Monday, 3 October 2011

How London Printers Offer Best Deals

By Elliott Wolchek James


London's fascination with printing has been ongoing from the first time a William Caxton's press was heard in the capital over five centuries ago. No doubt the amount of changes to the industry since those early days are phenomenal. I wonder what that great printer would have thought about the technology used by London printers today.

Most of the well established print companies in London today remember a time when the new technology that was beginning to emerge looked set to destroy print completely and for some that was exactly what happened. For others it had the opposite effect, conceiving the new breed of printer we see today.

Many of the well established print companies that are doing well in London today have been around for at least a couple of decades. There are the large litho printing houses offering digital printing too and the smaller copy shops that have sprung up all over London's main streets. They usually have small litho presses operating somewhere on the premises. Then there's a variety of others offering that fall somewhere in between. Any print companies that have made it have done so mainly because they chose to tackle the technology head on and use it to the advantage of themselves and their customers.

It's startling what can be achieved when these two Goliaths of industry, traditional print and modern technology, come together and start working in harmony. No one could have known what an amazing range of marketing tools and capabilities were going to be forged from their union and it's still a work in progress. It's the best thing that's happened to the printing industry in years.

Typically, variable data and personalised mailings which were just a marketer's dream a short while ago are now in common use, with newer and more creative applications being developed all the time. Customized direct mail is as popular in print as it is online and some would even argue that it's more effective.

Codes that look like a small box of black pixels can be placed onto traditional printed pieces so that, when scanned with a smartphone, will reveal text, URLs, images, audio or video clips. They can be printed onto direct mail, billboards, magazines and newspapers and pretty much anything else that can be printed onto. Imagine scanning an advert or a CD cover and receiving a printable coupon for a special offer or being linked to a file containing bonus tracks from your favorite band.

Naturally the same things that are used for the customer's requirements can be utilized for the printers themselves to keep dialog open with their own prospects and customers. Most printers websites allow customers to place orders but now printers are utilizing the full remit of online tools to target markets and communicate with existing customers. Some have found social networking so powerful for their business that they employ experts in social media to develop an online community.

A great number of London print companies are flourishing as they use the tools available to push the boundaries of traditional printing towards integrating with the best of the marketing technology around. The result is a reliable, cost effective service for the customer, backed by a wealth of knowledge and experience that adds real value to the experience of doing business with London printers.






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