By Margie Dana

You hang around print professionals for years – like I do – and you forget what it’s like being a new customer. Imagine an individual who has to get something printed, or a corporate employee who’s just inherited the responsibility.

It’s probably the first time such a person has had to think about where printing comes from. I guarantee you that kids think all printing comes out of a personal desktop printer. Surely, many adults must think so, too.

This group of first timers is the exact audience I’d love to get my hands on. Rather, I’d love to address them – because they have no idea how critical it is, deciding who should do their printing – and how they should go about finding the right printer.

Maybe they’ll search randomly on Google and end up working with an ecommerce printer. It may or may not be the best decision.

Or maybe they’ll go to one of the big box stores, like Staples, Office Max or Office Depot, and head for the in-store print/copy centers. Again, it may not be the best choice.

If you choose a printer that’s not the best fit for your needs, you might end up overpaying for the job, being unsatisfied with the results, being shocked by itemized expenses on the final invoice, or feeling totally out of your league much of the time, with a lack of communication from the printer. Maybe your deadline will be missed. Maybe what you’ve visualized never gets translated into the final printed piece.

Of course, you may get lucky and your first foray into getting something printed has a happy ending. It’s unlikely, but it does happen.

To minimize such risks, new print customers should take the following steps:

1. Talk to anyone you work with or know who’s familiar with commercial printing. Ask for advice.
2. Ask for printer recommendations from people you trust, especially if the materials they’ve had printed are similar to yours.
3. Start your research as early as possible. Getting things printed can take days, weeks, or months, depending on where you are in the process and how complex the job is. (For example, getting a small order of postcards printed can be done fairly quickly. Getting a new magazine launched will take months.)
4. If you’re a new corporate or agency print customer (including a graphic designer), buy a basic book like Pocket Pal, Getting It Printed, or even my 2nd book, Print Buying Made Simple.
5. If you’re a corporate employee, make the most of LinkedIn groups. You can join up to 50 (but don’t), you know. Pick a few that relate to you, and start your own discussions. I will be writing a Print Tip about these Groups in the near future. I find them to be a great resource for print customers.
6. Find out if your local PIA affiliate or other print industry organization has information or events to help print customers. PIA stands for Printing Industries of America. Their site iswww.printing.org. Plug in your zip code under “Find Your Affiliate” on the lower left, and you’ll see the nearest affiliate to your city or town.
7. Ask me. If I can’t help you directly, I will tell you and/or send you to someone or some place that can.

Bottom line? You shouldn’t pick a printer blindly. Did you know that there are over 30,000 printers in the US? (More than there are McDonald’s, according to a presentation I heard by PIA’s Ron Davis.) Add to that the online printers, print brokers, big-box-store print centers and non-US printers, and you see how broad your options really are.

While there are a lot of commonalities among printers, there are just as many differences, ranging from equipment to quality to pricing to service. New print customers need to choose printers very carefully. The hit-or-miss strategy is just too risky.

© 2011 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. Your comments are encouraged. You're free to forward this email to friends and colleagues. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.