Discover how variable data printing can boost engagement with the direct marketing your customers do, and boost their ROI too.
Cast your mind back a decade, and you might remember reaching for a bottle of Coke in the store fridge and finding that the ‘Coke’ branding had been replaced by a person’s name. You might have searched for a bottle with your own name. Perhaps you bought a bottle for someone you know with their name on it. Lots of people did. The ‘share a Coke with…’ campaign was one of the most successful consumer advertising campaigns of the century – and it was made possible by variable data printing, enabling Coke to target the top names in each of its core markets.
What is variable data printing?
It’s all about percentages. When your customers send out a piece of direct mail to tell their target audience about a new service they’re offering, a certain (usually small) percentage will open it.
But every time they up the level of personalisation, they increase the relevance of the mailer to the recipient, and increase the percentage of people who’ll engage with what they receive.
Variable data printing services enable businesses to vary virtually anything – names, content, imagery, offers, design – using data to tailor the marketing material produced, so it increases its chances of making an impact with every individual – just like the Coke campaign.
Does variable data printing work?
Yes. Some studies have shown that up to 90% of direct mail gets opened. Once opened, of course, a mailer still has a job to do in terms of getting the recipient to act. This is where printing variable data comes in – typically delivering engagement 3x that of a non-personalised campaign.
Better still, taking advantage of variable data printing services can help your clients reduce marketing costs while upping ROI. When every campaign is targeted and personalised, customers can focus their marketing, reduce spend, and avoid the need to distribute thousands of un-targeted mailers in the hope that 1% of them will bring new clients.
This ability to target (and reduce costs while upping results) can be a powerful tool to drive new and repeat business in your print shop.
Variable data printing services for business
So how can this work in a B2B environment? It’s a matter of hooking up each element to create marketing that really delivers.
1. The data
Inevitably, printing variable data takes, well, data. That might be simple demographic or geographic data – a target’s address could help customise a brochure or mailer with details of a local account manager or locally inspired imagery.
But it could also be purchase data. Where, for example, a customer’s service plan is coming up for renewal, variable data printing enables your clients to use specific details of their customers’ plans to drive the urgency of the message.
2. The product
The personalisation that comes from printing variable data can influence the products created. For example, when a client has data about a customer’s buying habits over the past three years, you can use it to create a slimline catalogue with those and related products, so the client cuts print costs and increases the likelihood that the catalogue will be used.
And because data enables them to print less, they may be able to afford to print better – sending each client a premium product that encourages even greater engagement.
When talking to clients about the right products to send (fliers, brochures, catalogues etc) it’s a good idea to start with the data held on customers, and then consider how that can shape a smarter, more targeted product.
3. The content
The right message delivered in the right way at the right time – it’s the simple, powerful aim of all marketing. The right data and product can lay the groundwork for an engaging campaign, but there still needs to be a valuable message attached. That might be an offer. It could be a new product that will help a customer boost productivity.
But whatever the details, every campaign still needs a call to action – it’s the essential nudge that tells a reader what to do next (e.g. call, scan the QR code to connect etc)
4. The rules
The data provides information about the targets of any campaign, but it’s the rules of the campaign that determine how that data is used. Essentially, this is about establishing who receives what.
Your variable data printing software should help you with this.
How to offer variable data printing services
Variable data printing requires printers and clients to work closely together.
First, the client needs to have the right data, in the right format. They’ll need to share that with you. They’ll need to provide the content and design, together with the variables that may need to be switched in/out. And they’ll need to set the rules for distribution.
Sophisticated software can make printing variable data relatively simple for the experienced printer. Then, you just need great print materials to make the campaign pop. For that, talk to Soyang.
