1:1 Marketing – Variable Data Printing

June 09, 2007

You have likely been bombarded with terms like “direct marketing”, “VDP” and “1:1”. What does all this mean to you? How can you capitalize on this latest evolution of marketing? The following section provides a brief overview of Variable Data Printing on Hemlock’s Indigo 5000 digital press.

Variable Data Printing (VDP) Campaigns
With the Indigo’s digital and variable technology, each printed impression can have unique text copy and images. By customizing, or targeting your marketing piece to an individual or group segment, the appeal to that individual/group is on a personal level.

This customized/personalized appeal will connect you and your communication piece to the recipient more effectively than a generic form communication would. The outcome is an increased likelihood that the communication piece will be reviewed by the recipient and the call to action completed.

Integrated Marketing (marketing consistent with other channels) in real-time, targeted and with a high rate of return, is the new marketing mantra. Return on investment (ROI) has become a high priority for marketing and advertising organizations.  Marketing and advertising budgets are increasingly coming under scrutiny as technology advances in the age of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), with its one-to-one contact philosophy and the proliferation of marketing via the Internet. Traditional forms of advertising and marketing are seen to be costly and often generate lower returns than targeted marketing.

In creating a customized/personalized piece, the necessity for mass print runs is eliminated. This is because your prospect universe has been targeted and segmented to those with a higher propensity to respond to your call to action. This saves you money on printing costs, but also results in a substantial decrease in consumption of paper that could potentially end up being recycled or put into landfill.

The following terms are frequently used in the world of variable data printing and 1:1 marketing.

Call to action: Copy that encourages the reader to respond and provides clear details on how to respond (i.e. by mail, phone, website, fax) and the expiry date for response.

Customer base: Those individuals and companies that you regard as your primary market.

Customer profile: A statistical picture of the typical buyer of your product as drawn from purchasing records and other market research sources.

Direct response advertising: Advertising, through any medium (such as mail, TV, print) designed to generate a response by any means that is measurable.

Market penetration: The proportion of buyers on a file to the total list or to the total area. For business lists, penetration is usually analyzed by two-digit or four-digit SIC.

Matrix: Model relating marketing strategy to general strategic direction. It maps out which segments will receive what direct mail piece and all the components that are to be included within each piece.

Personalized letter: A standard format letter that can have variable information by inserting the receiver’s name, location, prior purchases or other data.

Response rate: A method of quantifying the success ratio of a mailing based on the number of sales or inquiries vs. the number of promotion pieces mailed. Normally stated as a percentage (i.e. total inquiries divided by total mailing quantity).

Retention: Communication with existing customers, based on customer behaviour, directly aimed at building long-term loyalty.

Return on investment (ROI): Determined by a basic formula, measures how effectively the marketing investment is used to generate net profit from an activity.

Segmenting: Division of a mailing list by some internally established criteria – city, province, postal code, company size, prospect titles, etc.

Selection criteria: Definition of characteristics that identify segments or subgroups within a list.

Target market: The ideal audience for a mailing effort. Usually defined in psychographic and demographic terms.