If you are looking for invitations that will make a lasting impression on your guests, but not your wallet, try some of these cost-saving tips for invitation design and printing.

1. Keep it classic
To make your invitation pop without spending a ton of money on fancy foil stamping or embossing, stick to a black-and-white palette or use black, white and one other accent color. A generous use of white space around the text and images will keep the invite looking elegant and refined. Converting illustrations, graphic design elements and photographs into black and white will add to the sophisticated look and feel.

2. Pare down production
These first two ideas can lower production costs, but involve some do-it-yourself post-production work. First, you can choose to leave the inside of your invitations blank and handwrite the party details inside. If you leave the inside blank, then select a design that will look good with a handwritten interior. A craft-like or natural design will work better with handwriting than a modern, sleek design. Also, do not select a handwritten font for the outside of the invite, it will just clash with the real handwriting inside. Another idea is to have the invitations scored and shipped to you flat, then you can fold them yourself and save some extra cash. Additionally, selecting the smallest trim-size and least expensive paper stock can add up to substantial savings.

3. Focus on the font
You may want to go low budget on printing, paper or trim size, but you can still create an amazing invitation by investing in the perfect font. Purchasing a font is a low, one-time cost and not a cost-per-piece item and sometimes you can even find the perfect font as a free download. If you are hosting a baby shower, one idea would be to find an eye-catching, 1950s retro font and pair it with a classic image of a stork or even an umbrella (a little bit of a silly pun). If you are hosting a children’s party, try a futuristic font, an animal or nature-inspired font or something really playful that relates to the party’s theme.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

While you might say it’s too soon for Valentine’s Day, its not too soon to start planning a holiday greeting card project. In fact, now is the perfect time to design and print holiday cards!

Think about it: You’ll need to come up with a mailing list, a theme, a message, a design and perhaps stage a photograph of your home, business or family to send out. Then you have to allow time for production and mail delivery to be sure the card arrives ahead of the holidays.

So start thinking about the winter holidays now and consider these three greeting card add-ons, which will let family, friends and clients know how much you care.

1. Foil stamping
The winter holidays are the perfect occasion to add foil stamping to your design repertoire. A foil stamp is a special printing process that adds a layer of metallic-looking foil to a chosen area of your greeting card. Apply foil stamping to snowflakes, candles, stars, menorahs, tinsel, ornaments, gift packages and any other holiday design elements you can think of to make them really shine.

2. Create a sticker
A holiday greeting card is also a great vehicle for sending out special stickers. Create a die-cut sticker in the shape of a star or a Christmas tree. Another great use of stickers is to include a bunch in each card, and design them with a “To:” and “From:” field so that recipients can use them when they distribute holiday presents. Or you can create a festive sticker for ringing in the New Year, “Happy 2010!” that people can wear to a party or stick on the calendar or refrigerator.

3. Include a bookmark
Why not give everyone on your holiday mailing list a free gift! You can if you include a winter or holiday-themed bookmark in your greeting card mailing. A bookmark is flat and can slip into your mailing with little added cost. The winter holidays are a great time to give a bookmark as a gift with vacation from work and colder weather, there’s more time to for folks to curl up with a book.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

These copy elements work because they combine clever writing and design. In other words, it’s the placement of the text that drives the messaging home.

Every designer and marketer should become familiar with these three pieces of copy and use them whenever possible.

1. Teaser copy
Teaser copy refers to the line or two of text that recipients see right away when they pick up your promotion. On a letter, it’s found on the envelope and in a brochure, it would be visible on the cover page. Teaser copy is one of the best ways to entice customers to actually open up and read your promotion. Use teaser copy to let them know when: a) there’s something free inside; b) there’s a discount offer inside; or c) that they will learn something by viewing your promotion. If you let an envelope, brochure or postcard go out, without this vital piece of text, you may experience depressed response.

2. Headlines and subheads
Headlines work really well on letters, inside brochures and on Websites — basically in any promotion that includes a lot of copy. Headlines and subheads can help break up the content of your promotion into digestible bites that even the most impatient or distracted reader can process. Many customers will skim quickly over your promotion looking for something to jump out at them. By using headlines that capture important information such as product benefits, offers and calls to action, you can still reach those skimming readers.

3. The P.S.
The P.S. or postscript in a letter may seem like a tiny detail, but leading marketers will attest to the power of the P.S. in printed promotions. For some reason, people tend to jump down to the postscript even before they finish reading a letter. If you are including a letter, or message of any kind then definitely include a P.S. In the P.S. it’s best to reiterate or summarize the gist of the entire promotion. Write it so that, even if its the only thing a person reads, they’ll still get the big picture.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The large sizes, ranging from 11˝ x 17˝ up to 24˝ x 36˝ and including custom sizes, allow you to have a huge impact on viewers. When designing a poster promotion, consider the following three points, to help turn your wall art into new business and profits.

1. Create a Custom Poster Mailer
Work with your print vendor to see if it’s possible to fold a poster into a mailable package. Folding and wafer-sealing the edges of the poster can make it mailable at a regular postal rates. Use one blank back panel as an address block. When recipients unfold the mailing to reveal a poster, they will be amazed at your creativity and how big and impressive your promotion is. If you create an appealing design on the poster, they may even keep your promotion and hang it up at home or the office.

1. Include A Bit of Fine Print
While design is vital to poster success, posters still need some copywriting and calls-to-action to generate business. If the viewer has no way to get in touch with you or follow up on the promotion, there will be no measurable return on your printing investment. Include copy either in the main headline of the poster, or as a blurb or caption. Offer deadlines, discounts, telephone numbers, URLs, and store locations are all examples of important poster copy.

3. Show your Green Side
While a shiny, glossy poster may work best for some projects, using a matte paper, preferably with 100 percent recycled fiber and no chlorine compounds, can be a great way to showcase your environmental awareness. Customers will instantly recognizes the natural, earthy look and feel of the paper. There are also recycled content logos available for use on your promotion to point out your wise choice of paper. You can even include a blurb about the use of recycled paper and your business’ other environmental initiatives. Talk to your print vendor about the other green paper, printing and coating options available.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Like an experiment in a laboratory, you can test one controlled sample of mailings (that you know has worked in the past) against an experimental sample. In sending two versions of the same mailing out to separate segments of your list, it’s possible to track response and sales and measure which version generated the most business. In designing future mailings you will be able to use valuable data, which tells you which kinds of copy and design have worked best in the past.

The most effective way to test copy and graphic design elements is to focus on very specific elements in isolation. This is true A versus B panel testing. An example would be testing two different headlines on a retail postcard mailing with a coupon. Version A could say “Come on Down to Our Grand Opening,” and version B could say, “50% Off Select Merchandise.”

Aside from the element being tested, the A and B versions should be identical in terms of copy and graphic design. Avoid performing head-to-head tests of totally different types of promotions because there will be too many different variables to determine which elements pulled their weight. For example, sending out a direct-marketing postcard with one set of graphic design and copy against a letter in an envelope with totally different set of graphic design and copy, will not provide specific enough information about what works. Testing should tell marketers specific things like, “This headline worked,” “We need to do four color,” or “Customers responded more to the photograph of the entire family than the image of a mother and her child.”

When conducting a test, it’s important to build the testing information into your database so you can later track which customers received which version, and how that affected sales.

The more contacts you send the test to, the more reliable the results. Panels of 1,000 or more names in a mailing of 2,000 copies are preferable, while the gurus of testing will tell you that at least 5,000 names out of 10,000 total are necessary for the most accurate results.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

That unruly piece of mail was probably sent by a group of savvy marketers who realize how important it is to stand out from the clutter.

Using different formats, colors and sizes can all help your piece pop and grab the recipient’s attention. Here are some ideas to make postcards and letters that look different from the usual bunch.

1. Try a larger format
Whether you’re mailing a postcard or an envelope, bigger sizes tend to get a higher response rate. However, this tactic is not foolproof, because larger formats cost more in printing and postage. If you have any wiggle room in your budget, a larger size is worth a test, as it may increase the influence of your promotion.

2. Use color
You’re going through the mail and what do you see? White envelope, white envelope, kraft envelope … then BOOM! Bright orange. If you use colorful paper you may find more new customers. Stay away from neon treatments, which somehow always scream junk mail. A large and intriguing four-color photograph that ties into the rest of the promotion is also a good way to immediately grab a prospect’s attention.

3. Create a custom-shaped piece
If your client owns a cupcake shop and they send out a local mailing in the shape of one of their best-selling cupcakes, how cool would that be? Probably cool enough to increase foot-traffic into their shop. A die-cut mailing or flyer offers boundless opportunities for creative messaging and design. To get ideas for creating a custom-shaped piece, check out the samples on the US Postal Services’ MarketMail page.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.