1. Determine how many Christmas cards you will need. Will they all need to be the same Christmas card with the same personalization or will some need to be different? Will you be buying just for your immediate office or are there other branches that you will need to buy for?
2. What kind of budget do you have to work with? Try to keep within that budget as you make your selections to consider.
3. Are you needing to order a large quantity (ie: several thousand)? Be sure to get a quote to see if you can get a better price than what is offered on the website.
4. What type of Christmas card does the boss want, generic, international, humorous, religious?
5. Determine how many people will be involved in the decision making process and who they are.
6. If the website you are researching has a Favorites folder, make your selections and add them to the folder then show them to those involved in the decision making process.
7. Once you have narrowed the selections down to around three choices, request samples to be sent to you so you can check out the quality of the cards before ordering and make your selection.
8. Will you be printing a logo or just printing your company name?
9. If a logo is to be included, is it a single color logo or more than one color? Be sure to get a price quote for whichever you need and be sure to get a high resolution image to submit when time to place your order. Usually whoever takes care of any printing or advertising for your company should have a copy of a high resolution logo for printing. At least 300 dpi is needed for sharp image and .eps files are best. Other acceptable formats usually include .tif, .bmp and .jpg if they have sufficient high resolution. If you can provide an .eps file, it will give the best result and is the easiest to work with for whoever does the layout and printing of your logo.
10. Will you be creating your own custom verse or selecting one of the generic verses offered? If you want to do a custom verse, but sure to check out what is involved – what is required on your end, what your options are concerning fonts, ink color selections, the cost, etc. Make sure that you get to see a proof before printing so that you have the opportunity to offer feedback for any changes you might want to make.
11. Be sure that the company you are considering is of good reputation. Are they a member of the BBB, do they have testimonials posted on their site. Do they have a privacy policy to protect your email? Do they have a strong guarantee? If you call with a question, do you feel that you are getting prompt, courteous service?
12. Start this process early, around the end of August through September is a good time. If you start too early, you will find that many dealers will not know if a card you select is going be returning from the previous year as they only get most of that information around the middle to the end of summer themselves. Stock is not available for samples or to print. But by doing your research in August or September, getting your samples and placing your order then, will entitle you to a discount or early order incentives offered by many online companies. You also avoid the stress of last minute decisions, out of stock items, or heaven forbid, something wrong happens with your order and it has to be reprinted. Also, keeping the bottom line in mind, when you order early, you can avoid higher shipping charges and just go with the least expensive method.
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