Julie is the wife of one of our employees, Johnny Buckner. She is in need of blood and her office, Endocrinology Consultants of East TN and Burns Mailing and Printing, Inc. are having a blood drive on September 19th, 2016 here at Burns. We are located at 6131 Industrial Heights Dr. Knoxville, TN 37909. Please call us and sign up to give blood for Julie. Our number is 865 584-2265.
Digital printing has filled a void in our company. It has given us the opportunity to offer our customers a quick, cost effective way to do smaller quantities. We consider anything under a quantity of 5000 to be a good candidate for digital printing. The difference in digital and offset is the inks and the process by which they are printed. Digital printing uses toner based inks. The ink sets on the paper and gives a bright colorful look to the printed piece. Conventional offset uses oil based inks that are absorbed into the paper. If an un-coated paper is printed, the ink color is not as vivid as the ink color on a coated paper, because the ink sets on top of the coated paper and does not have as much absorption of the ink. The appearance of the digital printing, conventional printing on un-csoated paper, and conventional printing on coated paper, all have a different appearance. If a customer orders a smaller quantity and it is printed on the digital press and then decides to re-order a larger quantity that must be printed on a convention offset press, they should not expect the color to look the same because it is a different process. Another thing that affects the look is the opacity of the paper. The opacity of the paper has to do with show through from the front to the back a higher opacity eliminates show through.
Another great feature of our digital press is that we can print both sides with variable data and address for mailing, all on one pass of the press. What does that mean for the customer? It means that, if the press is not heavily booked, we can print, address and mail..all in the same day. Our customers still get the benefit of lower postage because the list has been run through NCOAlink update, duplicates taken out and sorted for postal discounts.
Who doesn’t like to get free stuff. I go to trade shows and each booth is giving out free stuff, such as candy, pens, or just do dads. You may not be old enough to know what do dads are but they are just little items that people like and pick up at trade shows. Well, I don’t have any do dads but I do have something FREE. It is a lot more valuable than pens and such. At Burns Mailing & Printing we will plan your direct mail campaign for FREE. My talented team will set down with you and help plan your next direct mail. We will advise you on the best cut of the paper that saves money, the best design to meet all postal specifications and how to get the very lowest postage possible. These are three good reasons to email or call to set up an appointment for a FREE consultation. phyllis@burnsmp.com or call 865 584-2265.
Every industry has their own language. In my previous life in the auto industry we had terms such as upside down (owe more than the car is worth), sleds (older cars) and clunkers (not a great car). In the printing industry we are no exception. I am going to explain some of the common printing terms.
OK, admit it, you thought the last one was something else didn’t you?
I have learned this lesson the hard way when my late husband had a stroke. I was talking to him one moment and the next he was having a stroke that left him in a wheelchair. Later he got leukemia and had to have a lot of blood transfusions. The employees at Burns had a blood drive for Ken and made a big difference for him. Such a hard lesson happened to one of my employee’s wife. On Thursday she was at work and feeling fine and on Friday she was in intensive care and has been there ever since. When one member of our work family is hurting we all feel pain and helplessness. We want to do something, we want to make it better for her and for our employee. She is receiving blood transfusions and we have found a way to help, a little. In connection with her employer and with the help of Burns employees we are having a blood drive. The blood drive will be at Burns Mailing & Printing, on September 19th, 2016 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Our address is 6131 Industrial Heights Dr., Knoxville, TN 37909. Phone 865 584-2265 if you have questions about the blood drive.
Please come out and donate blood, if you are able, and help our employee’s wife and, of course, any blood not used will go to help others in our community. Blood is truly the gift of life.
The picture in this post is of my Dad, Odes Robinette, and other unidentified coal miners in Lynch, Ky. They worked at Portal 31 which has now been preserved by the State of Ky as place where students and other folks can come and learn about coal mining and how it affected the mountains in Eastern Ky. My siblings and I went to Lynch several years back to see a stone that we had purchased to honor our Dad and all the workers of U.S Steel that worked at Portal 31. U.S. Steel owned the entire town, the houses, the schools, the grocery store and even the hospital. I was born in a hospital owned by U.S. Steel. Now students and others can ride a coal car back into the mine and see what the miners actually experienced. Lynch is the only coal mining city in KY that is still intact with a coal mining museum to learn even more about that era. My siblings and I expressed our gratitude, on that trip, that our parents moved us to Oak Ridge, TN where my Dad worked on the Manhattan Project and we lived behind the fence in the “secret city”. Later we moved to West Knoxville, where I grew up. I still go to the same church that I attended when I was 6 years old. I go to church with friends there that started first grade and went although high school together.
This picture made me think about how the people in our lives influence us for the rest of our lives. It made me think about all the service men and women who have given their lives so that we can be free and that we should not take that freedom lightly. My Dad was call to military service but he was working at Oak Ridge, and that was essential to the war effort, so he was sent back home. He didn’t even know what he was working on. He heard it on the radio, like everyone else.
I am proud to be a coal miner’s daughter but unlike another coal miner’s daughter, I could not sing so I sell printing and mailing. I am grateful.
The first thing I do when I get home is pull into the garage and walk across the street and get my mail. Statistics tell me that other folks do much the same thing. 79% of consumers find that reading mail is more convenient that going online. 42% of age group 25-34 said that they read mail immediately and find it useful. 58% of households with incomes over 65k purchased from direct mail in a given year. We all get dozens of emails trying to sell us something. Most of mine go into my spam folder before I even see them. I scan my spam folder to see if one of my customers emails accidentally got sent to spam and then I delete the entire folder. Mail is not intrusive and it can be put aside to be read at the recipients convenience. I often put something aside that I am interested in, such as coupons, a promotional or sales (I do love a good sale). I get lots of those offers by email as well but I usually don’t remember them or I have deleted them by the time I want to use them.
This is the time of year when businesses and non-profits, who are going to have fall campaigns, start to put together their plan for the fall. I am sending out a post card today to remind all the non-profit organizations to start early on their fall appeals and avoid missing the dates that they want their appeals to mail. That also applies to businesses who mail catalogs. We are already working on a catalog for an online retailer so that his catalog mails in order to get the Christmas orders. If you are planning a direct mail campaign for this fall…get busy.
Burns has been busy this summer with political printing and mailing. We are very aware of deadlines, USPS regulations on when the last day to mail and still be guaranteed to have delivery before the election. If a politician wants to mail after the recommended time, we have them sign a waiver that they are aware that their mail may not be delivered before the election. Last Friday, a day after the election, I get a political post card in the mail. It was printed and mail by an online printer in Michigan. It stated that election day is August 4th and vote early. I think that this particular candidate should have started his printing and mailing early. All his money spent amounted to nothing because it was delivered until after the election. Using a printer/mailer who is local just makes sense, the post card goes directly into the Weisgarber Post Office and delivery is much faster. Besides it is good for the community that the politician will be representing to have the money stay local.
