How can your organization benefit from a web-to-print storefront?

Printing usually requires a minimum run to be cost-effective. This often results in companies having far more literature than they need, and higher printing costs than they would prefer.

The solution is a customized web-to-print storefront from Heritage Printing, which enables organizations to make the most of print-on-demand. Here’s what that means:

• They can print items on an as-needed basis,
• Print-on-demand eliminates the need to maintain and store an inventory of printed pieces to fulfill requests for them, and
• It minimizes the amount of obsolete literature you must dispose of when you update it.

Here’s how you can save time using use a web-to-print storefront:

Provide literature to your marketing partners

Web-to-print storefronts enable companies to provide their dealers and distributors with a self-service portal where they can order and customize marketing materials to include their logo, contact information and other data. These orders are printed and shipped within 24 hours.

It saves companies time and reduces the need for storage space. It also reduces waste, because they don’t need to keep large quantities of each printed piece on hand. It also helps to ensure that distributors always have access to the latest versions of each marketing piece. The last thing you want is dealers handing out old literature!

Customize literature for all of your locations

Customized literature means each collateral piece can be personalized by the user. Contact information, location and even products and services can be integrated into the literature to personalize it to meet the needs of the person ordering it.

The system defines customizable regions within each collateral piece and can be set up to validate certain types of data, such as ensuring that email addresses and phone numbers are properly formatted. This enables a limited amount of customization while also helping you maintain control of your branding.

Provide dealers with approved product photography

One clever manufacturer is using its web-to-print storefront to provide its distributors with a “marketing tool kit” – several hundred approved digital images, organized into categories by product line. Each file is strategically named and watermarked for future online search optimization. Distributors can download and use these images in their emails, social media posts and other online content.

Why create such an image library? Because companies face big challenges in making sure that their distributors and other marketing partners are using high-quality images that show the current models and configurations of their products. It also ensures that they will use the best, original versions of each image, not derivative copies that are poorly cropped, fuzzy or have other technical problems. Creating such a resource also helps you maintain tighter control over your brand.

This idea isn’t just limited to product photography. You can easily do the same with other types of marketing assets, including product videos, PowerPoint presentations and infographics.

Expand your global footprint

One client that manufactures and sells electrical components was looking for ways to empower its overseas distributors to sell its devices against lower-cost overseas competitors. It needed to arm them with high-quality sales literature and other supporting materials.

Heritage created a web-to-print storefront that its distributors can use to customize and download PDF versions of its company brochure, product sheets, infographics and presentations to share with their local customers and prospects.

Because these channel partners are located around the globe, we haven’t enabled them to place orders for printed versions of these sales materials. But they can print personalized PDFs on a printer in their office or take them to a local commercial printer for output.

The benefits of outsourcing fulfillment

Organizations of all sizes must produce marketing materials and other printed pieces for a variety of uses. That requires storage space, plus someone to manage inventory and fulfill orders. Outsourcing fulfillment to a professional organization like Heritage Printing can free up your staff’s time to focus on their core competencies. It also eliminates the need for on-site storage and provides enhanced inventory management and reporting.

Exceptional ease of use

We customize each web-to-print storefront to match our clients’ colors and branding. We also create a folder structure to make it easy for their users to find the materials they need. Some clients have even created a “What’s New?” folder so their users can quickly view and order their newest materials. Users can also create a “wish list” of items using the portal’s “save for later” function.

The bottom line is that a well-designed, easy-to-use web-to-print storefront is more likely to be utilized by your distributors, channel partners and constituents.

Is a web-to-print storefront for you?

If your company prints, inventories and ships a significant quantity of brochures, direct mailers, stationery, business cards and other printed materials, you can save a significant amount of time and provide added convenience to the people who need them with a web-to-print storefront.

Contact Heritage today at (262) 790-5000 to learn how you can benefit from one.