How to Streamline Your Print Marketing

A print marketing campaign can be difficult to control, as it is essentially a sum of moving points coming together to (hopefully) form a cohesive ad or direct marketing piece.

In a way, a print campaign is even more essential to get right first time than other forms of media – unlike web or email, once your marketing collateral has been sent to the printers, you won’t have the chance to make any last minute changes.

So how can you effectively manage your print processes to reduce the likelihood of mistakes being made? To help you do so, we’ve put together a handy list of five ways you can streamline your print marketing processes.

1. Keep Everything in One Place

One of the most important and easiest to implement ways to streamline your print management is to make sure all documents, designs, quotes and communication relating to your project or campaign are kept in one easily accessible place.

This might be a computer folder or a web-based program; but as long as you have one dedicated location for your project, you’ll save time hunting around for details, images and so on, especially if things need to change last minute (as they often do!). It’s also a good idea to keep track of versions and drafts as you go along, in case you need to revert back or adopt earlier details at any point.

2. Centralise It for Everyone to Use

If there are a number of your colleagues involved in your print marketing project, or if you work with various different agencies to put work together, it’s a good idea to make this one dedicated location accessible to all involved. This will help prevent duplicate work, as all parties will be able to see progress at all times.

There are a number of web-based programs that can help you do this; some are more focused on project management, such as Basecamp, or Clever Marketing’s Web2Print solution provides a comprehensive tool to help you keep track of your project. Another benefit of using a web-based tool instead of a computer folder is that it can be accessed from anywhere – if you’re working remotely or travelling, you’ll still be able to keep track of your project.

3. Keep an Eye on Your Budget

It can be easy to lose track of how far you are into your budget with any print project, as there are often many parties to consult for sign-off and many amendments that will need to be made as a result.

Keeping a running track of costs associated to your project will help you stick to your allocated budget, or decide when it’s appropriate to amend that initial figure you estimated for the job. Being up front about your budget from the outset of your print marketing project will also help to reduce unrealistic expectations and demands from stakeholders.

4. Always Remember Your Brand Values

Throughout the life of any campaign, the original message can be lost, as can your essential brand stipulations in terms of language, colour and tone. Keeping a copy of your brand guidelines to hand throughout your print project will make sure you don’t deviate too far from your essential brand message, providing a stronger and more relevant end message for the ad or brochure.

5. Reduce Waste

Due to the nature of a print campaign, there will always be an inevitable amount of waste, both in terms of materials and effort. As mentioned above, having a centralised location for all correspondence and drafts of your project will help reduce the amount of redundant work involved, thus saving you money in design agency costs. This also means you can select a design agency based on quality rather than geographical location. It’s worth also considering only printing final versions of your collateral to save on printing costs.

All of the above advantages can be achieved with a simple web2print solution. Web2print serves the business need for streamlined online print management and is centred on the principles of print triggered by demand and collaboration on print projects.

Here at Clever Marketing, we understand how frustrating disparate working documents and spiralling budgets can be. That’s why we offer our own Web2print solution to help businesses to take charge of their print marketing campaigns.


Clever Marketing - Surrey SEO AgencyIf you need help with streamlining your print marketing with web2print then get in touch with Surrey & Hampshire design agency Clever Marketing.

Give us a call on 01276 402 381 or fill in our easy contact form.

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