05.12.2015
CHILI Publish, a new sponsor of the PODI AppForum, is hosting “Maximizing the Value of Print: Offering Marketing Solutions Instead of Print Services,” an AppForum session presented by CHILI Publish’s NYC-based Pre-Sales Engineer, Jeff Cheal. Conference attendees will learn how integrating CHILI Publisher makes it possible for printers to more easily offer in-demand marketing solutions. Cheal’s presentation is scheduled to take place at 1:30 pm on Wednesday, May 13 at the PODI AppForum, being held May 11-13 at Harrah’s, Las Vegas.
Printers as Marketing Partners
Printers who count themselves among the earliest adopters of digital printing have been their customers’ marketing partners for years. In fact, pre-media divisions of the largest commercial printers began working with multiple media over 10 years ago.
Today, printers of any size can provide marketing services to customers. Learning the different ways their peers have done it, as they will during this session, is an important first step.
CHILI Publisher’s Exclusive Advantages
Two CHILI Publisher developments give printers important advantages in bringing marketing services in-house:
Infinite API opportunity via support for any standard communication protocol, including XML, SOAP, FTP, email, and TCP.
Advanced (3D) visualization functionality, permitting operators and other stakeholders – especially customers/brand owners — to see precisely how jobs are setup, with full 360 previews and accurately simulated folding/unfolding routines, when warranted. An additional, essential result is the confidence derived from being able to “see” the end product.
Keeping Direct Marketing and Web2Print In-House
Two of the most popular, high-ROI marketing solutions are now available to in-house and commercial print shops through the use of CHILI Publisher: Direct Marketing and Web2Print.
Direct Marketing
“Generally, the more personalized a promotion is, the more successful it is,” Cheal says (1). He goes on to explain that printers who are, or could be, comfortable with databases and marketing automation and analysis tools don’t need a third party to execute high performance, direct campaigns.
“That’s a huge swipe at the cost, right off the top,” he says.
“CHILI Publisher can interact with databases and marketing automation applications so that even a novice can pull data to match campaigns. There’s no need to wait for an expensive, third party provider to ‘redesign’ a job and setup the data pull,” Cheal explains. CHILI Publish says that any brand owner or printer who has the necessary artwork and access to relevant databases is “all set” to run the direct campaigns, whether print or electronic, on their own.
The significantly lower overhead of keeping the job in-house, combined with the ability to adjust and run tailored follow-up campaigns as quickly as desired, makes CHILI Publisher a ‘no-brainer’, profit-producing solution for the industry.
Web2Print
The application for which many distinguished vendors have partnered with CHILI Publish is Web2Print. For brand owners, printers, and in-house plants that have their own DAMs and creatives, setting up a Web2Print operation can be accomplished in a variety of ways; from hiring independent coders to integrating specialized applications, such as Magento e-commerce, or going full steam ahead with a complete solution from a third party.
Although they are not necessary, turnkey Web2Print solutions are also supported. “There is a place for turnkey solutions,” Cheal says, “such as with major, multi-product and international brands who typically have their assets held by third parties at numerous locations around the world.
“However, a printer that can produce, or outsource and drop ship, any format material – on any substrate – or via electronic display or outdoor promotion – can also control their Web2Print communications, directly,” Cheal says. “Many are already storing client assets, and so in many cases it just makes sense to keep everything inside.”
Time and cost savings when incorporating some or all of W2P include: easy access to templates, templates available in multiple formats: and the ability of the end-user to have immediate access, so there is no need to wait for people, or for involvement from the service provider.
Also, if the UI / User experience of the end-user application is easily adapted, there is close to no need for training.
Another added benefit is the ease of template creation whereas, instead of having several templates for several formats; a single CHILI Publisher document can maintain several sizes and formats. As a result, the process of creating (with CHILI Publisher, multi-use) templates is much faster.
Similarly, if the end-user application includes approval flows, there is — again — less interaction with people on the service side, and therefore faster turnarounds.
Finally, in terms of relationships and customer retention, the “inside” W2P gives stakeholders control over their jobs. The fact that there is a GUI for document editing, online, gives owners and their production partners the feeling of control. Even if the templates only allow so much variation, the experience is significantly better than, for instance, form driven data entry, which results in generated PDFs.
Spotlighted customer case studies will include Suttle Straus and My Creative Shop.
What is CHILI Publisher?
CHILI Publisher is an online document creation and editing solution that integrates seamlessly and transparently within a wide range of workflows and production platforms. It was built on four core principles: flexibility, open architecture, consistency across systems and platforms, and a browser-based interface.
CHILI Publisher provides powerful editing capabilities and comes with an extensive feature set that, until now, was only available in dedicated publishing applications. 3D visualization — with animation — of packaging, the folding process, and any novel products — gives the viewer the ability to view files from all angles. Animation support simulates real-life use and viewing of jobs, such as folding maps and opening complex boxes.
System integrators can choose how to incorporate CHILI Publisher into their workflows, whether for web-to-print, magazine publishing, packaging, brand management, yearbook applications, or others. CHILI Publisher is embedded within the application and is fully customizable to each end user’s needs.
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