Bad choices have been made by me time and again. It’s not only in the boyfriends that I had; bad choices seem to be the order of the day even in my print notepads. When printing custom notepads, I have often resorted to shelling out too much of my cash and still had the worst outcomes you could ever imagine.

I’m telling you, when it comes to mistakes, I think I’ve taken the lot with print notepads. I can’t seem to avoid them. They’re like the plaque – they keep cropping up every time I start creating my own custom notepads. It’s no wonder therefore that I have been told many times to switch to other forms of promotional giveaways. But I do believe in the power of notepad printing; and with the mistakes I experienced, I can very well offer instead an opportunity for many marketers and business owners to learn from my mistakes and stop making the bad choices that I’ve been making since I started printing notepads.

Mistake #1: Avoid using small notepad sizes. Although many marketers will tell you to try using small sized print notepads so you can save on your budget; this is usually worthless advice. You might think that notepads are small pieces of paper bunched together. They’re even smaller than letter-sized stationery. Nevertheless, smaller sized notepads basically defeat the purpose of them being functional. They have lesser capability for storing information; they also have significantly less impact as opposed to those notepads that are much bigger in size and shape. Especially in business, small notepads are not taken very seriously. Much bigger and more formal ones can always effect a favorable impression on your clients and prospects.

Mistake #2: Settle for low and mediocre quality notepads. Hey, I was in a bind at that time! I don’t have much marketing budget so I went for low quality notepads. Yes, I was able to save money. Yes, I was able to produce notepads for my promotional giveaways. But no, I wasn’t able to make a great impression on my clients and prospects. In fact, I made a total wreck of my image. With low quality paper, I missed a lot of opportunities and wasn’t able to clinch the deals that I was supposed to. It really made a huge difference in my ROI. Let’s face it; people do judge a book by its cover. Unfortunately, my print notepads were judged right away even before they got past the cover.

Mistake #3: Settle for standard paper. Again, it’s the miser in me that kicked in when I was deliberating on what paper stock to use for my notepad printing. It surely didn’t impress the socks out of my target audience. If you really want to impress, go for glossy finish. You will shell out a few dollars or more, but the result is worth the effort.

I think these three should help you quite a bit if you’re contemplating on producing custom notepads for your marketing collateral. Be sure to avoid them, and have yourself a great notepad printing.