3 Things Every New Print Customer Needs to Know

Commercial printing is very mysterious to first-timers. Print buyers, designers, and marcom pros who suddenly find themselves responsible for getting things printed are at a loss for how to proceed.

These three tips are the first pieces of advice I give to every new print customer.

1. Printers are not all the same. You need to do some homework.

There are over 30,000 commercial printers in the U.S., plus hundreds of online (e-commerce) printers, print centers in big-box stores, and over 10,000 print brokers. They differ in many ways: capabilities, services, quality, and price. You should never randomly select printers when soliciting job estimates.

Example: You sell financial products via a team of sales reps spread out all across the country. You need a printer who has web to print capabilities, offers a high level of personalization, plus mailing and fulfillment. Where would you start?

2. Printers don’t know what matters the most to you. But you do.

It’s in your best interest to tell the printer as much as you can about why you’re doing this project, including how it will be used, whether it’s a companion piece to existing materials, what your expectations are, and if it’s a reprint or brand new.

Example: you’ve just been handed the company’s #1 sales brochure to print. It has to have three versions. You need shipments sent to twelve locations across the U.S. And there’s a personalized insert that needs to be printed and dropped into the middle of the newsletter. Share all of it with the printer when you get bids, including what matters most to you. Describe the circumstances of the job.

3. Plan for a long-term business relationship. It’s too much work otherwise.

Be strategic as you build a core group of print service providers for your company. A worthwhile goal would be to have a small group of printers who cover all of your needs. For large organizations, it’s unlikely that one printing company can do everything you need. So you want to develop good working relationships with your core group. Finding printers who have your back and offer you solid advice and creative solutions? Priceless! You want to avoid finding new providers every time you have a job to produce.

Example: You work with a digital printing expert, several offset commercial printers, maybe a specialty printer, perhaps a printer who has full mailing/fulfillment capabilities, even a print broker to handle all of the odd jobs that may come up. If you have jobs with significant volumes, you may work with a web offset printer as well. You may source all of your firm’s stationery items online – but you’d need a different printer to produce perfect-bound books. You’ll get in binds from time to time (no pun intended), and your loyal printers will come to the rescue.

These are the top three pieces of advice I give to all newcomers in the field. No one told me this stuff when I started out. I would’ve been much more efficient as a new print buyer had I known.