What is the best way of doing web to print?

Answer 1

Print, like Marketing, has gone online and digital. Technology makes them powerful allies! Web-based Marketing There is no question that the internet has revolutionized the world of marketing. It has dramatically lowered Marketing’s cost per contact and significantly enhanced its reach. It not only provides new ways to contact potential customers, online marketing also encompasses digital management of customer data and support systems that facilitate customer relationship management. Web marketing’s most powerful feature, however, is its ability to provide direct and immediate customer feedback to the marketer as a driver of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Web-based Printing Long time print industry veterans often cry the blues as they see many traditional print applications replaced by online and digital technologies, including “threats” like email marketing and more recently Web 2.0. However these same technologies have driven a whole new generation of business communication opportunities, many of which still drive print. Printing is not dead by a long shot, it has just changed format and the future of the print business now belongs to the nimble and the tech savvy – printers who understand the implications of landing pages, open rates, blogs and twitter. Customers still have business communication challenges and still need innovative solutions, and in many cases the most effective solutions still involve ink (or toner!) on paper. Online digital printing, or web-to-print, does not refer to a newer generation of Internet technology, but rather to the growing trend by business to take full advantage of the Internet by building applications and services around its unique features. Web-to-print applications are an integral part of this process, for both B2B and B2C markets. What is Web-to-Print? Web-to-print, also referred to as remote publishing, is the new typesetting and plate making – but without the typesetting and plate making! It refers to the use of a web interface to create, personalize, approve and distribute print-based marketing collateral. The promo piece can be a postcard, brochure, letter, flyer or even a large poster. The user logs into a secure online interface, chooses a specific print product from an online catalogue, selects an appropriate pre-designed template and then customizes the relevant areas of the piece by entering text, uploading personal images and graphics or selecting them from an online library (Digital Asset Manager). The final piece is then approved, a delivery method selected and if a distribution list is needed it is uploaded from either a client list or an integrated online CRM platform. The job is paid for with a credit card, the shopping cart closed, sent to a digital printer for production and then delivered to the shipper, often within 48 to 72 hours. How Does Web-to-Print Work? Web-to-print is enabled by the web but is a result of the flexibility of the digital printing press. This print technology makes it possible for each printed impression to be unique. It dynamically merges the variable data from the client database with a digital template (Portable Document Format, or PDF) from the online library to complete the personalized document, eliminating the need for traditional printing setup (plates, films, chemicals). This variable data printing process enables thousands of individually customized pieces to be printed in one run, using digital presses such as the Hewlett-Packard Indigo, Xerox’s iGen and Eastman Kodak’s NexPress. The power of web-enabled digital printing is its ability to support cost-effective personalization and one-to-one marketing, either as an individual personalized print project, a standalone mailing campaign or as a component of a multi-channel marketing strategy also involving web and email marketing. Not bad for a “dying” industry! Integrated Marketing That Leverages the Combined Strengths of Print and the Web Printed direct mail or web-to-print can also be integrated with web response pages where recipients of print pieces produced online are provided with a unique “PURL” (Personalized URL). The PURL page can call the viewer to action in a number of ways including a request for online information or a follow-up contact, updating their contact information, answering a survey relating to the seller’s products and services, registering for a promotional incentive, or even providing a link directly to an ecommerce site where they can buy products. Once the online PURL form is submitted the customer contact information, “click through” path and survey data are captured by the customer database / CRM platform, used to update the customer’s profile and preference records, and are immediately available to drive intelligent personalization in new printed or online marketing campaigns. Analysis of this data (Analytics) provides an unprecedented opportunity for integrated and highly personalized marketing campaigns, leading to better response rates and new revenue opportunities. The “old” and the “new” don’t need to be at loggerheads when it comes to communication strategies; leveraging the strengths of print and the web together in an integrated strategy actually delivers a broader reach and stronger results than the individual technologies on their own. Sources: http://1to1print.wordpress.com/ , http://www1.aiim.com/transpromo/