In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious truth to concentrate to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar is just not in the long run user’s hands earlier than January 1, 2014, they might already have found another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the consumer’s fingers close to the start of school if it will be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a great timeline for your entire venture.
How are you getting your calendars into the top consumer’s arms? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it should be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will have to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you might be mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply must ensure you allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or a local mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’ll most likely be cheaper and simpler for you. Just ensure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot extra time they may want and issue it in.
If, on the other hand, you propose to print a calendar and sell it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a little more difficult. How a lot time you want for sales will depend on your gross sales strategy. Are you promoting at a local pageant or other occasion? If so, then that offers you a deadline, however understand that you will be higher off when you can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion are not what you anticipate. Or perhaps you are having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If that’s the case, it’s best to allow at the very least two weeks, and ideally up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
In the event you print a calendar that you simply plan to promote, it’s best to remember to develop and implement a strong advertising plan. Marketing doesn’t have so as to add to the overall length of the calendar challenge – you can and should begin marketing in the course of the planning and production stages of the challenge. Nevertheless, should you wait to start advertising till you could have the calendars in hand, then you have to to permit at least a couple of extra weeks, perhaps extra, to your advertising and marketing message to reach the meant audience and encourage them to purchase.
The production part of a calendar printing project begins when you hand off all of the images, textual content, logos, advertising, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work so that you can approve and then places it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Ensure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s usually about three weeks (sometimes sooner in case you have a particular deadline). For those who anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then you should in all probability permit just a little further time – maybe a month in total – for manufacturing.
