Are You Talking To Me?

How to Use variable data printing to connect with consumers

By Kevin McKay – Director, Client Strategy kevin@TheAdvertisingCompany.net

No seriously.  Is your marketing message talking at the consumer or to them?  With the advent of digital printing you had better be able to answer that question quickly, before your competitors do.

Mr. Gutenberg would have been proud of today’s one-to-one marketers. Not because their insightful, witty and generic direct marketing (DM) campaigns generate tremendous results, but rather because these expensive campaigns keep those commercial presses humming. 

We produce billions of direct mail pieces every year in the hopes of capturing that elusive two percent response rate. And when we don’t hit two or even one percent what do we do? It’s back on press with another massive print run which usually ends up, on average, in our target’s garbage can 1.7 seconds after they receive the direct mail piece in their hot little hands.

Said another way we, as marketers, have accepted a 98% failure rate with such great regularity and apathy that we are forgetting what a really successfully direct campaign looks likes. But the biggest crime lies within the fact that mass direct marketers create generic product/service messages in the hopes that a wide enough net catches enough people to justify to the cost.  

Well hold the phone, stop the presses, move over Mr. Gutenberg…there’s a new game in town and this kid is quickly becoming a direct marketer’s best friend. The digital printing process has now given rise to variable data printing (VDP), also referred to as variable digital printing, and is producing direct response rates as much as 500 times higher than traditional methods.  

In its simplest form, VDP enables basic customer data such as first and last name, company name, and title to be taken from any database program, such as Excel, and incorporated directly into the printed piece while on press.  Each piece of collateral is unique, personalized and in full color.

Industry experts Peppers & Rogers ask; “If you could use the details about each customer’s preferences and characteristics to provide better products/services how would you deliver the marketing message?”

The ultimate goal in the execution of any DM campaign is to make every piece personal, relevant and timely. In other words, you need to talk to your customers, on their terms, with information they want and when they want it. This highly personalized approach will deliver effective campaigns that generate significant response rates, lower costs per lead, and greater customer retention, to name a few of VDP’s benefits.

One of the founding fathers of direct, Mr. Lester Wunderman, Chairman Emeritus of the DM agency that bares his name, calls this new revolution ‘personal marketing’, which is one step beyond one-to-one marketing, where you talk about the consumer, not the product.

The more time you take to know your customer demographics, buying patterns, buy windows and preferences, the better your response rates will be.

Three factors must exist in order to execute a successful variable direct campaign. These are; 

1. Accurate customer data
2. Compelling offer or call to action
3. Killer creative: (successfully combines key target data and product/service attributes into imagery and messaging that resonate with the target audience).   

Commercial printers using variable printing equipment (manufactured by Xerox, HP/Indigo, NexPress, to name a few) and the marketing agencies that develop these campaigns, regularly top 20%-35% and in some case studies better than 50%! 

As purveyors that specialize in the art of DM we have duped ourselves into believing that blowing our marketing budgets on impersonal mass marketing campaigns that generate a two percent response rate is good enough. But that’s just not the case.  Today’s customer is smarter, better informed, and even a little cynical of our generic double talk. 

As a man who is gracefully losing his hair, have you ever received a huge discount from a fancy new shampoo and conditioner company?  As a dog owner, don’t you just love receiving all those cute little cat food sample backs?  Or as a parent of a young struggling university student, how does it feel to discover your child just received a pre-approved credit card in the mail?  

With personalization you can make every marketing dollar count. You can maximize your return on investment. You now possess a truly competitive edge over your mass marketing competitors.

Today’s digital printing companies are getting even smarter. Going forward, successful companies will deliver variable data print solutions and content management systems via the web. Simply arrive at your online variable print supplier of choice and start creating your very own highly targeted and personalized one-to-one direct marketing campaign that speaks directly to your customers.  And you can automate it!

Now you’re talking…to me!