Web to Print technology offers benefits beyond the farthest imagination of marketers today, and analyzing the extent to which its potential can be used is impossible. Having said that, one thing which is possible to analyze and explain are the main Advantages of W2P that are popularly being utilized by marketers to their optimum benefit. These W2P solutions are actively being used by creative minds of marketers, who are constantly striving to manage and utilize their documents effectively and efficiently. Before moving into the details of these solutions, shedding light on some of these popular W2P options seems due. So following is the ultimate guide to web to print solutions in short.

• Permission based, branded access
• Centralized user permission for every activity performed on document
• Central repository services for documents
• Full blown Personalization
• One off Personalization
• Cross Channel Marketing
• Simplified Resizing and Repurposing of Campaign
• W2P Plug ins for third party 

Permission Based Branded Access

Permission based branded access is referred to branding portal to a company after which users can only access the portal if the company allows them access to it. Users are required to take permission and once it’s granted, the portal can be reached whether through an in-house site or in a special password protected area in the original printer’s website. The project site can be in diverse places such as on the website designer’s website, on the software provider’s website, the print distributor’s website, etc. Irrespective of wherever the company’s web to print portal is hosted or whether the marketer hosts it itself or not, it is in any case branded to the marketer only.

Centralized User Permission

Branded sites are not filled in with branded documents, they are also centrally controlled. Different users require obtaining different levels of permissions to access certain areas on the site.  This way different user can only access areas they have permission to from allowed destinations, at different times. These different web to print features on a branded site are centrally controlled allowing more authority to the central controlling power. 

Central Repository Services

Coming as part of the package with the WebToPrint system is the feature of central depository for images and documents. With the special access permission feature, marketing department can be allowed access to images, templates and related texts in the repository, where on the same hand the distributor can effectively access and use product related texts, images and brochures. The central repository system not only makes the job of assigning documents and images to related departments, rather it is also helpful to ensure that all company documents and images are kept current for everyone using it.

Full Blown Personalization

Enabling third parties to initially access and further customize documents for customer bases or for individual departments is a valuable service. The limit of web commerce is however far more advanced today. Currently, software vendors after much effort have managed to integrate in their systems a full blown 1:2 printing capability. Using this technology a single supplier can create a personal wholly featured solution, though it is a rare occurrence. Commonly a third party web to print plugin is handled coming from an already existing supplier. Using the 1:1 functionality the simple and easy user interface can be easily used even by a novice for spontaneous navigation.

One Off Personalization

The best market use for 1:1 media use is the one off personalized mailer using which follow ups to call centers, or retailers, or whoever your follow up clients are can be arranged. Referred to as the 1:1 print personalization procedure, this is another web to print template software benefit.

Cross Channel Marketing

This web to print tool has brought about the biggest change and contributed immensely to the functionality of cross marketing. Almost all W2P developers are continuously working towards broadening their capabilities to include new media. Using this feature, marketers can effectively employ multichannel programs of marketing while utilizing the same assets and business rules of the central repository.

Simplified Resizing and Repurposing of Campaign (especially advertising)

Using the effective solutions of Web to Print documents can easily be resized and repurposed. This feature is definitely worth a lot in advertising as the need for tweaking of the material is ever present for different formats and publications.

W2P Plug Ins for Third Parties

Since the need of every marketer is unique, the Web-to-Print solutions in order to cater them at best are becoming increasingly flexible and open in addressing those different needs. A marketer may need a language translation, a system for inventory management, or a totally different shipping preference. These things and many more can be easily downloaded in form of a plug in. If the web-to-design solution is open platform based, such as OS Commerce, this plug in can be as instant and easy as hitting the ‘Install’ button. If the solution uses other platforms, some back end web to print feature programming may be required.