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Designing marketing material can be a costly endeavour, especially for small businesses. Although the expertise of a professional designer can add an element to your print marketing materials that can set them apart, the budget doesn’t always allow for one.
However, web-to-print technology provides a solution if you want to quickly and easily create your own marketing collateral by using ready-made templates that contain all your company colours and logo. With web-to-print, all your brand collateral is conveniently located in one place so that putting together designs and ordering reprints can be done in a flash.
What is Web-to-print?
Web-to-print – also referred to as web2print, remote publishing or a print e-commerce solution – is a web-based print management system. It offers professional print-shop customers their own portal or online store where they can create and keep all their brand collateral made using pre-built templates. All brand collateral is conveniently stored online, in a web-to-print portal, which controls ordering, brand consistency and quality; reducing stock wastage and errors.
With web-to-print, you can submit print jobs and publish previews and reviews directly onto the website. Design reviews can also be done online, enabling the designing, editing and approval of artwork all in one place. Additionally, some web-to-print software also allows you to adjust the typeface, copy, images and layout on the site.
Web-to-print is a great solution if you need a high number of marketing materials printed and you need to maintain brand consistency throughout.
Web-to-print has effectively removed the need to hand-deliver original documents and files. In the simplest terms, web-to-print is the process of delivering files to a professional printer via the web. If you need to reorder more print collateral, you can simply do so through your designated portal and the job will be sent straight to the printer. And with various security and authorisation levels, the control can be as tight and secure as you need or want it to be. All this gets set up according to your preference.
Read on to discover the benefits of using a web-to-print solution for your business.
6 Reasons Why You Should Consider a Web-to-print Solution
1. Accessibility
Due to the remote nature of web-to-print technology, print jobs can be ordered online any time, anywhere and from any device that can access the internet. And, when the order is ready to go to print, there will be no need for proofing, saving you time and money. However, bear in mind print jobs that require additional finishing and/or binding services may take longer but that will be communicated to you.
2. Consistency
A web-to-print solution allows you to have pre-designed templates that can be used at any time. By having access to these pre-designed templates, you can maintain brand consistency across all print collateral.
Brand consistency is extremely important for building trust with customers and it encourages customer loyalty. It also ensures that your brand is easily recognisable across all touchpoints, creating a unified experience for both existing and potential customers.
3. Reduces the Need for Backwards-and-forwards Communication
Imagine you need branded thank-you cards printed but you want your shareholders to receive cards with custom messages and images to the ones printed on your customer thank-you cards. If you were to explain this to the printer over the phone, or even in person, it could become a bit confusing and may even get lost in translation.
However, with a web-to-print solution, there’s no need to explain anything. You simply upload the files you need to be printed along with their varying images and messages, and it gets sent straight to the printer. It’s as simple as that.
You are in charge of the project; from choosing exactly what the finished product will look like to hitting that order button.
4. Saves Time and Money, and Reduces Waste
Imagine you need to print flyers to be distributed to advertise an upcoming event but you aren’t sure how many you need so you ask the printer to print 1 000 to be safe but only 450 get distributed. More than half of the flyers go to waste – that’s a lot of time, material and money. However, with web-to-print, this problem is eliminated as you can order and reorder small batches at a time, resulting in less time and resource wastage.
5. Centralised Data System
Through web-to-print, the purchasing, shipping and billing processes are all centralised in one place. Having all this consolidated not only makes everything more convenient and efficient but reduces your project-management costs as well.
Additionally, by having all your print collateral in a centralised location, you can easily view a catalogue of your product images and information, and select what you need to create new marketing material or order reprints from already-designed material.
6. Fast Order Processing
With everything already set up online, when you decide to order more print materials for your business, the printing house will receive a print-ready file, like a JPG or SVG file, which will then automatically be printed, making the order process a hundred times faster. Not only is the printing process sped up but the system is also incredibly easy to use.
Key Takeaways
As you can see, web-to-print technology not only helps printers process orders faster and more efficiently but also enhances your customer experience and reduces the time it would usually take to order brand collateral. Additionally, money and resources are saved by reducing wastage from over-ordering.
