Irongate Digital in Chamber of Commerce Business magazine
Did you see us in the June issue of the Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce In Business magazine?
We were discussing the advances in digital printing and how we can deliver innovation to your marketing communications…have a look…
Leave a commentIrongate Digital Invest in the Best
Through a proactive new business development strategy, Irongate Digital has already won over £1.5m worth of new print contracts in the first half of this year alone. But far from resting on their laurels or allowing complacency to creep in, they have quickly re-invested their profits back into the business. This has seen Irongate invest nearly a quarter of a million pounds in a ground-breaking new Xerox 1000 colour print press, which is setting a new standard in print quality.
Managing Director, Adam Noble says “We are constantly looking at new technologies and innovative ways to deliver great service and added value to our clients, as well as keeping ahead of our competitors.
As well as producing outstanding image quality, the Xerox 1000 has a key unique selling point which really differentiates it – a 5th clear ink which adds a totally new dimension to your print. You can highlight images for visual variety to make them pop off the page, draw attention to a headline or variable text and enhance photos, logos or variable images.
This will allow customers to increase the range of print they can now produce on-demand, utilising the web to amend and create documents negating the need for stock and subsequent waste, reducing the impact on the environment and controlling costs.
Irongate are so proud to be able to offer this new technology that they are extending an open invitation to all existing and potential customers who would like to see the new press in action.
So if you would like to learn more about how you can add that wow factor to your printed materials, contact Debbie Hunt on 01332 345950 and arrange your visit.
Leave a commentThe Pitfalls of Relevant Direct Marketing
Relevant Direct Marketing is the way marketing should be done! Some people call it personalised, some people call it customised. But relevance is basically the art of understanding your audience so well, that you can speak to them in a tone and with information that precisely meets their needs.
For example – take the best sales person in your organisation, or the best person who works with your customers, and start listening to what they say to the customers. Your top sales people or customer service reps are really good at figuring out what the customer wants, and giving them the value proposition and the message in a tone that works for them.
They are truly practicing the art of relevant marketing every day. The challenge is that they only do that on a one on one basis. When they succeed, magic happens, right? Customers say, “How can I buy?” So how can we do that in a much more scaled fashion? Instead of talking to one individual, how do we talk to hundreds or thousands of people? That is what Relevant Direct Marketing can accomplish.
How do we make relevance work? Here are five of biggest mistakes that make marketing so irrelevant?
1. Same message to all
Long gone are the days of a one dimensional, blanket approach to communications. Personalised and relevant communications can deliver increases in response rates by as much as 30% over generic content. It’s now possible to customise each and every communication piece with different text, graphics, fonts, and even charts and tables to capture attention.
2. Not connecting with customers when they are in their buying cycle
This is a fundamental issue as the timing of most marketing is dictated by when the company is ready to send out a message and not by when the customer wants to buy. If you send out to 100 people, only 30 might actually be in the market to buy that product or service at that time. So there’s no way you’re going to sell anything to the remaining 70 people. You can try as hard as you want, but they are just not in the market to buy the product at that time. So it’s important to figure out which customers are in the market and how to hit them with the right message at the right time. This probably has the most leverage in terms of getting the biggest response. Timing is critical. With offset litho printing and some other traditional methodologies, this approach just wasn’t possible because you had to create these large scale printing jobs. Now with digital printing, you can send out 100 offers a day all based on incoming preferences that you’ve received from customers. Digital print on-demand makes it all possible.
3. Not making your response mechanism relevant
Marketers will spend countless hours arguing about copy. How many people have had the experience of someone saying that one word doesn’t look right? And they’ll spend hours massaging the message until they get it exactly right. They send this perfect message out, and low and behold, somebody responds to it and says I’m interested in this product. Or I’m interested in this offer. And then they call or go to the website and say I’m interested in buying this. And what do they find? The confusing jungle called your website. They can’t even find the product or they can’t find the special offer. They call the call centre. And the call centre people say “Huh? Some marketing manager told me this product was coming, but we don’t know anything about it.” Or they go to the retail store and nobody there has an answer either. So what does that mean? All the great marketing that was done has been wasted. So when we think about marketing, when we think about what we do, we have to optimise the whole experience.
4. Focusing on one channel or medium
Print is only one channel. There a lot of other channels and we should consider developing targeted, relevant campaigns that work across a number of communication channels including print, web, e-mail and mobile. Targets will receive your messages in a variety of formats that work together to deliver campaigns that maximise attention, response and action.
5. Not testing enough to optimise your direct response advertising
The value of direct marketing over brand marketing is that you can measure response. By testing, you can help improve the response. By not testing, you just waste all that value.
NeverTear – a tough alternative to paper
Laminating documents can be a really time-consuming job but now a new substrate is available which eliminates the need to laminate. NeverTear is highly durable, tear proof, water proof and can be die cut and finished for many applications. The smooth matt surface is perfect for vibrant printing. Ideal for manuals, safety brochures, signage, menu’s, key fobs, bookmarks, business cards, door hangers, mats, clothing tags and catalogues.
Leave a commentPrint-on-Demand Personalised Bags
Looking for a way to really impress visitors to your premises or event? Our new customisable boutique bags come in two sizes and you can personalise each and every bag to make the recipient feel really valued. The bags are made from frosted polypropylene with white cord handles and can be ordered in any quantity. Large bag: 318mm x 398mm. Small bag: 257mm x 320mm.
Personalised Gift Packaging
Irongate Digital has launched it’s new range of personalised gifts, perfect to use as corporate gifts, as a staff incentive or to promote an event. The range of mug boxes, wine boxes and pillow packs can be personalised to the event or recipient, adding even more value to the gift inside and ensuring maximum impact. Plus, there is no minimum order quantity so you order the exact number you need.
