AccuLink Re-defines High-end Marketing with HP Indigo

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2012-02-23

Trade printing firm’s HP Indigo 5500 and Scodix 1200 production line yield award-winning work

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 23, 2012 – AccuLink, one of the top 100 trade print service providers (PSPs) nationwide, creates superior marketing materials using an HP Indigo press 5500 installed with a Scodix 1200 digital UV curing solution from Scodix Ltd.

The Greenville, North Carolina-based company, which also operates HP Indigo 3050 and 7000 model presses, invested in the HP Indigo 5500 to build a competitive advantage while moving production from offset to digital printing.

“The quality of HP Indigo presses is by far the highest and most consistent of any digital press on the market,” said Lindsay Gray, co-owner, AccuLink. “With such high quality and the ability for variable data printing on a digital press, we have no plans to ever buy offset equipment again. We are consciously moving offset to digital with great success and without any negative ramifications from customers.”

Tackling new applications
The new digital press and UV coater allow AccuLink to create premium products that help its customers achieve better marketing results than standard printed materials. Delivering an unparalleled range of enhancements for special effects, the Scodix 1200 has the capacity to produce up to 99 Gloss Units and a polymer height up to 70 microns for tangible dimension.

AccuLink recently produced a personalized, tri-fold mailer for a professional football team that was sent to 1,800 prospects encouraging rentals of skybox seats. The front features a football that appears to be autographed by the addressee. The football image also has dimples creating a pigskin texture and a raised grip. According to Gray, team officials were very happy with the 4.4 percent response rate to the mailer, which helped sell out the team’s skybox seats for next season.

Since installing the press late last year, AccuLink has seen additional evidence of the superior quality of its new printing and coating installation: three early jobs the company produced on its new equipment have won awards.

Simplifying workflow
Designed to produce marketing collateral, direct mail, photo merchandise products, books and manuals, the HP Indigo press 5500 is a versatile production device allowing for continuous printing with multiple feeders and stackers enabling seamless switching between jobs, proofs and media types. The added versatility gives AccuLink the ability to run a variety of applications on one press with little disruption in between jobs.

“With HP Indigo, we have so many capabilities and can complete a variety of complicated processes under one roof,” said Gray. “We might have one vanity published book followed by 1,000 personalized postcards followed by a table tent followed by a two-color management book – not many systems can be that versatile.”

AccuLink financed its new Indigo and Scodix purchases using HP Financial Services, the company’s leasing and life cycle asset management services subsidiary. By choosing HP Financial Services, AccuLink received competitive rates and flexible terms, and was able to preserve capital.

More information about HP Indigo technologies is available at www.hp.com/go/indigo, through the HP Graphic Arts YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/hpgraphicarts and through the HP Graphic Arts Twitter Feed at www.twitter.com/hpgraphicarts.

About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

Mail Less Get More!

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Mar 2 2012
Mail Less Get More! Direct marketing becomes more complicated each year, with higher costs, lower operating budgets, higher success hurdles, and of course, less staff to do the work. Everyone involved with direct marketing needs to re-examine their tools. Direct mail is, and will continue to be, the most responsive and effective marketing method to reach your marketplace. It’s easily quantifiable, tactile, and according to the USPS Household Studies, “81% of all households read or at least scan all of their direct mail.” This seems to be true regardless of the quantity of direct mail they receive. It’s time for many of us to change the paradigm in direct mail – mail fewer pieces and get better results. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but it can work. Sophisticated direct mailers have already learned that by segmenting their database to determine what action is taken or message that is delivered is critical to getting better results with less mail. They have come to a realization that data (information) is less expensive than postage and printing. The good news is there is no reason all of us can’t do this. The first step is to append consumer demographics, business firmographics, and lifestyle clusters and then analyze and sort the information to create market segments which will allow you to target those customers and prospects that they believe are most likely to respond. The next step is to analyze and sort the data into key market segments. We need to learn to segment our list data based upon relevancy and timeliness to the campaign we are creating. For instance let’s say we are going to market car insurance policies. There are lists of car insurance expiration dates available for purchase. By appending that to your data base or any other purchased data such as demographic and lifestyle data and then excluding your current customers from the list, you can examine the demographic elements such as age and income, type of housing, and even credit score ranges, all of which can determine the risk and the price of the potential insurance policies. Next we rank order the data from best risk to highest risk. We then add expiration dates and re-rank the list taking that data into account as well. By ordering by the expire dates we can segment the best risks with those prospects that fall into the 120 to 90 day expiration date and we have created a highly targeted segment. If we believe that those prospects whose car insurance expiration dates are 120 to 90 days away are the best prospects (typically decisions are made to shop for a better car insurance deal during this time frame) we can eliminate the bottom of the list which contains the highest risk candidates. Why mail to people who are not going to qualify for your insurance policy or that are probably not ready to shop for new car insurance? Since these are the prime qualified candidates they should be mailed a personalized piece that best communicates the opportunity being offered. These messages will now be both relevant and timely. Critical components of a successful campaign! This will allow you to send far fewer pieces than mailing the whole list thereby reducing your cost and making each mail piece much more relevant to the recipient. You may even be able to offer a pre-qualified offer. We can greatly increase the response rate by eliminating the non-relevant mail that is sent just because they are on the list. So, try it and you will see, you can mail less get more and better responses. Be sure and try mailing the InteliMailer for the best results. We know it gets opened, read and acted upon. It can lift response rates by 25% to 40% over postcards, self-mailers and traditional letter packages. Website: www.intelimailer.com Storefront: https://storefront.acculink.com/Promo/Login.aspx InteliMailer Video: http://youtu.be/He429Ylw3l8
Ed Glaser Chief Marketing Officer 252.321.5805 ed.glaser@acculink.com	Call me with your input, ideas, or questions. 800-948-4110 Get the InteliMailer™ Design Template