Ways to Save Money on Printing

Printing is a scalable project. You may have one letter and envelope to print, or a mass mailing. You may have a pamphlet or a whole booklet to print. There are ways to handle each, and to help you save money on bulk printing projects.

Mass Letter Mailing

Get everything in place when getting a mailing together. If you plan to do the printing in house make sure you have enough paper, envelopes and other supplies. Set up the postage or bulk mail arrangements so things will go smoothly.

Before you are at the printing stage have all hands on deck give the copy a read. The writer and editor on the project may have missed just one little detail that should have been included, a misspelled word, or an extra space that snuck in there. You can never have too many eyes on something so important.

Clear the printer if you plan on printing in house. Let colleagues know you will be using the printer for a big job and they should reroute to other available printers. This can save aggravation with deadlines as well as printing on the wrong paper or envelopes as someone slips a print job in the printer in the middle of your project. Consider printing after hours or on the weekend when other people aren’t competing for the printer.

Consider having the mailing printed from a supplier. Printers will have more heavy duty printing equipment that can handle the print job with more speed and will likely have better printing results.

Pounds of Paper

The content of a mailer or booklet is far from the only consideration when setting up a mailing. The quality and weight of the paper is important. Paper is often referred to by the pound or weight, often denoted as 20 lb or 20#. It is the 20 lb weight that is the minimum typically used by businesses. For some mailings you want to go up to a 24 lb or 28 lb weight for a sturdier mailing and more impressive paper. Some of the heavier weights of paper will be easier for a printer to handle the job rather than in house.

Group Bulk Printing Jobs

While proofreading and paper weight are good ways to save money by avoiding mistakes and balancing paper weight and cost, professional printers are a good option for saving money. The heavier equipment can handle jobs with ease and can be done quickly without wear and tear on office equipment.

Printers appreciate getting multiple jobs at once, or in succession. If you have a few mailings, booklets, or other print jobs in the works try to time them to be sent to the printer together or one right after the other so you can work out a bulk deal with the printer. It may be more stress on the front end as you have multiple mailings or booklets to prepare at the same time, but you can assign different teams to take the lead on each project to spread the work.