As more and more marketers and printers venture into the Web to Print website arena, one thing that they commonly consider is large sites, with the likes of Web to Print VistaPrint. Whether it be ordering letter heads,  business cards or any other material of business identity, you go online, select from a predefined template, customize its font, text, color and images if required and simply order it for yourself.

Though this model may not be the requirement of everyone and even may not seem glamorous to attract everyone, however for small sized businesses where affording designers is a constraint, this solution works best.

Wait! If you think this is all Web to Print website offers, well think again!

Web to Print refers to a lot of other things besides online printing as well. It would not be an exaggeration if it said that Web to print is an immensely diverse industry and the diversity in the ways its applications are used by different people is mind boggling. It is rather challenging to discuss all the diverse aspects of Web to Print. Some of these ways however include

• An online static store that offers the opportunity for creation of marketing documents and other corporate identity.
• An online static store that facilitates creation of customized mugs, photo books, T-shirts and other similar special items.
• The ability to FTP or email files to the printer
• Offering branded online portal that can be used to create online forms.
• Offering a branded online portal that can be utilized for creation of personalized or customized marketing publications and documents.
• Offering a branded online portal for repurposing, creating and distributing advertising material.
• Offering the platform that facilitates collaboration and proofing of documents online between various entities.

These are just broadly defined categories of what WebtoPrint can be or is used for. All these categories come with their own set of challenges, benefits and cost structures, presenting them as being unique to the other. Web to Print can be as simple as logging to a safe and secure area, which is your printer’s site and order documents that are needed (Remember this is only about modifying and accessing it).  It can also be a complex affair if you wish to set up a fully branded online portal which serves as a repository for your documents, logos, images and templates for Web to Print besides others. Through permitting employees, departments and other parties, documents can be personalized, modified, customized at different levels, saving cost and time. Creation of multi channeled campaigns for marketing of a business is also possible where they can be triggered on specific dates, response of a recipient, and on several more similar functions.

In terms of Web to Print portal activities that have created the biggest impact on the market, the following functions are revealed

• Permission based and branded access
• Centralized permissions to users
• Repository for central document
• Personalization Full On
• Personalization, the Personal Way (One Off)
• Cross Channel marketing
• Resizing and Repurposing of advertisements simplified
• W2P Plugin for Third Parties

Though the potential functions that are being performed by businesses using the Web2Print application are immense and diverse, however dwelling into the basics of the above mentioned important Web to Print functions explain a lot of its capabilities.