Why on earth do some businesses try to 'save money' when it comes to printing?
There are three ways in which it's likely that potential clients will get their first impression of your business:
1. Your website
2. The way your telephone is answered
3. Your business stationery
One and two can be dealt with at a later date; today we are talking about your business stationery.
Let's imagine that you have two business cards on the desk in front of you. One beatifully designed and is printed on high quality card, or even on another material such as metal. The card obviously cost money.
The second is has poorly presented information and is on a cheap, thin paper. What impressions do you get about those two businesses? It's obvious.
The business with the high quality card obviously believes in itself. It has invested in itself. It knows the importance of first impressions. The second business is hesitant; they have cheap cards - why? Is this because they are underfunded or because they are a fly-by-night operation? Whatever the reason, you are not going to trust that company.
It may be that you don't study business cards so thoroughly. But the effect is still there every time someone sees your business card, letterhead or evelope, even if it is subliminal.
Here's a scenario I have witnessed time after time:
When we send out a proposal to a potential client, it is printed on high-quality, well-designed letterheads. It is then put into a stylish folder which is made of good quality card. A business card - metal - is also inserted into the folder. Our converstion rate is very high.
And so many times, when a client tells us why they chose TSDG rather than other companies, they invariably say that they were impressed by the proposal. This includes the content of the proposal, of course, and the way it is laid out and so on, but the first impression has been established by the high-quality of our stationery.
Then, if we fast forward to a few weeks down the line, beautifully-designed stationery is presented to the client using their new logo; the client loves it. Then comes the print quote...
Of course, we have prepared the print quote using one of our selected vendors who offer high-quality work at reasonable prices - but quality is what we aim for.
And so often, this is when the client will sometimes try to 'save money' by going for a cheaper card stock or even a cheaper printer. Yet, just a few weeks beforehand, they told us that they chose to work with us because of the quality of our proposal....
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