Adams & Garth, one of Virginia’s Leading Independent Staffing and Recruiting firms was looking to strengthen their position in existing markets and introduce a new office in Richmond, VA.  Their new corporate overview provides a strong introduction to their service offers in a unique format. 

Their Workforce Strategies Guide includes 24 pages, highlighting ways that companies can transform their staffing function into a significant source of competitive advantage.  The guide helps position Adams & Garth as a trusted advisor, instead of just another staffing vendor looking for an order.  Both of these brochures can be used as a print piece or an online eBook which can be emailed to prospects.

So why can’t I use that web photo on my staffing company’s brochure?

We hear a lot about image resolution when it comes to digital cameras and HDTVs.  Image resolution is also important to consider for the artwork used in your marketing materials.  Different media require different resolutions for best results.  That great looking photo on your staffing company’s homepage just might turn all fuzzy when printed in a brochure…why?

For starters, we need to know what digital images are made of.  The most common is the .jpg – digital cameras, web images and clip art usually deal with the .jpg format.  Other similar formats are .bmp, .gif, .tif and .png.  They are all known as bitmap or raster images. Quite literally, it’s a map of bits – each bit or pixel is mapped onto a grid.  These images are based on pixels – the little blocks of data that stack up to make the picture.  The word “pixel” was coined as a composite of “picture” and “element.” And the more pixels you have in the image, the higher the quality.  Think of it as a tile mosaic.  Up close, the individual tiles don’t look like much, but from a distance they coalesce into a picture.  The more tiles used to make the image, the better it will look.  This relates to a digital image’s resolution.  

Resolution determines an image’s quality and size.  The more pixels an image has, the greater its detail and clarity will be. With digital cameras, an 8 megapixel camera takes higher quality images than a 4 megapixel camera. But more pixels also equals larger files.  

Also, digital cameras format images at 72 pixels per inch (ppi).  This is similar to the dot resolution of laser and inkjet printers.  They use dots per inch (dpi) to determine their image output resolution.  A higher dpi rating equals higher resolution printouts.  While dots per inch and pixels per inch are used interchangeably, they really aren’t the same things.  A dot on paper and a pixel of data are not the same “size.”  But this is a minor technical difference, and you’ll hear the two terms used together.  Don’t sweat it – the real issue for image resolution deals with how much pixel data the image contains.  

Back to our digital camera comparisons – the 4 and 8 megapixel devices.  A megapixel is a unit of data equal to 1 million pixels.  A typical 4 megapixel camera takes images which are 2,464 pixels wide by 1,632 pixels high.  This bitmap – the overall pixel area – is equal to 4,021,248 pixels, so 4 megapixels.  The 8 megapixel camera records images of 3,266 by 2,450 pixels, or 8,001,700 total pixels.  At 72ppi these translate to images which are 34.22” x 27.67” for the 4 megapixel camera and 45.36” x 34.03” for the 8 megapixel camera.  These seem ridiculously large – why would a digital camera need to take poster-sized images?  Well, the reason is output devices like printers operate at higher resolutions.  A photo-quality printout requires bitmapped images to be 300ppi – roughly 4 times the resolution of 72ppi.  So when you convert the 4 megapixel image to 300ppi it ends up 4 times smaller – 8.21” x 5.44” instead of 34.22” x 27.67.”  A good rule of thumb to determine the largest size you can print a digital image is to divide its pixel dimensions by 300.  

Monitors and websites operate at 72ppi, which looks good and keeps the file sizes down – which makes it easier and faster for viewers to download image data when they visit your site.  But when you ask your graphic designer or marketing professional to use the image on your website for your printed materials, you’re asking for trouble.  The image quality suffers tremendously and your marketing piece loses impact when the artwork looks substandard.  For instance, here’s the Haley Marketing logo as it appears on our website.

It’s 157 x 82 pixels – nice and small so it downloads quickly in a browser window.  Its physical dimensions at 72ppi are 2.18” wide by 1.14” high.  Not real big, but it looks good on a monitor.  Converting that to 300ppi, though, it ends up at .52” x .27” – smaller than a postage stamp.

That’s not going to have much of a visual impact on a brochure, especially if it’s too small to read.  When we try to upsize the image, so it’s back at 2.18” wide by 1.14” high at 300ppi, this is what you get.  A fuzzy, jaggy image that looks lousy in print.  

What sort of impression will that make on people?  Would you want to represent your business like this?

Now when you hear a design professional or print vendor say they can’t repurpose artwork on your website for a postcard or booth display, this is why.  Digital images require different resolutions depending on how they’ll be published.  To get the most out of your marketing materials, make sure you’re using artwork suited to your media.

Why Using a Professional Printer for Your Staffing Firm’s Marketing Makes Dollars and Sense.

Suppose you’ve hired an architectural firm to design your new office building.  This vendor is known for professional, award-winning designs that suit your budget and style.  When it comes to building it, however, would you try and save some money and do it yourself? Would you expect it to turn out as well as both you and the designers intended?  Yeah, you and your staff could probably finish the project and have a serviceable workspace.  But would it really be as nice and impressive as having a professional contractor do the work?

The same considerations come into play for your printed marketing collateral.  Haley Marketing Group’s design team creates your print materials with the expectation that they’ll be produced by a commercial print vendor.  The final artwork files are prepared in such a way that a professional printer can work with them.  They are not intended for — and are often incompatible with — the desktop inkjet printer in your office.  As nice as some color printers are these days, they simply can’t do as good a job as a print provider can.  The quality just isn’t the same and your audience CAN tell the difference.  The nicest design in the world can be rendered substandard, and even counterproductive, if it isn’t implemented properly.  Not to mention the actual costs of internally printing several hundred copies with the consumption of paper, ink supplies and time for your staff.  It’s more expensive than you think.  When you compare that to the price of a professional printer, you can see how this is one of those “penny wise and pound foolish” situations — especially with the quality and quick turnaround of today’s digital print solutions.

Now, if you want to print the materials yourself, that’s fine.  Just please tell us at the outset.  We can design and prepare files that will work within the limitations of a small printer.  The monthly articles for our HaleyMail Plus campaigns are designed to accommodate both color and black and white office printers.  But if you contract Haley Marketing Group to develop a trifold brochure or sell sheet, please consider a print vendor to handle the fulfillment.  If you already have a commercial printer in mind, please give us their contact information.  We can coordinate with them from the get-go to make sure the files are prepared to meet their needs.  If you don’t have a printer, Haley Marketing can provide either the pricing from our trusted vendors or the advice and direction you need to find one.

So, from article reprints to z-fold brochures, make sure the quality and effectiveness of your marketing materials aren’t compromised by a “budget” implementation — use a professional printer to get the job done right.  You’ll get a better result — and even save money in the long run.

Staffing Sales Presentation e-Brochure 

SourceAbility was given the opporunity to compete for a large contract with a Fortune 50 organization.  Part of the RFP included a corporate overview and sales colateral.  SourceAbility needed this material developed and submitted within 48 hours.  Haley Marketing wrote copy and designed a highly professional e-Brochure for SourceAbility in time to submit their RFP.   

“This looks great.  THANK YOU AND YOUR TEAM SO MUCH!  When I contacted you I wasn’t even sure if you would be able to put together anything for my presentation in less than a day. But then you turned around and developed an entire 8 page brochure that looks terrific.  I can’t thank you enough.”

Tanya Calkins, CPC
SourceAbility, Inc.

Statewide Staffing, a provider of healthcare staff to rural communities throughout Maryland, was interested in marketing their Private Duty services.  Haley Marketing created a unique 8-page brochure and e-book that Statewide Staffing distributes to local care facilities, out patient facilities, and rehab centers.  Statewide Staffing’s sales team also uses these brochures as leave behind pieces when meeting with Facility Administrators–reminding facilities that Private Duty care is available to improve recovery times and help foster better medical outcomes. 
 
A new section was also added to Statewide Staffing’s website outlining their Private Duty capabilities: http://www.statewidestaffing.com/privateduty

For more information on Staffing Marketing Campaigns,
please visit http://www.haleymarketing.com/ourservices/campaigns/