Investing in Web-to-Print Marketing Tools

When you’re a business owner or leader, you don’t really “go home” at night. You’re always thinking about what you need to do next, and how you’ll get it done. Add to this being short-staffed and oversubscribed, and it’s easy to see how the essentials can take a tumble off the to-do list. All’s fine until you’re out of business cards, or marketing literature, or sales sheets for your next event, which is coming up fast.

What happens when you don’t have the print materials you need? Put simply, your business can miss out on opportunities like new customers, sales, and growth. Rushing a job isn’t the answer either. We all know that haste makes waste—but it also makes errors and missed deadlines.

Fortunately for you (and your team), we live in the digital age, when technology can come to the rescue—as long as you know about it and know how to use it to your advantage. In this article, we provide an overview of technology solutions like our agOnline web-to-print portal to explain how they can streamline print ordering as well as simplify processes for you and your team. 

What is a web-to-print portal?

Web-to-print is a technology platform that acts as a centralized print portal for customers to streamline all their printing needs. This technology is also known as W2P, Web2Print, remote publishing, or print e-commerce. Portals like our agOnline web-to-print portal provide easy-to-use functionality for users to log in, create, order, manage, edit, and reorder marketing materials.

Portals like agOnline offer many benefits, including 24/7 access, reordering, and order tracking. This can be a huge advantage when you are understaffed, or even when you’re looking to be more efficient with the same number of people. Here are five ways that agOnline can help you make your marketing and print material management easier.

#1: Simplify print ordering

The traditional approach to print ordering can introduce some back-and-forth, but technology solutions like agOnline can reduce this. agOnline is customized to your business, so once you are set up (which is easy), you and your team will have centralized access to all your print and marketing materials. This makes it easy to select and customize your print products, from business cards to brochures and much more. Simplifying the order process saves staff time by reducing the need for emails, Slack messages, and phone calls to coordinate and communicate.

#2: Ensure brand consistency

Consistent brands are stronger brands—but when you are understaffed or rushed, quality can slip. Unless you have the right tool—and this is where agOnline can help. Users can access preapproved templates, ensuring consistent, on-brand design across all your print materials. agOnline also enables users to customize templates for personalized messaging and branding, while still adhering to overall consistency.

#3: Foster collaboration

We all know what it’s like to design by committee—and the end result is rarely great. Tools like agOnline can facilitate better collaboration and project management across teams with permissions, access to proofs, and visibility into project status. This can make it easier to get work finished, even with limited staff.

#4: Easier reordering

Scrambles are fun—for breakfasts, not for print materials. agOnline can help by simplifying the reordering process with quick access to order history for easy reordering. This eliminates the need to recreate print materials from scratch every time you need to update or print more.

#5: Cost and time savings

We’ve saved one of the best reasons for last: the impact on your bottom line. Streamlining your print and reorder process can save time and cost and boost productivity by ensuring accuracy and reducing back and forth in communication. Finally, with the flexibility to order small or large quantities at a predetermined rate and print on demand, agOnline can help you stretch your print budget and your staff capacity.

agOnline helps you make marketing easier, even when you are understaffed and struggling to keep up with demand. With agOnline, you can focus on your business—and leave the marketing and print materials to us.

Award winner

AlphaGraphics Wood Dale is proud to be recognized as the “Regional Center of the Year,” Great Lakes, 2022, for the best-run business in the Great Lakes Region—awarded by the entire AlphaGraphics network. We want to thank our amazing community for supporting our business—you continually inspire us to be our best.

Looking for ways to streamline your marketing? It’s easy to get started with AlphaGraphics Wood Dale and our agOnline marketing technology solution. Simply send us a file to get a quote or call us for more information on your project. Need more help? Learn more about our print services. At AlphaGraphics Wood Dale, we provide great choices at great prices. Remember, a free quote is just a click away. Or give us a call at 630-595-6800. We are conveniently located at 165 Hansen Court, Suite 111 in Wood Dale.