Marketing departments are tasked with producing high-quality, visually compelling materials at a rapid pace. This means more than just crafting a compelling message—it also involves the effective execution of printed materials that embody your brand’s vision. While many businesses outsource their print jobs, adding a production printer to your marketing department can significantly elevate your marketing efforts, streamline workflows, and reduce costs.
Production printers are specialized printing devices designed for high-volume printing tasks. These machines can process a variety of media types and maintain color consistency, making them ideal for marketing departments that rely heavily on high-quality printed collateral, from brochures and flyers to direct mail campaigns.
“Larger organizations or those that are seeing the demands on their marketing team grow should consider the benefits of having a production-level printer in-house,” said Tracey Armstrong, Vice President of Marketing, EO Johnson Business Technologies.
Let’s take a closer look at those benefits.
One of the primary advantages of using production printers is cost efficiency. While the initial investment may seem significant, the long-term savings can be substantial for marketing departments that produce large volumes of printed materials. By having an in-house option and only using an outsourced printer for their most complicated projects, businesses can reduce costs associated with third-party print services. Eliminating setup fees, rush charges, and shipping costs can be significant. Additionally, production printers allow for print-on-demand capabilities, reducing waste from print minimums and ensuring that you only print what you need when you need it.
Maintaining your brand identity across all printed materials is critical for marketing success. Whether it’s color accuracy, font usage, or design layout, the materials you produce need to reflect your brand’s identity consistently.
A production printer allows your marketing team to handle more of your printing needs in-house, ensuring that every piece of printed material aligns with your brand standards. With color management and high-resolution print capabilities, production printers enable your team to maintain uniformity across a wide range of materials, from business cards to large banners.
Having a production printer on-site also allows for real-time proofing and adjustments. This level of control ensures that your team can make immediate corrections, reducing costly reprints or delays.
Marketing is often driven by deadlines. Whether it’s a last-minute campaign or an unexpected opportunity that requires quick action, having access to a production-level printer can make a huge difference in turnaround time. Production printers are engineered for speed and efficiency, capable of printing hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces per hour.
Without needing to rely on external vendors or shipping times, your marketing team can produce materials on-demand, react quickly to market changes, and meet tight deadlines more easily. Whether it’s printing sales brochures for a trade show or last-minute promotional materials for a new product launch, the ability to produce professional-quality prints in-house gives your team a competitive edge.
Marketing is, at its core, a creative endeavor. A production printer expands your team’s creative freedom by allowing them to experiment with different formats, media types, and finishes. Whether it's considering textured paper for a brochure or printing on unique substrates like vinyl, your team can try various approaches and refine them until they find the best fit.
This flexibility is particularly useful during the concept and testing phases of a marketing campaign. Instead of sending proofs back and forth with a print vendor and waiting days for each revision, your team can print multiple versions of materials quickly and test them immediately.
Internal marketing teams often support the needs of many other departments within an organization, including human resources, packaging, sales, and service. By bringing some of the production printing capabilities in-house, your team regains greater control over the creative process and production schedule, allowing for a more streamlined process.
“Marketing departments are pulled in a lot of directions with changing deadlines,” said Tracey Armstrong, Vice President of Marketing, EO Johnson Business Technologies. “We balance resources, cost, and efficiency by printing some of our materials in-house, while also knowing when it makes sense to get a commercial printer involved with more complex projects.”
Investing in a production printer not only boosts productivity but also empowers your marketing team to execute their creative vision with greater control, flexibility, and precision. By balancing internal printing with outsourcing capabilities, you can create a more efficient workflow and elevate your marketing efforts to new heights.
The EO Johnson production print experts will meet with your marketing team to understand your print needs and find the best production printer to add efficiency and creativity to your marketing campaigns. Let’s connect on an analysis of your marketing department needs.