Printers Need to Make Sample Kits

For anyone hoping to have a successful printing service online, they need to have sample kits. Whether designed by you, or duplicates of work that has been reproduced, you need to have a kit ready. The kit provides you with several useful tools. Most obvious of which, you can show your potential customer just how good your printers are. More than that, if you offer designing services along with printing, now is a good time to show how great a presentation you can provide.

While scourging around for online printers to rate by their web site and their sample kit, I have found a few factors correlating their business and their sample kit. Those without sample kits, number one, tend to either be dead or have poor business. No one trusts someone who can't be bothered to send them a free sample of their work. But, from those that do, you can also tell how good their business is by the quality of their sample.

Poorer examples have simply sent out a few average looking prints, with a letterhead stating they are happy to potentially have my business. There is no flair, no reason why I should choose them above obviously better equipped printers, and almost forces me to look elsewhere.

However, those with powerful kits almost automatically get my vote. PrintingForLess sent me a sheet, along with other samples, displaying their special printing methods. Several of them, such as the embossed one, were so stunning that I wanted to order prints just for the sake of ordering them. Do other printers offer these same special printing services? Yes. Embossing, metallic inks, and the others PFL showed me are available from many other printers. But they were the only one to display this and make it a powerful tool.

Another reason for your sample kit, if you are smart about it, is to show your customer the different stocks you can print on. Your average customer probably does not know the difference between 100# text or cover stock, and may end up very disappointed by the paper printed on. By sending them some samples, you can ensure they are happy before making the order.

Back to the graphic design part, this is a great point to show your designing abilities. There are very cheap designers out there that create just as cheap products, but without knowing your ability, the only difference they can look at is price. Use the sample kit to stun them and make them see that, while your pricing may be higher, it is definitely worth spending the extra money on your talent (or hired talent, if not you yourself).

So far this article has mostly addressed people who own the printer service, but it has not looked at one other factor, the print reseller. A print reseller, for those who do not know, is someone who does not print the documents, but rather sets prices, takes orders, but sends the order out to someone else. They act as a middleman, almost like a retailer. Many printers, such as Sonic Print (under the guise of Resell Printing) offer this service, as do others. The print reseller is charged a lower price than average so they can make a profit, and in turn they bring business into the actual printer.

Is it just as important for them to offer sample kits? Of course. However, many of these sites offering reselling programs do not offer you a custom kit. So, unless you want to send out a kit with a different name and website, confusing your customers, you should begin creating your own kit.

Either use your own skills or hire out a graphic designer, and create some sample documents. If starting out, use your discounted prices and order 100 of several different document types. Begin with staples: business cards, flyers, post cards, etc. If they offer custom folder printing, use that to hold your documents. This way, even though you do not do the printing in-house, you can show customers how the real printers perform.

Samples kits are a necessity if you are to survive in the printing world. Without them, it all becomes a guessing game, where price is the only distinguishing factor, and that field is too competitive to win without some tools to help assist your journey. Spend some time, some money if you have to, and prepare a kit. Remember, don't lazily create a few documents and think that will win you customers. This is your profit and business on the line. Work on WOWing them, not just showing them you can really print and little else.