It's so easy to find low cost print resources on the internet these days. Some simple printed items have become virtual commodities. Of course, items like business cards and postcards really are quite simple, in and of themselves. Even more complex products like brochures, flyers, and sell sheets, even multi page catalogs -- there are plenty of online print shops touting the lowest prices on many of these items. If you know exactly what you want, and can design it yourself, a quick web search will find you lots of choices -- way too many.
Sure, it's easy to save money on the hard dollar cost of any printed item as a stand alone piece. But what if your printed piece is only one component of a complete marketing campaign? What if you have a concept, but need professional input regarding the best way to design it? Have you thought through how it will be used after it's been designed, and produced? What about the costs involved before and after you produce it, such as: managing it after it's been produced? How will it be distributed? Who is the target recipient, and how will they experience it?
Let's say you want to do a small direct mail campaign. You might envision a cover letter, a flyer, and a response piece. All that will then go into an envelope for mailing. That's four separate pieces to your mailing, all of which must be printed separately, collected, collated, inserted into the envelope, and sealed closed. That's alot of handling. Is there a better way? Could you combine some or all of these components into a single printed piece that becomes its own single piece self mailer? An expert with an extensive resource base can get you the answer much faster. You'll end up saving money in many ways: By eliminating redundancies in design, gaining efficiencies in production, and insuring a more positive (and higher) response rate -- the list goes on.
The bottom line is that you hire an expert because they've spent years developing their expertise, and will help you to avoid common mistakes and traps. Not only will that save you money, a well executed program will bring in more leads, so you make you more money too.