You Need To Do This!

I just got off the phone with a client. The last time we worked with him was a year ago.We are doing a mailing for him and he wanted to mail to the same list as last year. I could not find the list in my files as I was talking to him (I did find it later). Luckily he found the email that I sent him with his cleaned up list and sent it back to me.

A friend brought in a form from a client of his and needed 500 color copies of it. We put it on the copier and got as close to a color match as we could. Then he took a bunch to the client to see if they would work. We found out the color was OK, but the lines on the new copy did not line up when they filled it in and ran it through their printer.

I had to go back and scan the original form and color match it again and make other adjustment to get everything to line up, print up a few more and let them retest it. That one worked, and they got 500 copies and the new art work.

The point of these two stories is that when you work with a printer, graphic artist, direct mail specialist, ad agency or anyone who creates or buys something for you, get the original or a copy. If it’s in a non hard copy format, get it in a format you can use. Do not get your art work in a PDF file but in the format it was created in. Your list should be in an Excel or CVS file not a Word or label format.

Why? Because it’s yours; you paid for it. And if you change printers or ad agencies or the business goes out of business and you want to use it again, you can do so without the added expense of creating it all over again.

Now the bad news: Most of the groups I listed above don’t want you to have your stuff. They will tell you that they’ll keep it safe for you. What they want to do is keep you as their customer, and they are willing to keep your stuff hostage.

Until next week,