Business letterhead is an important part of a company's overall promotion strategy, but it's one that many businesses often overlook. Business stationery should be carefully considered when you want to make an impression on business associates, customers, and other people and businesses you work with.

There are many promotional printing companies that can handle designing and fitting a promotional company letterhead on all your correspondence. Many businesses shy away from the additional cost of ordering letterhead, but you can find many affordable options. Pricing and costs of promotional letterhead printing will depend on many factors, some of which include:

1. The design of the personalized letterhead.

2. Use of custom colors or techniques.

3. The amount you need printed.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find inexpensive promo letterhead printing for your business

Small companies may not see the necessity of promotional letterhead printing, especially if it already utilizes other forms of promotion like magnets, pens and calendars. But promotional letterhead will make a lasting impression on everyone you interact with. The least expensive letterhead you can buy ranges from around $200 to $450 for 500 sheets, including envelopes.

I recommend: Rosalie Marcus provides great tips on her blog on how to keep promotional letterhead in front of the eyes of repeat customers. PrintingCenterUSA provides affordable business letterhead printing.

Choose full color promotional business letterhead

Black and white or single color letterheads can make an impression on those you work with, but a full color letterhead with the company's logo and main colors will make your brand even more memorable. Full color promo letterheads cost $650 to $750 for 500 sheets.

I recommend: GFX provides full color promo letterhead printing for all your promotional tools, including business cards and postcards. You can also find some useful tips on how to begin ordering promotional items for your business from Florida Atlantic University.

Work with custom letterhead printing services

Custom letterhead is a surefire way to make your correspondence stand out from the rest. With custom letterhead printing services, a professional helps you design your letterhead with the company's logo, to create a layout that includes all your information. Customization can cost anywhere from $400 to $800, depending on the amount of color and the amount of time the company spends creating the design.

I recommend: Fast Forward Marketing offers many tips on how to best use a custom designed letterhead package for your business. My1Stop.com provides a fully customized letterhead for your business, which can even include your own artwork.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Even though many companies can provide custom letterheads, make sure you bring all the information that you need to include on the letterhead before designing begins.

So many options exist today for quick and easy business letterhead design, printing and delivery that every company can choose the most appropriate and convenient option for its budget, taste and timetable.

Some available choices for promotional company letterhead are these:

1. Custom letterhead printing services, which often include logo design.

2. Stock letterhead styles adapted to your company's letterhead printing needs, personalized, printed and shipped to you by the company.

3. Promotional business letterhead created from your own artwork and/or other creative ideas, professionally printed and shipped to you.

4. Online self-design of your own personalized letterhead, with immediate self-printing capability.

5. Online selection from available stock design options, personalization, download and immediate self-printing.

6. Business letterhead templates that can be downloaded, personalized and printed at your convenience.

Today, every company, no matter how large or small, can find a promo letterhead printing option that will suit its needs.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Look for online guidance and information before choosing a promotional letterhead printing option

There are websites that offer insight into the principles of letterhead design which can help you determine whether you'd like to attempt to design your own personalized letterhead or let a printing company take on all or part of the process for you.

I recommend: About.com offers helpful information and resources that can help make your decision an easier one.

For more options, choose a company that offers both stock and custom letterhead printing services

While some online letterhead printing companies offer only one or two options for designing and printing your letterhead, others give you greater freedom to determine which of several services will best conform to your company's needs.

I recommend: GotPrint.com and ImageOne allow you to upload your personalized letterhead file, design your own letterhead online using a choice of templates or let the company's graphic artists, who have experience in creating custom letterheads, design one for you.

If you're artistic, look for companies that let you upload your own business stationery artwork

Many companies are happy to let you use your own personally designed logo and other artwork as the basis for their promo letterhead printing packages.

I recommend: OniPrint accepts uploaded artwork, essentially giving you custom letterhead printing without charging you for the services of a graphic designer.

If you need logo design along with your business stationery, try companies that offer both services

Many companies specialize in logo design and also offer custom letterhead printing services on the side.

I recommend: The Logo Loft offers business letterhead printing services along with its main logo design service. Like many of the other companies mentioned in the steps above, it offers other services, as well, such as printed envelopes, business cards, brochures and more. LogoWorks, by HP also offers logo design packages, to complement HP's business stationery service.

If you're a do-it-yourselfer, try using open source software to create your own business stationery

Instructions are available online that can guide you through the process of creating custom letterheads using specific software programs that can save you money.

I recommend: WindowsDevCenter.com provides detailed instructions for using OpenOffice.org Writer to design your company's business letterhead. A resource you might find helpful is Letterhead Fonts, a site where you can purchase your choice of many different fonts to use for your personalized letterhead.

If you're in a hurry, use services that let you do your own letterhead printing

Many online services that offer templates or allow design uploads offer the option of doing your own business letterhead printing on your home or office printer. This can make life simpler and save a great deal of time.

I recommend: HP.com offers both stock- and design-your-own templates, and they also have a line of "designer" templates, created by Paula Scher for your business letterhead. In both cases, your letterhead is created online and printed by you. Another helpful site, when printing your business stationery yourself, is Shop.com, which offers letterhead paper in various styles.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Investigate as many different business letterhead printing companies as possible. This will give you a better idea of which service would be most suited to your needs, budget and desired level of involvement in the letterhead design and creation process. It will also help you decide whether you, in fact, prefer to use a service or would rather create your business letterhead entirely on your own.

Promotional company letterhead is used by many businesses to advertise their company. This letterhead is used on note pads, post-it notes and other paper products to remind existing and potential customers of your business. Promotional products are great advertising tools the customer uses everyday. Printing these products does not have to take a chuck out of your wallet. Saving money on promotional letterhead printing is a great way for any company to cut down on budgeted advertising expenses.

Before you can start saving money on promotional letterhead printing, you need to learn tips and advice to help cut down on fees added to printing bills. Learn how to create your own letterhead by using free templates. These templates are guidelines you can follow to design your own personalized letterhead. Using discount printers will also help cut costs. These professional printing companies will provide quality work without the gigantic printing costs.

1. Find basic money saving tips for promo letterhead printing.

2. Find free personalized letterhead templates.

3. Locate discount printers for personalized letterhead.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Read general money saving tips for promo letterhead printing

This information will give you an overview of regular printer charges and tips on what you can do to find cheaper rates and save money. This information will also help you learn to negotiate printing charges with companies. Learning this information will give you an edge when you start shopping around for promotional printing companies.

I recommend: Visit ArticlesBase.com to get tips on saving money on business letterhead printing. EzineArticles.com has information on saving money on custom letterhead printing. Read information on saving with all types of promotional printing at Kennex Marketing Services.

Locate free personalized letterhead templates

Free letterhead templates allow you to create and print promotional letterhead for you own computer. This allows you to chose the design you like and print as much or as little as you need when you need it. These templates can also be used to create your letterhead and have it printed elsewhere, cutting down on design fees.

I recommend: CBS Interactive has tutorials on making promotional company letterhead in Microsoft Word. Locate free letter head templates at letterhead-templates.com. StockLayouts has free promotional business letterhead templates.

Use discount printers for personalized letterhead

Discount printers are printing companies that do their printing for lower cost than the average printer. These printers often require minimum orders. However, for large jobs a discount printer can save you a large amount of money.

I recommend: eHow has information on how to save money with discount promotional letterhead printing. Learn how discount promotional item can save you money at Athifea Distribution. NetReal Media has information on saving moving with discount letterhead printers.

Promotional letterhead printing gives your company's promotional materials the extra oomph it needs for success. A well designed letterhead emphasizes your company's professionalism. However, if it's your first time printing promotional letterhead, you may find that there are many terms that you don't understand. When talking to the printer, you'll need to know whether your design bleeds or not. You can also talk to the printer about using design templates or having them design a custom letterhead for you. Learn the following terms to help you decide what you want in a promotional letterhead.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Letterhead fonts

Letterhead fonts are the style of the printed words in your letterhead. The style of font that you chose can give either a playful or professional feel. Make sure you choose the font style that's appropriate for your business.

I recommend: View some samples of fonts at Letterhead Fonts.

Design templates

If you don't already have a letterhead design when you go to the printer, many printers offer design templates that you can use. This is a great way to save money on letterhead printing. You simply enter your own information into the design.

I recommend: ImageOne is a company that offers design templates for letterheads. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see examples of the choices you can make.

Logo design

Your company's logo design is one of the most important aspects of the letterhead, aside from your contact information. If you don't already have a logo, letterhead printing companies can often design one for you.

I recommend: View the design process at The Logo Loft.

Bleeding

In the printing world, bleeding refers to the design running off of the edge of the page instead of having a border around it.

I recommend: Visit Impressions in Print to see an example of a picture with and without bleeding.

Paper stock weights

Paper comes in a variety of thicknesses, from tissue paper to heave cardboard. The paper stock weight is based on how much 500 sheets of 17'x22' paper weighs. When printing promotional letterheads, you want to select a paper that is from a strong stock. This gives a more professional appearance.

I recommend: Paper Direct explains paper stock weight and offers a chart to compare different paper weights and their functions.

Custom letterhead

Letterhead printing companies can also design a custom letterhead for you. This means that no other company will have the same letterhead. A letterhead should include your company info and logo, but be presented in an aesthetic way.

I recommend: MarketingHub.info explains the benefits of a custom letterhead.