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So it makes sense to combine both printing processes.
You cut your printing costs, have fabulous, professional
looking postcards and the ability to tailor your
message to different groups. This is accomplished
by Pre-printing one side of your card ahead of
time using offset printing, and overprinting
the other side at a later date using digital
printing.
Pre-printing offset shells is a similar concept
to printing letterhead. When you have a letter
to send, your letterhead is already printed and
waiting for your new message. Treat the postcard
or brochure the same way and print one side ahead
of time (This is when we take advantage of the
price per piece savings Offset Printing offers
for high quantities)
Then as you need to tailor the
specific message for different mailings, take
the pre printed cards to a digital print shop
to have the other side overprinted. This is where
the advantage of digital printing comes in - there
is no minimum quantity so you could have just
one card overprinted if you like.
In the example below (see Figure 1) we had side
1 preprinted at an Offset Print House and in
a quantity large enough to get a good price per
piece. Then we took the cards (which were now
printed on one side and blank on the other) to
a Digital Print Shop to have half of the cards
printed with one coupon offer ($10 off), and
the other half with another offer (Buy One -
Get One Free). This allowed us to measure the
results of each and see which offer gave us the
highest response rate.
One thing you need to make sure to do before
you have the shells printed is have the offset
print shop talk with the digital print house
so they can make sure the paper, size, and inks
used are compatible with one another.
With a little creative thinking and planning,
you will discover how to best combine the two
printing processes for your company's own unique
marketing needs.
Figure 1. Postcard Front. Offset Printed ahead
of time.
Postcard Backs 1 and 2. Digitally overprinted
with different messages.
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