Printers: Make Graphic Design A Profit Center!

Five Ways to Increase Quality While Lowering Costs with Pre-designed Layouts

In recent years, technology has dealt the printing and imaging trades more than their fair share of change. Consequently, In-plant printers are under increasing pressure to offer a broader range of services to their customers and to stay competitive with commercial alternatives. One way to broaden your offering of services is to intercept the print jobs earlier in the process. By gaining control over graphic design you can take command over the phase that has the greatest impact on the quality and timeliness of a job, not to mention its cost. By using press-ready StockLayouts graphic design templates, the objective of taking over the graphic design driver’s seat is easier to achieve than you might think. Here’s how, in five steps:

1. Turn Your Prepress Department into A Design Studio
If you or a staff member can find your way around any of the popular page layout graphics programs, like Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, Illustrator, or Microsoft Publisher, then you can just as easily open a graphic design template, make basic edits to it and print it out. Professionally built StockLayouts templates come press-ready, with high-res, 300 dpi images. With most of the work already done, producing a great looking design, the files for which are clean and ready to print, is not a daunting task.

2. Actively Promote Design Services with Confidence
A great way to provide better service is to get your existing customers excited about looking better in print. Find a StockLayouts template that would work well for a customer you work with on a regular basis, swap out the logo and present it to them. Most people respond positively to new ideas, particularly if they see you’ve gone to the trouble of personalizing a design with the company logo.

3. Show Customers the Finished Design Before You Start
From the table napkin to the finished piece, graphic design is the biggest time hog in the printing process. By showing your customer a selection of completed template designs, you can quickly zero in on a design that will suit their business. The completed design is now only a couple of hours from completion.

4. Present Your Work Like An Ad Agency Would
Once you’ve made the edits, which might include flowing in text, swapping out the logo, changing colors here or there and, maybe switching an image or two, you’re ready to print out a proof and present it. Make it look professional by mounting it on a board just like the agencies do. Your customer will be impressed.

5. Price the Project As An An All-In-One Service
Most people are uncomfortable with graphic design because they see it as an open-ended process with an unknown cost. You can put them at ease by giving them an all-in price, but be sure you control your costs by using the right tools. Quote the job to include an anticipated two rounds of revisions, and then charge for additional revisions at your regular hourly rate. And also remember that charging too little will only invite more edits. Good looking graphic design should be one of the most important reasons for putting ink or toner on paper.

If you feel that you’re competing with outside commercial service providers, give graphic design templates a test run. At StockLayouts, we have an extensive library of designs to help you in providing graphic design solutions for your customers – face-to-face, online and in web-to-print applications.

See yourself as a marketing consultant as well as a printer. You will enjoy interacting with your customers while bringing them a welcome new resource.