August 21, 2015

On average, Brazzell Marketing Agency charges 33% less for brochure printing, compared to the first five brochure printers to come up in today’s Google search. Those first five printers happen to be top brochure printers in the nation including VistaPrint and Staples. We compared our printing price of $184 on 1,000 color, gloss-coated brochures to theirs with the same paper thickness and normal turnaround time. Not only were we 33% less on average, our normal printing price of $184 for 1,000 brochures stands out as the lowest, regular printing price in six competing quotes. But there’s more you should know.

We ignored sales prices, discounts, introductory prices, and coupons for this comparison. Including sales prices, one quote beat our regular price by about $14. But you should ignore these sales prices, too. You may be thinking, “Every time I check, brochure printing is always on sale with them. It’s a gimmick, and the sale price is their regular price.” That’s analog thinking, and it will cost you in the long run. In this digital age, websites can detect if you are a returning customer or a prospective customer. Many of the sales you see are for new customers only. When you log in or just when the website detects that you are a returning customers, the sale prices often disappear, and you are stuck with the regular price from then on. So choose your printing partner based on their regular price, service, and quality.

Another consideration is the design creation. If you take the time to create a design in one printer’s website, that design tends to be stuck there. After seeing their prices hiked up on reorders, people often try to send us the digital proofs and logos that they developed in other printers’ online systems. It doesn’t work. Those systems do not allow you to capture, download, or save print-quality files of your design work. At Brazzell Marketing Agency, professional, custom brochure design work begins at only $196. With custom design work, upon request, we can and will send you the design files or print quality files that you are free to use with any printer or other designer you choose.

However, even with our professional approach, limitations to your mobility as a printing customer persist. Online printers, such as Brazzell Marketing Agency and five of the top six printers in this comparison, achieve discounted pricing in part by expecting clients to have files set up to their specifications (as opposed to changing cutting and folding equipment settings for each individual order). Almost every printer has slightly different specifications. Therefore, if we design a file for Brazzell Marketing Agency to print, it will be to the specifications of our print system (unless our client specifies otherwise at the time of order). If you attempt to upload files for one internet printer to a different internet printer, the brochure usually won’t trim or fold as expected – creating a substandard product. So with the lowest-priced internet printers, files have to be technically set up for each printer specifically. The big exception to this is old-school, local printers. Old-school printers anticipate that customers will bring them all sorts of files, and they will often build into their pricing the labor of adjusting their print system to every single order. They will charge a premium for this approach. For instance, your local Staples practices this approach in-store, and their brochure printing price is more than double the price at Brazzell Marketing Agency.

So the overall message here is to choose a partner for promotional printing based on service, quality, and the regular prices. Do not expect to easily move your printing business from one vendor to the next based on sales and discounts, and do not trust that the discounts you saw when shopping will be there after you become a customer. For established businesses such as physical therapy practices and home health agencies, you will be best served to think about your business with a promotional printer as a long-term relationship.