketing promotional items set a record for the Advertising Specialty industry -- exceeding spending on Internet display advertising, outdoor advertising and cable advertising from the same period.

About Peter the Printer
Peter the Printer is an environmentally-friendly, full service printing company located near Chicago, IL. A subsidiary of Plum Grove Printers, named one of the top 100 North American Printers by Quick Print magazine, it has been providing custom printing and direct mail services for 25 years. Peter the Printer operates an expanding network of self-service custom printing and marketing websites, with custom business labels, direct mail postcards, wedding invitations and much more anchored at http://www.PeterThePrinter.net.

###

Our Mailing List Hygiene Tool Makes Your Business Smarter

2007-03-06T13:50:00.000-06:00

In an age where 16 percent to 18 percent of Americans move each year, Peter the Printer, producer of self-service printing websites, has developed a new approach to mailing list data cleansing that provides direct marketers and membership organizations a powerful, simple way to maximize their direct mail marketing dollars while lowering their costs. At http://www.PetersListScrub.com, marketers securely upload their mailing list information, and within 24 to 48 hours, it is returned with address standardized for postal discounts and corrections and revisions made to the list so that it is ready to mail.

"We want to change public understanding of mail database scrubbing," said CEO Peter "the Printer" Lineal. "Businesses that mail regularly waste a lot of printing and postage by using outdated information -- duplicate addresses, moved households, deceased persons and seasonal addresses. Peter's List Scrub rejuvenates what may be the most important asset of your company -- your mailing data. This can add up to thousands of dollars in annual savings."

List scrubbing coincides with the firm's environmental priorities, Lineal added. "The better the mailing list, the less environmental waste there is in energy, paper, ink and gasoline to deliver millions of mailing pieces to people who have moved. This is one of the key steps we are taking to meet the Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing (FEDMA) recommendations for environmentally green marketing, even though these best practices are yet not common in the USA."

The service compares mailing list information against the United States Postal Service National Change of Address as well as other national databases, updating or eliminating addresses from the mailing list that have gone stale. Mailing list scrubbing includes reports on duplicate records, undeliverable addresses, seasonal and vacant addresses, and persons in prison or deceased. The service also identifies registrants on the national voluntary Do Not Mail list, as it corrects records registered in the National Change of Address (NCOA) directory.

"We don't know why data cleansing is such a well-kept secret," continued Lineal. "With http://www.PetersListScrub.com, we want to push this service into the marketing mainstream by making it simple and low-risk. The service is one-step, with fast delivery. We're offering 20 percent off every mailing list cleaning, and guarantee to save our clients the cost of the list scrub on their first mailing."

Online Marketing Campaigns Have Bloomed for Landscapers and Garden Centers

2007-02-27T11:36:00.000-06:00

PetersGardenCards.com and PetersLandscapeCards.com, two new direct mail resources launched today, cater to the unique marketing needs of garden centers and landscapers.

Hoffman Estates, IL (PRWEB) February 16, 2007 -- Peter the Printer, developer of self-service printing websites, announced today the launch of two web services aimed at the green industry:
http://www.PetersGardenCards.com and http://www.PetersLandscapeCards.com.
These websites guide landscapers and garden center professionals to craft their own direct marketing campaigns online, tailored to their neighborhood, target demographics and budgetary constraints.

"With PetersGardenCards.com and PetersLandscapeCards.com we've set out to deliver a marketing-campaign-in-a-box for the green industry," said CEO Peter "the Printer" Lineal. "We have an assortment of full-color garden and landscape postcard templates, which can be personalized with custom offers and messages online. The postcard is matched with a custom mailing list -- also designed online, and tailored to the green industry. You can make a full-scale, targeted postcard marketing campaign in less than 20 minutes."

Marketers either securely upload their customer mailing list or design one for free online as part of the ordering process. The mailing lists can include all the residences in the region of a landscape or garden center business, or be constrained by demographic and lifestyle data. The lists can include only gardeners, for example, or focus on affluent households. Peter the Printer prints the cards, then addresses and mails them.

The site also offers printing of the cards without mailing, as well as a line of laser-ready preprinted perforated cards.

The postcards are printed in full color in two sizes on green-friendly 10-point coated stock. http://www.PetersGardenCards.com and http://www.PetersLandscapeCards.com include a variety of distinct templates with colorful, attractive designs.

"Direct mail works," continued Lineal. "Garden center businesses can extend their season or fill their lots to overflow with direct mail. Landscapers can focus on the best neighborhoods for major project work, or to grow their maintenance work and get rid of the driving around. We've laid out a whole box of marketing tools oriented to garden centers and landscapers, making it easier than ever to communicate meaningfully with clients. And with free mailing lists, direct marketing rarely comes so affordably."

About Peter the Printer

Peter the Printer http://www.PeterThePrinter.net, a subsidiary of Plum Grove Printers, Inc., has 25 years of direct mail experience. An environmentally-friendly, full-service printing company located near Chicago, IL, with a staff of over 30, the firm has repeatedly been named one of the 100 Top North American Printers by Quick Print Magazine. Since August, Peter the Printer has launched over a dozen self-service printing webstores specializing in custom label printing, mailing lists, wedding invitations, ad specialties, and more.