Educational How-To’s
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Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Couple weeks ago, many of your favorite peeps from Georgia Printco made the quick trek down to Orlando, Florida for two important sign shows… The ISA (International Sign Association) show and the Sign World show. Quite convenient how they worked out on the same weekend because it gave our CSR’s double exposure to the industry… both on a customer level as well as a vendor level. This overlap gives us in the wholesale sector a feel on how the inustry is doing on a level above, below, and within our market. I personally did not attend this one, someone had to help hold down the fort, but the message they returned with is a very good one.
Now, I will be the first to say that I am sick up to my eyeballs with the recession… yes, we all have felt its impact and we are all hoping for a 2010 that will blow the socks off of 2009, but how do we stay positive as we slowly regain our stature with the ups and downs of the still unstable market? This is where the message brought back from the show comes into play… “Fake It Till You Make It.” Ok, I admit its not a new concept, but its a good one. Perception is powerful and I mean even personal perception…. if you look at the glass as half empty, then that thought process and overall emotion will effect you and your daily functions as well as everyone around you. How can you motivate a sales team or production team if the department isn’t pumped? You have your team use tools to boost activity and potential business connections. Being able to effectively “fake it” isn’t at all fake… Allow me to explain - Yes, the concept of “faking it till you make it” sounds a little “grey” but it is giving yourself and your sales team the ability to turn a little down time into productive time. In order to “fake it” you have to have a market audience so that they will turn around and help you “make-it” when your hard work starts to pay off. Here’s a two good ideas to get you started….
Network! – This is where your sales team applies the “fake it” attitude around your customer base. As an example, if things are a little slow this week, use this time as a chance to show off your work. Social Media is FREE! – Have your sales staff post photos of jobs that you have completed to showcase your work… you might not be busy at the moment, but you sure have plenty of work to show. Not to mention the extra PR will only improve your chances of being noticed and remembered.
Contact Referrals – So your sales team have aquired contacts through other customers or you have a few business cards stashed away from the last networking social… TIME TO PULL EM OUT! Take a moment to give one of these referrals a call… no, you might not make a cold-call sale, but you reached out and made a connection. Connections grow, so the more connections you make the stronger and wider your web can grow. Eventually this WILL pay off and this is a great way to create positive habits… if your sales team gets accustomed to making those follow-up referral calls, they will probably stick to it once your business has picked back up.
Every shop is a little different, but the overall goal is the same in 2010… Stay afloat and maybe even grow a little. You can’t fake everything, but until you make it, there’s no harm in trying something new to keep the morale up and business moving forward.
Posted in Educational How-To's, digital printing | No Responses »
Tags: 10% off new customer orders, digital printing, Facebook, Grand Format, grand format printing, innovative print technology, isa, manufacturing, marketing tips, Social Media, Social Networking, twitter
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Social Media -where to begin… Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, WordPress, Posterous, Buzz… OMG, How long can this list get and how is a business owner supposed to be able to utilize all these outlets?!?!?! You can’t, and that’s okay… The big picture is that a good marketing strategy doesn’t thin itself out on limitless outlets – it works on those that fit your industry and produce the best ROI (return on investment). Now, before I go any further I do want to add that throwing social media into the mix isn’t as black and white as you might be accustomed when monitoring your ROI. This web-based marketing is something you will have to “feel-out” and since it is free and doesn’t take much time… you can conclude that any business gained can automatically be viewed as pure return.
Now… lets get a game plan… as a retail business you need to know your market area – local? regional? national? If the bulk of your business is centered in your local city then taking the time to initial and build relationships from people 3 states over probably isn’t the best way to start… yet. Its great to have goals, but localizing your “community” is imperative to build a web-networking foundation. 
The most common social networks is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogger/wordpress if you decide to take the blog challenge… everything else you might come across can all be linked through these main networks. (Now I say this, but be assured… 6 months from now this could be different – staying up to date on the technological curve is essential 
Today I’m going to start with Facebook…. This is where a retail business can get involved with its local community and by involved I mean finding out about events, who is who, whats going on with your area and how to become part of the mix. As you begin learning about the people in your community and building an online presence/relationships (this is gained from general convo’s and simple daily interactions) you will find that people will interact back. Keep it real… an occasional heads up about a promotion is great to keep people updated on what you have to offer, but if you never initiate anything but marketing campaigns then no one will listen. You know as well as I do, no one – NO ON likes spam. Become a resource – throwing out little tid-bits of local news, interesting articles you found online or posting updates about local events will ensure that people will take note of your posts. Taking note.. that is the goal- So the next time someone needs a product you offer YOU will get the business because they “take note” of what you say because its interesting, thus you and your business is interesting. Everyone knows that repetition is key… so keep yourself in the lime-light… the more often you say something the more often your business gets free face time.
So now you have a basic idea on what you can do to connect, but how exactly do I get started??? Go to Facebook.com fill out your basic info and sign up, don’t worry the entire process shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. After signing up you can add a photo and edit your profile. After you are happy with the content of your profile you can go to the friends link on the left side and begin searching for people. Start with friends, family, business associates, local shops you do business with, and close customers. After establishing a few friends you can begin branching out by looking through the friend lists of your friends and finding people you may know and would like to connect with. This is how you will begin building your online community… Now that you have established yourself you can take the next step in making those connections work for you.
Time… yep, time is a valuable little booger and I’m telling you that this social media thing doesn’t take much time…. so no worries! Take note of the time of day that most of your friends are online and try to make a daily online appearance around that time. See what other people have posted – anything worth repeating? have personal news you’d like to share? anything weird/controversial in the news you’d like to mention? a quick blurb about a new product? take a moment to write a blurb for the day. Then skim through your posts made by your friends and take a moment to comment on something they said. Everyone wants attention and by nurturing their online presence they will in-turn nurture yours. This should take 15-20min of your day… not too painful I hope 
If you ever feel like you’ve reached a wall – take a moment and look at someone elses page for inspiration. As your circle grows you will find it easier to connect and these connections are your market. Word of mouth is valuable and let me tell you – Facebook is a place for talk! I hope this quick article helped and feel free to ask me questions… I’m here to be an online resource and help you get connected…. Please note that this is written from my own personal experience both as a web marketer and even more as a VERY “seasoned” consumer.
Stay tuned, our next safari excursion will be loading up soon so make sure to grab a seat!
Posted in Educational How-To's, digital printing | No Responses »
Tags: banners, Digital Color, digital printing, double sided banners, Email Blasts, Georgia Printco, Grand Format, grand format printing, new product, PMS Colors, pole banners, signs, Social Media, Social Networking, specials, Wholesale Printing, Wide Format
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Welcome, I am Kristi Perron with Georgia Printco and I will be your Social Media Safari tour guide. Over the course of this year I aim to help you lay the foundation in a connected and profitable social networking endeavor. There is a sea of business that is virtually at your disposal, so allow me to give you the tools and resources necessary to reel them in. 
Social media is a low-cost/no-cost avenue for a business to generate networking connections and marketing relations with customers, the local community, and potential customers. You have probably already either heard about the social media hype or have begun to dabble in its vast presence with a twitter, facebook, or linkedin account, but what really are you doing and why are you doing it? Well, the overall goal is to take this networking connection and create value in your online presence that will generate community with those networks that will ultimately result in increased business. To produce this result it is necessary to take an active role in your online community to facilitate the relationships you already have as well as the relationships you wish to gain. Today’s consumer, specifically, 55.6 million adults, which is about 1/3rd of the entire US population use social networks regularly at least once monthly, are the same customers that walk into your business and it is those 55.6 million people that are utilizing the web to find answers to their daily purchase needs. Two-thirds of people in the US looking for local services turn to the internet over other services such as the phone book. It is critical that your business is properly represented with an online medium or you may end up risking a vital connection with your customers.
Over the next few months Georgia Printco and I will be going over the tools you will need to connect with those 55.6 million online customers using online social networking as well as tips on how to enhance the online connections you have already established. These tutorials will include basic connective information for networking sites such as twitter, facebook, and linkedin as well as how to build other interactive web-based solutions such as blogs and website enhancements. I will be your online tour guide, so feel free to ask questions, just don’t feed the animals
Posted in Educational How-To's, digital printing | No Responses »
Tags: CEO Sheldon Hurst, Digital Color, digital printing, Facebook, Georgia Printco, Grand Format, grand format printing, innovative print technology, manufacturing, Social Media, Social Networking, specials, VUTEk G5000r, Wholesale Printing
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Its epic, I know…. even the watercoooler is talking about it.
The product line is coming together and the marketing is being created. This new print quality is amazing and I cannot believe how fast the production time will be once we put the product on the market. Right now we are completing test runs and working on getting the output maximized to the 4000sq ft/hr that it is supposed to produce. Remember the 150dpi product you have been getting? Yeah, wait until you see the quality of our new “base” print. Nothing will be leaving this company under 600dpi…. that includes billboard prints. Our new production line will be printing billboard speed but POP display quality. Along with this new machine we also have something else to put us over the top…. and it will be utilized on EVERY flexible material we carry. I’ll give you more details on it once I’m given the clearance to go ahead with the marketing. The first people that will be able to fully visualize our breakthrough will be those attending the 2010 FASTSIGNS tradeshow in Austin Texas. We will have samples of both products for attendee’s to physically inspect up close so they will be the first to be able to fully understand the power and innovation of Georgia Printco’s newest technological addition. As the only manufacturer with a GRAND FORMAT printer that prints 600dpi and up, we will SERIOUSLY, be THE ONLY one on the continent with the manufacturing capability with this level of quality and speed. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask – I will answer to the best of my knowledge…. Pricing will be released soon – All I’ve been told is that it is going to be VERY comparable to the pricing we already have set for the old 150dpi quality. That is amazing news in itself…. So get excited!
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Comment me or email me if you want the online new-customer special info to go with your order.
Posted in Educational How-To's, New Products | No Responses »
Tags: 10% off new customer orders, 10% off pole banner orders, digital printing, double sided banners, Email Blasts, Facebook, grab-bag, Grand Format, innovative print technology, manufacturing, new product, twitter, vutek gs5000r, Wholesale Printing
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
The Future of Grand Format
Printing and Georgia Printco…
Well, I’ve recently mentioned that we are almost ready to UNLEASH news that will be changing the industry printing standards on grand format printing. And I’m prepared to give you the low-down. Georgia Printco is OFFICIALLY the only, YES THE ONLY… Grand format printer with a base print quality of 600dpi at billboard printing speed. This means that EVERY product that will be manufactured by Georgia Printco WILL have a print quality of atleast 600dpi and it only gets better….
The new grand format printer that Georgia Printco has recently acquired will also be able to print this level of quality (600dpi and up) at BLISTERING speeds. We will now be able to print 500 2×3′ banners in a single hour, which is over 3x faster than our present production time. With this VAST improvement will be providing this state-of-the-art quality/speed product with a greatly improved standard 2-day turn-around. We haven’t finished with completely cruching the numbers, but it has been stated that we will be maintaining pricing you’re already comfortable with.
The new printer revolutionizes superwide-format printing with superior photorealistic image quality at speeds previously unattainable from a superwide UV digital printer. It redefines the standard in grand format printing & production, providing exceptional POP-quality graphics and billboard speed, without compromise. The release day is coming soon so hold on to your seat, things are about to start changing in the industry and Georgia Printco is going to be at the frontier.
We’ll have samples coming out soon so call in to request your’s so you can start showing your customers what they’re in for… REAL FAST.
Also, I would like to update everyone on the End-of-the-Year/New-Year Promotion… Its a bit of a “Grab-Bag” (or so we’re calling it). It includes YOUR CHOICE of discount on either Mesh, Standup Display, or Double Sided Pole-Banner orders. You can only choose one discount per order and it can’t be combined with any other special (with the exception of the web-based new customer special). Below are the details:
10% OFF Your ENTIRE MESH order – As Low as $1.18sq ft. (Construction Wraps • Fence Wraps • Banners)
Standup-Display Special Sample ONLY $29.95, Then take $29.95 OFF your first order.. PLUS Take 15% Off any order over $500.
10% OFF Your ENTIRE Double Sided Pole-Banner Order.
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WOO-HOO! I hope you are able to utilize one of the specials…
Comment me or email me if you want the online new-customer special info to go with your order.
Posted in Educational How-To's, New Products, digital printing | No Responses »
Tags: 10% off, 10% off new customer orders, 10% off pole banner orders, digital printing, double sided banners, Grand Format, grand format printing, manufacturing, specials, VUTEK, Wholesale Printing
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Beautiful Color Prints…
Many designers do artistically fine work that ignores the technical realities of prepress and printing. That can lead to computer page files that don’t translate easily or correctly into negatives and plates. It can cause disappointing printing results… or wasted time… or costs that are higher than they need to be.
In contrast, our designers have developed an understanding of what it takes to get optimum results, not just on the computer screen, but in the finished product. That comes from working hand-in-hand with printing and prepress experts – day in, day out plus the result of experience in working on our powerful computer workstations using the best available software. Our tools and experience enable our designers to bring you imaginative, effective design concepts with precise computerized execution.
When submitting artwork here is something to think about in regards to the colors in your file… this blog-blurb will quickly educate you on how we profile our colors and the best way for you to handle color in your artwork files.
How Using Pantone colors Will Ensure Better Printing
Quality & Reduce Product Turntime
Take a look at the banner example provided in this article. Notice that the only 2 colors this banner contains is red and blue. This specific artwork was setup properly so the files we received contained color information to print using pantone (PMS) #485, and a second color, specifically Pantone (PMS) #300. Since the client picked a specific pantone red and blue in the digital files that were sent to us, we were able to print this banner using only those 2 colors, which kept cost down and provide ex
tremely sharp printing. However, if the supplied digital files did not specify the pantone blue and black, then their graphic design program would select approximated CYMK values to reproduce what looks like the same colors, but mixed colors are not consistant from machine to machine, nor can you use your computer screen as a valid representation of the color output. This job also requires more careful attention during production to ensure colors appear close and additional time to call the client to verify omission of PMS colors or to send out a product sample.
Basically what you are doing by specifying your colors, is ensuring the printing process is easier and more accurate. Doing so will give you better printing results and also cost less because there is less maintenance, and less potential chance of a problem arising in regards to the prints color.
Using Pantone Colors Will Also provide Consistent Color Reproduction.
One of the biggest advantages in using specific pantone colors in your digital files is the color reproduction will be identical every time you print. The Pantone Matching system was created by Lawrence Herbet in 1963 in order to solve the problems associated with producing accurate and consistent colors by creating standardized colors of ink through detailed measurements and ink mixing. This is how a company such as coca cola can produce the exact red in their logo for example, no matter which printing company they use. Our pantone color specialists profile all our machines to accurately reproduce any pantone color your choose, based on this standardized color system. Please note that depending on the material there will always be suttle differences so samples are ALWAYS recommended. For more information on Georgia Printco and our production process, please visit our home page at www.GeorgiaPrintco.com
Posted in Educational How-To's, digital printing | No Responses »
Tags: Christmas Banners, Color Matching, Digital Color, digital printing, Email Blasts, Facebook, Georgia Printco, Grand Format, manufacturing, PMS Colors, Wholesale Printing, Wide Format
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Double Sided Pole Banner Form
I’ve spent my fair share of time here at Georgia Printco taking customer artwork and trying to help explain (over the phone) how much space you actually need for a pole banner pocket to keep the banner from getting totally de-funked (technical term)… So I was thinking that I would use this blogging space to do some good for those of you that are interested in having access to our pole-banner cheat sheet… well its actually the form we use to make sure that whatever measurements the client gives us, that it visually matches the measurements on this sheet. I’m going to go step by step and explain what the different measurement points are used to calculate, so that next time you order your double sided pole banners, you can do it like a well-weathered pro
A. This is your pole diameter which needs to be multiplied by two b/c you have to have enough banner to go up the front as well as the same distance to cover the back… now for those of you thinking about artwork- keep in mind that there is also 1″ for the closing of the pole pocket.
B. This is the LIVE art area in between the poles. It is always easier to keep artwork framed in this area because you don’t have to worry about the back and the front pocket artwork lining up perfectly.
C. This is the area from the VERY tip-top of the pole to the bottom of the pole. We want to make sure that the measurements in A+B= The necessary area for C.
D. Is an inquiry to determine if there needs to be any “give”. There need to be an allotted .5″ give if the poles are stationary… Also, speaking of stationary, you need to make sure to find out if your balls come off or if the pocket has to fit over the ball when being installed. If this is the case, you’ll need to consider A. as the diameter of the ball and not the pole. Yes, the pocket may appear a little large on the pole, but if you can’t screw off the ball, this is the only way you will be able to get the banner on the poles.
I will try to go over the artwork portion of Double-Sided Pole Banners within the next couple weeks… This is another key item that tends to perplex the best of us (in regards to DS – Pole Banners- even the artist get confused on the artwork size every once and a while!) As a closer, I’d like to remind everyone that Georgia Printco has pre-printed FABULOUS Generic Banners that are only $12.50 each!!! 3×6′ + hemmed. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and I’ll be back on Monday!
Posted in Educational How-To's, digital printing | No Responses »
Tags: CEO Sheldon Hurst, Christmas Banners, double sided banners, Email Blasts, Generic Holiday Banners, Georgia Printco, Grand Format, holiday banners, MERRY CHRISTMAS, pole banners, SANTA, santa claus, SEASONS GREETINGS, specials, thanksgiving, twitter, Wholesale Printing, Wide Format
