How to Find the Best Online Printing Services for Small Businesses
What if the best boost for your business was only a click away?
Online printing services are a great way to help with everything from marketing to customer service.
Unfortunately, many businesses don’t know how to find the best online printing services for their particular needs. Some don’t even know what their needs are in the first place to get started.
Want to know how to find the best printing services available online? Keep reading to discover the answer!
Why Online Printing?
We’ve put together a solid guide for how you can pick the online printing services that are best for your business. First, though, it’s important to answer the question: what’s so good about online printing?
The first reason is the price. With so many online printers available, it’s very easy to find someone within your price range.
The second reason is convenience. Why spend an afternoon with the local printer when you can handle everything from your computer or smartphone?
The final reason is the need for specialization. Some printers handle certain tasks better than others. Instead of just hoping your local professionals can handle your needs, online printing lets you find the right company for any task.
Now that you know why online printing is so important, here are a few of the ways to pick the best printer.
Check the Price
It may be a little obvious, but it’s worth repeating: one of the first things you should do is compare prices.
Because of the crowded field of online printers, there is a lot of competition for your business. This has the fortunate side effect of keeping online prices relatively low.
Still, some prices will be better than others, especially for bulk orders. It’s worth shopping around until you find the company that is most suitable for your budget.
Explore Your Paper Options
Of course, price is only one part of the equation when researching the best companies. It’s also important to know exactly what your company needs in terms of short- and long-term projects.
To this end, it’s important to find out what kinds of paper sizes different companies offer. For example, almost every company will offer sizes such as 5×7. But if you have larger needs (such as posters or even murals), you need to make sure that your chosen company can complete the task.
It’s okay if you need to use multiple companies for different kinds of jobs. That’s the beauty of using online printing: you aren’t “stuck” with whatever a single company has to offer.
Ask About Specialties
In order to set themselves apart, many online printing services specialize in certain tasks. It’s worth asking a printer if they specialize in the kinds of things you are trying to accomplish.
For example, some printers may be able to create glossy prints that handle photographs very well. Other printers may primarily focus on simpler tasks such as business cards.
As time goes on, you may develop a stable of different online printers that you can rely on when the need arises. It’s worth it to find specialists for your company’s most important printing tasks.
Search the Templates
If you’re like most businesses, the actual printing of your documents is online one part of the challenge. The other part is designing the documents that you need to print!
Certain printers may be able to help you with various design challenges. But to save everyone some time, it’s worth exploring the templates offered by the online printers you are considering.
These templates work similarly to the kinds of templates that you find in programs like Microsoft Word. They typically offer a kind of “plug and play” functionality that can make the design process much more efficient.
Keep in mind that the purpose of templates is to create a uniform look. If you need something to truly look one of a kind, it’s worth it to design it from the ground up.
Superior Customer Service
The biggest advantage that local businesses have will always be their customer service. However, customer service is still a very important way you can decide which printing service to use for current and future needs.
How can you evaluate customer service before you become a customer? Begin by sending some inquiry e-mails and/or phone calls. Your goal is to see how they respond to a prospective customer who needs help.
If their responses are timely, relevant, and respectful, then you can trust that their future customer service will be of similar quality.
Customer Reviews
Fortunately, you don’t have to personally evaluate every aspect of a printer to determine its quality. Instead, you can research what their online customer reviews look like.
These reviews may exist in many places. That ranges from company websites to Google reviews to social media chatter about the company.
Now, no company can satisfy everybody. All businesses are likely to have a bad review here and there. But if the majority of their customers seem satisfied, that’s a big clue that you’ll enjoy doing business with this company.
And if you do enjoy their services, don’t forget to leave a positive review of your own!
Beyond the Big Names
Online printing is like any other service. When you think about it, there are probably a handful of familiar “big names” that come to mind.
However, it’s worth your time to research companies beyond those big names. You may find smaller, lesser-known companies that are better suited for your particular business needs.
Smaller companies may be in a position to offer surprisingly good prices. And a growing company has a more vested interest in building customer relationships as a foundation for longterm success.
You can begin your research for the best printing companies right now, so find out how today!
Best Online Printing Services: What Comes Next?
Now you know how to find the best online printing services. But do you know where else to find the tools your business needs to succeed?
We specialize in helping small businesses achieve their full potential. To see what we can do for your own business, check out our small business tools today!
