Distributed marketing teams need to be in sync for a brand to run campaigns that are not only efficient, but also cost-effective. Web to print services allow you and your fellow marketers to accomplish that. Plus, this brand of “remote publishing” allows you to stay brand-compliant and consistent with your marketing efforts. Let’s look at six web to print services that can make a difference for your distributed marketing teams.

1. Print and Digital Collateral Production

print collateralAt the foundation of web to print services, there’s a system in place to help you achieve your marketing goals. But let’s step back in time for a moment. If you were to look at the history of “print e-commerce,” you’d start in the late 1990s. That’s when you could finally transfer digital files of your print projects to your print vendor via email or FTP. This opened a new world of options for marketing departments. Not only was it a much faster process, it also meant you could choose from any print vendor in the world.

Today, web to print solutions allow you to work from templates for different print projects like letterhead, business cards, brochures, newsletters, and more. You’re a few mouse clicks away from producing these marketing materials on your own, thus reducing time and expense.

Brand Management Software with Web to Print Services

BlueSky ETO provides brand management software that features web to print services. This is a valuable part of any brand management solution because it helps keep your brand consistent and compliant. When you provide marketing materials to your distributed team, you’ve created a successful business environment. You’ve given them the autonomy to control their own marketing destiny.

Let’s look at a few examples.

  • Print on Demand. With print on demand software, you and your distributed team can print small runs of a document as required. The demand triggers production.
  • Variable Data Printing. VDP is digital printing that allows certain elements (text, images, etc.) to be changed from one printed piece to the next. Do you have 5,000 brochures to send? You can customize and produce each one of them quickly and easily with variable data printing.
  • User Personalization. Your distributed marketers can personalize materials according to their local needs.
  • Inventory Control. Rather than sending the same printed marketing materials to each location, you can send them only what they need/request. This reduces marketing waste.

2. Integrated Digital Asset Management

digital asset managementConsider how your marketing team shares digital files. Do you still send email attachments and then trade messages back and forth? If so, you’re fighting an uphill battle that’s costing you time and money. Digital asset management (DAM) allows you to electronically provide marketing templates, images, audio and video files, email signatures, and other kinds of digital files with your authorized users. It’s as simple as uploading the files to a cloud-based server where they become instantly accessible to your team.

BlueSky ETO creates DAM solutions that include all of these things and more. For instance, rather than searching through hundreds or even thousands of images, meta search filters allow you to hone in on what you’re looking for in an instant. Permission levels ensure that only authorized users have access to the files they need to see—and nothing more unless you allow it. Furthermore, we can design and develop a solution that’s engineered to order for your brand’s goals. We’d love to give you a personalized demonstration.

Let’s say you’re introducing an updated logo to your distributed marketing team. Ideally, you would want to have each location receive this logo and implement it at the same time. Otherwise, you’ll have brand confusion. Some of your locations will be creating marketing materials with an old logo while others are designing with the new one. Web to print services like DAM allow you to organize all your marketing materials in one place so all your authorized users have access simultaneously. Plus, you can provide your logo in a variety of formats (like .JPG, .PNG, .TIF, etc.) along with a .PDF of branding guidelines that explains the correct ways to use it.

3. Customized Local Marketing Templates

local marketing templatesWeb to print services allows local marketers to create their own marketing materials with customizable templates. Not only does this provide your distributed marketers with the freedom they desire to influence their own success, it also keeps brand standards intact. They don’t need to contact you or your brand’s graphic design team for every marketing move. So when your next campaign rolls around, they have the freedom and control they want.

Here’s an example. If your distributed marketers are contacting your graphic designers each time they need a customization on their marketing materials, you’re wasting time and money. Not to mention the fact that you’ll overload your graphics team with work that’s keeping them from accomplishing more important tasks. As a brand marketing leader, you set the standards for all your marketing materials. You see that they’re designed properly with room for local customization.

Naturally, these web to print solutions also prevent against local marketers doing their own thing with your brand assets. That’s a recipe for confusion among your customers, a mistake that can be costly for your business. Any consumer confusion leads to mistrust. Once a consumer doesn’t trust you, they’ll take their business elsewhere. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, almost 70% of U.S. consumers say that a lack of trust will lead them to stop doing business with a brand.

With web to print solutions, you set the guidelines, and you make the allowances. Brand marketing software helps local franchise marketers find a balance with brand-approved templates that allow for specific editing that appeals to a local audience.

4. E-commerce and Co-op Funding Capabilities

remote publishingWith web to print services, it’s simple for your distributed marketers to order their own marketing materials on-demand. When your authorized users place an e-commerce order, they can split payments, pay with co-op funding, or save any project and complete the order at a later time. These features provide an easy way for distributed marketers to place and pay for transactions without your help. At the same time, it gives you the necessary ordering info you need across all your individual vendors and products.

Oftentimes, you’ll send marketing materials to your distributed marketers when the need arises. Maybe it’s for a new campaign or special event. At other times, your local marketers will need additional materials outside of your standard issuance. That’s when they’ll need to place a customized order. Let’s say one of your distributed marketers is spearheading a promotion with a local professional sports team. That team is willing to fund half the cost of the marketing materials. They can place the on-demand order for new, authorized marketing materials (with room for local customization) without having to involve you or the brand’s design team. Now that’s efficient, but it’s also brand compliant and it saves time and money.

5. Seamless Production Options via Multiple Vendors

Web to print services include API system integration. That stands for Application Programming Interface. If you have no idea what that means, you’re not alone. What you do need to understand is what it does for your business. Think of it as a software intermediary—a “go-between” if you will. You can connect your brand marketing center to any number of outside vendors or company-owned apps. This gives you seamless administration of your marketing collateral. So when you say, “I want a brand management system with web to print services,” you’re not abandoning the ability to work with your digital and print marketing vendors of choice. You’re also not excluding a company-owned app like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), which is business process management software, purchasing apps, or ID management.

6. Powerful User Administration and Reporting Functions

marketing reporting softwareWithout knowing the results of your marketing campaigns, you’ll never fully understand why you were successful. On the other hand, if you don’t understand why you didn’t have the success you had hoped for, you’re doomed to repeat the same mistakes again. The more data you can pull from your reports, the better you can use that information to your advantage. That allows you to make your next marketing campaign better than the previous one.

Web to print services helps with dynamic user administration and reporting functions. You can produce simple, customizable, detailed reports that are a snap to generate, evaluate, and share. BlueSky ETO offers web to print services that feature robust reporting controls. You’ll have the ability to create and share reports that detail:

Use the comprehensive reporting functions to identify and analyze your current marketing efforts, monitor user engagement, and adjust your marketing strategies so you can achieve better results in future campaigns. Brand managers can easily review current orders and see detailed stats on usage, production, delivery, and any other items that require management approval.

Web to Print Services for Your Distributed Marketing Team

BlueSky ETO offers web to print services for your distributed marketing team. We’ll help you with print marketing collateral, customized marketing templates, digital asset management, and more. With BlueSky ETO, we design every solution we offer specifically for your business. To see how web to print services can help your brand succeed, schedule a free consultation today.

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6 Web to Print Services for Distributed Marketing Teams
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6 Web to Print Services for Distributed Marketing Teams
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Distributed marketing teams need to be in sync for a brand to run campaigns that are not only efficient, but also cost-effective. Web to print services allow you and your fellow marketers to accomplish that. Plus, this brand of “remote publishing” allows you to stay brand-compliant and consistent with your marketing efforts. Let’s look at six web to print services that can make a difference for your distributed marketing teams.
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