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To our valued OSG customer,

This has been an exciting year of expansion and growth for OSG. As you'll see in our cover story, not only did we acquire two companies, we improved our processes, streamlined the workload and looked to the future to determine what next steps we should consider. And we did all this so that we can better serve you and provide you with the best-in-class service you've come to expect from OSG.

Our Marketing Minute talks about how referral programs can help increase business. For starters, you need to recruit your existing, happy customers to be your brand ambassadors. Not sure how to proceed? The OSG Creative Studio is always available to assist in whatever way you need. And don't forget, it's time to start thinking about your 2016 calendar inserts. They're a great way to show your customer appreciation while promoting your business at the same time.

In Take 5, OSG Graphic Designer Ashley Sherrow, shares some helpful tips for preparing your invoice/statement package.

Finally, in OSG News we are proud to announce that our OSG Creative Studio received an Award of Excellence for its work on the OSG website.

These are exciting times at OSG. Not only is our 25th anniversary in sight (next year), we are continuing to grow and expand the company in order to better serve our customers. And that has always been the focus and driving force behind what we do at OSG—providing our customers with the highest possible level of service. The ways we do this are varied but always our guiding principle is how can we best cater to our customers' needs?

The last 12 months have been quite busy. In addition to meeting our customers' unique and varied transactional document and communications needs, we acquired SouthData, a privately-held, full-service document management provider, headquartered in Mount Airy, NC, and then DoublePositive, a privately-held, Baltimore-headquartered performance-based online marketing company. Acquiring both of these companies broadens our capabilities and expands our production facilities.

John Springthorpe, III, OSG President and COO, observed, "Each of our companies was strong on their own, but by joining forces we have taken our technology services to a whole new level, making us a powerhouse in customer communications and transactional documents. The consolidation and addition of enhanced services has increased the capabilities we can now offer our customers."

Facilities

With four print and mail production facilities across the country, this year we defined and began implementing the system architecture for creating an enterprise-wide capability to share production work between all four facilities.

One of the things that really makes OSG stand out is that we have redundant facilities across the country.

This means that should we, for any reason, not be able to work in one facility, the work can seamlessly be moved to a different facility and still be completed on schedule. We don't just say we have exception-based self-monitoring systems that are fully redundant, we mean it.

In the past year, we increased our production footprint exponentially. In addition to the SouthData facilities, we also moved our Wisconsin, Midwestern Production Facility, to a new plant that more than doubled their space. Through the SouthData acquisition we also gained a scanning and archiving facility in Mobile, AL, that scans, indexes and stores documents for online and physical retrieval.

Later this summer the OSG corporate headquarters will relocate from Englewood, NJ to Ridgefield Park, NJ. The new office space is in a corporate park complex and will afford our clients and staff a very professional office space. If you find yourself in New Jersey, come visit us at 100 Challenger Road, Suite 303, Ridgefield Park, NJ.

Equipment/Software

According to John Delaney, OSG Executive Vice President of Operations, "Our continuous improvement culture drives our best-in-class performance and practice across the many disciplines in the company. We continually review and monitor the next generation of technology that may have a profound effect on our client's customer communications."

In keeping with that philosophy, OSG is implementing the first Ricoh VC60000 continuous inkjet printer in the USA. This print system has the robust capability to print high quality full color transactional documents, as well as graphics-grade documents at very high speed. The addition of this technology enhances our ability to provide existing and new clients with the very best there is to offer.

"OSG maintains its leadership position in the high quality, high touch client communications arena through continuous improvement and engaged people who create and deliver smart and cost effective solutions every day," continued Delaney.

It's imperative that we have the right equipment and that it be maintained, in order for us to work at maximum capacity. To that end, we are always looking at how we can improve and upgrade our systems. This year we enhanced the capabilities of our Operations and Technology departments with a number of strategic moves. We acquired five new high-speed Pitney Bowes inserters with full and single color envelope messaging to add inserting capabilities and capacity. We also improved the tracking, control and analysis of equipment uptime and productivity. In addition, we implemented a self-maintenance program in Tempe to react to equipment issues and general maintenance effectively. Due to the success of this endeavor, we will roll it out in Carlstadt later this year too.

Many of our customers take advantage of the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) offered by the United States Postal Service (USPS) where a barcode is printed on every piece of outgoing mail providing the necessary intelligence to get your mail delivered to the right address on time and with the ability to track the progress of the mailing. This year we completed a Full Service Mail (Imb) project realizing additional USPS discounts for our customers.

We're excited about all the changes taking place at OSG and look forward to continuing to serve our customers in the best possible way.

Design Tips and Tricks for Creating Your Best Invoice/Statement Package

Everyone wants their invoice/statement package to look its best. That's why we asked our in-house expert, Graphic Designer Ashley Sherrow, for some inside tips that will help make your invoice/statement package stand out.

1. Even if you are taking advantage of printing in full color, you don't have to use every color in the rainbow. Start with a few colors that work well together and then move on to gradients of the colors. You'll be amazed at the effect.
2. White space is your friend. Many people feel that they need to fill up all the space on the page with copy or graphics. But a little white space goes a long way. It can help messages stand out and make them easier to read.
3. Fonts matter. Avoid using excessively large, bold fonts for headlines and body copy. That's so 1986. Also, don't use lots of different fonts. Choose one or two that work well together but are different enough from one another not to look like the same font.
4. Avoid using images with dark backgrounds and gradients. Trust us on this. They won't print well and won't represent you in a good light.
5. Once you've produced a colorful, attractive piece that you're proud of, be sure to give it a final review to make sure you've caught any potential grammar or spelling mistakes. Spending a few extra minutes proofreading the copy and graphics one more time could save you a lot of time and money later if a mistake gets past you.

Remember, the OSG Creative Studio is always available to assist you with your graphics needs.

The OSG Creative Studio—the company's in-house creative agency—has been awarded the APEX 2015 Award of Excellence for its work on redesigning and rewriting the company website.

"We are honored that our OSG Creative Studio received this award," said Shannon Seastead, OSG Vice President of Marketing and Communications. "Our award–winning in-house agency is a talented group of marketers, writers and graphic designers who work on projects such as our own website but also on marketing collateral and websites for our clients as well. Being recognized by APEX means a great deal to us, especially since the judges are professional communicators, so we're being recognized by our peers."

Studies have shown that referrals are extremely important to the success of a business. Take a look at these statistics and then see if maybe you want to devote your next staff meeting to beginning to develop a referral program for your company.

• According to The New York Times, 65% of new business comes from referrals.
• Nielsen reports that people are four times more likely to buy when referred by a friend.
• A customer who is referred by another customer has a 16% higher lifetime value, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Satisfied customers make the best advocates for your company. And since they know both your company and their friends/colleagues, they can actually target the right people for the right product/service. So not only can they act as your brand ambassadors, they can do the initial audience segmenting for you too. They've had a good experience with your company and products. Now encourage them to tell their friends, family and colleagues about your company and the great service you provide. Not only will they bring in new customers, increasing your revenue stream, you will also make your current customers happy when you reward them for their efforts. That's important too. They're helping you out so you should do something for them. It doesn't have to be cash back but consider a discount or credit to an invoice or statement.

Think you're too small a company to be able to implement such a plan? The OSG Creative Studio is available to help you every step of the way. Contact them directly or talk to your Account Manager.

Think about implementing a Referral Program. You and your customers will be glad you did.

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