Secure data printing is a tricky beast. Keeping up with ever-evolving compliance requirements while still staying on schedule is a handful, at best.

Colors fill our world and (literally) frame what we see. Colors are also key for successful direct mailings. The right color can invoke a mood that harmonizes your campaign, while the wrong color can at best send a mixed message, at worst make a direct trip to the recycling bin.

With the way that Millennials and Boomers dominate discussions about generations, it’s easy to forget that other generations are also key buying powers. Generation Z – those born in 1995 or later – makes up 25.9% of the population. These are the future decision makers. If your current direct mail strategies aren't impacting Generation Z, there are some tweaks you can make to reach them where they live.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) proposing new mailing and shipping services pricing to take effect January 21, 2018. The PRC has reviewed and approved the proposed pricing changes.

Notable mailing services price changes include:

• First-Class Forever stamps from 49 to 50 cents
• Domestic Postcards stamp price increase from 34 to 35 cents
• Metered Letters price increase from 46 to 47 cents

It's all about smart marketing these days. You can have the classiest looking website with all of the latest bells and whistles, but if no one is visiting, or if most of your visitors take flight in less than a minute of hitting your site, something is not working.

Even if you have studied search engine optimization (SEO) and email marketing, it is important to realize that thousands of others have read the same papers and guides and are likely applying the same tactics that you are trying. This is truly a case of following the crowds and feeling left behind in the dust.

There is a better solution, almost a hidden marketing treasure that few people have uncovered so far.

Direct mail marketing can be a powerful tool, allowing companies to reach past or potential customers who may not be actively engaged via email, social media or another medium. Direct mail encompasses a wide variety of materials, including postcards, newsletters, brochures, catalogs and more. It can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to reach out to new and existing clients.

Behind the emerald curtain in the Commercial Printing industry a war quietly rages. Rather than a war between good and evil, this war is fought between Account Executives, and Production is trapped in the middle of the fray. Account Executives seeking new business in a fiercely competitive marketplace often agree to tight turn times or seemingly impossible deadlines. Production is charged with completing all projects for every client accurately and on time. The number of projects and client expectations frequently create production scheduling conflicts, bottlenecks in the availability of equipment and labor. In the past, many printers resolved scheduling conflicts based on factors such as an existing client’s annual revenue or new client’s potential future revenue. But this is a new era and technology is rapidly evening the playing field through the implementation of sophisticated plant management software and scheduling automation.

Let’s face it: inbound marketing is currently all the rage. Drawn by impressive stats regarding strategies like search engine optimization, content marketing and social media engagement, marketers have too often overlooked many highly-effective, traditional outbound strategies—in particular, direct mail marketing.

Print quality is affected by numerous factors, such as the type of paper used and the viscosity of the inks to name a few. One of the biggest concerns all print buyers should be aware of is the effect of climate on print quality. Temperature and humidity are responsible for a host of problems including picking, misregister, wrinkling, and curling. Quality issues like these may necessitate pulling or reprinting the job, and that means buyers sometimes must choose between compromised print quality and missing a critical deadline.  Neither scenario is acceptable, which is why print buyers should only work with commercial printers with climate controlled production facilities.