03 Apr Don’t Hurt Your Brand By Using Cheap Online Printing

Top picture is from a cheap online vendor. Bottom picture is from a professional designer/printer.

Nearly all businesses have and need business cards. Most have flyers or brochures. Some send out postcards or catalogs. These are sales tools that are important to your business and your brand image. That's why it is extremely important to make sure these printed sales tools are designed effectively and with top quality graphics, material, and printing.

What does it say to a prospect when you hand them a flimsy business card with a poor print quality?

What first impression does a contact get when he sees your brochure that looks like it was designed by an amateur?

These are the types of questions you must think about when designing business literature, including business cards, flyers, brochures, postcards, presentation folders, and catalogs. Your branding must seamlessly extend from offline to online. Brand consistency is key!

Your printed collateral  you leave behind must be designed strategically to hook your prospects. It must stand out. That's why you must avoid the cheap, online template printing sites.

Don't Use Cheap Online Printers

Don't be fooled by the pricing gimmicks of online printers that advertise free or nearly free business cards or brochures. While your price may start off as FREE, once you add options for the upgraded stock, your custom logo, UV gloss, overpriced shipping, etc, your total cost is not much less than it would be from a professional commercial printer. Often, it will even be an even higher cost!

Top 6 Reasons NOT to Use Vistaprint and other CHEAP Printers.

1. They sell and rent your contact info so you will get plenty of spam and phone calls. Here's a screen shot of the terms and conditions from Vistaprint. How else do you think they can offer such cheap prices? Be prepared for major spam. I hope that $15 savings is worth it for you!
2. Our lowest priced card stock is better than their upgraded Premium stock.
3. If you hand me a business card printed by Vistaprint, 9 times out of 10, I can identify it as a Vistaprint product (and that's not because it's high quality).
4. They are not a USA or Canadian company. They are based out of the Netherlands. At least support a North American company!
5. All of their designs have the same look. They are amateur designs that thousands of other companies use who don't care about their company image. Be different and spend a little money for a unique and creative design. 
6. Their printing is blurry. Their printing is too often not crisp and clean since it is printed at a low resolution.

Your company image is important for your long term success. Don't cheapen your image by skimping on your printing. By the time you add all of the upgrades (just to upgrade to a typical print quality), your pricing is not much different than a REAL printer. Also, the time you will spend deleting spam, unsubscribing from unsolicited emails, and fielding telemarketers, you will wish you headed this advice.

Perfect Imprints offers professional graphic design and full color printing. We have veteran, in-house designers that strive to keep your branding consistent and professional across all marketing mediums.