Think beyond short-run solutions to long-term profitability.
At the On Demand Conference & Expo, held May 17-19 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, the energy was palpable, the excitement was infectious, and the opportunities were mind-boggling. Yes, for distributors who have embraced digital printing, these are the best of times. But, these can seem like the worst of times for those intimidated by technology.
"It doesn't have to be like that," stressed Paul Edwards, president of Fenton, Missouri-based FormStore. "Attaching graphic and database files is actually much easier than sitting down and doing form designs, and paper and carbon tests. Time, education and successful programs will lead to broad acceptance of the power of digital printing."
Both Edwards and Jeff Prettyman, executive vice president of Wise Business Forms, Alpharetta, Ga., pointed out that the real beauty of digital printing lies in the ability to explain it as a total concept to end-users and then close on programs that may include 1-to-1 marketing, direct mail and personalized printing, as well as static color reprographic pieces. "Distributors can set up programs that may generate $50,000 to $100,000 worth of profitable business that they hardly have to touch, and it can be arranged such that the end-users are doing the work for the distributors," said Edwards. "But, it is going to take the same kind of work that it took to learn carbonless, pressure-sensitive and pressure-seal—and actually, I don't think digital printing is as complicated."
Prettyman explained that Wise Business Forms has developed and hosts a variety of Web-to-print programs. "Since distributors, for the most part, don't have the technical expertise that's called for, we partner with them and work with the end-users' marketing and IT people to fully develop the solution," he said. "Strong prospects include customers with many different offices, nationally or internationally, and companies with a lot of salespeople." Prettyman added that distributors seem to have good success in the financial/residential mortgage application markets, and with loan companies.
"Sure, distributors are still maintaining the relationships, but once their customers are up and running, the orders are taking place, and notifications are being received while the distributors are out selling new business. It's like an annuity," observed Prettyman.
He went on to say that digital Web-to-print programs are solution sales, not bid situations. "Distributors must avoid the print buyers and get in to see the vice presidents of marketing and the business owners," advised Prettyman. "They then have to find out what kind of pain the prospects have in their current operations and offer solutions to those business problems."
Inevitably, end-users love the convenience, efficiency and ability to customize, and wind up adding additional templates and applications over time for increased profitability.
Click with Digital Printing
To help distributors get the digital ball rolling, FormStore launched its Digital Print Solutions for Health-Care program in January. "We're purposely focusing distributors on one vertical market segment to prevent them from feeling lost in the huge forest of digital printing opportunities," noted Edwards. "Isolating health-care opportunities not only identifies specific 'trees' to look for, but also chops them down into firewood that can be easily understood and sold."
A unique sales kit provides distributors with more than 20 different digitally printed health-care-oriented samples in a digitally printed presentation folder. "We wanted to make this a fun sales call, so we included a matching donut box and tissue box," continued Edwards. With these tools, distributors can show health-care executives more economical, personal and professional ways to document procedures, communicate with staff and patients, market their institutions, and reach out to the community with 1-to-1 fully personalized postcards, newsletters, patient identification/insurance cards and targeted correspondence.
"The program has opened the discussion between FormStore and distributors interested in selling digital printing," said Edwards. "We have sent out more than 700 kits—which, in and of themselves, are educational—and each request has involved a detailed conversation or conference call." He mentioned that Webinars are being planned for the future.
FormStore also launched a general, non-health-care-specific, Web-to-print system at the end of May to support its digital printing initiative. Distributors can go onto their desktops or install the system onto their customers' desktops to facilitate ordering digital printing online via the Internet. "The orders will come directly to us and will be shipped back to the end-users," explained Edwards.
He went on to say that a distributor recently approached FormStore for help with a financial newsletter. The end-user wanted to make the newsletter available to 4,000 agents, who will then be able to add their own messages. "Using a Web-to-print system, they'll personalize, image and mail out the newsletter to their customers," Edwards said. "Basically, it requires a graphic file—which the customers' ad agency probably designed—and the data file, and we need to know what font is to be used for the variable information and then automatically generate the customized pieces."
Riding the NextWave of Success
Wise Business Forms' NextWave division specializes in short- to medium-run, on-demand, four-color digital printing using both Indigo and Heidelberg press technologies. Digital Web-to-print programs are a strong growth area, and the company recently purchased a new Indigo 3050 press and installed a new offline UV coater for direct mail pieces. "Unlike traditional commercial applications, where the ink goes into the paper, digital printing sits on top and can become scratched or smudged," explained Prettyman. "The coater protects and preserves the image for a better product and helps to make it pop."
The company's digital printing offerings include VIP Page, an integrated, 1-to-1, Web-to-print marketing solution that involves the Web, print and e-mail applications. It's an easy-to-use browser interface that creates direct mail marketing collateral and newsletters customized to specific groups, which are then personalized with the recipients' information. The program allows for localized and regionalized collateral featuring maps, as well as a generic corporate address.
Prettyman explained that marketing departments will typically approve any Web content, which is then available immediately, to help end-users control brand integrity and increase their marketing effectiveness. "They no longer have to have support staff trying to fulfill direct mail programs for their salespeople," he added. "Sales reps can simply go online and create their own materials."
With Wise Business Forms' Corporate Resource Center program, a secure site enables corporate end-users—including sales, marketing and customer service personnel—to access collateral templates, select images and text, and create versioned marketing pieces specifically tailored to recipients' interests. A contact address book option allows the end-user to personalize the document, which is then printed and mailed, or sent as an e-mail attachment. "We host another product specifically for the education market that gives smaller colleges competing against large institutions a fighting chance," continued Prettyman. "It eliminates delays and ensures a response when prospective applicants request information."
Once visitors profile themselves, a customized, personalized PDF that's specific to the prospect's areas of interest and that features a curriculum schedule and, based on the zip code, the appropriate admissions counselor's contact information is sent back in a matter of minutes. Or, it can be printed and mailed. "Rather than sending out large packets of information that may cost $15 or $20 on the first contact, the end-user is now only spending a few dollars and can easily follow up with a phone call," added Prettyman.
A secure site also facilitates the company's Co-Branding program, which provides channel partners with access to a corporation's branded marketing collateral templates to order up-to-date, versioned pieces featuring the partner's name and perhaps a map. "Digital printing emerged on the scene as a short-run solution that eliminated obsolescence and costly inventory management, but the killer application really is database marketing and variable data printing," noted Prettyman.
"In addition to more powerful, personalized marketing pieces, it's important to look beyond names and addresses to other types of data in files and learn how to use the power of demographics to improve 1-to-1 marketing," added Edwards.
But first, he urged distributors to look beyond their comfort zones and decide if digital printing will be part of the strategic plan for their companies' growth. "There are many distributors who have made a decision to learn how to sell whatnots and whatchamacallits for the advertising specialties industry," observed Edwards. "Well, digital printing is no harder than selling screen printing on T-shirts or counting the number of stitches for embroidering logos. Digital printing is a close cousin to traditional processes that provides fantastic opportunities for print management programs to be sold by people who understand paper and graphics."
"Digital printing is truly an ongoing journey for the industry," concluded Prettyman. "There is never really a destination here."
By Maggie DeWitt
- People:
- Paul Edwards
- Prettyman
- Places:
- Fenton, Missouri
- Philadelphia