CBF Group's blog

At the moment it seems everywhere you go all you hear about is Social Media..Social Media..Social Media.

People are forever asking me; are you on Twitter, are you on Facebook, have you got a Pinterest account?

By the way for reference the answers are Yes, No and I am but not quite sure how & when it happened.

Anyway, for anyone who knows me personally or CBF as a business, will know that we are fairly partial to dabbling in the realms of Social Media. We focus on using every aspect of Twitter to create more leads and to spread the word that CBF are on the front line for providing print knowledge.

Being in the print trade I can tell you that social media is most definitely not killing off the need for printed materials.

It may sound controversial but yes, I am saying there is enough room on this planet of ours for social media and printed solutions to exist. If anything, I am saying that if businesses learned how to link the two together they would see leads and positive feedback like never before.

Here is an example of how this can be put in to effect. I would like to state because I am not a lawyer in my spare time and to be brutally honest I am not a huge fan of being sued no names are going to be mentioned in this example as it is based on a real case study.

There was a company that produced machinery for a much specialised industry. The industry was in fact so specialised, they only had a handful of competitors. However, to the Directors annoyance they were will not creating the sales they needed and the company was fast losing money.

The directors decided to do something about this and decided to bring in a Social Media guru to help them create a strategy to build their business. In short the amazing Guru told them to drag themselves into the present times and use the likes of LinkedIn, Twitter, to start writing a blog and create videos to post on Facebook and YouTube.

The company took the comments of the Social Media Guru and starting acting on them, although at first it did whip up a bit of a frenzy as the phones soon stopped ringing and the inquiries dropped.

In the weeks to follow, thought provoking chin strokes occurred and coffee fuelled all night meetings took place to try and come up with a solution to save the business. In the end a member of staff threw forward an idea that turned out to be a stroke of genius.

His statement was “why don’t we use the positive aspects of both print and social media to help point at our USP’s (unique selling points).”

Lots of Godfather style ponderous head nods followed, then eventually one of the directors set the employee the task of taking his idea and making it work.

Obviously, the case study did not give away all of the trade secrets but some that were mentioned were as follows.

He created a marketing pack that was sent out to all potential customers explaining who they were, what they did and why the customer should be looking at them to be their provider.

What he also included in the index of a brochure was a list of five or so YouTube links pointing the reader to videos showing certain aspects of their machinery and services they offer. Essentially turning what could be a fairly boring read into more of an appealing visual concept he also felt this would make their business seem more tangible.

He also introduced a similar idea to leaflets and booklets that were given out. Instead of simply stating on the material that they have a Facebook, Twitter accounts etc, he pointed out links educating the reader on how to become social media savvy themselves so they can interact with the customer. What is the point of telling someone you are on a social media website if they don’t know where to find you?

On the flip side, when using the twitter account he starting advertising to people to sign up to their newsletter that got posted out every 6 months and once again used social media to point at printed materials to create a more rounded, professional feel to the business.

Again, I am going to have to fudge the facts a little to hide the identity of the actual business but I can assure you the figures I am about to use are not a million miles away from the truth.

Within one year they increased their inquiries by “160%”, due to their customers have a clearer idea of the services which were being offered and they achieved a conversion rate of “80%”.

Needless to say the company is now thriving and is still growing rapidly to this day.

One thing I can say is that the company in this case study was a big company with a turnover of millions. This doesn’t mean that the structure put in place by mixing Social media with printed materials cannot be introduced into any sized business.

If you would like to learn more about how to introduce a similar structure in to your business, then why not book in to have a free consultancy with us? One of our team will work with you to make sure you are getting the most out of your business marketing.

Adam & the CBF team.

Sadly it is a fact of life that to keep your business running there are bills that have to be paid and suppliers you need to keep happy. We have all had it at one time or another when a payment has slipped, you fall out of favour with your supplier and all of a sudden you have extra stress that you really could do without.

Suppliers have to implement payment structures otherwise receiving payments for services they have provided would be near impossible. Especially with how tight money is for some businesses at the moment, suppliers can end up chasing money which is rightfully theirs for weeks, months or even years.

Staying in the good books of your suppliers is one of the most important things you can do to maintain and grow your business. Without the full support of your suppliers your business will not function to its full potential.

There are a couple of basic payment structures that most suppliers will keep to and these are as follows.

Percentage up front

This payment method is usually used in industries where the work load being undertaken by the supplier is variable.

For example: Graphic designers, Architects, Consultants etc.

Here is an example: Customer (Adam) speaks to supplier (LG Design) with regards to a quote for designing the artwork for some marketing flyers. Based on the information given by Adam, the estimator from LG Design will calculate how many hours he thinks it will take to create the artwork.

Let’s say LG Design thinks it will take six hours to create a couple of design options including a round of amendments. LG Design charges £50 per hour, which means they will take a payment of £150.00 up front. This is done because if Adam ends up not liking both design options and then ends up having to have 3 or 4 amended versions the total artwork time could actually end up being 10 hours. This means his total bill would have gone up from the original estimated price of £300 to £500. What could happen is Adam say he had only budgeted for the £300 and cannot afford the £500 bill. Most of the time the supplier and the customer will come to an arrangement to make sure all the money is eventually paid off in full. Worst case scenario for LG Design is for Adam to disappear without paying the bill but as least he has the £150 from the upfront payment to cover for some of the time and revenue lost.

Payment on receipt of invoice

This structure is most commonly used when a supplier is dealing with a customer for the first time. As the supplier is yet to discover if the potential customer is a good payer or not, they will request payment on delivery of the goods/service.

This essentially means as soon as the supplier has completed their part of the contracted agreement they can ask for payment immediately. The payment methods most commonly offered by the supplier will be by cash, cheque, credit/debit card or BACS payment.

Example:

Adam has now had his marketing flyers designed and has gone to his local printer to have them printed. Once the printer has printed the materials to the agreed specification and arranged to have the flyers delivered/collected they can issue an invoice for immediate payment.

This is almost like a retail payment method. When you go to the shops to buy a can of beans you pay for them there and then, you don’t come back three days later to pay for them.

Accounts contract

Accounts are usually set up between a customer and supplier when there has been a decision made by the customer that they will use the supplier’s service on a regular basis.

Example:

Adam’s original marketing flyer drop has brought his business in a lot of work and is now in need of repeat print order for office and marketing purposes.

Once Adam and the printer have got a couple of completed orders and payments behind them the printer will most likely offer Adam an account. Depending on the supplier having an account usually means they will offer you 7, 14 or even 28 days on your payments. This means from the date the invoice is issued you will have a set amount of days to pay by.

Suppliers do not have to offer this facility to their customers and it is hugely based on trust between the supplier and the customer. Customers should always remember this is a privilege and should always keep to their end of the contract by paying within the set amount of days.

All this said, as long as there is trust between you and the supplier these payments options do not have to be the be all and end all. As long as you are open and upfront with your supplier they will do everything they can to make sure you get the service you need with a payment structure you are happy with. Alternatively, if your supplier is not willing to be flexible you can always take your business elsewhere and your supplier will be fully aware of this fact. If you don’t ask you won’t get so always make time to speak to your suppliers about these kinds of matters. Suppliers are not scary monsters; they may even surprise you with how much they will actually do if you just ask them.

If you are not happy or are confused about your current payment terms with regards to your print provider, then why not give CBF a call and see if we can help.

Adam out!

We have had a promotional ruler sat on our office desk for years now and it has to be by far the best gift ever. The reason being we look at it on a daily basis as it has all printing dimensions and measurement conversions on it.

So in a flash of inspiration this morning I thought, “Well if I am using it on a daily basis I am sure there are other people that will find this information useful”.

So here we are people, all those little measurements that you can’t quote remember from you school days in Maths and Science. If you were anything like me then you probably been using the useful promotional ruler to flick paper around the class instead of listening.

UK A Series Paper Sizes (mm)

Poster Sizes:  4A0 1682 x 2376 2A0 1189 x 1682 A0 841 x 1189 A2 420 x 594 A3 297 x 420

Flyer/Document sizes:  A4 297 x 210 A5 210 x 148.5 A6 128.5 x 105 A7 105 x 74

Standard Business Card size:  85 x 55 Compliment Slip:  210 x 99 (known as DL)

UK Measurement Conversions

1 metre/1000mm = 39.37 inches 100mm/10cm = 3.937 inches 304.8mm = 12 inches

24.4mm = 1 inch 1 metre = 3ft 3 inches (approx) 1cm = 0.3937 inches

Now when you come to place a print order or measure anything you will know exactly what you are doing. Why not print this off and keep it on file? You will not believe how much you will refer to it.

Happy Measuring People!!

The CBF team.

First of all I am going to do a bit of a CD sleeve Thank you’s list of all the people that came to the last #TuesdayCatchUp event.

@Alimcc1984 @cheltenhamcreative @Yummie_Cakes (the cup cakes donated were fantastic) @Party_Angels the #wearesocialclub crew of @emilyevelina @intranetfuture & @solutionmania. @LawsonWillett @jobsinNetwork @eveslegwear @thelaleemoo @HayleyLou_82 @KarmaKarsCots (It was a pleasure to finally meet you and thank you for bringing your stunning car) @PitmanChelt the @maplerockdesign crew of @richard_bell @ClareLouise71 @rachelartdesign. @CheltenhamDJ @LukeStevens1982 @Bees&CO @fhw @photoglow @CBFprinters.. For anyone that I have missed I am massively sorry.

As you can see our 5th #TuesdayCatchUp event had yet another great turn out, especially baring in mind we had around 10 of our regulars missing due to a leavers due.

It was fantastic to see so many new faces turn up at this event and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves and making the most of the great networking. Business cards were being shared left right and centre.

The #BusinessCardRaffle went down extremely well with everyone helping to raise money for @winstonswish. Steve from @fwh was grateful for his free PT session from @trainwithkirsty. Neil of @CheltenhamDJ seemed slightly confused by his £25 vouchers from @eveslegwear for tights but I am sure he has put it to good use . The meal for 2 voucher which was kindly donated by the Exmouth Arms was collected by Steve from @bees&co. Emily of @wearesocialclub turned a couple of people green with envy after picking up a free massage from @soul_serenity. Keep your eye out for Suzie’s from @KarmaKarsCots new flyers as she was lucky enough to win 2 hours worth of free artwork design from our selves’ @CBFprinters. Last but not least Kevin from @PitmanChelt won the prize that everyone in the room wanted, 6 wonderful cup cakes made by Michelle of @Yummie_Cakes.

Throughout the night there was the most amazing buzz from every talking, exchanging knowledge and advise. Here are some of the conversations that I stumbled across.

* How to build and maintain productive blog * The movers and shaking in the wedding suppliers industry * @photoglow was giving out lots of great photography tips * How to build up a strong social media presence using Facebook, Twitter and Google+ * Baking tips were being thrown around the room from Michelle * The work that goes in to hosting a private party * Myself and Lawson had all kinds of printing, marketing and website banter. Everything from how much are business cards to how to manage a marketing mail out.

Some of the less serious conversations included; Signs you give off by the clothes you wear, ghostly encounters, Various events with are coming up, peoples favourite things when growing up and the taboo subject of peoples ages .

After all the excitement of the raffle and all the business chat the majority of people made a dash homeward bound around 9:30pm. Some of the more hardcore networkers including myself went on to enjoy a fabulous curry and more business chat at the Indian Braserrie

The event doesn’t stop on Tuesday night though. I counted over 50 tweets between people that had attended saying ‘Keep in touch’, exchanging contacts and offering work leads.

If the #TuesdayCatchUp seems like an event that you would like to come along to then why don’t you join us at the next event??

Tuesday 1st November at the Exmouth Arms Pubs on the Bath Road in Cheltenham from 6:30pm onwards.

Totally free event (apart from a couple of pennies for you preferred tipple), friends and family members are more than welcome to join you. Dogs are even welcome in the Exmouth Arms

We all look forward to seeing you there. @CBFprinters @LawsonWillett #TuesdayCatchUp

So you have received one of our branded Order Confirmations, but what does it mean? 

Well once received we are showing you that you have placed a print order with us and that we are getting on with the job in hand.  All the information on the order confirmation highlights and breaks down the print job showing you the size of the finished job, the quantity we are producing, the materials we are using, the delivery address and our contact details should you wish to query any part of the job in hand.

Once we have sent this document we are reacting to your commitment to the printing job your having produced, the paper will have been ordered as part of the order confirmation process and you will be liable for charges if you would like to change certain aspects of the job specification. 

If you would like any further information please drop us a line.

It can sometimes be difficult enough trying to get your head around print jargon. Why not try adding medical terminologies into the equation.

Sometimes it is not only the customer asking the questions.

After we recently printed a Monograph on; Stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, we found ourselves not only asking what on God’s green earth is atrial fibrillation but also what is the difference between a Monograph and a Journal?

After literally minutes and minutes of searching on {insert well known search engine name here} I started to find the answers to what we were looking for.

The findings are as follows.

Medical Monograph (mon.o.graph)

A Monograph is nearly always completed by a single author. It is very rare and under very specific circumstances that a second opinion will be shown with in a Monograph.

Monograph translates to an essay or book concerned with a single subject or even a specific aspect of a chosen subject. They are designed to stand alone, as they are not part of a series, unless the Monograph is being published as a set.

With regards to our (stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation) Monograph this is giving extremely dense, detailed information purely on this type of stroke prevention.

Medical Journal (jour.nal)

Unlike the Monograph where the information comes from a sole author a journal will be made up of many articles based on one subject.

It is also a periodical, presenting articles on the chosen subject. This means new volumes will be regularly brought out updating the information after news finding are made in the subject.

Printing of a Monograph or Journal;

From our printing point of view both the Monograph and the Journal are usually majority black print only. Both Journal and Monograph only use minimal colour to show graphs, images and branding. Usually with a very high quality, gloss finish to them. They tend to be perfect bound for a more robust finish.

When it comes down to the delivery especially with the Monographs we always have to stick to very specific delivery criteria’s with regards to turn around times and packaging.

Our strict policies seem to tick all the boxes needed to make sure these materials are produced and delivered exactly as required by our customers.

For more information on Monograph or Journal printing then please do not hesitate to contact one of the CBF team. www.cbfnet.co.uk / 01242 237 652.

What does signing off a print proof mean?

When your presented with your print proof either on paper or on a computer you should be mindful of what your agreeing to and what are the options are for how to rectify mistakes if, as and when they go wrong.

So the 4 basic rules to understand by approving to the proof:

1. You are accepting the liability for any mistakes noticed after the date of signing off
2. You will be charged for all changes made after signing off the proof
3. Unless pointed out, the colours will be representative of the proof but many not entirely accurate.
4. The images on the proof are unless pointed out, going to look the way they look on the proof.

How can you check accurately and efficiently?
Let’s start with the content of the artwork, whether or not you supplied the artwork or had it created by one of our designers by approving the proof you are agreeing for the item to be printed without any further changes. So the text should be read word for word checking grammar, spelling and punctuation; it would be wrong to assume that the text you have sent to copy or cut and paste onto your artwork will be exactly as you sent it, because things happen that are out of your control.

Images next, what you may or may not know is that in order for an image to be printed correctly it needs to be not only of a certain size but it needs to be of a certain resolution.  Now most images on the web are set at 72dpi this is for ease of loading and is not considered print quality, so when supplying images for artwork creation make sure they are at 300dpi or above to avoid any disappointments. 

What about the colours?
Most items produced in our factories are printed in a 4 colour process (CMYK) this is used so that the machinery is at its most efficient not only on full colour image reproduction but in setup and running.  So what you must understand is that all printers will make every effort to create accurate colours there will be some variance depending on a range of things including paper stock used, ink types, particular machine and even down to atmospherics on the day.  There are ways to ensure the closest colour match for your corporate colours including spot colours and consistently using the same paper stocks but these can be more expensive to run the jobs. 

So getting your artwork right is the key, making sure the colours are set correctly, the text is converted to outlines and the images are embedded or supplied separately with the submission of your files to us. 

The final thing to always remember is that unless your screen is calibrated for colour accuracy then what you see on the screen is more often than not an accurate representation of what will end up on the finished article you receive.

If you have any questions about your artwork just remember to ask.

Now as you know CBF can work with all files to help you produce your printed items in.  But if you had a choice what artwork packages should you use so that you get the best results for us to work with and the end print product you happy with.

Most of us had a copy of Microsoft Office so that’s a good place to start; You can create documents in Word, Excel, and Publisher depending on your skills in using these programmes you will be able to put together a basic print item but be aware of the pitfalls.  None of these packages support true full colour (cmyk)  reproduction so the colours on your screen will, on most occasions look very different when printed.  You might say that isn’t so bad and you may only be printing one colour so you can bear with that.  The second pitfall for using the Microsoft Office tools to publish your artwork is the lack of ‘bleed’ options which ultimately means you will not have ink from edge to edge and leaving a border which more often than not makes the printed item look amateurish.

Don’t get me wrong these packages are a good start and introduction to graphic and print designs.  So why not use them as a starting block and get us to finish the artwork in our studio.

So what do the professionals use to get artwork right?
The stable of editing all images is Adobe’s Photoshop, this is package is immensly powerful able to do everything from drawing shapes to advanced editing of photos to make people look thinner and getting rid of blemishes. 

To create print items we would recommend Adobe Illustrator this package is able to set out artboards in the right size taking into account all the bleed and colour settings.  Then there is our closely followed up choice of Quark, this package in previous years was the benchmark to create any arwork piece, but after loosing ground to the competition it has stepped up in  recent times bringing it right back in the artworking frame.

If you are looking to publish a multi page document then we would recommend Adobe Indesign.  Now having just read this back it may look like an advert for Adobe’s Creative Suite but the facts are simple they produce the best packages and ultimatly the best results. 

The final word is on supply of the artwork to us, we are more than happy to accept the raw files but the soul reason for the existance of PDF files is to collate all the data, fonts and colour information into a compacted space to help us. 

If all this is too much we can always help you creat what your after graphically, but if it is a common requirment for you to create print artwork then have a look at the above and get on some courses to help understand the full capabilities.

Feel free to drop me a line anytime to help with creative inspiration or even a little bit of guidance on where to start.

Till next time…

Lawson Willett

When filling out Quote Request Forms you can sometimes come across jargon which you just don’t understand. When trying fill out a so called 60 second request forms and you don’t know what its asking you can all of a sudden end up taking a lot longer than 60 seconds, HOW FUSTRATING!!

To help all of you confused people out there here are some of those jargon words explained.

RFQ – This simply stands for Request for Quote. So you as a customer would be filling out a RFQ form.

4 Colour process (CMYK) Any full colour image is made up of four colours C Cyan (blue) M Magenta (Red) Y Yellow (Yellow) K Key (Black).

4/0 Is referring to the printed colour that you want on your printed material. 4/0 is also known as four back zero. This means you want (4) four colour on 1 side (0) only.

4/4 As above. Also known as four back four. Means you want 4 colours printed on both sides.

Spot colour – Spot colours can also be known as Pantone colours. Unlike most colours which are made up of CMYK (see above) you may have a specific Green for example which is integral to your branding. You would use that specific out of the tin Green instead of making Green out of the 4 prime colours.

Bleed – This is the margins that you should allow when creating or having artwork created to make sure no pieces or text or images are lost when your material is being cut down to size. The standard margin allowance for bleed should be 3mm all around images/editorial on a page.

PDF Proof – This can also be known as a soft proof. This is the standard format for artwork to be saved and sent to your printer. Most printers will accept artwork via email, disc or memory stick with PDF’s attached, which they will open using a PDF reader such as Acrobat.

Stock – Stock is essentially the spec of paper that you would like to use for your material. This is extremely important when it comes to the printer in question quoting on your material. The slightest change in stock can make a huge difference to the price. The two main details the estimator will need to know are paper weight also known as (GSM) and stock finish, for example matt, gloss or silk. Here are some examples of the most economical standard stocks.

• Business cards (85x55mm) Paper Weight 350gsm, Stock: Gloss.
• Letterheads/Comp Slips. Paper Weight 90gsm, Stock: Uncoated.
• Flyer A6/A5. Paper Weight 130gsm, Stock: Gloss.
• Leaflet A5 4pp. Paper Weight 170gsm, Stock: Silk.
• Booklet. Paper Weight, Cover on 150gsm & inner pages on 130gsm, Stock: Gloss.

PP – PP stands for Printed Pages. This is so the printer knows how many pages to quote on. For example a Flyer would be 2pp as it only has a back & a font. A5 leaflet folded down from A4 would be 4pp as it has a front page, 2 centre pages and a back page. With regards to Booklets, Brochures, Magazines etc, each sheet counts for 4pp. So for example you have an A5 booklet (A4 flat) which has 6 flat A4 sheets of artwork that would be 24pp. Publications always go up in 4pp.

Quantity: This is the number of materials you are after. For example if you are a business looking to do a Flyer drop and you want to reach 5,000 houses, you’re order Quantity would be 5,000

Delivery date: This is the date that you need your materials delivered by. Here are some deliver facts and tips.

For standard print materials such as business stationary the actual print turn is only 1-3 working days. Sadly for customers print presses are not always sitting around waiting for work to jump on them. This means you’re job may take 1-2 working days to get onto the print press. In conclusion even for the most basic of printer materials to avoid disappointment is it best to leave at least 5-7 working from when the work is signed off before the delivery date.

With any materials that might involve extra processes such as folders or materials with specialised inks needed like Embossed or Spot UV then always allow 2-3 weeks from signing off the work to delivery to avoid disappointment.

A huge tip to remember is from a printer point of view the turnaround time is from when the artwork is signed off until the delivery date. Example, if the printer offers a 5 working day turn around then don’t submit the artwork 5 days before you need it as it may take two days to have the artwork arranged. On a 5 working day turn around you should have the artwork to the printer at least 7 working days before.

Ex-works on a print quote mean that no delivery or fulfilment of your print job has been taken into account.  This terminology has been used if you have not asked for the print items to be sent to a specific location or the weight of the final goods has not been determined.

The end result will be additional charges being added to the invoice for the delivery.

To avoid this make sure you give all the information to the estimator when asking for your print quote.