Every purchase made by a VE client goes through our office manager, Leslie Owens. Her years of experience have given the company valuable insight into best practices when balancing a budget and making purchases on behalf of a campaign.
Here are our four tips!
1. Keep your designs simple.
Don’t be picky about colors. Different vendors have different standard colors. Request that they use their own colors to avoid costly color match fees. Rather than paying for a printer to match a specific color, let them use their own closest standard color.
Less is more. The fewer colors the better because it will generally cost less when printing promotional items.
Use standard sizes. Custom sizing requests will increase the cost.
2. Purchase in bulk.
Economies of scale teach the higher the quantity, the lower the price per item. Purchase in large quantities instead of several small orders. This will allow you to avoid multiple shipping charges as well.
3. Purchase early
Plan in advance for the items you anticipate needing. Allow plenty of time to finalize your order, produce it, and ship it. Increasing your lead time will help your campaign avoid rush charges and expedited shipping.
4. Ask
Each vendor might have different ideas for saving money. Ask them what is easiest for them to do in order to save. Sending them off-the-wall requests increases turnaround time and costs.