We live in an online world, right? There’s no need any longer to even consider printing in any format as everything is done through the internet. Email, social media, e-commerce. It’s all online so digital printing is basically on the way towards extinction right?

Digital printing is actually on the rise with a CAGR of 6.7% through 2026. The market has only recently slowed down, and that is directly attributed to the pandemic, which has slowed down many businesses covering a variety of industries. Yet digital printing is on the rise now more than ever, and that is thanks to several factors.

Technological improvements.

How we assimilate and connect data has been made easier now more than ever before. It is easy to connect our systems together, and this has not been lost on the digital printing industry at all. It is easy for businesses to create content and imagery, and send it off to digital printing services companies, who will be able to print the exact analog representation on a variety of formats.

It helps to provide short on-demand printing services that used to take a lot of back and forth when now it can be simply initiated via an email or even a workflow process.

The Mediums Available are Extensive.

As a marketing tool, digital printing services provide one of the best benefits. They are able to offer businesses of all shapes and sizes the opportunities to provide unique printing services that will help these businesses stand out from the competition. By providing designs, logos and color palettes, these digital printing services will be able to provide this imagery on a variety of objects that can be served for marketing services.

Besides placing your company brand on a business card, you can easily expand this to pens, calendars, clothing and even cups. These are great for new employees during their onboarding process, or at marketing and corporate events to help represent the brand, or even expand into the merchandising side of the business, and create a completely new sales channel.

It helps build up brand loyalty both internally and externally, in a simple and cost-effective manner. It also works for small to medium-sized businesses as a way to help with corporate branding at the early stages of a company. There’s nothing more powerful than being able to see your employees in full company gear, representing the brand that you worked so hard to build out.

The quality and efficiency are superb.

Digital printing services are the best option for businesses that want to experiment with different branding and logos because of the ability to use the full-color spectrum and produce the best quality possible.  It can take the best digital images available at the highest resolutions, and easily convert that to a physical print medium, and is actually much more cost-effective for smaller print runs.

This is also a highly adjustable industry which means that you can try a variety of print runs and designs to get the best look and feel for the type of branding you want to offer. You are not stuck with having only one decision and design and needing to stick with it due to the high cost to produce. Instead, the experimentation allows you to shift and adjust to get the perfect fit that you need.

Printing continues to be in demand.

There’s no slowing down as there’s room for both digital marketing and physical marketing. People do business with people and the best type of business is usually done in person. This type of business is slowly starting to open up again, and was showing no signs of slowing down pre-pandemic.

The business card itself is now more prominent than ever and continues to be used when there were skeptics that felt social media sites would eventually replace them. It is the first communication offered in many cultures when first meeting someone, and having the right quality and design on it can be essential to building and fostering that business relationship.

Another major demand is during internal corporate events and training, where a lot of the information in the training can be easily accessed by beautifully designed corporate training manuals and exercises. Many specialists still hold on to their physical copy training materials, as it is always within an arm’s length of them to quickly access when needed.

Another critical area is at conventions and large-scale events, where it’s all about getting your brand and company to be the loudest at these events so prospective vendors and buyers remember who you are. It’s important that after a conversation with a potential new business partner, they have something that can be taken away besides a business card. A tote bag with the company logo emblazoned on the side, or a beautifully crafted physical informational packet for them to review on their flight home.

Your main business model

You might be a talented artist and simply want a way to be able to sell your designs online. Maybe you have a fantastic idea for an amazing image on a tee-shirt that you want to sell online in your e-commerce store or marketplace. Using digital printing services can help you get prototypes ready quickly to see what your design looks like out in the real world. You can then easily make adjustments and different variations of the design until you are ready to go into mass production.

Or maybe you are in the events or wedding planner industry, and you need to ensure that not only do you provide excellent event management skills but that you also want to offer exceptional print materials for the event. This is a great way to partner with local digital printing services that will only further enhance your business and its existing offering.

Some thoughts to keep in mind.

As a business owner of any size, digital printing services are a must. They are a great tool for getting the word out about your business in a variety of formats or being your main tool in expanding your existing business. It’s always a good idea to work with digital printing service providers externally, as they have fronted the initial costs for their specialized equipment.

This allows for you to keep your costs low, and to utilize these services on an ad hoc basis. Remember, since these digital printing services are able to print on almost anything from paper to fabric to porcelain, you can only imagine how expensive the printing equipment can be.

Keep in mind, that not all digital printing services are the same, so it’s always a good idea to look for one that provides the type of quality to cost ratio that you are looking for. Don’t be afraid to do a test run of flyers or handouts for your physical store or office, or to have them do identical business card print runs and see which one offers a better quality of service.

Since you’re going to be working with one of these digital printing services, in the long run, take the extra time and resources to ensure that you have found the right type of partner to handle this, especially for those that are using it as the main form of their business, or as an additional service to their existing business.