Success Story: Printing Custom Stationery Stands out in the Digital World
If you’re a small business owner, you know organization, planning and creativity are key. Luckily for Emily Ley, those happen to be her areas of expertise. As an author, social media influencer and the owner of Simplified® by Emily Ley, Ley prints her custom stationery, business essentials and organizational tools to empower women from all walks of life, proving to simplify is to succeed.
Collaborating with Smartpress on online printing jobs big and small, Ley prints a wide range of products, from office supplies like custom note cards and notepads, to functional items like poster-sized calendars and bar code stickers, plus apparel, gift certificates and marketing essentials.
And what began as a love of personalized stationery and monogramming has turned into a brand with a customer base that spans the globe, products sold not only online but also to big-name retailers and hundreds of thousands of social followers.
We spoke with Brittany Werth, chief operating officer of Simplified® by Emily Ley, about how to design for print, working with an online printer like Smartpress and why physical stationery still stands a chance in our digital world.
Q&A
What are your creative priorities when designing print for your business?
Brittany Werth: “Our business is paper goods, so we seek out the best quality print options for all aspects and touchpoints throughout our customer experience. We focus on the paper quality, accuracy of color and ease of the printing process when selecting print vendors for our projects.”
How do you choose the paper stocks and finishes for your printed pieces? How crucial are these considerations amidst your project decisions?
“Our standard paper stock is Coated Matte – White, 120# cover paper. We love the substantial feel and professional look. We carefully consider the intended use or purpose of the print project and select a stock that will best serve the purpose while also meeting our high quality standards.”
Your custom stationery is full of bold color. What’s the proofing process like for you to ensure the colors are just right?
“We’re sticklers for color and work hard to have our brand colors represented accurately in print. For new projects, we love to have a physical proof in hand when possible. We compare these to our Pantone color swatches and other brand elements to ensure what we’re printing is consistent across the board.”
What are your various uses for the multiple custom Postcards you’ve printed?
“The postcards we’ve printed have been used as order inserts for all of the orders packed at our fulfillment warehouse. We have also previously created inserts with brand information for influencer mailings and as encouragement cards for team gifts.”
Tell us about using Sticker printing to create barcodes.
“Working with Smartpress to print barcodes has been very easy! We utilize barcode printing for our ball caps, which we also produce through Smartpress.”
What’s your purpose for creating the “Well-Loved Brand Playbook” with our Perfect Bound Booklet?
“The Well-Loved Brand is our most advanced, comprehensive business and branding piece. This 100-page, printed workbook helps business owners explore the pieces of their own brand: clear, powerful messaging; simple, beautiful visuals; stellar deliverables; incredible customer experiences; targeted marketing efforts; and streamlined back-end business.
Using these concepts, we help business owners dig into their own brand (be it a brand new idea or a well-established company) and evaluate, revamp and refresh every corner of their business. The perfect bound format provides a substantial binding that will withstand regular use – a must for the customer who buys this product. We also love the clean, professional look!”
How have these print initiatives helped you achieve your strategic goals?
“Our various print jobs with Smartpress have helped us overall to enhance the end customer experience, increase brand awareness, grow our social media presence and build our online community by sharing our accounts and platform details.”
What feedback have you received from clients about your custom stationery?
“Our clients love the polished, professional look of our various printed materials. The quality is unmatched!”
What impresses you most about the final products and the online printing services at Smartpress?
“We love the ease of working with Smartpress, the wonderful customer service, quick turnaround and amazing print quality of our projects.”
Why do you think physical stationery continues to be popular, with so many digital apps for journaling, planning, etc.?
“Although our world is filled with digital and electronic communication streams and platforms, our company firmly believes that the use of paper products and physical stationery will always be a part of our world.
The tactile feel of good quality paper in your hands can never be replaced by a digital experience, and we often hear [about] and experience for ourselves the calm that can come from turning off the digital devices and putting pen to paper.”
Hint: See how more of our customers use print to profit and progress:
