Going Green with Catalogs and Booklets

Eco-friendly marketing requires a conscious effort to ensure you're taking the proper measures to be green in every aspect of your marketing strategy. Transitioning from traditional, environmentally detrimental printing practices to new, green printing technologies is not only one of the quickest and easiest eco-friendly practices to implement, it can save you money and make your company look even better. If you print catalogs and booklets to distribute to customers and prospects, now is the time to go green and forever feel good about your marketing practices. Do your homework to make sure your booklet printing company uses proper green printing technologies, and you'll never have to worry whether you're truly eco-friendly again. The following details what you need to know about eco-friendly printing to make sure you're printing green booklets and catalogs every time.

Green booklet paper

For starters, you'll want to make sure your booklet paper satisfies green, eco-friendly requirements; after all, paper makes up the overwhelming majority of your booklet's composition. For your cover, choose a thick recycled 13-point matte cover stock; for your interior pages go with a lightweight 70-pound matte text stock that is recycled.

Green booklet ink

One of the biggest technological advances in green printing today is the advent of eco-friendly soy-based inks, which release drastically less pollution into the environment as their traditional petroleum-based counterparts. Petroleum-based inks are notorious for the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) they give off during the drying process. Best of all, soy inks are brighter and cover better, so you can still print high-quality green booklets without breaking the bank.

Keep 'em short and sweet

You can also print green booklets and catalogs with fewer pages: Feature your main promotions in an eight-page booklet then direct recipients to visit your website for more items. Remember that direct-mail marketing is a highly successful means to an end: as long as you get the sales, it doesn't matter where they come from.

Green booklet and catalog delivery

One tried-and-true business adage is that middlemen waste money. When it comes to the environment, middlemen are likewise wasteful. Instead of having your direct-mail catalogs or booklets shipped to you and then mailing them out yourself, you should have your printing company mail them for you. This cuts out the middleman (the shipper), and saves money (on shipping) while reducing your carbon footprint (from shipping vehicles). Printing green booklets and catalogs is easy when you follow these steps. One last way to save money and the environment is to print as many booklets as you'll use at once - but no more than that. The higher your printing quantity, the less your price per piece. However, that doesn't mean you should print more just to save money if extra booklets and catalogs will go to waste. Fortunately, digital printing presents attractively priced options for short run booklet printing - starting at as few as 25.