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August 31, 2012

DIY Invitation Tools

Filed under: Designing Your Invitation — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Willow Rounded Gatefold Pocket InvitationsDIY invitations are a fun way to create your party and wedding invitations while saving  money and giving your event your unique flair and style. PaperDirect can help you make do-it-yourself invitations that get noticed! Whether you’re planning a wedding shower, baby shower, birthday party, anniversary party, family reunion, wedding or graduation party, DIY invitations are fun to make and not quite as difficult as you may think. DIY invitations are truly one-of-a-kind, and your guests will be impressed that you made them yourself, infused with your sense of style and your personality.

DIY Invitation Tools and Tips

Handmade invites are invites with a one-of-a-kind sense of style and personality. With proper planning and a little know how you really can save a lot of money by making homemade invitations. Especially where weddings are concerned. By being careful and avoiding common DIY invitation mistakes, you can save yourself a lot of money and stress.Vintage Elegance Rounded Gatefold Pocket Invitations

Whether you’re a budding Martha Stewart, or a complete crafting newbie, homemade birthday invitations are a great way to add something unique to your party. Invitations set the tone of your event, so a wonderful, “inviting” invitation is a must!

Give your guests a fun and whimsical first impression by inviting them in style with something you made with your own hands. Your guests will really know you put a lot of effort into the invitation when they see you took the time to make it yourself.

To make birthday invitations using an invitation template is an easy way to get handmade invitations using your own printer. To create invitations with a template all you have to do is download one of PaperDirect’s printable birthday invitations, change the wording within the template to match that of your party, print it, and trim the paper. If you print on a heavy paper then there’s nothing else to it, but you can also take it further by attaching them to the inside of a pocket fold invitation, or layer them onto a colored card stock backing. Add some final touches with matching ribbon. The finished product is a lovely handmade DIY invitation that will wow your friends!

DIY Wedding Invitations

When times are tough and money is scarce,  brides look for simple, yet creative, ways to have the invitations they want without spending a lot of money. DIY brides can get the best of both worlds by creating one-of-a-kind designs without the custom made price tag.

Pocket Invitations

Heirloom Vine Specialty Pocket Invitation

When you send out your invitations for the next party, think of adding a touch of class with a PaperDirect pocket invitation. Whether you are planning an anniversary party or a birthday celebration, we have a wide selection of pocket invitations to choose from so you can find exactly what you’re looking for. Browse through the different styles of pocket invitations available including:

• Anniversary pocket invitations
• Party pocket invitations
• Graduation pocket invitations
• Save the date pocket invitations
• Wedding pocket invitations

Our stylish patterns will compliment any theme you have chosen for your celebration, and the sleek look of our pocket invitations will elevate the elegance for all your invites. When your invitees receive their modern invitation they will revel in the amount of thought you have put into making them feel important.

At PaperDirect, along with having the largest selection of pocket invitations online, we also have printable pocket invitations available so you can save money and time. When you need to invitations fast, you can order the pocket invitation template from PaperDirect, so you can print the invitations on your home computer. Many of the pocket invitations available from the wide selection at PaperDirect is available in template form for your convenience.

 

 

August 27, 2012

Best Resume Paper to Get Noticed

Filed under: Designing Your Business Communication — Tags: , — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Gilt Edged PaperIn tough economic times, job hunting can be a daunting task because of the sense of urgency that accompanies the job search, but with the right “stuff” and a stellar resume, you will get noticed by employers. Printing your resume on the best resume paper in the business will show companies hiring that you have got what it takes to be an asset to the team.

Best Resume Paper–PaperDirect

With so much competition out there in the job market, you really do have to stand out and make sure your resume gets moved to the top of the pile and not the trash can. While the type of resume paper you choose may not seem like a big deal, when all employers have is the resume to decide who gets the interview, yours must be the very best. PaperDirect is your resume paper headquarters and provides a huge selection of colors and everything from plain linen to colored parchment.

Some of our best sellers are the Perfectly Plain 28 and 38 lb letter paper, Linen 32lb Letter Paper and Earth Tones Letterhead Stock.

Arabesque Business CardsPaperDirect has so much more than resume paper to help get you prepared for the job market. If you need high quality envelopes, we have those, and if you need business start-up tools like business cards and such, PaperDirect has a huge selection of professional business cards for all types of budgets.

August 24, 2012

Now is the Time to Design Fall Newsletters

Filed under: Marketing & Sales Promotion Techniques — Tags: — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Swirls of Autumn NewslettersIs there an upcoming event that you’ve been asked to announce? Do you have a large number of people on a mailing list, and you want to save time and money? If you have been given the task of designing and mailing fall newsletters, PaperDirect can help! Newsletters are a great way to announce company business, family events or send out mass invitations. Newsletters are also a great way to simply connect with people and let them know what’s going on this fall.

Purposes of Newsletters

Newsletters basically have three purposes:

  1. A promotional newsletter to sell something
  2. A relationship newsletter to communicate with family or members of the same group
  3. A professional newsletter sent to students, patients or church membersTurkey Time Newsletters

All three types of newsletters can take a seasonal approach, and fall is a great season to create festive, vibrant newsletters.

Direct Mail–A Lost Art?

PaperDirect newsletters come in two sizes: 8″X11″ two-sided or 11″X17″ for a four-page newsletter. The vibrant colors of fall such as oranges, reds, yellows, and browns will add a lovely seasonal tone to your announcement! You can send out fall newsletters announcing a special sale your business is having or a contest. Halloween stores can send out mass mailings advertising all the wonderful costumes they have in stock and other Halloween accessories like decorations for the house and yard. Maybe there’s a German restaurant in town that is holding an Oktoberfest celebration and is offering a buy one drink get one free. A Christmas Fantasy Newslettersnewsletter would be a great way to spread the word and get customers in the door.

Is your place of business giving away free stuff to people who come shop in costume? How about candy donations for underprivileged children who may not be able to go trick or treating. Costume donation drives can be announced by sending out festive fall newsletters.

Do you want to connect with distant relatives this fall and let them know about upcoming family gatherings for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Fall newsletters with all the necessary information will allow plenty of time for family to make plans to join the festivities.

Shop PaperDirect for all your business communication supplies.

 

August 22, 2012

Fall Themed Certificates for Seasonal Awards

Filed under: Employee Recognition Ideas — Tags: — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Sienna Specialty CertificatesPaperDirect has a number of seasonal designs to make award certificates appropriate for the time of year. Fall themed certificates are designed with the lovely, earthy colors of Autumn such as shades of yellow, orange, brown, red and copper. When making fall themed certificates for students, employees, or family members, be sure to use quality stock paper from PaperDirect and choose a design befitting the season. Check out these beautiful fall themed certificates exclusively from PaperDirect:

Remember that PaperDirect will custom print your fall award certificates. Let’s take a look at some of your options when it comes to printing certificates from PaperDirect. Desktop printable standard certificates are 8.5″ X 11″, white parchment paper, full-color designs and come in boxes of one hundred. The paper is laser and inkjet compatible. Custom printed fall themed certificates come in seven different colors, and we will do free logo and photo uploads. You customize your layout, font and ink color. We produce professionally Decorative Specialty Certificatesprinted, folded and boxed fall-themed certificates for all types of awards.

You can order a sample from PaperDirect to see the high quality products we create. A sample is just a single piece of a paper product so you can see and feel the quality of our work. All samples are full size, and you may order up to eight different paper products per sample order for a $5 shipping charge. Ordering a sample is easy! Simply find the product you want and click “Add to Sample to Cart” or you can call PaperDirect at 1-800-272-7377 to place your sample order. Samples are shipped first class mail and usually arrive within 3-5 business days, depending upon your location. You can pay $10 for express delivery, and we ask that you pay a $5 shipping and handling charge, which you will receive back in the form of a $5 coupon off your next order!

Swirls of Autumn LetterTop CertificatesPaperDirect also has a Certificates Template Software 2010 CD for $34.99. This amazing piece of software is for the person who spends a great deal of time making certificates as this is a HUGE time and money saver! The software lays out your certificate for you and offers 25 different headings in three different styles. It even offers suggested wording for over 20 types of awards. The Certificate Templates CD is compatible with Microsoft Word® 97 and above in PC and MAC versions.

Looking for some certificate award ideas? Check out these blogs from PaperDirect:

August 8, 2012

Autumn Flyers Are More Effective With Fall Border Paper

Filed under: Marketing & Sales Promotion Techniques — Tags: , — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Do you have a fall event you’d like to announce with a flyer?

Fall border paper from PaperDirect will jazz up your flyer and with autumnal colors like bold orange, earthy brown and sunflower yellow, your fall celebration flyer will surely be noticed!

Some of our Favorites:

[one_third]fall-freshness-border-paper[/one_third][one_third]

twigs-and-berries-border-paper[/one_third][one_third_last]harvest-border-papers[/one_third_last]

[one_third]maple-border-paper[/one_third]

[one_third]cute-turkey-border-paper[/one_third]

[one_third_last]autumn-maple-border-paper[/one_third_last]

Flyers are a great tool to announce a wide variety of events, from autumn festivals to small parties for the kids. If you’d like to design your flyer, then choose the fall border paper from PaperDirect that you love the most and get ready to do this at home or the office.

Flyers 101

Brochures, pamphlets and flyers are often the entrance point to your larger marketing efforts. The goal of a flyer is not only to educate a potential customer about your products or services but also to highlight that your company offers a better set of products or services than the competition. Our approach to flyer design revolves around these fundamental concepts while focusing on your wishes.

Fancy Foliage Border Papers

At PaperDirect, we know flyer layout, graphics and presentation. Our professional flyer templates afford you easy access and complete control over developing a high quality brochure, pamphlet or promotional flyer tailored exactly to the needs of your business (or personal uses for parties, weddings and the like).

With our specialized advanced flyer designs you can make a flyer with templates in minutes, from the comfort of your own office, home or chair. Our no hassle custom flyer development platform couldn’t be easier. Get started today and create award winning flyers at a small fraction of the expense of even modest basic flyer development and creation costs!

Moonlight Mayhem Border PapersDesign Your Autumn Flyer

When it’s time to lay out your flyer, you’ll want to use a type style that’s easy to read. Be sure to balance bold and regular type using the bold type to grab attention for the most important part of the message while small and regular type styles can be used for the details of your message. A flyer without graphics or arts is blah, so you will want to include some art work in your flyer. Perhaps the simplest way is to use a pre-printed background appropriate to your message.

How about a Halloween-themed flyer? PaperDirect has Halloween border paper that will work great for your Halloween bash or festival. Check out these Halloween border papers:

And so many more Halloween border papers from which to choose!

Nothing says autumn better than brightly colored, seasonal fall border papers from PaperDirect. Shop online today, and in no time at all, your new fall border paper will be at your door.

August 6, 2012

Improve Your Open Rate for Emails with These Tips

Filed under: Online Marketing Ideas — Tags: — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

If you’re sending emails as part of a marketing strategy, do you know what your open rate is? If not, and if you have never even heard of “open rate” for emails, let’s take a look at what open rate is and how you can improve your open rate to boost business. Open rate for emails indicates the percentage of delivered emails that are opened by recipients. You get credit for an “open” email when images are enabled or a link in the email is clicked.  A small one pixel by one pixel graphic is inserted into the email that you send. Then, each time the pixel is loaded, the email registers as having been opened.

Since recipients may open the email but not enable images or click on a link, this measurement can be inaccurate; however, for the most part, open rate for emails does give a business owner a fairly good picture of an email campaign’s performance.  The open rate is calculated by dividing the number of emails opened by the total number of emails delivered and is expressed as a percentage.

Open Rate Facts and Figures

Generally speaking, open rates for small email lists do better than larger lists. According to MailerMailer’s “Email Marketing Metrics Report,” the average open rate for the past nine halves for 25-499 members was 28%; 500-999 members was 22.3%; and for 1000+ members was 12.2%. Which industries did the best regarding open rate? In the lists with 25-499 members, Transportation 51.6%, Religious 37.3%, and Retail 33.3% had the highest email open rates.

In the email lists going to 500-999 members, Retail did the best at 36.2%, Religious was at 31.2% and Real Estate was at 30.7%. For the largest email lists of a thousand or more recipients, Banking fared best with 16.4%, Transportation close second with 16%, Non-Profit coming in at 15.8% and Small Business tying third with 15.8% open rates.

Open rates for email will typically peak the first hour after delivery. The peak is followed by a decline over the next 47 hours, and open rates fall to zero. An email marketer can expect about half of their opens to happen in the first six hours and 77% within the first 24 hours.

We mentioned above that the open rate metric can be inaccurate. One contributing factor is the use of smart phones (and other devices) to open emails. Users who open emails on their phone will only see the text version of your email, so with no images being loaded, it appears as though the email is unread, which is not correct. At the current time, an email open rate can be off from 11-35%, so careful! Even though it can be inaccurate, the email open rate percentage is a good tool to use to gauge whether or not your email campaign is working. Most small business owners are looking for an email open rate of 20% or higher.

Questions? Read some PaperDirect blogs about email marketing and learn more!

Would you like to try a free email marketing campaign? Partners PaperDirect and ConstantContact can get you started with a free email marketing campaign and coach today if you like.

August 1, 2012

Halloween Postcards Make Fun Party Invitations

Filed under: Seasonal & Special Events Ideas — Tags: , — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Lil Monsters Casual InvitationsIf you’re looking to jazz up your Halloween party this year, try sending out Halloween postcards as your party invitations to mix things up a bit. If your friends, family or neighbors are counting on you to host the annual Halloween bash, you certainly don’t want to disappoint by sending out the same old boring invitations this year. Make it simple (and save on postage) by sending out Halloween postcards for party invitations this year. If you’re going the “open invitation” route, then you can use Halloween postcards as a mailer to everyone you’d like to be included in the spooky festivities.

PaperDirect has many of the party planning items you need for a great Halloween party this fall. Check out our custom print option and save time and money by designing and printing (or letting PaperDirect do it for you) your own Halloween postcard invitations today! Some of the best-selling PaperDirect Halloween postcards are:Haunted Cemetery Postcards

  • Pumpkin Parade
  • Haunted Hill
  • Spooky Lane
  • Fright Night
  • Witchy Kitty
  • Good Ghost
  • Magical Pumpkins
  • Black Magic

Since Martha Stewart is such a well-respected party/hosting expert, let’s take a look at some Halloween games for kids (and big kids) that will keep your guests happy and entertained:

Pop Goes the Pumpkin:  A Halloween version of the classic carnival game makes a great wall decoration, too. Simply blow up several orange balloons (fill some with candy and some with confetti) and put them up on a wall with some type of backdrop to protect the paint or wallpaper. Have one adult use a stick pin or dart (kept away from the kids, of course) and have the kids guess which balloon has treats, confetti or is empty. Start popping balloons and the kids will love the goodies that come out of the balloons that are stuffed.

Doughnuts on a String: Tie a length of rope between two trees. With kids standing under the rope, tie pieces of ribbon to the doughnuts (one per player) and then to the rope so the treats hang slightly above mouth level. Have players start on the count of three. Instruct each to eat an entire doughnut without ever touching it and without letting it fall off the ribbon. The first to finish wins. The prize? It’s already been eaten!

Pin the Pumpkin on the Face: Any child who has played Pin the Tail on the Donkey will be able to play this game. Cut out eyes, noses, and mouths from black construction paper. Stick a reusable adhesive, such as Blue Tack, on the back of each cutout, and give a set of cutouts to each player. Put a large pumpkin on a low table or a bench. With blindfolded players starting four feet away (little kids may stand closer), instruct them to walk toward the pumpkin and create a jack-o’-lantern face (without peeking). After each turn, take a picture of the player with the finished pumpkin.

Halloween Masquerade Vinyl Banners

PaperDirect is your one-stop online shopping source for all of your party planning needs this Halloween. You can order Halloween postcards, creative Halloween invitations, or Halloween banners everything you need for a great party.

 

 

 

 

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