Variable Data
- 2. What is Variable Data Printing? A form of on-demand digital printing that produces customized or personalized documents targeted to a specific individual. Within a single document design, elements such as text, graphics and images are changed from one printed page to the next based on recipient information garnered from a database.
- 3. How’s it work? The effectiveness of Variable data printing lies in its ability to communicate to customers on a personal level because it combines the power of databases with digital printing to create customized marketing pieces efficiently and in large quantities. What you have then is mass customization marketing.
- 4. There are two ways to printing Variable Data pieces: A shell is pre-printed in large quantities to gain the efficiencies of full-color offset printing. This shell is then run through an digital press to print the variable elements such as names, addresses and other custom information. The entire finished piece becomes a custom document run on a digital press which can translate into custom colors, graphics and text content in every piece.
- 5. Variable data can essentially be broken down into three levels: Basic Variable Data: this involves changing just the name and address of the piece Version Variable Data: A more detailed level of customization, with text and graphics changing for groups based on marketing segment Full Variable Data: Fully customized pieces change for each individual on the database .
- 6. How Can you Use VDP? Postcards 401K Prospectus Statements Letters Donation Packages Direct Mail Brokerage Account Information Insurance Policies Checks Newsletters Sales Collateral Brochures “ A standard mailing piece, which is generalized for the mass public gets approximately a 2% response rate. When you add Variable Data elements into the mix you boost that number from 2 to 15 times the regular rate. While the rates will vary across different industries and sectors, the general consensus is that Variable Data will 9 out of 10 times produce significantly better rates that age old mass mailings.” – The UPC BUZZ June 23, 2009
- 7. How Can VDP Effect Your Business? DIRECT-MAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS THAT USE PERSONALIZED ONE-TO-ONE COMMUNICATIONS ARE SHOWING ROIS OF 20, 30, EVEN 40 PERCENT. YOUR CAMPAIGN WILL BE MORE COST EFFECTIVE AND SUCCESSFUL, REACHING INDIVIDUALS WITH A PERSONALIZED MESSAGE TO GAIN AND HOLD THEIR INTEREST. - Printing News *Published in Printing News - May 14, 2007 $33 45 1.50% $1,500 $0.50 3,000 Static* $10 300 10% $3,000 $1 3,000 Personalized* Cost per Response No. Responses Response Rate Campaign Cost Cost per Card Number Mailed
- 8. How can a printer Help your Marketing Team? Develop a Clear Marketing Strategy Data Source (lists/text/graphics/images) Design an attractive way to display your offer. Help get your clients to take action. Go to your Website Go to a PURL Make a Phone Call Take a Survey Donate Invest Buy
- 9. Your printer should have: Experience Talented Designers Mail and Fulfillment Capabilities NCOA Processing Kitting Great New Canon Digital Equipment Personalized Websites Available Design the website to match your own then your client orders printed materials and RPM prints on demand and you keep the data for more contact later. On demand Opportunities Competent, Caring Sales Staff Call me today to set up an appointment with a local printer.
- 10. Thank You
Editor's Notes
- #3: Today’s market presents dealers with several challenges. This slide presents a couple of topics for discussion. How is the dealer handling the competitive and pricing pressures, while maximizing revenue? These goals can seem mutually exclusive, but are they really? Solution selling presents an opportunity to change the conversation from one of price versus a competitor to a conversation about the value your dealership can deliver. Solution present an opportunity to differentiate your service offerings while addressing customer pain points and helping them grow their business. From a revenue perspective, solution selling hits your bottom line. Additional revenue from the solution sale (software and/or hardware) Solutions help generate clicks which means increased aftermarket revenue Growing a customer’s volume can present opportunities to place additional units to handle the additional volume Probe the dealership – how do they measure customer satisfaction? Are they tracking how many customers are purchasing from them when their lease is up. How can solutions help increase conversion and repeat purchases? Did your dealership address a key pain point? Did you help them grow their business / meet the customers’ objective? Stickiness of the solution, etc…
- #7: This is based on a customer success story. The customer saw the imagePRESS C7000VP and wanted to upgrade their CLC base. The dealer initially followed the first approach – providing a demo and quote to sell the box. A competitor became engaged in the sales process and changed the game. Rather than focusing on the strengths of the device, the competitor had a very workflow focused pitch. The competitor spent a day on site, talking about how the customer did business and where their pain points were, rather than the features of their device. The pitch was very successful and the Canon dealer now had to answer what their workflow proposal was. The Canon dealer brought in a partner who spent a day on site. They probed the customer about their workflow and proposed an automated solution that addressed the customers’ prepress, production and finishing needs. The Canon dealer ended up winning the bid and placing 2 imagePRESS C7000VP devices + workflow automation software + a nearline finisher. The net revenue between the two proposals is quite different – prompting the question, how much revenue did the dealer nearly leave on the table?
- #8: Key Message: Shift from selling price to selling value. Focus on understanding and solving customer problems to increase conversions of prospects to customer, and retaining/reselling the customers you have. Discuss with the dealer, in their sales process how do they: Help customers maximize productivity and profitability? Eliminate or minimize inefficiencies? Identify manual processes that can be automated? What solution did you recommend? How much did the customer save as a result? Help their customer grow their business? What new revenue streams have they not yet developed? Is a solution like VDP or Web to Print going to enable this? Very satisfied customers have a high propensity to return and buy more.
- #9: Web to print solutions enable print service providers to develop a closer relationship with their customers. These solutions provide print service providers with a brandable, customizable, commercial storefront, or online portal, where customer files can be submitted or jobs can be ordered from existing files, 24/7/365. A print service provider can utilize a web to print solution to implement and manage a digital collateral strategy – where commonly printed collateral, such as business cards or stationary, can be stored and customized for the end user’s needs. By placing all of the templates for these pieces in a common place, the customer can maintain tighter control over what is printed, where it is printed and the look and feel of all collateral and how its brand is presented. The print service provider benefits by becoming the centralized source for printing of all these materials (rather than distributed across multiple printers / multiple locations). The imagePRESS Workflow Solution program incorporates web to print solutions from EFI (Digital StoreFront) and Printable Technologies (FusionPro Web). Variable data printing solutions are key drivers of digital presses. These solutions provide print service providers with a valuable tool for helping their customers achieve their marketing objectives. By customizing and personalizing printed pieces, the relevancy of the piece to the end user increases, which increases the likelihood that the user will respond to the call to action. Since customers may have different design workflows and requirements, imagePRESS Workflow Solutions contains several leading VDP solutions to help meeting each customers’ needs. PrintShop Mail from Objectif Lune (formerly Atlas Software) DesignMerge from Meadows Publishing Solutions Pageflex Persona Cross Media Suite Objectif Lune Planet Press Cross media campaigns are multi-channel marketing campaigns that are designed to communicate with the recipient through print, email and web based campaigns. These campaigns are a complement to variable data printing (VDP) campaigns, as they utilize the customer’s database to deliver relevant, targeted messages to the end customer. For example, a travel agency could send a personalized travel brochure to a prospective customer. The brochure could be personalized utilizing a VDP application and made relevant to the end user (i.e. sending Caribbean travel offers to recently engaged couples who are investing honeymoon destinations). In addition to the printed piece, an HTML email could be sent to the prospective customer. The printed brochure and/or the HTML email could contain a Personalized URL (PURL). The PURL is a unique website that is personalized to the recipient and can be tied to the call to action (i.e. www.joecustomer.prometheustravel.com could take the user to a website where they could schedule an appointment with a travel consultant who could help them make their reservation or it could take them to a form the user could fill out to have someone from the agency contact them). imagePRESS Workflow Solutions contains several leading cross media solutions. Persona Cross Media Suite – in addition to creating the personalized printed piece, Persona can be used for creating HTML emails. Persona also has PURL technology built in. MindFire – is a company that specializes in PURL technology. MindFire’s LookWho’sClicking can be used to create PURLs that can be utilized in conjunction with any VDP application (including PrintShop Mail, DesignMerge and Persona Cross Media Suite). MindFire helps the print service provider create the website (microsite) and provides a dashboard for customers to log-in to and see how many people have gone to their personalized URL. The website development and ROI tracking represent new revenue generating services that print service providers can offer to their customers.
- #10: Web to print solutions enable print service providers to develop a closer relationship with their customers. These solutions provide print service providers with a brandable, customizable, commercial storefront, or online portal, where customer files can be submitted or jobs can be ordered from existing files, 24/7/365. A print service provider can utilize a web to print solution to implement and manage a digital collateral strategy – where commonly printed collateral, such as business cards or stationary, can be stored and customized for the end user’s needs. By placing all of the templates for these pieces in a common place, the customer can maintain tighter control over what is printed, where it is printed and the look and feel of all collateral and how its brand is presented. The print service provider benefits by becoming the centralized source for printing of all these materials (rather than distributed across multiple printers / multiple locations). The imagePRESS Workflow Solution program incorporates web to print solutions from EFI (Digital StoreFront) and Printable Technologies (FusionPro Web). Variable data printing solutions are key drivers of digital presses. These solutions provide print service providers with a valuable tool for helping their customers achieve their marketing objectives. By customizing and personalizing printed pieces, the relevancy of the piece to the end user increases, which increases the likelihood that the user will respond to the call to action. Since customers may have different design workflows and requirements, imagePRESS Workflow Solutions contains several leading VDP solutions to help meeting each customers’ needs. PrintShop Mail from Objectif Lune (formerly Atlas Software) DesignMerge from Meadows Publishing Solutions Pageflex Persona Cross Media Suite Objectif Lune Planet Press Cross media campaigns are multi-channel marketing campaigns that are designed to communicate with the recipient through print, email and web based campaigns. These campaigns are a complement to variable data printing (VDP) campaigns, as they utilize the customer’s database to deliver relevant, targeted messages to the end customer. For example, a travel agency could send a personalized travel brochure to a prospective customer. The brochure could be personalized utilizing a VDP application and made relevant to the end user (i.e. sending Caribbean travel offers to recently engaged couples who are investing honeymoon destinations). In addition to the printed piece, an HTML email could be sent to the prospective customer. The printed brochure and/or the HTML email could contain a Personalized URL (PURL). The PURL is a unique website that is personalized to the recipient and can be tied to the call to action (i.e. www.joecustomer.prometheustravel.com could take the user to a website where they could schedule an appointment with a travel consultant who could help them make their reservation or it could take them to a form the user could fill out to have someone from the agency contact them). imagePRESS Workflow Solutions contains several leading cross media solutions. Persona Cross Media Suite – in addition to creating the personalized printed piece, Persona can be used for creating HTML emails. Persona also has PURL technology built in. MindFire – is a company that specializes in PURL technology. MindFire’s LookWho’sClicking can be used to create PURLs that can be utilized in conjunction with any VDP application (including PrintShop Mail, DesignMerge and Persona Cross Media Suite). MindFire helps the print service provider create the website (microsite) and provides a dashboard for customers to log-in to and see how many people have gone to their personalized URL. The website development and ROI tracking represent new revenue generating services that print service providers can offer to their customers.