DIY Marketing

Marketing plays an important part  in the success of any business. It allows customers to establish a relationship with the brand helps to sell services and products, keeps ahead of the competition and maintain a good reputation. Whether your business is as a sole trader, a partnership, an SME or a global enterprise, it ultimately needs to make money and marketing is an essential tool to reach that goal.

No matter how big or small your marketing department , you can achieve cost savings by doing some marketing yourself. In just a two easy steps you can learn how to use your multifunction printer (MFP) from Weaver & Bomfords to produce brilliant documents.

Step 1 – Learning The Design Basics

Designing your own promotional material may seem daunting at first but with a little bit of research it can be done easily. Think about your brand – what do you want it to be? What are you selling? What is your target market? Do you have current design guidelines that need to be followed? What is the purpose of the marketing campaign? Once you have answered those questions you can then start to look for inspiration from marketing which is around you – What do you like? What don’t you like? What’s worked before? Which ideas can be adapted for your own use? We have put together a few ideas for you on Pinterest.

Once you have a design and content idea in mind you can make the most of free online resources to build your documents. There is lots of free design software available as well as stock photos and marketing advice to help you to create your masterpieces.

Step 2 – Learn How To Use Your Multifunction Printer To Its Full Potential

Here at Weaver & Bomfords user training is an essential part of our service. We want to know that each and every person has been shown the specific skills they need to use the MFP to its full potential. This not only creates a good office atmosphere, it also results in better quality documents, less downtime and reduced waste.

We deliver our training around you and your business and can provide our training as workshops, presentations, drop-in sessions or one-on-one. We also have a handy “How To” section on our website that includes useful video guides for our popular MFPs.

What Can My Multifunction Printer Do?

Using your MFP gives you full control over exactly what and how much marketing material is being printed. You might only want one document printing or maybe 100 or perhaps just need  to make a minor change. This  is where our print on demand  function is so useful.. With this you only print exactly what you need and documents can be stored on the device or network which allows more to be printed or changes to be made easily and quickly. The print on demand function can also be used to produce invoices and letterheads. You can save electronic versions on the hard drive of your device and then simply select which template you wish to use when you come to print the document. This is then printed at the same time as your document eliminating the need for them to be pre-printed.

As well as creating a print on demand environment, your MFP and print choices can give you many more options to optimise the material that you are printing and to reduce costs:

• Look at the length of the document and how much is being printed. Does the document need to be that long? Could the font size be reduced to shorten the pages? Is all of the material necessary and can some be removed?
• Is the font that you have used imperative to the design? For example Century Gothic uses less ink than Arial.
• Choose your colours wisely. Does the document need that much colour? Could it be all be monochrome? If the document is for marketing purposes in-office, is colour required at all? Could you print the same document with some in colour and some in monochrome?
• Could the document be printed on both sides of the paper as opposed to single-sided? Could the front page be colour and the reverse monochrome?
• If you have the choice of more than one printing device then ensure you send the right documents to the right printed. For example, run of the mill office printing can be sent to the workhorse printer on lower grade paper, whereas glossy marketing leaflets for public use should be sent to the high-end MFP.
• Don’t forget your MFP can produce pre-folded leaflets and booklets, add staples, insert pre-printed items, add covers and bind
• What paper finish does your document need? For example producing material for point of sale should be waterproof and tear-proof whereas a booklet might require glossy thick paper.
• What size paper is required? Sometimes it’s necessary to produce oversize prints normally reserved for commercial print equipment. Your MFP can print onto SRA3 and SRA4 sizes.
• Use the print preview page to double check the document and then begin the printing process by producing just one to start with to make sure you are 100% satisfied before printing multiple copies .
• Use the document scanningfunction to create PDFs of printed documents that can then be stored on the network or emailed to individuals allowing for high quality non-paper copies.

Why Choose Weaver & Bomfords For Your Multifunction Printer?

Our range of MFPs from Konica Minolta, Sharp and Kyocera have been carefully selected to combine quality, reliability and affordability to ensure we provide you with the best device for the needs of your business. These are installed and maintained by our experienced, accredited and DBS checked engineers who will also undertake training with you and your teams on the new device and offer remote support. We have a wide range of service options to allow you to maximise the use of your new device and minimise  costs including managed print, document management, mobile printing, controlled network, and toner recycling.

You can contact a member of our friendly team here or call 03456 123858.