What do you get when you mix direct mail, personalized URLs, email and variable data printing?
Answer: our newest video below.
Late last year we fully executed a lead gen campaign for a client and it was both fun and successful. We went ahead and dissected the program in this 5 minute video:
Note: if you would like to speak to us about creating a similar program for your marketing efforts, please email Ryan or call him at (973) 305-1500 ext. 206.
Personalized printing with variable data and personal URLs is getting more and more popular, especially since the prices are coming down and the quality is going up.
As a result, we thought it would make for a good post today to recap an article that was in the DM News not too long ago called “Get Personal With Print Marketing”.
Four experts were asked for their advice on how to take advantage of personalized print marketing. What follows is a quick summary of all four.
1. John Foley’s Takeaway
Maintain a customized print conversation with your customers. Mr. Foley talks about integrated marketing and how effective it can be to set up a campaign that includes a personalized mailer, personal URLs and then a follow up mailer based on how they answered certain questions on the PURL.
2. Chris Ryan’s Takeaway
The right trigger techniques make for highly effective personalization programs. Mr. Ryan talks about using time-sensitive “trigger” mailings that coincide with specific periods in a person’s life. For example, sending home-related coupons to new homeowners, or sending an investment-related mailer to a newly retired couple.
3. John Berger’s Takeaway
Successful personalization relies on information used responsibly by marketers. Mr. Berger stresses the importance of marketers protecting the privacy of their customers. He says you want to use the information you collect on them to personalize your offers, but not so much so that the customer feels their privacy has been violated.
4. Anna Chagnon’s Takeaway
More marketers are integrating software with production workflow systems. Ms. Chagnon points out how variable data software makes personalization easier. You create one template if you wish for your mailers and all your campaigns are fueled by this one shell. She also mentions the growing popularity of Web-to-print storefronts.
5. Ballantine’s Takeaway
We think certain industries are prime candidates for personalized variable data printing and should definitely consider creating a test campaign if budgets allow. These industries – to name a few – include retail, hospitality and auto.
These types of industries generally collect a great deal of information about their customers and can thus personalize their mailings with pinpoint accuracy. And they also thrive on customer relationship-building…which relevant offers help cultivate.
We have one retail client that holds regular events with various “themes”. We send out weekly variable data self-mailers for them and the images on the mail piece correspond with the event that the customer attended.
There’s a new service created by the National Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation and the Ecology Center that lets consumers specify which catalogs they wish NOT to receive. Over 20,000 people have already signed up.
Clearly the reasoning behind this new service is purely environmental.
We see 3 things happening as a result of this…especially with the recent postage increase:
Variable data printed catalogs will grow in popularity. A lower volume of catalogs will be sent out with less pages, but extremely targeted based on the individual’s purchase history or demographics.
Maybe #1 seems like a stretch, but what will definitely happen is catalogers will get smarter about how they market and who they market to.
More focus will be put on driving traffic to the cataloger’s website including search engine optimization and paid search.
And we also think more and more catalogers will start using recycled and certified virgin paper, and become more environment-conscious. This will likely happen within the industry as a whole because it’s becoming more and more important to consumers.
When it comes down to it, all of this is positive for the industry. Less paper wasted, more targeted offers and smarter marketing.
