Digital Storefront: Technology-Driven Marketing

Over the years, marketing has evolved and changed. Businesses have had to adjust and pivot to keep up with the advancements in technology as well as the popularity of online platforms and social media. Today, marketers are balancing traditional and digital marketing tactics, which, let’s be honest, is not an easy feat. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to easily keep track of inventory, order more marketing materials and even create dynamic campaigns?

You probably see where this is headed. There are programs out there to help marketers imagine, create and manage modern marketing plans and materials, and one of our favorites is a digital storefront. Digital storefronts are newer, sleeker, more powerful versions of the online warehouse portals of years past. They have a wealth of benefits and will help launch you into technology-driven marketing so you can work smarter, not harder. Here’s what the digital storefront can do for you.

Inventory Tracking

Whether you’re a larger business with 50 locations or a small company with just 10 workers, we’ve all made the mistake of ordering marketing materials we already have sitting in the back of a closet or realizing we’re completely out of brochures the day before a trade show. Even though this is a common and unfortunate mistake, it can cost companies thousands of dollars. The digital storefront helps businesses to never make this mistake again. The storefront has a warehouse feature that helps companies keep track of inventory and use of marketing materials so you can make educated decisions about ordering. This could ultimately save you money, time and a lot of added stress.

24/7/365 Ordering and On-demand Printing

The digital storefront is a lifesaver for ordering and printing. As a marketer, you know there are times when you have to order print materials from multiple vendors to get what you need. This isn’t just a logistical pain, it’s also a hassle for billing. The digital storefront gives you the opportunity to order marketing materials from multiple vendors in one place either in bulk for storage and long-term use or using print-on-demand. The storefront will give you an automatic, monthly bill so you don’t have to worry about tracking down several invoices.

Speaking of print-on-demand, can we all agree that there is nothing worse than needing to order new print materials and not being able to get them on time? This is another amazing feature of the storefront. It has a self-service platform that you can use 24/7/365 from anywhere in the world. You don’t have to worry about night, weekend or holiday hours anymore because the digital storefront doesn’t rely on a customer service rep at a printer. You can easily enter, customize, proof and order print jobs in its simple-to-use system. This means you don’t need to go back and forth with traditional printers to adjust, customize and print designs. You will never have to worry about whether your print contact is still at each shop again. The digital storefront empowers you to have complete control over your prints.

Consistent Branding

We know companies spend up years and sometimes millions of dollars creating and managing carefully crafted brand identities. It’s crucial to keep marketing consistent whether you’re a small business or a large corporation.

The digital storefront has many features that help keep branding consistent, especially in large companies and franchisees. Storefronts are loaded up with customizable fields within a brand template for locations, experts and other pertinent information with set budgets. This makes it easy for franchisees to order branded marketing materials like brochures, signage, banners, promotional giveaways and uniforms. They don’t have to waste time going through headquarters or leadership because companies can pre-enter what these materials should look like, so they’re already approved and on brand.

Additionally, the digital storefront helps companies ensure color standards are met, whether it’s digitally or in print. It’s always a huge disappointment when you finally receive a product you’ve been waiting for and your signature blue is looking more teal than blue. The storefront ensures your branded colors are the same color every time something is printed, despite which print mechanism is used. Again, this is a huge time and money saver.

Design that Delivers Results

The digital storefront helps you effortlessly create dynamic designs. Companies can write their promotional copy, and the storefront takes care of the rest by asking questions like “What do you want your audience to see first” and “What’s less of a priority for you?” It will help you prioritize information, so it resonates with your audience and clearly gets across your message. From there, it’s easy to adjust design elements and copy.

Targeted Messaging

Possibly one of the greatest marketing features of the digital storefront is the hyper-addressable mail targeting. We know that to create more successful marketing campaigns, we have to target messages to certain audiences. The more specific you are, the better the results. With the digital storefront, you can input lists for each of your target audiences and automatically create direct mail pieces targeted at individuals. Customers will receive mailers with their names and the content that resonates with their wants and needs. This gives a personal feel and will increase brand loyalty and likelihood to buy.

Streamlining Processes

Finally, one of the best and most exciting benefits of using the digital storefront for technology-driven marketing is that it helps streamline processes between accounting, marketing and purchasing. These three departments must work in tandem to keep the company within budget, on time and efficient.

The digital storefront helps you create branded materials, order marketing materials or office supplies for one or multiple offices and bills consistently all in one place. You won’t have to play the monthly game of trying to keep track of supplies, ordering and billing through a series of emails. Instead, you can simply check the digital storefront to see exactly what was created, ordered and billed. Your team will love this feature and will save a lot of time and energy tracking down information.

How Do I Get Started?

These are just a few of the things digital storefronts can do for your marketing efforts and business. As a full-service print and marketing solutions company, F.P. Horak offers a wide variety of services to our business partners, but we prefer to focus instead on what we actually accomplish for our customers. More revenue. Lower costs. A stronger bottom line. The digital storefront is just one way you can get those results. To learn more about the digital storefront or to set up a demo, give us a call at (989) 892-6505 or contact us.