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May 16, 2022

The Most Effective W2P Life Hack: Never Say the Term Web-To-Print

By Xan Poulsen, Marketing and Steven O'Brien, CEO

The other day I was talking to Steven, Devia's CEO, about a recent conversation he had with one of our printer clients. Steven said that he told them to NEVER use the term “Web-to-Print.” At first, that sounded pretty counterintuitive to me. I mean, Web to Print is what they do. Don't they need to mention that in order to market their printing services?

Steven said that the reason you should never say “Web-to-Print” or “W2P” comes down to marketing strategy. You have to know your audience.

He went on to say that, most likely, commercial printing companies are selling their solution to a marketing department that doesn't know much about printing. After all, today's marketing is more about online presence than print advertising. If things like 50# paper and print bleed aren't relevant to marketing teams, neither is the term “Web-to-Print.”

Sure, it might seem that the phrase Web-to-Print is pretty self explanatory, but it's still a term that only insiders use. When I was first hired by Devia to work on marketing, I had no clue what our role was in this mysterious “W2P” process. It took our team an hour of explaining to bring me up to speed on the specifics. Having to explain Web-to-Print makes the solution you are offering seem more complex than it really is, which derails your goal of making the software sound easy to use. Using lingo that your customer is more familiar with will help establish trust early on in your relationship. Don't create barriers between yourself and your customer by using niche terminology that makes them feel out-of-the-loop.

What should you say instead?

I asked Steven for some advice on replacing the term Web-to-Print with something more approachable. How should print companies rephrase their initial pitch to relate to a marketing team?

He said that print companies should reframe their W2P solution as “an eCommerce store.” Marketing teams are more familiar with eCommerce, as it's likely a huge part of their role at the company.

So if you're selling a business-to-customer store, you offer “an eCommerce store for ordering customizable printed products." If it's business-to-business, it's “an eCommerce website that lets you login to order your company's print collateral.”

During sales and pre-sales, the focus needs to be on two things: getting the audience to be on the same page, and building trust. Start things off with an understandable explanation of what you do, and leave the nitty-gritty details for later on in the sales process. At the end of the day, the goal is to make your solution sound easy to use, and using approachable language is one of the best ways to show that to the client.