How To Pick The Right Material For Mesh Fence Panels & Fence Banners

Posted on June 15, 2022February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

We are constantly asked what the best mesh banner stock is for mesh fence panels & fence mesh banners. Being a trade printer and having a lot of knowledge in this area we know that one size does not fit all when it comes to the best type of material for fence banners.

We understand that being tied into one way or one stock is not suitable when it comes to all of the solutions you will need to provide for fence mesh banners. See below for the range of different fence banner materials used and in what scenario they are used in.

PVC Vinyl Fence Banners

This stock is suitable for fence banners needing a more solid construction. As it not perforated the whole image is printed and lands on the material, the whole image is shown. So the benefit here is for anyone who wants the maximum impact of their mesh fence panels as the most punchy print is visible. As it is a heavier stock (we offer a 510gsm), it also means the banner is going to be more durable over time.

On the other hand, as this has a solid construction, it naturally does not allow any wind flow through the banner. Because of this in high wind flow area’s the banner may tear over time or cause temporary fences to fall over. Some companies use wind slits to combat this but in our testing, we have found that this weakens the banner and can cause tearing.

12×12 PVC Mesh Fence Panels

As this is a tight-knit mesh it is often referred to as a ‘premium’ mesh. Because of this more of the image is shown on the print so there is less show through compared to other mesh options. This stock typically comes in a 280gsm weight so it has a solid tensile strength. Because of the above, this stock is used more for smaller fence mesh banners as the better print visibility and strength on a smaller banner is good in most instances. It also has the longest life in outdoor conditions than other mesh options.

On the flip side as this is a closer knit mesh, the compromise comes with the amount of air flow through the fence mesh panels. In high wind loads, this stock can turn into a sail as not all of the wind can flow through the banner. So typically a strong fence or install is needed when installing these banners. As this stock is made of PVC, as the dyne level of the stock drops, UV ink is susceptible to fail on this stock. At Mediapoint we print on latex inks to avoid this issue. And the inks are more environmentally friendlier as an added bonus.

6×6 PVC Fence Mesh Banners

Often considered a more ‘open’ mesh this stock is perfect for longer fence mesh banners. The reason being is the stock is constructed with a 180gsm makeup which allows the most air permeability compared to any other PVC mesh fence panel options. What this means is this stock allows the most wind to flow through it which is suitable in high wind loads where there is a risk of the banner turning into a sail. This can potentially cause the banner to tear or a fence to fall over.

The compromise with this stock though is due to the more open makeup of the stock, less of the print is visible. This really dulls down any colors and you are not able to get any vibrancy on any colors because of this. We also avoid the issue of ink failing on this stock by using latex inks. With UV inks, as the stock ages, there is a risk of the ink coming off. Latex inks do not have this issue and have the added benefits of being more environmentally friendlier as well.

Shade Cloth

Shade Cloth has the benefit of being considered the ‘cheapest’ option of the fence banners range. It is often constructed of cotton or HDPE Mesh depending on the supplier. The print quality is decent as the knits are closer together.

Where the compromise is on this stock comes down to the type of print, finishing, and strength of the product. This type of stock can typically only be printed with less environmentally friendly solvent inks. This is not as safe as the latex inks that we use. This stock also comes pre-finished with buttonhole edging. This is nowhere near as strong as hemming and eyeletting which will cause banners to tear after a bit of wind exposure. As this stock is a closer knit it does not handle wind load like a more open weave mesh to does. This is why it is considered more of a short-term banner mesh panel option. At Mediapoint, we do not offer it because of these factors and recommend our customers to look at a more open weave mesh which is not too different in price point. But it provides a host of added benefits.

Polyester Mesh

As this stock is constructed with polyester, it is often considered as a fabric mesh. Typically it has a 115gsm weight, it is the lightest option out of the mesh fence panels material outlined in this post. This makes transporting this stock the easiest out of all of the options here. Due to the makeup of the threads, a lot of the print can be shown which makes this a fairly punchy print stock. This stock is often used for outdoor events.

As it is a fabric through, it can only be printed with a dye sublimation process. This is great for producing a punchy print but it is also only a short-term outdoor ink solution. Also as this is a fabric it needs to be sewn for the hem which is often a costlier process. Being a fabric as well it naturally will only hold up short-term outdoors.

If you have any queries about which stock is best for your customers mesh fence panels and fence banners, then have a chat to us if the above is not clear. Also don’t forget to checkout our pricing product to get instant online pricing about some of the options we offer from the above.

How To Grow Your Print Business

Posted on May 12, 2022February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

In this article, Jamie discusses his top tips for how to grow your print business.

We are constantly getting feedback from our customers and even our suppliers to how much we are growing. In the current market climate, it is not easy to grow your print business. But our formula over the last 13 years is below.

KNOW YOURSELF

The key thing we found which switched us from being just another print business to really surging, was knowing yourself. Several years ago, we realized our advantage was being a production house and most of our top customers were trade customers. So, we pivoted Mediapoint to be a trade-only printer.

GET LEAN IN THE RIGHT AREAS TO GROW YOUR PRINT BUSINESS

By knowing yourself it will allow you to get lean in 3 key areas which are your processes, people and products. By knowing your target area and your target customers you can tailor your setup towards them. It also allows you to focus and make decisions with a target market in mind.

PROCESSES

One of the biggest issues we see with a lot of our customers is they do not have time as they are working on unprofitable tasks. By knowing yourself you can drill down on your processes and cut anything out which is not relevant to your target market. When someone requests something outside of your processes you can say no to them as they are probably outside of your target market.

PEOPLE

By knowing yourself and having tight processes it makes it easier to bring in a good team. The reason being is your team will be given clear instructions as well as fewer areas to manage. One of the key issues a lot of print businesses face is being spread too thin and expecting a lot of their team.

PRODUCTS

With the above points working in synergy, it is important that the products that you offer, and the specifications reflect this. If you do not do this, your whole system will fall over. Also, by following the above system you can adequately price products knowing all of the true costs.

We use the above formula to cut a lot of waste and save a lot of time so we can give our print partners more margin. That is our distinct advantage. We have been refining the above for 13 years. Also, do you notice how in this post we have not talked about marketing and sales?

WORD OF MOUTH

Retaining your customers and getting customers via word of mouthis the first step you should get right before plastering the market. To grow your print business you need a solid base and reputation or else you will waste a lot of your marketing dollars. A lot of our customers that try to grow waste a lot of their budget in marketing as they do not have the points outlined above solid within their own business.

Our Secret To Hiring Print Staff

Posted on April 14, 2022February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

From what we hear from our trade partners, it seems that hiring print staff is one of the trickiest parts of running a print business. We know this from experience as well. From over 13 years of experience and having plenty of time to learn from each hire, we have developed our own way of doing this.

A bad hire will cost your business thousands of dollars. But a good hire will be worth a lot more to your business.

WE GET OVER 1000 PRODUCTION APPLICANTS A MONTH

Yes, you read that right!

You might think that getting 1000 applicants on Seek is a godsend. In reality it is like finding a needle in a haystack. We like using Seek as it has an in-built questionnaire feature which makes screening print staff more efficient.

KNOW WHAT YOU WANT FROM YOUR PRINT STAFF

Through lessons in the past with staff, we have a tighter view on the characteristics we look for when hiring staff. For us there are some basic screening questions we ask to ensure we are not wasting each other’s time such as:

Proximity & Do they have a license
Will this job be their primary focus or are they studying?
Do they want to work on their feet or behind a desk?

THE MEDIAPOINT PRINT STAFF DIFFERENCE

What makes the Mediapoint process special for hiring print staff is we are also looking for mental aptitude when hiring. We also do psychological testing. The key things we look for in a candidate are:

Can they follow a process?
Can they take instructions?
Do they like working at an efficient pace?

With our testing we can get a general idea of print staff candidates. The key think is we are looking for character over experience. As it leads to the next point…

IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW GOOD A CANDIDATE IS

If you do not have good training and processes behind an employee, they are doomed to fail. To be able to keep our quality and consistency up, we keep our products, equipment and processes simple. We can get a new candidate up to speed in weeks and not years. This allows us to scale quickly and rapidly.

Setting Up Custom Cut Shape, Crease & Scores on your Artwork

Posted on March 15, 2022February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

Please watch the above video on the process for setting up your artwork for custom cut shape, score or creases.

For a PDF version of this guide click HERE

Close Your Artwork With A Thru-Cut & Not a Trim Box

As soon as custom cut finishing steps are added to a job, you are required to close the size with a Thru-cut stroke and note a Trim Box.

For example if you were creating a standee with 2 faces cut out. For the finished size, we would require a Thru-cut stroke as per this image.

Stroke and Custom Cut Names

Please ensure your strokes are Spot colours only or else our flow will not detect them. They also need to be named:

Thru-cut – For custom shape cuts. Please ensure if you are doing any small cut-outs such as holes in the artwork, you also have an outer Thru-cut stroke as the trim box.

Crease – For any creasing on products such as Bollards. Please ensure that your crease does not extend past your outer Thru-cut.

Score – For any face scoring on products such as Toblerone Signs. Please ensure that your Score does not extend past your outer Thru-cut.

Custom Cut and Shape FAQs

Can my stroke be any colour?

Your stroke can be any colour except white, but what is more important to us is that it is a Spot colour and named exactly like the above. The colour the actual Spot Thru-cut stroke is, does not matter to us. Our flow will remove this if it detects it but know where to cut.

Can Mediapoint set up my artwork for me?

No, Mediapoint is 100% trade only. So we expect to get any artwork print ready and to our specs. It is the only way we can stay lean on our front end and give you more margin.

Can I supply the custom cut line in a separate file?

No, your artwork and Thru-cut need to be in the same file and imposed exactly where you want the cut to be.

Can I supply an EPS, AI or another file format?

We only accept PDF files so we will not accept another file format. This process means your file can go straight into our rip and minimize any potential issues.

Stop Competing On Price

Posted on February 15, 2022February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

We often get asked by our customers, how they can convert more quotes on our products such as corflute and banners. Most people initially go down to price. But based on the data and trends we have seen; this is not necessarily the case.

What the Data Tells Us

From our top 20 customers, we have seen that they are all creating value in different ways. By doing this they are creating a more premium product they can charge more for. From the data it also tells us 2 clear things:

That our customers are using our system to get pricing quickly. When their customer requests a quote, they are not waiting on us to get back to them. They are getting the quote accurately through our IQ system and getting back to their customer in minutes.
These customers are in a niche and have developed a high level of trust with their target market. For example, they are in a certain market segment and they only do that sort of work. So, the reviews on their business are from target customers in that demographic. It creates a lot of trust with potential customers which they can charge a little more for.

Think About It on A Larger Scale

Typically, someone who needs print, it is not about the product. It is about solving a problem. They need the product by a certain date, or the print will be rendered useless. If they do not get it in time, then they have wasted the whole price on the spend.

By eliminating any potential stumbling blocks, you can nail the sale and take it outside of price.

What This Means For You

In your setup, it means you need to ensure you have a system which gets pricing out fast. It also means you need to narrow down and focus on your target market so you can be the go-to company in that niche.

If you want to chat and just get some feedback on how this applies to your business, feel free to get in touch.

Setting Up Multiple Artwork Kinds Jobs

Posted on January 15, 2022February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

By watching the above video, you can get a full overview of how we need an artwork with multiple kinds setup. For a rundown also see below.

How We Give You More Margin

In order to give you more margin, we need to keep our costs low. So, we have instigated a fully automated prepress department. That means when your job hits our production system, then it automatically flows through production. This is especially common on jobs relating to posters, corflutes, foamed pvc boards and more.

In order to instigate this, we need artwork coming through a certain way and to our specs. In the past we have found even with a manual prepress method, the ways certain customers supply files can be quite confusing.

For Single Artwork

For Single artwork jobs, this is pretty straightforward. Just have a single PDF File. At the end of your file name have ….QTY [number].pdf

For Multiple Artwork With The Same Quantities

For jobs where you have multiple kinds with the same amount of kinds per artwork. We would require a multi-page PDF with 1 of each artwork in the PDF file. Our software will detect the amount of kinds and run the correct amount of each.

Also please name your file with: [FILE NAME] [NO. OF KINDS] [HOW MANY OF EACH] [TOTAL].pdf

For Example Artwork – 10 kinds – 10 of each – 100 total.pdf

For A Different Quantity Of Kinds

This is where it gets a little tricky. When you have a job with a different amount of kinds, we either need:

-A multi-page PDF with each page being a print. So if there are 200 total split uneven across 5 artworks, we would need a 200 page PDF with the artworks repeated for each print which is needed.

-The job put in multiple parts following the above rules

If you have any questions, feel free to drop us an email.

How To Grow Your Print Revenue And Retain Customers

Posted on November 15, 2021February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

As a company offering your customers large format printing products, it can often be a challenge to grow your print revenue. You might have issues with staff, space, equipment and time. But what is your biggest asset?

Why Leveraging Your Customer Base Is So Important

Here are some hard-hitting facts about your biggest asset which is your existing customer base:

An existing customer costs 5 times less than it does than to acquire a new customer
The easiest way to increase your profit by 25% – 95% is to increase customer retention by just 5%
You only have a 5-20% chance of selling a product to a new customer as compared to 60-70% with an existing customer

Source: https://www.outboundengine.com/blog/customer-retention-marketing-vs-customer-acquisition-marketing/

So How Can You Grow Your Print Revenue?

Well, the answer is simple. You need to offer your customers more products. This will stop them from looking elsewhere. You need to build on the goodwill you have created with your brand.

Customers deal with who they trust. Customers will move on for a variety of reasons being:

Being let down
Can’t service their needs
Price
Turnaround times

From the above points, 2 of them are within your control.

How Can Mediapoint Help You To Retain & Sell More To Existing Customers?

As Mediapoint specialises in being a Large Format and Flatbed Printer, we can help you by expanding your product range. Some of the core products we offer are coreflute, banners, mesh, foamed PVC, screenboard, pull up banners and many other products.

We also have a nationwide shipping network. So, if you have customers that require kitting and distribution to a number of locations, we can help you there.

With our lightning-quick turnaround times and room for margin, we can stop your customers looking elsewhere and help grow your print revenue. That is by expanding your product base.

So What Next?

Make sure that you are signed up to access for our system HERE.

We will validate you as a trade customer and book in for a chat. We offer access to all our product pricing. So you can login 24/7 and get pricing any time. If you have larger volumes, we can also tailor a solution for you. Grow your print revenue with Mediapoint.

Now Is The Perfect Time To Assess Your Print Business

Posted on August 15, 2021February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

This video above is not about survival, for that check out this video here on how your print business can survive the Corona Virus. This video is about what you can do now in your downtime to put the seeds down to grow if you can make it through this.

The Last Few Weeks Isn’t What Your Business Is About

The last few weeks with a drop of is not what your business is about. If you did get a massive drop as you are tied into 1 or 2 segments that got hit the worst, then you need to assess.

But if you need to look at the last 12 months and compare it to the previous 1-2 years. Were you trending Pp? Down? Or Neutral?

Trending Up

If your business was trending upwards, then your key concern is solidifying your business and surviving this. However based on our experiences with a lot of the trade partners we work with, then this is definitely not the case.

If you are one of these businesses, some of the things you can do are look at your segments, and possibly see if there are new segments to diversify a little more with.

Trending Neutral

For us this is a dangerous position to be in. A lot of owners fall into the trap of thinking of marketing more and this will sort their problems.

But they really do not know if their business model and segments are solid enough. At the next road bump they may actually start trending downward.

Trending Down

If Your business was trending down for the last 12 months, then it is clear that something needs to change. If it wasn’t the current Pandemic that would affect your business then it would have been another bump that could have knocked out your business.

What We Did In This Situation

It was the GFC in 2008, we were trending Neutral. We were small and turning over under $1 million as we started in 2006. We knew our model was not working.

So what did we do?

We assessed our top 20 customers and we found that 19 of them were trade customers and represented 70% of our revenue. We had over 1000 customers in the previous 12 months that represented 30% of our revenue.

So what did we do?

We changed our business and our offering to become trade only. Because of it:

Our Processes became easier
We had fewer departments to manage
Our marketing became clear and a lot cheaper
We became focussed

This Is An Opportunity To Reset

I know how much the current market sucks. I hope that you can survive it. If you can it can also be a great time to lay the seeds to new markets, customers and minimizing future risk.

How Your Print Business Can Survive The Coronavirus

Posted on January 30, 2020February 24, 2023 by mediapoint_admin

As we deal with Coronavirus, now more than ever the industry as a whole needs help. This is the darkest time we will see in 100 years. In this video, I am showing the process that we have used to solidify our position in the current crisis.

Health Of Staff And Family

The health of your staff and family is number one. Ensure you are putting them first. Your customers will understand this during this time.

Know Your Current Position Under Coronavirus Conditions

You need to know your current working capital to help tie you through. You need this to determine how long you can actually survive. You also need to work out how much money you are owed from customers and also what you owe to suppliers and work out your position.

Figure Out Your Current Break-Even Point

Work out what your essential overheads are and what staff entitlements that you need to pay in the case of a lockdown.

How Long Can You Last For During The Coronavirus Pandemic?

Divide your working capital by the monthly break-even point and see how many months you can last for.

Are You Comfortable?

If you are not comfortable with how long your business can last for, then can you get tighter with your overheads? Can you go to your landlord or bank? Can you extend repayments? Do you need to make some hard calls? Every 10% you can find savings to your cashflow monthly is 10% longer your business can run.

Staff

Certain contracts and awards have Standdown Clauses. But ensure you are looking after your staff as much as you can and that they can survive. But the number one priority is to ensure they have a workplace to come back to. When this Pandemic gets to the tail end, more people will be unemployed so by you having a job for them is a better position for them than some short term pain.

Keep Calm and Reset After Coronavirus

This is the best opportunity you will ever get to change your business, use it wisely.