CustomInk Ordering Checklist for Promotional Products: Stickers, Greeting Cards & More

If you're the person who always ends up coordinating custom merch for the company—onboarding kits, tradeshow giveaways, client gifts, or the table for next month's fundraising breakfast—this checklist is for you. I'm an office administrator for a 300-person company. I manage everything from custom ink sticker sheets to embroidered hoodies, about 60 to 80 orders a year across 8 vendors. I report to both operations and finance, which means I care about two things: the order needs to actually be useful, and the invoice needs to be clean. Some orders are simple; some are six-color PMS matches on hoodies. The checklist stays pretty much the same.

I've been in this purchasing role since 2020, and my process has changed a lot. These are the steps I follow now, in roughly the order I follow them.

1. Define the use case before you open a pricing calculator

Before you look at products, answer: who's this for, and what do they need to do with it?

• Trade show booth: lightweight, easy to carry, maybe stickers or pens.
• Employee onboarding: apparel, notebooks, or a custom folder.
• Client thank-you: something that feels less like a logo slap and more like a gift.
• Fundraiser: price matters, but so does durability and perceived value.

When I took over purchasing in 2020, a VP asked for “some custom pens.” It turned out he needed 500 attendance gifts for a training event. Pens were the wrong product, but because we'd already anchored on the product, we lost a week going back to the drawing board. The vendor who said “this isn't our strength—here's who does custom notebooks better” earned my trust for everything else. That's when I started applying the same logic: use a specialist if the use case demands it. If you're not sure what people will actually use, ask them. They'll usually tell you.

2. Use the custom ink pricing calculator to set a realistic budget

The custom ink pricing calculator is where I start. It gives you a baseline before you get pulled into creative conversations. I use it to estimate total cost of ownership, not just the unit price:

• Base product price
• Setup or embroidery digitizing fees
• Shipping by weight tier (USPS rates effective July 2024 matter here)
• Rush fees, if there's any chance you'll need them

I last used this approach for a sticker order in early May 2025 and the per-piece price dropped about 18% once we crossed 250 units. Verify current pricing on the site—rates change. The point isn't the exact number. It's that you know what the budget range looks like before you commit. Also, if the order is for a fundraiser, ask about support programs before comparing quotes. Some platforms, including CustomInk, have a percentage-back option that changes the math by real money.

Total cost of ownership includes rework. A $2,000 order that needs a $400 reprint is more expensive than a $2,200 order done right the first time.

3. Pick the product based on the audience, not the trend

CustomInk sells a lot more than t-shirts. We've ordered hoodies, caps, tote bags, keychains, custom ink sticker sheets, and greeting cards. What works for a college recruiting event won't work for a client appreciation box.

Stickers are a crowd favorite because they're cheap, unisex, and low-risk. A custom ink sticker order with clever artwork tends to get used instead of thrown away. Greeting cards are underrated, too—they work when you want something that feels human, not transactional. But print quality matters. A greeting card with a blurry logo is worse than no greeting card.

This is also where I apply the “professional has boundaries” test. If a vendor says they're equally great at everything, I get nervous. A promo company that's strong in apparel might be average at paper goods. Ask which products they'd specialize in. I'd rather work with a specialist who knows their limits than a generalist who overpromises.

4. Upload specs and double-check them (yes, every time)

This is where the rookie mistakes happen. In my first year, I made the classic specification error: assumed “standard” meant the same thing to every vendor. It doesn't. I sent a print-ready file that was too low-resolution for the size we needed. Cost me a $600 redo.

For any custom print item, check:

• Resolution: 300 DPI at final size is the safe standard.
• Bleed: the extra few millimeters around the edge that get trimmed off.
• Color mode: CMYK for print. RGB looks fine on screen, but it can shift when printed.
• Fonts: outline or embed them, or the vendor's system might replace them.

Here's something vendors won't tell you: a file can pass every technical check and still have the wrong phone number. We once shipped 1,000 items with a typo in the contact info. The automated checker didn't care. Now I do a manual proof read of names, numbers, and dates.

5. Choose a turnaround that includes buffer

“Standard turnaround” is not a contract. What most people don't realize is that it often includes buffer time vendors use to manage their production queue. It's not necessarily how long your order takes. But you shouldn't treat the estimate as a promise.

If the deadline matters, pay for a defined date. The value of guaranteed turnaround isn't speed—it's certainty. For event materials, knowing the deadline will be met is often worth more than a lower price with “estimated” delivery.

I once skipped getting written confirmation on a deadline because we'd worked with the vendor for years. That was the time the verbal agreement got forgotten. The order showed up two days after the event, and the team had to use a worse backup (unfortunately). Now every date goes in the order notes. No exceptions. Also consider who's receiving the shipment. If it's a pallet of boxes and only one person can unload it, that's part of your timeline.

6. Order a sample or proof before the bulk run

I know this sounds obvious. It's the step everyone skips when the schedule is tight. A sample costs a little time and a few dollars. It can also save you an entire disaster.

I don't mean the PDF proof. I mean a physical sample, or at least a very detailed mock-up that shows material and texture. Colors on screen don't match colors on fabric or paper. Ask the vendor how they handle color matching. Good vendors will tell you that printed colors vary by material.

(note to self: I really should order a sample for every promo order, not just the expensive ones. The $200 sticker order still has a stakeholder attached.)

7. Verify invoicing and compliance before you place the order

This is the most overlooked step. We get so focused on the product that we forget the paper trail. If finance rejects your expense report, you're stuck with the problem.

In 2021, I found a great price from a new vendor, about $1,200 cheaper than our regular supplier. I ordered 300 holiday gift boxes. They couldn't provide a proper invoice, finance rejected the expense, and I had to explain several uncomfortable hours. Now I verify invoicing capability before any order. Ask for a sample invoice if you have to. That's not paranoia—it's the difference between a relationship that works and one that costs you a weekend.

Also check the shipping line. As of USPS rates effective July 2024, ground shipping costs differ by weight tier and zone. A cheaper product can lose to a slightly more expensive product that ships lighter. Use the shipping calculator before you compare final costs.

Sidebar: What size pictures are best for scrapbooking?

One question that comes up more than you'd think: what size pictures are best for scrapbooking? The short answer: 4x6 and 5x7 are the most versatile. At 300 DPI, a 4x6 should be at least 1200 x 1800 pixels, and a 5x7 should be 1500 x 2100. If you're printing a full scrapbook page, 12x12 at 300 DPI means 3600 x 3600 pixels.

The principle carries over to custom greeting cards, too. Start with the biggest, sharpest image you have. You can shrink it down safely; you can't recover detail that was never captured. And if you're ordering from a vendor that usually prints big banners, ask if they do delicate paper items well. A specialized print shop may be a better fit.

Mistakes I've made so you don't have to

• Trusting the “whatever you send is fine” reassurance. It's usually not fine. Ask for a proof.
• Confusing a PDF proof with a physical sample. They show different things.
• Choosing one generalist for every product because it's easier. Use specialists where the quality matters.
• Forgetting to plan distribution. A box of 500 t-shirts that arrives on time but doesn't get sorted until after the event is still a failure.
• Skipping a sample because you think the design is too simple. Simple designs still print poorly when the resolution is off.

Every vendor has limits. The ones who tell you where those limits are deserve your repeat business. That's not a weakness—it's credibility. As of May 2025, that rule hasn't let me down.