Few businesses can be considered truly paperless. Even the most digitally-minded business will need to send out letters to clients, keep hard copies of important tax documents and hand out business cards. Figures suggest that companies spend on average 25% more than they need to on print. Instead of having to halt your expansion plans, cut back on staff or downsize your office, why not examine your print spend? Of course, the savings you’ll be able to make on print will vary depending on how often you use printed materials, both inside your office and when you make contact with clients. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’ve already recognised that your company could make significant savings on print. A free print inspection is the first part of PMG’s print management process. This stage is key, as we need to establish your current print practices, your future needs, and any priorities you might have. We’re notoriously thorough when it comes to our print audit – but it’s necessary if you want to make maximum savings on print.
How you handle print
First off, we’ll determine which materials you print in-house, and which you outsource. We’ll find out who’s responsible for managing print, how much time they dedicate to it and if there are any particular tasks they particularly dislike doing. In addition, we’ll ask how many suppliers you use. Using a single supplier and point-of-contact is not only likely to be cheaper, it’ll also reduce the admin burden on your staff. By determining how you currently handle print – including what works and what doesn’t – we’ll be able to better understand your print priorities.
What you pay
We’ll also ask for details of the cost of print for your company each year. If possible, we’d like figures for each specific order you make. With this data, we’ll be able to quickly identify whether you could find a better deal elsewhere if you simply chose to switch suppliers. These procurements savings may be obvious to us, but for a busy company with no time to evaluate print procurement, it’s understandable that you might miss out on such savings.
What your requirements are
Our aim isn’t just to review your current print situation. We’ll also discuss whether you run (or want to run) any seasonal print marketing campaigns. You might also anticipate busier periods in the run-up to certain industry or global events. If you let us know about these plans as early as possible, we’ll be able to speak to print companies in advance to secure you the best possible deal. We’ll also take your priorities into account. Want to focus on your green credentials? We’ll only use recycled paper and print companies that have reduced their carbon footprint. Is speed the most important quality? We’ll get in touch with more flexible print companies that can print and deliver in a matter of days.
Paper size
Our print management experts will come to your offices armed with rulers and measures – we’re here to check on the more boring, technical aspects of print, too. Switching to standardised paper sizes, trimming a few millimetres off your documents or removing a couple of pages of content from your next batch of catalogues could net you surprisingly significant savings.
Design
We won’t make comments about the design of your printed materials if you don’t want us to, but PMG’s design studio could help you to create new designs for your letterheads, order forms, invoices, brochures, posters, business cards and more. These new designs could be part of a rebrand, or simply involve smaller changes to result in a lower print bill for your company.
Book a free print inspection today, or give the PMG team a call to find out more.
