The phrase “one-stop shop” is a good way to describe Spectra’s print and distribution division. While brand new clients of ours are usually surprised to discover just how much we can do for them in the area of print, those clients quickly get accustomed to the idea that they can truly bring all of their print needs to us and get fantastic results.

As an illustration, here is a case study about a long and successful relationship that Spectra has had with a client whose print needs are more complex, wide-ranging, and intricate than most. As you’ll see, this relationship involves a lot of individual projects, each with its own unique features. See how we’ve fulfilled this client’s expectations over the years and how we can do the same for your organization.

A Client With Multifaceted Needs

When the client featured in our case study first began talking with us, we knew right away that partnering with them would demand all of the skills that Spectra’s print and distribution team has to offer. While some of our print clients simply need us to handle a recurring, predictable project, this was not one of those clients! 

As a full service marketing agency serving the entire Southeast, this organization was looking for a service provider that could enable them to offer their clients high quality printed materials of all kinds. As they built a marketing strategy for each individual client based on their industry, their customer base, and the style of advertising best suited to their needs, they needed to include in that strategy a variety of printed collateral as well as specialty promotional products, which Spectra would create for them.

Key Feature: Dependability

Working with the marketing agency to provide printed products for their clients meant that Spectra would have to display one feature more than any other: dependability. If a miscommunication, delay, or printing issue on our side resulted in unusable materials, the end user would view our client, the marketing agency, as responsible. As our partnership was launched, this created a great deal of pressure on Spectra to deliver high quality, on-time results for each project. 

Over time, project managers at the marketing agency recognized that the processes and expert team members at Spectra were more than capable of receiving orders, setting up print processes, and getting the finished product to them as expected, even with their most complicated requests. This dependability has been the major factor in keeping a great relationship with this large-scale client going for over a decade.

Success With Complex Projects

While many of the marketing agency’s projects are focused on what most people would consider “normal” printed advertising materials, like brochures, catalogs, flyers, mailers, and postcards, they also frequently need specialized products that aren’t nearly as straightforward. Promotional products are a significant component of their offerings, so they often need to place orders for t-shirts, pens, hats, and other items with company logos or branding printed on them. 

Large format printing is another category that Spectra handles for this client. Special events such as product launches, trade show appearances, and conference booths need large banners and signage, as well as table coverings and other materials to grab attention as people walk by. It’s very important that these materials be high quality and that the colors and logos perfectly match the approved branding specifications.

One of the advantages our client has appreciated over the years of their partnership with us is the ability to simply pass on a list of varied print needs to their representative here at Spectra and have everything handled quickly and in an expert manner. A busy project manager doesn’t need to find three different service providers for three different printed products; instead, they hand everything off to Spectra and relax, knowing that when the order is fulfilled it will contain exactly what they need.

Proposal Support

For a marketing agency, the proposal stage is a critical one in its relationship with a client. That’s when an account manager presents the client with the ideas, samples, and proofs to show what they plan to do to promote the client’s business or services to the world. Printed materials are a big part of the proposal, so the marketing agency needed to be able to obtain those materials from Spectra to share with prospective clients. They may be actual physical printed samples, or full color PDFs shared digitally to demonstrate the quality that the client can expect when they contract with the agency.

Spectra’s agility and digital print capabilities allow our team to quickly work up samples and proofs of these proposal materials, getting printed collateral to account managers that they are excited to share with prospective clients. The efficiency of this process and the knowledge the Spectra team has about the print industry are key factors that help our client make the most of their opportunities for new business.

Online Storefronts

A final consideration that this client finds valuable is Spectra’s expertise in building and maintaining online platforms. Some of these are online storefronts, where end users can order promotional products and printed materials that are fulfilled by Spectra, and others are dashboards used for communication with both B2B and B2C customers. With multiple clients to work with, each with their own set of needs and products to choose from, Spectra’s online platforms are a powerful tool that a marketing agency can implement easily. The easier it is for customers to find and order printed materials, the more they will make use of them and the stronger their relationship with the marketing agency will become.

This case study illustrates how Spectra’s team is able to assess the widely varying print and distribution needs of a large marketing agency, then fill those needs on a one-stop shop basis for the long term. We want to hear about your organization as well! Schedule a consultation to learn about the digital print, binding, finishing, mailing, and distribution services that Spectra can use to power your business’s growth.