Crowdfunding or marketing departments are looking for a fulfillment partner who can understand their marketing needs, help maintain their brand, bring creative reward items, and most importantly, have the expertise. Many fulfillment companies are equipped to handle transaction mail, but lack the experience in print marketing. On the other hand, companies skilled in printing t-shirts or gifts lack a complete compliance solution.
A compliance organization should have the following expertise if they are looking to comply with crowdfunders. Things to look for in an above average fulfillment house:
- Dedicated Graphic Design Team: Good design is an essential part of your business presentation and governs your marketing. A fulfillment house that has a dedicated graphics team can provide constructive insight into your print item and give insight into what would print effectively. A good graphics team could make sure that a particular font or text size prints correctly, or catch simple spelling or grammatical errors. These simple fixes could save an organization from costly mistakes. A dedicated graphics team can preflight the artwork and also if the artwork is set to the correct template. Also, a proper filing system to ensure files are available for future print runs if needed and future iterations should look the same as the first print run.
- On-site T-shirt production: Custom printed t-shirts are not only important giveaways, but are also used by organizations to raise additional money. A custom printed t-shirt offered for sale either to raise money for charity or an artist selling t-shirts to their fan base; these custom printed shirts need to be produced profitably. Most custom t-shirt printers do custom print-on-demand t-shirts, which is expensive and does not help the organization to raise money effectively. A good fulfillment house should have the ability to produce custom printed t-shirts on site so that the t-shirts can be printed with lower cost and faster turnaround time.
- Promotional Printing: Good fulfillment must have a good printing department. Catalogs, brochures, information and sample packs, branded prizes, and coupons are common examples of print items used to promote a product or business. A promotional fulfillment program could be a one-time event or an ongoing campaign. Additionally, promotional fulfillment could be targeted at potential new customers and/or existing customers. Other popular items distributed through print fulfillment programs include educational materials, repair and training manuals, sheet music, calendars…basically any printed item offered to consumers can be part of a print fulfillment program. A print-capable compliance department to help support these marketing initiatives.
There is great value here in a partner who has made the investments and connections to seamlessly handle your future needs. The right fulfillment partner can do more than just pick up and ship.