The print industry has evolved at a great pace. People are depending on technology to expand their business. However, apart from using the web to print storefronts for customer experience and ease of operations, not many print-on-demand businesses realize the hidden sales potential in these sophisticated software solutions.
Like it or not, just investing in the web to print storefront is not going to get you sales and business. Proper and timely implementation is equally necessary. A lot of businesses fail at implementing the software at the right time. Eventual delays in introducing technology to your customers may cost you leads. In our vast experience, we have seen print-on-demand service providers announcing new features and functions to their customers. However, the quality of integration and poor solutions become a hindrance in the experience of their leads.
Owning a technology-driven solution means you have the potential to expand your business offshore. However, if you are not able to communicate your business, services, and usability of your solutions to the customers – even technology cannot save you.
How to turn your web to print storefront into a sale tool
Investing in modern technology and your business decisions are highly dependent on the expected ROI. By planning your business well, you can make sure your business is churning money and you can come to a break-even faster.
The print business is no different. The web to print definition is that it is a technology-driven solution for the print industry. This allows your customers to customize products and place orders with your brands and later you deliver them to their doorsteps. But how do you get a person to land on your site?
Here is how you can turn your web to print storefront into a sales tool:
- Using software as a lead generation engine
Not only has the purchase behavior of customers evolved, but their search for products too. Websites and applications allow you to become discoverable to people that are looking for your products and services. A wide variety of print products will make you look good in front of your customers. Make sure that your websites are updated and optimized as per SEO guidelines.
Once a person has registered to your platform but has not ordered anything you can follow up with your customers and try connecting the lead to your customer. You can capture the leads through tools such as MailChimp and Constant Contact will allow you to easily drive your remarketing campaign.
Your software products can capture the leads. You can create a database and use the healthy list for the local print purchasers. This would help you in converting the customers that have not made any purchase for some reason. Remarketing to your customers is a great strategy for your sales to take off.
A technology-driven company should focus not only to manage its business but to capture the market and retain its customers. Not only you must use the websites and other tools to drive outbound sales but also serve your customers better.
- Key Parts of Sales Presentation
Websites and everything available about you online is your impression to your customers. This means it is important for you to make sure that people are conceiving you as a brand. If you are providing solutions for big clients it becomes more important. Your website should pitch the story and make sure to convince your customers about the services, and quality printing.
Your sales team must be able to convince the customers about the web to print benefits. Answer your customer queries better. Tell them how they can use your solutions for their business and how to show the prospective client how easy it is to manage their print, and demonstrate to them how they can use the product.
Some of the important aspects to take care of checking order status, easy reordering, personalization of the products, automatic proof generation, automatic preflight checks, order approvals, storefront administration, specific products, and customizable emails for accounting and management.
Common mistakes while implementing a web to print solution
Just investing in web to print storefront is not a guarantee of the business success. Implementing these solutions to not hinder but support your business operations is important. You have to be sure about what features and functions you are including in your current capabilities and how it is going to help your business. Sometimes you might not even need some solution but you end you paying for it because you think it is necessary. Careful speculation is important.
Here are a few mistakes that are commonly seen made by small and medium-sized businesses. Avoiding these mistakes and having great software that meets your business needs can help you overcome your business challenges and take over the competition.
- Doing multiple things at once
While implementing a web to print solution it is very likely that would like to divide the work into large chunks of work. However, when you start unwinding this work there would a whole lot on your plate. Sometimes it can seem like rather than saving time it is taking time in the implementation itself.
Thus, it is very necessary that you closely inspect the features, functionalities, and options that are necessary for your business and how you can customize these solutions without becoming a hindrance to your current operations.
Step-by-step working on building the website, and service strategy and then work on the products and the pricing to not load you from the work.
- Thriving for perfection
It is good to want everything perfect. But there would always be room for improvement and you might be wasting a lot of time thinking about making things that are perfectly fine to make them pristine.
If you are still using your web presence as a mere information provider and to advertise your products then each day you don’t have someone ordering from your site you lose money. If you prefer you can continue to promote your business both online and offline.
The goal behind this is to make the transition seamless while not losing out on the business. This also helps you to sustain the time that would take for you to take off on the digital platform. In general, digital marketing takes some time to create a presence but locally you compensate for the lost time and get the immediate benefit of your investment.
- No thoughts were given to shipping, billing, file upload, custom quotes
Certain things are necessary for a print on demand software. You must think about ecommerce features that are required in a web to print storefront. This includes calculating shipping rate, bulk order rate calculation, payment processing, order processing, management, etc. These few features are very necessary to meet the needs of the prospective leads.
Not every client will require shipping rates or options other than a credit card. But be a good host on your website and provide them an option to choose from. The more variety of solutions you provide to your customers the better. Especially, when it comes to managing their order and choosing how they pay and place the order. If not, you might not meet the requirements of a large portion of the consumers and this may cause a major loss to your business.
Furthermore, think about easing the process of uploading the creatives. Your clients would require flexibility to upload files of any format and give them more ease in designing the products. Also, as per their design, you should be able to provide them with the estimate on the purchase.
- Your employees
You have to have a clear objective and how to get your web to print store implemented. Your employees should be well aware of the transition and should be trained to take on the change and responsibilities.
A good web to print store is not just about the software but about the people that are fulfilling the orders. If your road map is clear if your actions are right and you have people working with you that understand the sales process, and market your products file you can say you have made good progress.
- Not marketing your services and solutions to your clients
Now, that you have the web to print store. It is time that you market it. What is a web to print storefront? It is an ultimate solution that helps you expand your business by providing personalized solutions to the need of the consumers. Using software they can design their products easily. If you have invested in a product that is so high-end it is time you tell people how they can use it.
Creatively market your business on digital platforms. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more platforms are perfect to capture leads. Let people see what wonders you can do and how they can use the product for availing themselves of a plethora of personalized products.
It is a smart idea to start marketing on the platform which you are aware of. Then you can move on to marketing platforms such as affiliates, google ads, and more. Social media advertisements and marketing are far easy. Promotion codes can help you further. Providing a discount on the first order would work as a lead magnet.
Times have changed and people react to these changes with a major change in their purchase habits. If you want to engage your customers for a lifetime you need to make sure that they have all the convenience in the world.
- Expecting too much from your customers
It is good that you have all the information on your website so that people can read it and understand your business. But, some people would like to interact with you and know more. That time telling your customers to go and check out your website to know more is not a good thing.
It is always recommended that if a client comes to you for some help you assist them completely. Provide them with a demonstration of how they can create an account and operate on your storefront. Presenting the system properly to your clients is very important. You can use various mediums too such as YouTube videos, well-written blogs, and infographics to help your customers find their way on the software. This helps especially when you have custom software. This way you can reduce the manual intervention of your customer care executives.
- Not responding to clients
Responding to your customers is very necessary. If they need any help you must make sure that your client queries are resolved and that they are happy with your service. A client who registers on your website should also be responded on time so that they can use the software and utilize the solutions fully.
Make sure your customer service executives are well-versed with the process so that they are efficiently helping your customers. A quick response, faster query resolution, and better customer experience can help you to capture your customers and turn them into loyal customers. Also, if necessary, take follow-ups and feedback to ensure your customers are not facing problems accessing your services and solutions.
Conclusion
Hope you liked the blog and are all ready for taking your business to next level. We have in detail explained the sales prospects of the software product and also how you can avoid the common mistakes to make sure your business is churning profit. For more information about the latest technology and how to make your print business sales-ready, and online ready connect with our WTPBiz customer care service. We would help you learn more about the latest solutions and how they can boost your sales.
