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I Are you expected to do more with your marketing budget this year? NM Print present five practical methods to buy print more efficiently...
t’s a common issue for many companies. There is always a drive to reduce spend and costs. Naturally, one of the things that comes under pressure at these times is the print budget. We want to help you make the most of limited resources. So here are five ways that you can reduce your print spend without having to stop printing the same number of items.
Admittedly we are biased here as we are a local printer. But using a local print service really does make sense. For a start, local companies do not use an expensive sales team so their overheads are much, much lower. In addition they have invested in software systems to carry out as much as possible automatically. This means that they really can produce work more efficiently and offer lower prices than other printing companies.
Some people prefer to talk to a real person. At NM Print we completely understand this. That’s why our customer services team is always available on the phone and on live chat during normal office hours.
However, whatever type of company you choose to use, there are a number of other strategies that will help you keep your print prices low...
Often people over-specify their print. Do you need your leaflet to be on the best quality paper? For instance, choosing a heavy 200gsm silk rather than a much lighter 120gsm uncoated can add nearly 50% to the cost of printing a leaflet.
This is where using a local printer can also help. At NM Print we have a fast quote system so that you can see the difference in price between different options quickly. You don’t have to wait for all the different options that you might need. Here’s another way to keep your print prices low:
If you can order more than one version of the same item at the same time, the unit cost always reduces. If you are ordering greetings cards you can reduce the unit price by up to 25% by ordering four different designs at the same time rather than separately. It really pays to do a little planning and try and batch similar jobs together. There’s another way that planning ahead can help as well:
The unit price of a product always reduces if you order more items. So have a think about what you are likely to need over the coming weeks and months. For instance, you will find it much more economical to order leaflets or business cards at the same time for the next couple of events, rather than making two separate orders. Here’s one last way that planning can help:
We are used to helping people out with rush jobs. For many of our products, we despatch the same day as long as you upload pdfs correctly by the deadline (usually around the middle of the day). However, we have to make an extra charge for this: it is less efficient for us to print when we have less notice and the delivery charges are higher. On the other hand, we can plan more efficiently and obtain lower delivery charges if we have more time. So, where possible, try and order ahead. You will find that we offer reduced prices if you give us longer to produce a job.
Print is still a vital marketing tool for many companies. If you reduce the amount of print then you will very likely reduce the number of sales that you make. In the US Retailers J. Jill and Nordstrom both cut sales forecasts after reducing their direct mail activity. Co-President Erik B. Nordstrom said that the cause in their drop in sales was directly related to them using less print. The same could happen to you.
Make sure you buy your print efficiently and make the most of your budgets!
