With adopting web to print for your business, you have already started your journey for growth and automation of your business. But it’s not the end, but rather just a beginning. The actual process starts with implementing it right, and for that first 30 days are crucial. It is proven that the chances of dropping any new change are highest within first 30 days of adopting it. Hence it’s important to have a checklist of required steps to be done for successful implementation of web-to-print for your printing business.
Implementing Web2print is a big change for any print service provider. Thus, you need to have yourself and your team well prepared for it. Below we are sharing the checklist for the first 30 days after you adopt web2print. You cannot expect wonders to happen from day one, but if you keep a close eye on the daily operations and make sure everything is in place, you will sure get the results.
Identifying the change agent or team leader
First you need to identify a dedicated person or change agent in your team who will lead the implementation and administer your web to print storefront. This team member will be responsible for setting up the website with the help of other team members and get it ready for launch. The crucial setups required are identifying the right server to host the application, coordinating with software vendor for a successful installation and configuration and testing it. Next comes populating your website with your logo, banners, CMS pages and other important system settings like payment gateway and shipping integrator setups. It’s the responsibility of this change agent to get application ready to go-live. Hence he should be self motivated and able to lead the change.
Implement the workflow and create user accounts
Once the application is installed and configured, identify potential roles and their required permissions so that people only get access to relevant information/data within the system. Role based access can help users in focusing on their area of expertise and leave out unwanted information.
Identifying & training the staff from all operational areas
Next it’s important to identify all departments or people within your organization who will interact with or use the system e.g. Sales, Graphics Design, Marketing, & Production, Finishing, Delivery etc and create their login access to the system. Once access is granted, it’s the responsibility of your team leader (or change agent) to train each member of your team on features important to handle their area of operation and effective use of it to reduce manual tasks and enhance productivity. Your team should be willing to adopt change in the way they execute their tasks and that willingness only come when you show them the benefits and it makes their life easy by adopting the centralized system to collaborate for smooth order processing.
Identifying the products & services you want to offer online
Now that your web to print website is live and your team is trained to operate it, you have to identify the right set of products and services you want to offer to your customers for online ordering. You can begin with a small product catalog and eventually grow it bigger as per demand and buying behavior of your online customers. This may be a cumbersome task, but a closure on this is important to begin your web-to-print hassle free. Choosing the right products to start with is important in the implementation process, as it should encourage your customers to chose online way than traditional offline way of ordering prints with you. So keep it simple with great user experience to make your customers come back for more.
Cataloging
After you have finalized on your products and services you need to start cataloging. Accessing desired product or templates should be super easy with clear and clear cataloging. Implement filter options so that users can search for the product they are looking for without much effort.
Also invest into offering some professionally designed editable templates for most popular products on your website. This will help new customers to get acquainted with your online website and prepare their artwork ready within minutes for ordering.
Using SEO Tools
Once you have done the cataloging on the system, now you need to start using the SEO tools to let people find you on search engines. SEO helps to improve your website’s ranking in the search engines like Google, Yahoo & Bing. Being able to be found on the first pages of the search engines allows the clients to connect with you when they have some specific printing needs.
“In a research, study by Optify it was discovered that “websites ranked number one received an average click-through rate (CTR) of 36.4 percent; number two had a CTR of 12.5 percent; and number three had a CTR of 9.5 percent.” What importance is it to you? In short, if you do not have a strong & correct SEO strategy to run then you will start losing the clicks & sales.”
Use Google Analytics to analyze your website performance with page view tracking and e-commerce tracking. It will give you a browsing behavior of visitors on your website like most visited page, drop rate, abandoned cart statistics, most popular keyword etc. This can help you in tailoring your website content to highlight most popular products and templates. You can also use the Social Media Channels for branding and promotions. Effective on-page and off-page SEO is a key to get your website accessed by your target customers.
Marketing Strategies
Marketing is an important tool for growing any business. You need to let your old and new customers know about your new website. You must already have a set of customers who have been using your offline services, now you can let them know about the web-to-print implementation and how to use it for better print ordering experience. You can do this in 3 simple steps:
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- E-mail Marketing: Create e-mail templates that match your brand and send e-mails to your existing and new customers notifying them about the new development and benefits of adopting it for their convenience.
- Newsletters: Send periodic newsletter to your existing and target customers notifying them about new product launches, latest designs and templates, any promotions or discounts they can benefit from. You should also include few customer testimonials to build trust as well as incentivize them for placing order online.
- Social Media: Let everyone know that now your business is now online. Share your website URL and other details regularly on the social media platforms to be remembered on constant basis. You can also share offers and discounts to attract your old and new customers.
Identifying early customers and training them
Identifying your first customers who will willingly adopt your online website for ordering is very important for BETA TESTING. You need to pick few loyal customers first with whom you can share details about your new products & services and train them to place their orders online. Once they do so, ask for their honest feedback timely. Finally, do the changes recommended to enhance customer satisfaction.
Now how are you going to identify and onboard your first customers, might be your next question. Well, you can read our blog on Tips for On-boarding customers at your Web-to-Print store that will give you an idea of how to bring your customers to your online store.
You can even keep a help video on most accessible locations in your website to help customers learn how to use the design tool to create their own artwork without needing any professional graphics design skills. Easier you make it for your customers to adopt your new way of business, higher are chances for long-term customer retention.
Effective order processing
Once you have successfully added your customers to the new system, and you have started receiving orders, it’s not the end. In fact this is where many implementations fail eventually. You think getting orders online is all you need, but you need to make sure you effectively process these orders without delays thus proving customers of advantage of ordering prints online. Hence, you need to make sure your customers are able to order from your website and able to make payment online. Delays or poor quality may discourage them to come back for more. If, once orders are processed and delivered, and you get repeat orders from the same client, then you have succeeded in implementing the new solution effectively.
Implementing the web-to-print and the online order processing can be very intimidating but the benefits you receive are worth the investment and undertaking risks associated. As every change is terrible at first sight, make sure that first 30 days are very important to keep up the momentum and encourage yourself, your team as well as your customers to realize the benefits and utilize your web to print application effectively.
With this blog post, we have prepared a checklist of tasks for first 30 days after you adopting web2print to make sure of right launch of your online print business.
Are you ready? Contact us for a personalized consultation.
Last updated: 23 Oct 2020
