Have Fun, Build Business with Simply Postcards App

iPhone iPad iPod Touch app postcardsLet’s face it. People still love to get mail and enjoy their hand-delivered paper products. The death of print has been greatly exaggerated. What we often see instead is a complementary merging of digital and print.

Case in point is Simply Postcards, a division of Simply Canvas and Simply Color Lab, which recently introduced a new app that allows you to create your own postcard digitally and have it printed and sent to the person or business of your choice. The app can be used with an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or at the Simply Postcards website. The Droid app is scheduled to be available next week for Droiders, or whatever you call someone who uses a Droid.

“The app is easy and fun, and everyone I know who uses it loves it,” says Dean Lambert, LexJet vice president, who has been overwhelming the U.S. Postal Service with postcards to friends and family.

Lest you think that Simply Postcards is only a means to send birthday cards and such to loved ones, it’s actually an excellent tool for business. Check out a few of the 1,001 ways in which pro photographers are using the app to stay in touch and follow up with their clients at www.simplypostcards.net/1001-uses.html.

“We’re starting to see small businesses use it as a means to easily tap customized direct mail through the app,” says Dan Ptak, project manager for Simply Postcards. “The site includes a nice business function for importing contacts, bulk pricing from 80 cents to a dollar apiece, and a function that allows you to schedule a postcard for a later date so that it arrives on an anniversary, a birthday, as an order reminder or on holidays.”

Simply Postcards recently added Simply Borders to the app’s repertoire. Borders that you can add to the postcard include Featured (Seasonal and appropriately timed themes, including Valentine’s Day… Hurry up for that!), Occasions (Happy birthday, thank you), Travel (Wish you were here, vintage airmail), and Miscellaneous (Vintage photo album look, filmstrip), or create your own using their template http://www.simplypostcards.net/simplyborders/custom.html.

To see it in action, check out Simply Postcards’ YouTube video at www.youtube.com/user/SimplyPostcards

Every user receives their first postcard free after signing up, and just for our readers, Simply Postcards is also supplying three more free with the promo code: lexjet

Inkjet Printed Greeting Cards for all Seasons

Inkjet print greeting card holiday special occasionClay Blackmore, owner of Clay & Co. in the Washington, D.C. area, is a yes man. Beyond Blackmore’s well-deserved reputation as a high-end photographer whose work from capture to print is virtually flawless, his number-one specialty is customer service.

Customer service for Blackmore means saying “yes” to odd jobs outside of his normal workflow, like greeting cards. “I’m a portrait photographer, and it’s always around December 1 when the phones go crazy for 4×6 cards,” says Blackmore. “Plus, we have about a dozen customers who want us to do something special, and it’s not about price. So we come up with all kinds of high-end, top-shelf cards.”

This past Christmas season, Blackmore printed these “top-shelf” cards on LexJet Sunset Etching Greeting Cards. The cards are available in two different finished sizes – a 5.813 in. x 9 in. scored card folded to 5.813 in. x 4.5 in., or a 7.375 in. x 11 in. card folded to 7.375 in. x 5.5 in. – and can be printed on both sides.

Made to the same high-quality fine art standards as LexJet’s line of Sunset Fine Art Papers, LexJet Sunset Etching Greeting Cards have a warm etching-like finish compatible with the latest inkjet printer models from Epson, Canon and HP. The cards can be purchased in bulk or as a kit. The kit includes Type 6 envelopes with a Baronial Style Flap.

“If you want to do a nice card, it’s always a lot of work to come up with a nice design, but people come to me for something different and special. If I charge them around $4 a card I can justify someone spending half a day getting them done. It’s a service thing. The product itself is very nice; the paper and envelopes looked really good,” says Blackmore. “They’re also an unusual size, which means they tend to stand out and catch someone’s attention in the mail.”

The cards are perfect for any special occasion or holiday, including invitations and other announcements. For more information about Sunset Etching Greeting Cards, call a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538.