Need to print a large volume of materials for a presentation, marketing, trade show, or any other reason? Promotional materials of all sorts are essential for attracting eyeballs to your product/service and engaging your target audience, but as anyone who’s done marketing before surely know you’ve got to spend money to make money.
That needn’t mean spending an arm and a leg, however. There are many ways to pinch a few pennies here and there on large-scale print runs whilst still giving you the desired effect and making great impressions. Here are a few money-saving tips for large-scale print runs you may wish to consider:
Paper size can matter quite a bit depending on what you’re printing. Of course, your paper should be just the right size to fit all of the contents concisely, not too small to be hard to read nor too big to be cumbersome for handing out, e.g. as a brochure or pamphlet.
Keep in mind that for large-scale print runs the cost of one individual presentation handout, brochure, or other resource matters little. The per-cost unit is what can significantly drive up costs if you don’t plan accordingly.
For materials with quite a bit of content such as text, graphics, and perhaps product/service descriptions and details, one-sided printing can be quite wasteful for the environment whilst also costing more than something like a double-sided print.
Save space on your printed materials, reduce needless paper waste, and lighten up your materials by choosing double-sided instead.
Black and white printing is always going to cost – all other things held equal – less than full-colour printing, and by quite a large margin. Whenever possible, try to opt for black and white prints.
Naturally, there are many circumstances where full colour is essential for getting the attention of recipients and you shouldn’t skimp out by going black & white. Content with branded colour palettes and graphics, for example, should be in full colour when handed out to clients and prospective customers as these things build brand identity and raise awareness.
Internal briefs and memos, presentation handouts, and materials where the brand colours and graphics aren’t essential to be seen in full colour should always be printed in black & white so long as the message gets across clearly.
Bulk printing of materials tends to be cheaper at a per-unit cost than one-off printing simply due to economies of scale. With the above tips in mind, organising large-scale print runs is generally going to cost a fair bit less on a per-unit basis than printing a few here and there.
That’s all well and good, but it is nevertheless wise to measure twice and cut once, as the old saying goes. Try a few designs first and make sure they come out correctly before committing to ordering a hundred, a thousand, or more units.
Ordinary paper stock such as A4 white paper is extremely versatile and a safe middle-of-the-road pick for printing your materials, but do consider higher quality materials and how these will factor into the per-unit cost of printing. Likewise, you may also want to opt for cheaper card stock such as recycled paper which, although the quality may be cheaper, may be perfectly appropriate for your needs.
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