May 16, 2024
Professional printing used to be all about putting simple text on paper, but that’s changed. Now, it’s all about bringing the wow.
If you own a production print shop, you’re probably already familiar with print embellishment. It’s a great way to help packaging, direct mail, signage, and more, pop. But it also brings more tangible things — for your clients and for your shop. If you’re considering adding this capability, here’s what you should know.
What Is Embellishment in Printing?
Print embellishment is a way of adding specialized visual or tactile design elements to printed materials.
It’s a pretty broad term, so it’s clearer to define it by listing some common examples:
- Foil stamping
- Embossing/debossing
- Spot UV coating
- Die-cutting
- Lamination
- Specialty inks (metallic, fluorescent, pearlescent, etc.)
3 Advantages of Digital Embellishment and Finishing
There are a number of reasons that your clients love embellishment. An FSEA study found that the average response rate of direct mail campaigns more than doubled when embellishments were used.
Not surprisingly, having digital embellishment capabilities also offers a number of advantages to print shops.
1. Stand Out From Competitors
Offering unique and high-end products is a tried and true way to differentiate your business.
2. Win More Customers
Higher-end products often bring in higher-end customers who tend to have higher-end budgets.
3. Better Profit Margins
Embellished printing commands higher prices than standard printing services, and not just by a little bit. One recent study found that print customers were willing to pay 24-89% more for an embellished piece. These projects can make shorter runs more profitable.
Adding Decorative Print and Embellishment Capabilities for Less
Because we’re a large national provider, our strategic partnerships with top manufacturers around the world allow us to secure insider pricing for our clients. So adding these capabilities might be more cost-effective than you think! But, of course, your shop, your customers, and your business model are unique. No single solution is the right course of action for every single business.
Production printing is a specialized industry, and while it’s not entirely unlike ours in that way, we understand that it’s a totally different beast. That’s why we’ve brought on some people who have spent the better part of their careers in professional printing to help advise our clients. There’s no experience like real-world experience; they bring some impressive tricks of the trade and ingenious maintenance hacks that we couldn’t have gotten any other way.
You’re always welcome to talk shop with one of our production printing specialists. And if you find yourself in the Twin Cities area, you’re also more than welcome to visit our print production facility to see some machines in action — including the much-celebrated MGI JETvarnish 3D Evolution!
Click the link below to get on our schedule!
