Modern marketers are challenged to deliver materials “better, faster, cheaper, now!” When printing marketing collateral that equates to: high quality production, specialty papers, distinctive finishes, personalized messages, lesser budgets and tight (e.g. “we needed it yesterday”) timelines.
As early as five-years ago, offset printing, gang printing, black plate changes, generic messages and large print runs to inventory were the strategies to meet these demands.
Today, you can have it all with two steps. First, leverage advances in digital multi-functional printing devices. Second, employ marketing asset management software (AKA a web-to-print solution or Digital Storefront). These two things combined make high quality, on-demand printing and fulfillment of custom marketing materials possible.
Digital Printing Advancements
The first step to achieving it all is selecting in-house equipment or a printing partner with advanced digital production printing devices. Advanced digital printing technology allows for high quality printing, traditionally only achieved through offset printing. This includes accommodating specialty media, custom binding and advanced finishes such as aqueous coatings, color matching inks and even white ink. The equipment is also capable of executing variable data output for customized pieces.
These advancements make short runs of high quality, custom collateral affordable, or less expensive than traditional methods as you can print on demand with no large inventories and little to no waste.
Marketing Asset Management Software
The second step to having it all is selecting a marketing asset management tool, also referred to as web-to-print software or a Digital Storefront solution. This online software provides online intranets/portals to help organizations centralize, customize and distribute marketing assets and collateral. If you are looking for a solution to control your printing budget, this tool is the perfect solution, allowing you to set individual budgets or entire facility budgets with no ability to exceed without approval.
This empowers pre-approved sales teams, field marketers, and partners to create custom pieces that adhere to all corporate brand standards by selecting from pre-approved templates and variable data. Creative files are auto-generated, eliminating the need for graphic designers to version materials and for brand managers to approve materials.
These online portals are also act as a storefront for promotional and wearable items, so your complete marketing store is in one centralized portal. User log ins can also be linked to budgets to assist in budget management.
Combining Technologies
Once you leverage an online portal for creating custom collateral, this can be sent to digital production printing shops or equipment in-house and printed on demand, quickly and seamlessly.
Simply put, you can have it all with digital printing on demand and online marketing asset management software. No creative bottlenecks and with high quality outputs. For a truly seamless experience you can also seek a partner to source and warehouse promotional items for a complete end-to-end on-demand solution.
Scott manages the digital print sales team and provides valuable service to our clients requiring outsourced printing and promotional items. He joined RJ Young in 2012 and has been in the industry for 16 yrs. Scott is originally from Fairview, TN and works out of our Nashville, TN office. In his spare time he volunteers for multiple charitable organizations in the Nashville area.