About Printing

About choosing a printing supplier:

• You pay a premium at all the national chains that offer printing and copying services in their local stores
  

  • The prices for the online printing suppliers are much lower than the prices for the large national chains with local stores like Office Depot, Staples, FedExOffice (they bought Kinkos) and UPS Stores (who bought Mailboxes Etc.).  You pay a significant premium for the convenience of being able to go to a local store, talk to someone in person and pick up your order in person.  Planning ahead will save you a lot of money.

Know this:  Some of these chains don't allow you to pick up your order in your nearby store.  They ship it to you.  They've probably outsourced their online print services and are acting as the middleman.  So you're paying a premium price for no value-add. 

• If you want to order online, choose one of the top online printing companies

  • The top online printing suppliers have all have invested in creating and improving their tools and processes to make it easy to choose and buy from them.  The national chains that offer copy and print services online are set up for in person interactions and their online tools are harder to use. 

• Shipping costs are sometimes included in prices or a supplier may be  offering a special promotion for free shipping
  

  • When comparing prices between the suppliers be sure to include the costs for shipping what you're having printed to calculate the true cost savings.

• If you do not need pre-designed templates, then your choice is easier
  

  • You can compare prices and use any printing supplier that offers the best price for the quantity and type of paper you want to use.

• If you want to use pre-designed templates, then you'll want to spend more time choosing a printer
  

  • Your marketing will look much more professional if it's integrated with a coordinated look in the graphic design for your business cards, brochures, flyers, letterhead, direct mail postcards and your website.  You'll want to find a template design you like that's part of a matching, coordinated set.  Once you do that, you've just committed yourself to a printing company because you can't buy the templates from them.  They are "free" if you use them to print whatever you create. 

  • Most of the printing companies offer templates and software you can use for free to add your logo, text and photos. Some make it easy to search for templates for particular types of small businesses (like pet shops, hair salons, attorneys, etc.).  Other suppliers offer hundreds of templates that you need to sort through to determine what is and isn't appropriate for your business. 

  • You can buy templates from companies that sell professionally designed templates for marketing and then you won't be locked into using a particular printer.  You can upload whatever it is you want to print to any printer and shop for the best prices, turnaround and paper stock.  And you can then print with the templates on your office color printer which will save you a lot of money.  Top Marketing Template Suppliers gives you the information you need about who offers what, and their pricing. 

• If you're printing anything that is two-sided, be sure to choose a heavy enough paper stock so it won't bleed through

• If you're printing postcards you plan to send through the mail, be sure to choose protective coating so your postcards look good when they arrive

  • Tips on Printing Direct Mail has more specific advice

• Comparison shop! 
  

  • You can save a lot of money by comparing prices for printing for the top suppliers.

  • You can also use this pricing information to contact the suppliers to ask for better deals.  Many of them have online chat and phone call centers.  Ask them if they're running any specials.  We found many times we'd get better pricing when we did this. 

  • Knowing what the top printing suppliers charge can also be helpful in getting fair price quotes from local printers. 

• The printing companies that come up on page one of Google search results aren't often the top printing suppliers

  • Many of the companies that are listed on page one of search results have far fewer unique visitors than the top suppliers we've chosen to compare prices for.  They may (or may not) be fine companies to deal with but they aren't the largest online printing companies. 

  • You can use compete.com to put in any company's website address to see how many unique visitors come to their site and what the trends are (up or down) for several months.  This basic information is free.  

Your alternatives for printing your marketing materials

 

• Use a local quick-print shop. Good if you want to email them something to print or go in and talk to someone.  But know you're paying a premium for this convenience and service. They often charge more because people don't plan ahead or comparison shop.  You can use the pricing from the top national printing suppliers as a benchmark to ensure you're not paying too much. 

• Choose an online printing supplier.  You can upload a flyer, brochure, direct mail postcards or business cards (and many other things) that you want to print.  Or you can use the supplier's online software and pre-designed templates where you add your logo, text and photos or illustrations.  This is a good way to go to save money and get nice quality printing done but you need to plan ahead at least three days to have something printed and then shipped to you.  Even with the shipping costs, the prices are lower than local print shops.  And it's very convenient because you don't have to leave your office or home.  You can do everything online.  Read the MarketingZone reviews about these suppliers

• Choose a national supplier with local stores that offer printing services.  Places like Office Depot, Staples, FedEx Office (they bought Kinkos) and UPS Stores (they bought Mailboxes Etc.) all offer printing services.  Like the quick print shops, they charge premium prices for the convenience and service.  . 

• Select a commercial printer.  This is a good option if you are printing large quantities, want personal service, or are printing complex direct mailers or brochures.  Find a commercial printer in your town so you won't be paying for shipping what you've had printed. 

  • How to Select and Hire a Commercial Printer

  • Print on Demand and Personalized Printing (also called Variable Data Printing, or VDP) are newer printing techniques offered by commercial printers who have invested in digital press equipment. 

  • If you choose this route, here are a few tips to save you money.  Ask about what printers call a "gang run".  This is when they print multiple items on a single sheet of paper (gang them together) and then cut it into separate pieces. Also, ask about house sheets (which are like house wine at a restaurant).  House sheets (of paper) cost less than specialty papers.  Ask to see a sample to determine if it's acceptable for what you're printing.

• The least expensive option is generally to print your marketing flyers, letterhead, brochures and even direct mail postcards on your color office printer.  This is a good way to save money but it does involve time to do this and learn how to do this.  Learn more about Printing on Your Office Printer.

Know this:  The printing companies are like the airlines, they're always changing their prices and offering free shipping and other promotional offers, so use this information as a guide to determine which suppliers you want to get your own pricing from.

 

More help about printing

 

Top Printing Suppliers has reviews of all the top online and national chain printers.  Add your comments about working with these suppliers and read what other MarketingZone members have to say.  The Editors use this community input to continually update and improve the supplier reviews.  This is objective, credible advice you can trust.

MarketingZone guides on how to create and print business cards, banners, books, brochures, eBooks, flyers, invitations, signs and more here.

If you've found this article on printing helpful, we hope you'll tell others about MarketingZone.com.

We're a new site designed to help small businesses get marketing done better, faster and less expensively.

Derrith & Page, MarketingZone.com Editors