The Top Four Benefits of an Online Ordering System for Direct Marketing Materials

Jan 20 2011 7:00 PM
Increasingly, chief marketers are called upon to help colleagues in other departments or locations print targeted, personalized promotional materials -- brochures, postcard mailers, business cards, fliers, white papers, newsletters, workbooks, and circulars. Web-to-print technology allows a variety of players within an organization to do just that, but leaves the integrity of the brand in the marketing department's hands, where it belongs. There are four major benefits to these robust solutions for marketing managers.
  1. Control: The marketing manager will maintain administrative control over the site. This means adding, deleting, or editing users and deciding what rights they have. The rules that marketing managers define for each user can control access to specific reports, materials, editing rights, geographical territories, and order limits.
  2. Customization: The materials available on the site can change based on the user logged in to the site. Better yet, marketing managers can opt to have users customize material with their contact information, images, layout and copy. This provides flexibility for those ordering, but not at the expense of brand control. It’s a win-win situation at last!
  3. Convenience: Authorized users can access the site from anywhere at anytime, 24/7, while marketing management can establish the schedules for production and “order by” dates to meet deadlines. The marketing manager can also access convenient reports to control resources, market saturation, budgets and timeframes, and adjust the ordering process accordingly.
  4. Dynamic Campaigns: To personalize or mail materials, data can be integrated with products on the site. The marketing manager may allow site users to select a list or upload a data file – for example, an Excel spreadsheet of the user's current customers – with fields in a standard format that will merge with the product template and personalize each individual document. Such a feature might work well for prospect mailings, personalized event materials, and ongoing customer loyalty programs.
For additional information on web-to-print or -mail ordering systems, contact Cindy at ckilgore@euservices.com