The first, and I think one of the most important, things is to consult with a direct mail company (hopefully Burns Mailing & Printing) before the design begins. Making sure that the mailing piece meets all postal regulations will save time and money. Burns can advise you on what paper is best, what size meets your needs and is the most economical cut of the paper. Our graphic designers know all of the postal regulations and can make this process easy. Most of our customers send us the copy, any photos that they want to use and we take care of the design and send a proof out for approval. After approval it goes to our printing department where it can be printed digitally if the quantity is under 10,000 and on our offset presses if the quantity is over that amount. After printing, it goes to our mailing department where we have cleaned up the list to meet all USPS regulations for list hygiene and then on to the United States Postal Service. If you don’t have a list, we can help with finding the right list for your company or organization.

In addition Burns now offers promotional products with over 800,000 products on our website. You don’t have to look at all these products, our promotional products specialist, Suzanne McCarter will meet with you and find a great promotional product for your organization. Call 865 584-2265 or email suzanne@burnsmp.com.

Lincoln, wants to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine’s Day. Lincoln is my grand puppy and he is coming to visit this weekend. Having my family with me this weekend will make for a sweet treat for me.

I often invite potential customers or current customers to tour our facility. Most have never been in a printing company. When I ask them do they know why they call it four color process most do not know. The colorful picture you see above is made up of just four colors, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. A four color offset press has four sections and each cylinder is loaded with these four colors. The paper starts on one end and then each color is printed as it goes through the press. When it comes out on the other end it has the full color printing. This process is offset printing and it puts ink on the paper. The paper absorbs the ink and thus the difference between offset and digital printing. In digital printing the ink is toner and it lays on top of the paper and is not absorbed in the paper. Digital printing usually has a more vibrant color because it is not absorbed in the paper. Digital printing is for smaller quantities (at Burns it is 10,000) and offset is for larger quantities. If a customer orders a smaller quantity and then decides to order a larger quantity of the same item, we have to be sure to tell them that the two processes will look different because one absorbs the ink and the other does not.

If you would like a copy of the resource guide above, email me at phyllis@burnsmp.com.

It has felt a little warmer the last few days and I have actually seen some Winter Jasmine with their yellow blooms peeking out. Now is the time to start mailing spring appeals, newsletters, event invitations and allowing us to research the promotional products that would be great for upcoming events.

We are seeing an up swing in political printing and mailings as early voting starts soon. One thing that we have new for political mailings is the ability to provide list with details about voters. Call us at 865 584-2265 or email me at phyllis@burnsmp.com for more details.

I was looking through some things in a closet in my office and found this article about Burns being the first bar-coder in Knoxville. Now every piece of mail, even first class, has a bar-code whether applied by companies like Burns or by the USPS. Applying the intelligent bar-codes saves our customers money on postage.

Burns Mailing & Printing now offers graphic design, printing (both digital and offset), direct mail services and promotional products. We are still a one-stop convenience for alll these things. Call us at 865 584-2265 or email phyllis@burnsmp.com.