Print Solutions Magazine

Print Solutions March 2006

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Table of Contents

Cover story

Reality Check, continued

Web-to-Print

Case Study

A New Brand of Marketing

Faced with steep competition, FORMost Graphics Communications Inc. found new ways to market itself with web-to-print.

By LaShell Stratton

To highlight itself among a maze of other distributors and manufacturers who offer web-to-print solutions, FORMost Graphics Communications Inc. discovered that it had to do something that it had been advising its end users to do for years. “The whole idea is self-marketing,” says James Feldman, CFC, president of the Rockville, Md.-based print provider that offers forms management, direct mail printing and processing, in-house composition, package design and fulfillment. “We’re practicing what we’re preaching.”

FORMost created its web-to-print platform two years ago. It now uses e-Quantum software that integrates with the rest of the FORMost e-commerce system so that end users can go to one place to buy all their printing and office products. Feldman says that FORMost’s web-to-print solutions “started off with pretty basic things, like business cards and stationery. Then we gradually moved on to postcards and newsletter formats. Now we’re doing a huge push for credit unions.” Here are some of the tactics FORMost Graphics employed to better promote itself in the web-to-print marketplace:

Hire a Public Relations Firm

The FORMost web-to-print platform allows end users to create 1:1 marketing materials with variable data. The company is pitching credit unions that this variable data capability would be perfect for monthly promotions of credit card offers or low-interest loans for prospects. All the mailings could have different artwork or personalized messages. But because credit unions were a relatively new market for FORMost, the company decided to bring in someone that could “help us get our name out there.” The company hired a public relations firm, Grow Sales Inc., based in Rockville, Md. “We knew marketing, but public relations was a completely different animal,” he says. Grow Sales is designing a campaign for FORMost that will include sending direct mail pieces to credit union prospects. The firm also is supplying FORMost with a database of contacts.

Attend Trade Shows

To better position the company’s products and services before prospects, sales representatives at FORMost will find themselves in a place unfamiliar to many distributors. “We’re scheduled to appear at four to five trade shows,” Feldman says. “From a distributor’s point of view, it’s rather interesting because we’ll be alongside some manufacturers.” But FORMost already has its sales pitch prepared even though it now faces a more diverse breed of competition.

Feldman emphasizes the perks of the distributor model of web-to-print systems over the manufacturer model. “Web-to-print orders can have big volumes that inundate the average manufacturing plant,” Feldman says. Using the distributor model, FORMost is able to route print jobs to manufacturers located in different regions of the country, depending upon the end user’s location. “We’re finding that there are certain clients that really want this,” he says. “We’re getting deliveries to them faster and it doesn’t cost as much” because the smaller distances between the manufacturer and end user can mean shorter delivery times and lower shipping costs.

Recruit a Specialist

FORMost also brought in a vice president of business development, Jeff Richards. He is now charged with helping the company expand its web-to-print direct marketing services and drive non-profit business to the FORMost web sites. “He’s a sales representative with web-to-print marketing experience,” Feldman says. Richards has 15 years experience in direct marketing program management, including four years in web-based programs. He has worked at direct marketing agencies with clients such as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the National Realtors Association, the American Gaming Association and the Republican National Committee.

But even with someone dedicated specifically to acquiring new clients for the web-to-print system, Feldman says he realizes that this e-commerce model can “be a tough sell. It can be a long selling process. If you’re looking for something that’s easy, this isn’t it. It can take up to a year,” he says, to complete the sales cycle.

Feldman says FORMost’s client list currently includes universities, a high-tech company where FORMost handles the business cards and stationery of 18,000 employees; a large, nationwide retailer and a membership organization for which FORMost handles all membership renewals. “It’s a very interesting market place,” Feldman said. “It’s getting back to our roots in the forms industry, which is educating the client.”

Feldman says web-to-print is a good opportunity for distributors. “We think for the distributor, it’s probably an area of major growth,” he says. “But the only area that it seems to really be expanding is variable digital printing.” Feldman wonders if web-to-print solutions are meant for the long term. “In the ’70s and ’80s, they mailed the daylights out of plastic cards,” he says but those sales gradually declined as plastic cards flooded the market. “Then we saw the label boom. Now that’s starting to slow down. The question is: Is web-to-print a new way of printing or is this just another direct mail product whose popularity will spike and decline? If I knew that answer, I wouldn’t be working right now!”

LaShell Stratton is assistant editor at Print Solutions magazine. Email her your comments at lstratton@PSDA.org.

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