10 Reasons to Bring Print Production In House [INFOGRAPHIC]

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in house print production process

At your company, you are responsible for the production of final, printed, on-brand, professional materials. Whether that is an important customer-wide communication on company letterhead, or your next direct mail piece, you are the one managing the print process.

Right now, you probably outsource at least some of these materials to a print shop. You’re paying thousands a year in costly mark ups in order to achieve the perfect look and feel. Even then, you’re sometimes left wasting stacks of prints because you found an error, or maybe were talked into buying more than you needed to justify the cost of printing. The print shop employees don’t know your brand standards, so sometimes the quality of the piece isn’t exactly what you were hoping for.

Or maybe you’re attempting to run your print jobs on the office-grade copier. Let’s face it- you can’t do everything on your wish list with this equipment, and you’re probably jamming up the workflow of everyone else around you who needs to use the printer as well. You are limited in your choice of paper stock and finishing, and you constantly have to reload the paper tray.

Click here to analyze your company’s production print potential.

Many companies believe that their current print volume does not justify bringing their print production in house as a viable option. Think again- we’ve outlined the top 10 capabilities that your company will gain if you bring your print production in house. Read on to see how in house print production can make your job a lot easier, while allowing you to create more effective, impactful pieces for your business and helping to keep an eye on your bottom line.

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10. Image Quality

We all know the importance of brand colors. We choose our colors carefully because they help us tell our story.

Bringing print production in house allows for colors to remain consistent across all platforms – with the reliability of your watchful eye on the final pieces.

9. Paper Stock Variety

Traditional MFPs limit your choice in paper, excluding options that break-through the clutter like cardstock or glossy.

Print shops leave you at the mercy of their pricing and availability.

Each marketing piece performs best on a specific type of paper stock. Imagine having the freedom to decide what your end product will look like!

For instance, printed business cards perform best when printed on 120# Matte Cover stock, while brochures do their best work at either 80# Gloss Text, or 110# Gloss Cover.*

8. Finishing Options

Increase engagement and the impact of your printed materials by utilizing finishing options that production equipment can offer – without the costly markups of a print shop. Utilize finishing options such as cutting, creasing, binding, or printing booklets, all in house!

7. Reliability

What if you’re on a deadline and your print shop closes at 5? The only thing your clients are going to worry about is if their project was in on time. Don’t allow others’ schedules to dictate your own business.

By bringing print production in house, companies have reported a 500% decrease in downtime.* Without being held back by another schedule, or the limitations of a machine not built for your project, companies are able to take control of their print production process and final pieces.

6. Variable Data Printing

Also known as “One to One Marketing” or “Personalized Printing”, VDP offers targeted messaging to clients and prospects through the use of names, locations, etc. The targeting options are endless!

For instance, you can use Variable Data Printing to personalize the names, addresses, photos, logos, or messages on your marketing pieces. Other departments could even use VDP to auto-fill their invoices or other customer-facing communications.

And the best part of Variable Data Printing? Companies who adopt this simple process report a 31.6% increase in profit attributed to their marketing pieces, a 36% increase in response rates, and a 48% increase in repeat orders!*

5. Workflow

Say goodbye to the days in which you can only trust yourself to print important company materials. When you bring print production in house, you can build out once-complicated workflows and save as presets for anyone to replicate on their own.

Human Resources can print each new employee an Employee Handbook as they are hired. Policies change on a regular basis for most companies, and by printing as needed, you are limiting the amount of copies that will be thrown out as the handbooks become out dated.

Your new Marketing Intern will now be able to manage the upkeep of your collateral with the simple click of a print preset.

Sales reps will be able to stop into the office between meetings to print proposals in just a few minutes – keeping them on the road and selling!

4. Print on Demand

Print what you need, when you need it. How often have you printed something in bulk only to find an error and have to pitch it all? The ability to print on demand cuts back on waste and saves your business money.

How much money are you saving? Think about this…

45 trillion pages are printed annually. Out of those pages, 9 trillion pages are wasted every year. That means that your business is probably wasting upwards of 20% of your printed materials annually.*

Don’t do this to the environment – or your bottom line!

3. Security, Compliance, Control

If you’re in a regulated industry, you need to have absolute control over your documents in order to maintain compliance and to protect sensitive information. And when outsourcing a print job, you have no control over how your information is being handled once it leaves your hands.

Click here to find out how Advance can help those in Insurance, Financial Services, Legal, and Healthcare adhere to industry regulations through the use of technology.

When you outsource your print production, how many regulations are you breaking? Consider this scenario:

  • You prepare your document, careful to abide by rules and regulations.
  • You email your document to the print shop.
  • Print Shop Employee 1 receives your document and sends it to her manager through an unsecure network.
  • Print Shop Manager opens your document on his personal email account, and queues the job for tomorrow.
  • Print Shop Employee 2 begins printing your document. Right in the middle of the job, someone walks into the shop. Distracted, she places 63 copies of your sensitive document on the front desk while she helps the customer.
  • Finally, Print Shop Employee 3 finishes your print job and calls for you to pick it up.

Don’t put your company in a situation such as this one. When you bring print production in house, your information and documents will be secure throughout their entire lifecycle.

2. Productivity

Never miss another deadline- by bringing your print production in house, your jobs can be run on your time. These crucial machines get you home in time for dinner through the use of less manpower, more paper (and types of paper!), by being extremely reliable, and seriously fast!

1. Your Bottom Line

Probably the most compelling reason to switch to in house print production is the effect that this will have on your bottom line. If your print volume is already high, the switch from traditional print methods and/or outsourcing to the adoption of a production machine will most likely lower your overall spend.

Think about all of the elements that cause additional costs: cost per page of print, accidental/outdated waste, manpower, risk, and downtime.

Conclusion

Don’t let your company suffer from the costly mark ups of print shops, or the downtime resulting from the office printer any longer. Click the link below to find out more about how bringing production print in house can benefit your company!

Click here to analyze your company’s production print potential.

* http://www.anderbergprint.com/blog/high_quality_print_marketing
* https://www.ricoh-usa.com/about/docs/pdf/NECS/CS/2015/11/CS-219-RIC%20A2Z%20Printing.pdf
* http://www.greenerprinter.com/grp/jsp/vdp.jsp
* http://www.printisbig.com/