Back to the Business Basics

Many business owners have wisely spent time and money to keep their business name out there for the buying public.  With everyone working on their SEO program, having a presence with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, attending networking events and happy hours, you may find yourself saying "Am I doing all I can?" 

Remember the basics of running a business.  Do not overlook how your staff is answering incoming phone calls, email responses and greeting customers.

Answering the phone by saying "ABC Company" isn't the way to answer the phone.  Saying "Good morning, this is ABC Company" is a more professional way to answer.  It is up to the office manager or business owner to ensure your staff is properly trained on answering phone calls. 

Review your companies email policy.  Does the staff respond to emails within a reasonable time?  Is the reply email worded in a professional manner?  Keep in mind the written words should be written as if the person is in front of you. 

How does your staff greet customers?  As soon as a customer walks into your business, greet them with at least a "Hello" to acknowledge you know they are there.  Your staff may not be able to assist them right away so have a policy for these situations.  If a customer is not greeted professionally they could walk right out your door, therefore, you probably lost a sale and potential customer.

Customers come to your business for your expertise.    Each business and profession has different terminology.   Do not assume your customers know all about your business terminology and processes. Remind your staff that they may need to talk in more basic terms when explaining a project with customers.   People in nature are sometimes afraid to admit they are not familiar with a process.      Customers will appreciate your staff taking to time to explain your business terminology or  showing them the process.

Generating Leads on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking site businesses need to know how to use.  We came across a few ways businesses can use LinkedIn to generate leads.

Create a company page as we did for MarketMailPrint and fill out your profile as much as you can.  Have the staff participate by creating an account to help get more visibility to your company page and name.    Remind the staff to maintain a professional image of their profile.  LinkedIn should not be used to post party pictures or silly personal information.  

Once you have a company page created, do not let it go dominate.  Promote your company page profile on your blog or twitter accounts.  Do you have a blank side on your business cards?    Since you are handing out your business cards, have your business cards have a dual purpose.   On the blank side, print  a QR code that drives traffic to your LinkedIn profile.  Another idea is to include a link to your LinkedIn profile on your email signature.  

Be active with LinkedIn profile by joining groups and participate in some discussions. Select your groups wisely.   Look for groups that have a lot of participation.   Stay away from groups that have lots of members but little activity.  

Use Google analytics to track who is viewing your LinkedIn profile.  Track those people who have viewed your profile, these may be potential leads that are researching your company.   Follow up with an email or phone call to see if they may be a viable lead.

Generating leads from LinkedIn will need some investment of your time but it will help introduce potential customers.

Do you need a new Marketing Plan?

Has your company been doing the same marketing strategy for years?   If so, it may be time for you the change.  Social media  and QR Codes have introduced several  new marketing strategies.  See which ones may work best for you to help grow your business.

You will need to figure out  what marketing activity worked from your marketing plan last year.  There is a simple way to find out, just  ask how you are doing.  Publish an online survey, phone calls or ask customers in-person.    Feedback may be difficult to hear sometimes but listen to everything your customers are saying.  They will give you a different view of which promotions worked and which ones did not work as well as you had planned.  

When considering changing your marketing plan, remember to consider your Return on Investment.   Look at each marketing activity and evaluate if it was worth the Return of Investment instead of evaluating your marketing budget.   Make changes to marketing activities that were lacking.   Keep the marketing activities that had a good Return on Investment, you may want to think of ways to improve them.

No Cost Tips to Market Your Business

Attend networking meetings and event to meet potential customers.  Be present when you attend networking meetings and talk positively about your company.

Networking groups allow you to meet other companies you can partner up with that might complement your business.   A joint venture with another company will get publicity from your current customers and you will be able to hopefully benefit from attention from their customers. 

Having a strong presence with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter does not cost anything.  Once these online tools are in place, it will help with your SEO ranking of your website.

Network groups are always looking for speakers to talk about a variety of topics.   This is a great opportunity for you to introduce your business to a small group of potential customers.    Share some educational aspect of your business to the group.   

Show a little gratitude to your current customers.   Sending a thank you note to show them you appreciate them as a customer.    This may help promote your brand positively.   These customers are then more likely to talk about your business positively within their own networking groups.

Managing Your Time Wisely

Running a successful business makes it important to effectively manage your time.  If your business is does not manage the office time wisely, how can customers rely on you to help them get their jobs done in time?  Here are a few ideas how to make managing time less stressful and more productive:

Create a written to-do list.  Write down everything you need to complete for each project or daily activities.   Try not to create a mental list since this may add to being overwhelmed when items are forgotten mid-day.  Crossing tasks off as they are completed will help you feel a sense of accomplishment. The crossed off tasks can give you a status overview of your day or a project.

After the to-do list has been created, rearrange the tasks by priority.  Put the time-consuming and most difficult tasks as the first items.  People tend to be more efficient in the morning.  Your time will be managed better by completing the most difficult or time-consuming tasks before you start to feel fatigued later in the day.

Some people work better with deadlines.   If you fall into this category, move your deadline time up by 30 minutes to 1 hour.   This gives you a time to strive for and gives you a little freedom if you need extra time without missing the deadline.

Limit your urge to multitask when in stressful situations. Mistakes can happen if trying to multitask, focus on finishing one to-do task before starting another task.

 On the days you don't complete your list, try to identify what was holding you back from completing more items on the list.  Was the priority order wrong,  too many phone call interruptions or issues out of your control?   Stay calm and figure out how to fix these distractions for the following day.

Managing your time will help your business operations run smoother and customers will notice and appreciate the good service.

How to Handle Charitable Donation Requests

Donating your services or products to a charitable organization is a good way to give back to the community and effective way to build your company's relationships.   As you would like to say yes to all request, it is just not possible.   Here are a some ways your company can handle these request:

Create a dedicated page on your website to handle charitable contribution request.   You can direct visitors to a specific page to submit a form request.  This form allows you to setup an automated response email for every submitted form request. 

This dedicated page can also contain your step-by-step procedures for handling charitable donation requests.   For example, once a form is submitted, it goes to a committee for review and then the organization will be notified whether or not their request can be fulfilled.

This page is a good place to highlight all the charitable organizations and events you have already sponsored.   Include testimonials from the organizations you have supported on this page.   Showcasing your contributions will show the community how supportive and involved you are which will strengthen your brand and reputation. 

Pantone vs Process Colors

Much like you would use the primary colors (Red, Yellow & Blue) to make colors when you're painting a picture... process colors, or CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black), are the primary printer inks that are combined to make a majority of printable colors. These colors are the universal printer ink colors, and are used world wide on all different kinds of digital printers and 4-color presses.

When a piece is printed on a digital printer using CMYK the colors aren't physically MIXED together, they are laid on the paper in tiny dots and are visually mixed to give the illusion of different colors and shades.

In order to specify a CMYK color in any Adobe Creative Suite program, locate your Tools Bar (most likely on the left side of your screen). If you do not see it, simply go to Window and select 'Tools'.

The overlapping boxes near the bottom of the Tools Bar is your selected colors. In my example, White is my fill color and black is my outline. So if I were to draw a box, the inside of the box would be white, and the outline would be black.

 

Anywho, if you double-click one of your boxes it will bring up the Color Picker. This box lets you choose the HSB, RGB, Hexidecimal Colors (the #), (all of which are mostly used for web)and your CMYK(which is obviously for print). If you know your exact CMYK color settings you can manually type them in, or you can choose a color by moving the small round color picker and it will tell you the CMYK percentage.

Pantone is a system of colors where each color is given a designated number (PMS #). PMS (Pantone Matching System) is the world-wide standard for matching colors. Although, some colors have specific names, such as Reflex Blue or Warm Red. Most Pantone colors are not made with CMYK, but are made by mixing inks using a specific formula. Because they are not made using CMYK, Pantones are used mostly on the 1 and 2 color presses. They can be used on the 4-color if you have four Pantones that are being used, but most of the time they are on the 1 and 2-color presses.

An advantage of using pantone colors is the color is consistent on every print... whereas on a digital printer, using CMYK, colors can change slightly from printer to printer, and even from job to job. This comes in handy when a company uses a very specific color throughout it's branding, like Home Depot's Orange or Coca Cola's Red. This color can stay consistent for anything from business cards, to delivery trucks, to ad campaigns.

There are two different kinds of Pantones colors, Uncoated and Coated. Uncoated is made to print well on uncoated (or matte) paper. Whereas Coated is made to print well on a coated (or glossy) paper. You won't be able to find these colors in the Color Picker, there is a special Swatch Library just for pantones. If you click on the 'Swatches' selection (most likely on the right side of your screen), it will bring up swatches that you have loaded. I, apparently, do not have any loaded, but any color I do use later will appear in this box. If your Swatches button is not there, simply go to Window and Swatches (just like when finding your Tools bar).

When you have your Swatches box open, go to the bottom left corner and click on your Swatch Library Menu, and go down and select Color Books. This will bring up all your different Pantone libraries. Most of the time you are going to stay somewhere in the box I have showing, but if the occasion calls for it you have all these other libraries to choose from. We're going to select the Pantone Process Coated library.

This is what your library looks like. Each of these boxes are a specific color with a designated number or name. When you hover over a color the name will pop up. In this case, the pink that I'm hovering over is Pantone DS 153-1 C. The C, of course, stands for Coated... whereas if it were Uncoated it would have a U. You have thousands among thousands of colors to choose from, each one made to work best for your job specifications.

You can also search for your pantone, if you know the number. Simply click on the fly-out menu on the upper right hand corner, and select Show Find Field.

Your 'Find:' field will pop up at the top of your library, and you can search away!

Just because you've designed your job with pantones, doesn't mean you can't print in CMYK. Colors can be converted before printing, just understand that when Pantones are converted, it is the CMYK "equivalent". The whole point is Pantone allows you to access colors that CMYK cannot create, such as a super-bright neon green Pantone is likely to print a bit dull, comparatively, as a CMYK print. Now why doesn't everyone just use Pantones? It's all about time and money! It's more expensive, it takes longer to set-up and print, and requires drying time. If you're in a hurry, you should probably use the digital printer with CMYK, but if you have the time and money, by all means, ...

PRINT WITH PANTONES ON THE PRESS!

Customer Stock

Customer Stock might sound familiar if you have ever bobbed around a print shop briefly. Customer Stock is material (paper, envelopes, etc) that a customer brings in to have printed on, instead of ordering through the shop. This happens a lot when someone wants to use specialty papers, if someone has a rush order and doesn't want to wait on paper delivery, or if by some odd chance it would be cheaper to bring their own paper.

The number one important thing to consider when bringing in 'customer stock' is always bring extras. It can take anywhere from 1 sheet to 25 sheets just to set up a job... especially if it's being printed on the press. So, if someone is having 500 envelopes printed the smart thing to do would be to bring in at LEAST 525 envelopes... or 550 if they wanted to play it safe!

When paper is delivered to us, or any other print shop, the boxes that the paper come in have all the specific details we need in order to send it through the printer without jamming (size, paper weight, textures, etc). But when a customer brings in a different kind of paper, a majority of the time the package doesn't give the necessary details in order to get the prints going. We pretty much play a guessing game until we get all the right settings. If the settings are wrong, the printer will inevitably jam.

This extra paper is not only for setting up the printer... it's also used for any other special requirements that may have been requested (scoring, booklets, numbering, stapling, drill holes, etc). Depending on what specifically the job entails depends on how much extra paper will be used. For example, setting up the scorer takes more extra paper than setting up for drill holes. Or a job that requires being printed on the offset presses, is scored, and stapled will obviously use more set up paper than a job printed on a digital printer and is only cut down.

Unless you are the person printing, there's really no worry in HOW MUCH extra paper is being used, just as long as there IS extra available. It's all trial and error when setting up, so it's really hard to peg an exact number of extra sheets, that's why (like earlier) we suggest to have at least 25-50 extras.

Sharing InDesign Files

Links, Packaging, & Back-Saving in InDesign

There are a couple different things to consider when getting ready to share your files with your Printer or Designer: packaging, links, and back-saving a file to be compatible with an earlier version of InDesign. (We at MMP-MarketMailPrint set up and do most of our work in InDesign CS5, so this post will be InDesign specific.)

Links are images that are linked to your InDesign document from outside the document itself. When placing a photo into a document, go to 'File' and 'Place', and select your photo. The catch, though, is once the outside image is moved, renamed, or deleted, the link is broken and your high resolution picture is now low resolution. Notice the difference in the images below. The business card on the left has all of its images properly linked. Whereas, the business card on the right has lost its links for the image and font, therefore resulting in a low resolution image and the replacement of the name's font to something generic.

(Left) Business Card with proper links. (Right) Business Card with missing links.

This is where InDesign's nifty little packaging trick comes in handy.

Packaging, in InDesign, is when your document and all the links and fonts it may hold are gathered, copied, and conveniently put into one easy-to-access folder. This makes it easy for someone to zip and send a file to their Printer or Designer with all the necessary bits and pieces.

Before packaging, always make sure to Preflight your document. At the very bottom of your InDesign window, there is a small area that tells you if you have any missing links or not.

Preflight Menu dropdown.

 If you click on the small arrow, it will bring up your Preflight Menu. Click on 'Preflight Panel', and your Preflight panel will pop up. This is a quick and easy way to see if you have any missing links or if you are all ready to package.

In order to package your files, and go to 'File' and 'Package', and the Package window will pop up. Go through the different panels on the side making sure that no links or fonts are broken.

Package window, showing Found links and Missing links.

In each panel's window, it will tell you that a certain number of links or fonts were found and a certain number of links or fonts are missing. If it says something is 'Missing', then a link has been broken and will be replaced by (as mentioned earlier) a low res picture or a generic font.

InDesign lets you find and reattached your lost links and fonts in this window. I, however, would suggest Canceling out of the Package window, relinking from your document, then repackaging, unless you are confident enough in what you are doing. You want to be careful you have all the correct photos.

In order to relink your photos, open the Links panel on the right side of your window (or if it's not open, simply go to 'Window' and select 'Links').

Link panel with a missing link alert, and showing the location of the 'relink' button.

 All your photos will be listed, and if any of them have the stop sign symbol with the question mark then YOUR LINK HAS BEEN BROKEN! Simply click the 'Relink' button at the bottom of your list and find your appropriate file, and voila! 

Once you've made sure you have NO missing links, click 'Package', and the 'Printing Instructions' window will pop up. It is not necessary to fill out this window unless directed by your printer, so press 'Continue'. Lastly, name your folder and click 'Package' to save it to a location. Now, if you go and find your file, your document and all of its links and fonts will be nicely bundled into one tidy and convenient location.

As mentioned before, we at Austin MMP currently use Adobe InDesign CS5, and every once in a while we run into a customer who has a file from the newer version (CS5.5). InDesign often has trouble reading files from different versions, and since not everyone shares the same application, InDesign has another nifty trick where a newer version can save to be compatible with the previous version.

This is called back-saving. All you do is go to 'File' and 'Export', as if you were exporting normally, but before you press save click the drop down menu for 'Save as Type', and select 'InDesign Markup (IDML)'.

Where to find the 'InDesign Markup (IDML)' selection in the Export window.

This will save your file to be compatible with NOT ONLY CS5 but CS4, also! Remember, though, that this is still a normal InDesign file, and needs to be packaged and sent together.

Margins & Bleeds

What are Margins and Bleeds and how do I set up and export my files with them?

A couple things about printing and design that not a lot of people know or sometimes understand is margins and bleeds. As a Graphic Designer, I've spent years developing this useful habit, so I don't (nor any other person working in a print shop) expect everybody to know what they are and how to set up their files with them.

A margin is the area in between your text/artwork and the edge of the page. In the example below, the black lines are the edge of the page (where the business card will be cut) and the red line is the designated margin space. It is suggested to leave at least an eighth (.125) to a quarter (.25) inch of space from the edge of the page (depending on the size of your piece). This business card has an eighth of an inch margin space, because it is fairly small.

Margins (red line) on a business card (3.5in x 2in)

All the text and artwork is inside the margin space, so if this business card were to be printed it would not lose any important information after it was cut down. Good margin spacing is highly suggested because even if something is being printed on a big expensive printer, the pages do move ever-so slightly (some more than others). In the image below, this stack of trimmed paper shows how the papers shift as they go through the printer. It is not drastic enough to be extremely noticeable in the end, but it moves just enough to easily lose a chunk of text if you are too close to the cutting area.

A block of paper showing the movement of the paper when it goes through the printer.

Also, often times when a piece of paper is going through a printer, the printer needs an area to grab onto to pull the it through the machine. Therefore, if an image is supposed to print on the area where the printer has a hold of it, it will obviously not print.

A bleed, on the other hand, is the part of the artwork or background that goes beyond the cutting area so when the piece is trimmed down to it's finished size there are no white borders around the edge. The reason for bleeds is that it is extremely difficult to print color all the way to the edge of the page, so in order to achieve a full bleed a document is set up on a larger sheet of paper and trimmed down. For example, if a standard 8.5 x 11in flyer is set up for bleeds, it will be printed on an 11 x 17in piece of paper and trimmed down to it's finished 8.5 x 11in size so the color can go to the edge of the flyer.

In the example below, this business card is set up with a full bleed. The black lines are where the business card would be cut, and the red line is the edge of the bleed. Much like margin spacing, it is suggested to give the bleed an eighth (.125) of an inch to account for the movement of the paper. Because the blue color bleeds across the edge of the business card, there will be no white borders!

Bleeds (red line) on a business card (3.5in x 2in)

It is fairly simple to set up a document for bleeds. In Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, when creating a new document it gives you the option in the initial 'New Document' window (In InDesign, it is under 'More Options'). Just type in your desired bleed width in each of the four boxes.

The InDesign 'New Document' window, where to find the bleed and margin settings. (Note: Not all 'New Document' windows are the same, this image shows a general location of the settings and what to look for.)

In programs that do not give you the option to set up bleeds (like Photoshop) the easiest way to account for the bleed is to set up your document with an eighth of an inch extra on each side. For example, if the 8.5 x 11in flyer needs bleeds, set it up as 8.75 x 11.25in. Don't forget that each side will get an eigth of an inch, making the document a quarter of the inch bigger all together.

A lot of times it is simple to make up for a document not having bleeds when printing, but if your file is set up right it makes it easier for printers to set up and print your job quickly.

Just remember to stay away from the edge of the page. 

Now that you've gone through ALL this trouble setting up your document with proper bleeds, InDesign doesn't automatically export your document with your bleeds. So in order to export your document with your bleed setting AND crop marks simply go to File and Export. A window will pop up, type in your desired File Name and by 'Save As Type' click the drop down menu and select 'Adobe PDF (Print)'. Make sure 'Adobe PDF (Interactive)' is not selected. Click 'Export' and a new window (Export Adobe PDF) will pop up, this is where you will adjust your settings for crop marks and bleeds

The InDesign 'Export Adobe PDF' window, where to set up for bleed settings and crop marks

In the panel on the left, select 'Marks and Bleeds'. In this window, make sure to click the check boxes for 'Crop Marks', 'Bleed Marks', and 'Use Document Bleed Settings', this expands your document to show the bleed as well as give the necessary lines to show where it will be trimmed. After you have selected the proper check boxes, click 'Export' to finish exporting your document as a .pdf file.

Never hesitate to talk to your Printer or Designer, and ask questions. We're here to help!