Jessica’s work spans customer strategy, business development, marketing, project planning and community partnerships. She is especially involved in helping customers determine the best way to produce a project, whether that means choosing between digital and offset printing, adjusting specifications to meet a budget, selecting paper, coordinating direct mail or finding a way to meet a tight deadline.

She believes customers should not need to be printing experts before calling a printer.

A large part of her role is asking the right questions, translating printing terminology into plain English and helping customers make decisions that balance quality, cost, timing and the purpose of the finished piece.

Hands-On Commercial Printing Experience

Jessica has firsthand experience working with a wide variety of commercial printing projects, including digital and offset printing, direct mail, newsletters, postcards, brochures, booklets, envelopes, labels, wide-format signage, variable-data printing, donor campaigns, municipal communications, event materials and specialty finishing.

That experience has taught her that printing problems are rarely solved by simply pressing a button.

A successful project may require catching artwork issues before production, selecting a more efficient sheet size, adjusting paper, changing quantities, coordinating mailing requirements or determining a better production method altogether. Jessica especially enjoys the problem-solving side of printing.

Some customers come to Swift with detailed specifications and print-ready artwork. Others arrive with little more than an idea and a deadline. Both are welcome.

Learning From Three Generations

Growing up around a third-generation family business gave Jessica an unusual education in both printing and small-business leadership. She had the opportunity to learn from family members and longtime Swift employees who built the company through changing technology, changing economies and changing customer expectations.

One lesson has remained consistent:

Equipment and technology will change, but relationships, reliability and doing what you say you are going to do never go out of style.

That philosophy continues to influence the way Jessica leads Swift Printing today. She also believes strongly that good leaders never stop learning. Jessica regularly looks outside the printing industry for ideas in business, leadership, marketing, government and community development that can make Swift stronger.

Marketing a Local Printing Company

Jessica leads much of Swift Printing’s marketing, storytelling and community outreach.

Rather than treating digital communication as competition to print, she believes the two should work together.

Swift uses educational content, email marketing, social media, search visibility, community partnerships and behind-the-scenes storytelling to help customers understand not only what the company prints, but how print can support a larger communications or marketing strategy.

Jessica’s philosophy is simple:

Useful marketing works better than constant selling.

That might mean explaining how direct mail works, showing what happens before a project reaches the press, helping someone understand paper choices or sharing a real project that gives another organization an idea of what is possible.

Through Swift Printing’s blog, Jessica writes about printing, marketing, mailing, paper, production, small-business leadership and lessons learned from working directly with customers.

Printing for Businesses and Government Organizations

Jessica is particularly interested in working with organizations where accuracy, professionalism and deadlines matter.

Swift Printing works with businesses, municipalities, nonprofits and professional organizations on projects such as newsletters, community publications, direct-mail campaigns, reports, booklets, envelopes, postcards, signage and other public-facing materials.

Government and municipal printing is an area Jessica especially enjoys because the finished piece often has a very specific job to do: communicate information clearly and accurately to residents.

The same philosophy applies to professional-service clients.

Whether Swift is working with a municipality, law firm, consultant, nonprofit or growing business, Jessica believes the final product should represent the organization well and arrive when promised.

Sustainability, Community and Business Leadership

Jessica helped lead Swift Printing through the B Corp certification process, an experience that encouraged the company to look more closely at how decisions affect employees, the environment and the community as well as the bottom line.

For Jessica, sustainability in printing is often practical.

It can mean recommending responsibly sourced papers, reducing production waste, choosing a more efficient format or helping a customer order an appropriate quantity instead of producing significantly more material than they need.

She also believes a local business should participate in the community that supports it.

Swift Printing has a long history in Grand Rapids, and Jessica is passionate about building partnerships, supporting local organizations and keeping the company connected to the community around it.

Areas of Expertise

Jessica writes and works from firsthand experience in commercial printing, digital and offset printing, direct mail and postal preparation, municipal and government printing, professional-services printing, newsletters, postcards, brochures, booklets, variable-data printing, labels, envelopes, signage, paper selection, specialty finishing, print marketing strategy, project planning, proofing, production, small-business marketing and community partnerships.

More About Jessica’s Experience

How has mentorship influenced your professional development?

Mentorship has been part of my professional life from the beginning because I grew up around a third-generation family business.

I had the opportunity to learn from my grandfather, my father and longtime members of the Swift Printing team who understood both the technical side of printing and the importance of taking care of customers.

One of the biggest lessons I learned was that equipment and technology will always change, but relationships, reliability and doing what you say you are going to do never go out of style.

As I moved into leadership and eventually became President of Swift Printing, that foundation helped me balance respecting the history of the company with being willing to modernize how we market, communicate and operate.

I have also intentionally learned from leaders outside of printing. I value people who are willing to explain not only what they do, but why they do it that way. Those relationships have helped me become more confident making decisions, asking better questions and looking at problems from perspectives beyond my own.

What innovative approach have you taken to overcome a major business obstacle?

One of the ongoing challenges in commercial printing is staying relevant as the way people communicate continues to change.

Instead of treating digital communication as competition to print, we have worked to make Swift Printing part of a broader communications and marketing strategy.

We have invested more heavily in educational content, email marketing, social media, search visibility and community partnerships while continuing to improve the physical products we produce.

We try to show customers not simply what we print, but how print can work alongside digital marketing, events and other communication channels.

That shift has helped us position Swift as a resource and problem-solving partner rather than simply a company that puts ink on paper.

It has also allowed a third-generation company to continue evolving while maintaining the personal service that helped build the business in the first place.

Can you share an internal initiative that created innovation at Swift Printing?

One initiative I am particularly proud of was helping lead Swift Printing through the B Corp certification process.

Going through that process encouraged us to examine how we operated as a business, including environmental practices, employee policies, community involvement and the way we measured impact beyond revenue.

It created conversations internally about everything from reducing waste and making thoughtful paper recommendations to supporting employees and participating in our community.

For me, the biggest innovation was not one new product or piece of equipment.

It was developing a habit of asking:

“Can we do this better?”

That question continues to influence the way we approach decisions throughout the company.

How has Swift Printing used social media to engage potential customers?

Social media has been most effective for Swift Printing when we use it to show the people and process behind the finished product rather than simply posting advertisements.

We share behind-the-scenes projects, specialty equipment, community partnerships, customer work and events happening around Swift.

Our involvement with local events such as ArtPrize has also given us opportunities to show our physical space, historic printing equipment, artists, letterpress demonstrations and the creative side of printing.

That type of content allows potential customers to understand who we are before they ever request a quote.

It demonstrates our capabilities while also showing that Swift Printing is a real local company with real people behind it.

We have found that our strongest content usually educates, entertains or connects people to the community first and sells second.

What have you learned from failure or things not going as planned?

Running a small business means accepting that not every idea, investment or marketing effort is going to work exactly the way you expected.

I have learned to look at those moments as information rather than simply failure.

If a campaign does not perform the way we hoped, a process creates unnecessary frustration or something takes significantly more time than anticipated, the most useful question is usually, “What did we learn from this?”

That mindset has helped me become more comfortable making changes.

Sometimes leadership means admitting that the original idea was not the best one and giving your team permission to find a better way.

I think businesses become stronger when people are allowed to identify problems honestly instead of feeling like every decision needs to be defended forever.

Work With Jessica and the Swift Printing Team

Have a project but are not sure exactly how it should be produced?

That is completely normal.

Jessica and the Swift Printing team can help determine the right format, paper, quantity, production method, finishing and mailing strategy based on your goals, budget and timeline.

Swift Printing
404 Bridge Street NW
Grand Rapids, Michigan
616-459-4263
thankyou@swiftprinting.com

Contact Swift Printing
Explore Swift Printing’s services
Read Jessica’s latest articles