WHY VARIABLE DATA PRINTING REMAINS AN ESSENTIAL VALUE-ADDED SERVICE

CUSTOMER CENTRICITY POWERED BY VARIABLE DATA PRINTING As more and more companies talk about focusing on the individual customer, many print service providers have evolved into marketing solutions providers to support the complex level of personalization clients now require. For print service providers this has meant an expansion of their services offerings, but also an opportunity to partner more closely with clients than ever before.

There’s no doubt that the last two decades have seen an increasing proportion of communications shift from analog to digital formats. Many factors help explain this rapid migration including:

• Over 45% of the world population has an internet connection today1 – and, according to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, the entire world population is expected to be connected to the internet by 2020.2

• We have become a mobile society and have access to multiple channels at any given time during a day – hence, we have developed an “always on” mentality.

• Interactivity offers great advantages such as the ability to reach consumers at the right time, right place with the right offer.

With myriad digital marketing alternatives offered via the internet such as email, blogs, landing pages, and pop-up ads, and the ability to effectively measure results thanks to search engine gods such as Google, where does that leave print?

VARIABLE DATA PRINTING (VDP): ADVANTAGES AND PROJECTED MARKET GROWTH The internet may have changed the rules of engagement but it hasn’t made other media options obsolete. The challenge for marketers is to evaluate all the channels available and choose those that fit within their budget and that will prompt the best response. Typically, this means utilizing a combination of both online and offline methods to achieve the biggest bang for their buck.

To meet this challenge, marketers have come to rely on the ever-evolving use of personalization techniques across all media to make offers more relevant and meaningful to customers. While you might think this is predominantly an issue for B2C marketers, it rings just as true for their B2B counterparts. According to Gartner, by 2018 B2B organizations that incorporate personalization into digital commerce will increase revenue up to 15%.3 Another study, done in 2015 by Iron Mountain in collaboration with InfoTrends, cited personalized print as

being vital to the development of customer relationships by permitting relevancy to be brought to recipient communications. This study also reinforced the usage of personalized communications across vertical markets in both B2B and B2C.4

The ability to create engaging, highly relevant, personalized printed materials is only possible because of the capabilities of digital print technology. In Smithers Pira’s latest report, The Future of Digital versus Offset Printing to 2020, in 2015 digital print accounted for 13.9% of all print and printed packaging in value terms, but just 2.5% of total world volume. Not only that, but the offset to digital transition is accelerating; in 2020 digital will be 17.4% of value and 3.4% of all print and printed packaging

volume.5 This means that there’s still significant room for growth for those print service providers who embrace this advancing technology.

According to another recent survey by Caslon & Co., in 2015 the value of black-and-white and color digital printing has risen to a retail value of $33.2 billion and $26 billion, respectively. In addition, there was double digit growth in color print output from high speed continuous feed inkjet presses and high digital growth in cut sheet toner pages which drove retail value gains. As shown in the chart below, the retail value of color digital printing has increased each year since 2004. This trend is likely to continue, especially with the growing popularity of VDP.6

Banking CPG Insurance Manufacturing Pharmaceutical Retail

Mass (One-to-Many) 35% 39% 45% 39% 35% 52%

Segmented (One-to-Few) 36% 28% 32% 36% 33% 24%

Personalized (One-to-One) 29% 34% 23% 25% 31% 24%

2010Source: Caslon & Co

$ (bilions)

B/W

Color

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2011 2012 2013

Retail value of production digital printing, N.A.

2014 2015

Many commercial printers have responded to the digital print transition by adding not only personalization/VDP capabilities, but a host of new services to create additional revenue streams – database management; cross media marketing services such as email blasting, personalized landing pages, or web portals (“PURLS”); geo location mapping; digital asset management, etc. – many of which require variable data printing to execute true cross media campaigns.

HOW IS VARIABLE DATA PRINTING EVOLVING?VDP has transformed over the years from simple personalization (name, or a few key fill-in-the-blanks), to what many refer to as “hyper-personalization” that typically leverages the use of multiple data points to provide more personalized and targeted customer communications. While it has been commonly used for decades by larger, more sophisticated BTB marketers, this one-to-one direct marketing approach provides businesses that have small budgets with the ability to achieve higher ROI than they could before – with much

less print and mail waste. For the consumer, it provides highly individualized content that may include unique designs, images, and messaging that is more likely to be noticed and acted upon.

The best direct mail campaigns deliver the right message, at the right time with the right offer – customer centricity at its best. Print service providers who excel at this today have invested in the state-of-the-art equipment, employee training, and software that allows for VDP. And, they’ve expanded their offering to include solutions such as geolocation mapping, cross media marketing, and big data solutions to enable personalization in print beyond what was ever thought possible.

To deliver the benefit and ROI marketers expect from their print communications, print providers increasingly rely on new advances in variable data technology combined with the advancement of data collection/mining, as well as online tools to create and execute truly personalized and targeted cross media campaigns. Following are a few of the newer tools print providers are taking advantage of today to help drive new business opportunities:

GEOLOCATION MAPPING AND GEOFENCINGResearch has told us for years that humans learn, respond to, and retain information more effectively when it is visually presented. That’s great news for print service providers. Despite the enormous migration to electronic media, neuroscience research shows that paper-based content and communications offer special advantages in connecting with our brains.7

According to Dr. Lynell Burmark, an education consultant who writes and speaks about visual literacy,“…unless our words, concepts, ideas are hooked onto an image, they will go in one ear, sail through the brain, and go out the other ear. Words are processed by our short-term memory where we can only retain about seven bits of information (plus or minus 2)…. Images, on the other hand, go directly into long-term memory where they are indelibly etched.”

The benefits of visual images and how they link to retention is something most marketers already believe to be true, especially those utilizing full color, variable, and personalized print. So it’s no surprise that geolocation mapping is one of the newest tools sparking excitement for marketers and agencies across the globe. This technology provides marketers the ability to drive personalization to a new level. Geolocation mapping gives marketers the power to create fully customized maps for both print and online usage, to build connections between people and places.

While the ability to create these maps has been around for some time, new technological advancements have brought ease and accessibility as well as lower cost to the print production process. Companies such as locr (www.locr.com) offer cloud-based solutions which can be accessed on a project-by-project basis – which makes it a very viable solution for both small and large digital print service providers to add to their service offerings. Just remember to keep best practices in mind when delivering any personalization via email. You don’t want to risk being blacklisted for any violations of the CAN-SPAM Act.

CLIENT SERVER ARCHITECTUREThe system works like a huge car navigation system. By providing postal addresses (like the recipients’ addresses and the shop locations of the advertiser), the solution generates fully personalized maps for each recipient’s address. Postal addresses are converted to geocodes and, based on the map template, JPEG images or mp4 videos are generated with map data and animations containing the map itself as well as routings, logos, and icons, showing the recipient’s location and the location of the advertiser that is being promoted.

For example, a marketer for an oil change franchise might design a campaign by pulling a defined geographic database of prospects and creating fully customized, variable postcards containing a map from each prospect’s location to the nearest franchise. With the addition of geofencing (using the global positioning system [GPS] or radio frequency identification [RFID] to define geographical boundaries), the marketer can target prospects with laser-like precision by calculating actual driving distance to the desired location.

Services like geofencing and geomapping conserve marketer’s budgets by helping them eliminate bad data, more precisely define the best prospects, and kick out those that fall outside their “sweet spot”. Print

service providers can gain a competitive advantage by demonstrating how they can lower costs, drive higher response rates, and increase the ROI when they include these variable maps in their direct mail and other cross media applications.

VARIABLE DATA + DIRECT MAIL + GOOGLE DYNAMIC REMARKETING – HOW IT WORKSPrint service providers with variable data capabilities can deliver intriguing offers utilizing personalization techniques; for example, a postcard that drives the recipient to the sender’s website to learn more about their products and services. But what happens if the recipient visits the website, leaves without purchasing or requesting more information, and then never returns? This is when understanding some of the newer online tools and how they can enhance a campaign can elevate your status from printer to partner.

Google introduced dynamic remarketing for just this purpose. Remarketing allows marketers to show ads to people who have previously visited their website or used their mobile app. It’s a program that’s connected to Google AdWords. AdWords advertisers can create one ad that can be personalized automatically right when an ad

GEOcodes

Addresses

GEOdata

locr data center

Map Builder

Maps

impression is served. Utilizing a retargeting strategy can significantly improve conversion rates and dramatically lower the cost-per-acquisition.

For example, a personalized postcard might have driven a recipient to a website to view a travel package to their dream destination. They may have left that site, without booking, to view other sites and potential offers. If retargeting has been set up on the travel company site, it can automatically show that user an ad with a special offer on the travel package they viewed but didn’t purchase.

This presents a great opportunity for direct mail print service providers to combine their digital print and personalization capabilities with a host of services such as PURLs, email blasting, list services or website design along with Google dynamic retargeting to help customers grow. PostcardMania (www.postcardmania.com), a full service postcard direct mail marketing company headquartered in Clearwater, Florida that offers graphic design, printing, mailing list acquisition, and mailing services, did just that. Today they offer their own personalized product called DirectMail 2.0®.

“I honestly believe that if today’s printing companies want to grow, they HAVE to find a way to tie digital products in with their direct mail offerings. Moreover, I do not mean to back off of direct mail — I mean to BUILD on it with

integrated marketing products that help clients improve their response” stated Joy Gendusa, Founder and CEO of Postcardmania.

PostcardMania has achieved that with DirectMail2.0. According to Gendusa, “Our clients are getting amazing results, and so are we! The reorder rate among our clients using DirectMail2.0 is 70% higher than those who do not, which has given our bottom line a huge boost. In just the first year that we offered it, our revenue went up by $1.2 million!”

Growing your print business depends on continually demonstrating the added value you can bring your customers by introducing new ways of driving higher returns for their marketing dollars.

CROSS MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES FOR VDP: While variable data printing plays an important role in cross media campaigns, print service providers can set themselves apart from their competition by embracing new digital tools that can be used in conjunction with print. Their ability to bring these tools to their customers demonstrates an intrinsic value that ultimately drives more print for their bottom line.

VDP BENEFITS ALL TYPES OF BUSINESSES — LARGE AND SMALL.

SMALL, REGIONAL BUSINESS VDP has benefits for businesses large and small, especially in a limited geographic area. Imagine a small service provider, such as a veterinary clinic with pet boarding services. They want to ensure their pet boarding facility is at capacity during the prime vacation time – the summer months. They could develop a postcard that includes the name of the pet owner and their pet’s name, and make an offer of a discount for pet boarding available via a PURL that could provide a reservation calendar. They could also include the opportunity for other services, such as annual check-up, vaccinations, pet grooming – all based on that individual pet and specific services for which they may be due. Not only would the copy be completely individualized, the images on the piece can be swapped by type of pet – or include an actual photo of the pet, should the facility have that on file. The possibilities are limited only by the data captured on the individual and the template created. The resulting piece would demonstrate that personalized, caring service (which every pet owner desires for their beloved family pets) is located only minutes away from their home.

The client could also increase their customer base by geo-targeting for new prospects. They could rent a list of pet owners from a surrounding radius, and promote the pet boarding service and offer a discount. They could personalize it by prospect name and type of pet; for instance, images that show caring staff members playing with dogs in the yard or with kitties in the cat condo area. A PURL could be added to the piece offering an introductory savings offer with a limited reservation window to instill urgency.

All of this could be augmented by capturing additional data, such as an email address, to provide reservation confirmation and follow-up information about the pet’s “vacation” there. It could also provide a list of other services such as veterinary and grooming, and encourage the pet owner to engage with the business’ social media sites.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN SUCCESSFULLY OFFERING VARIABLE DATA PRINTING SERVICES?

MANAGING DATA It all starts with the quality, amount, and type of data available. If the client’s data is limited to basic contact information, without purchase history, demographics, or preference data – or if it’s not “clean” (meaning that any inaccurate or corrupt records have been removed)– the opportunity for one-to-one marketing can be limited. This can also create an opportunity for the print service provider to add value by offering list cleansing, list management, and/or list purchasing on behalf of the client to enable better personalization and improved campaign success. This may also be the perfect time to talk to the client about geomapping or geofencing services as previously discussed. Additionally, the use of a PURL offers the opportunity for opt-in and additional data capture, to enhance the database for future campaign mailings.

One key challenge that affects all segments to some degree is maintaining a good database. Managing opt-ins and opt-outs, gaining new opt-ins, not having enough data, or having old data that has never been “cleaned” are all issues. This creates an opportunity for the services of list augmentation and creative testing.

As mentioned with regard to the healthcare and health insurance markets, there’s a large amount of data, much of which needs to be protected and not utilized. Careful database capture, protection, and management are critical to remain in compliance to country and regional regulatory requirements. If print service providers are not well-versed in managing this type of data, they should seek to partner with an outside firm that specializes in this area.

HOW TO PRICE VARIABLE DATA PRINTING There are several considerations when pricing VDP work and related services. Of course, it’s important to know your costs, what the marketplace is charging, and what value you bring to the customer. It’s about your capabilities and the services you will be providing from print to cross media marketing.

For standard, non-complex print work, customers often reference a price matrix to estimate the cost of a print job. Some print providers offer a portal for the customer to design and price each job. For the more complex and custom work, estimating work on a project-by-project basis is the best solution. This gives the print service provider the opportunity to ask additional questions to fully understand the project, which helps to build a rapport with the customer.

Aside from time and materials, there are other services that may be required such as campaign creation and management, database and digital asset management,

list building, data modeling, and accessing additional data sources. The print services provider may assist in setting up PURLs and coordinating digital and mobile campaign elements. Other considerations have to do with the level of customization, the number of pages and pieces to the job, die-cutting, folding, and bindery. There may also be a need for inventory and fulfillment services.

In the 2011 InfoTrends study “Evolution of the Cross-Media Marketing Service Provider”, the majority (86%) of the print service providers responded that they price on a project-by-project basis, with 53% of print service providers including project scoping (planning that involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, features, functions, tasks, deadlines, and ultimately costs) in the price. By creating such a customized campaign, it’s safe to say that there will be many variables from one to the next. Best practices for campaign planning should be established and followed, and should include post-campaign guidance for the client, such as ensuring proper tracking and measuring of results.

HOW TO SELL VARIABLE DATA PRINTING FOR PRINT SERVICE PROVIDERS, CREATING VALUE CREATES OPPORTUNITIES.

There are several considerations when pricing VDP work and related services. Of course, it’s important to know your costs, what the marketplace is charging, and what value you bring to the customer. It’s about your capabilities and the services you will be providing from print to cross media marketing.

Busy marketing professionals are being asked to achieve higher lead generation and sales goals with fewer resources. With marketing budgets being limited, many are gravitating toward email and social media marketing because there is immediate data capture and it’s fast and easy. However, there’s a lot of clutter and distraction inherent with email, social, and website marketing. Also, anti-spam regulations make it a challenge to target, acquire, and keep opt-in contacts. Show your business’ value by demonstrating how you can successfully navigate these challenges through the following:

Show and tell Demonstrate to prospects that you are effectively utilizing cross media techniques to market your own business. Make sure your website showcases the complete line of services you provide, and tells a compelling story. There’s no better way to demonstrate the value of VDP than by utilizing it to create an individualized campaign promoting your business that stands out in the mail of your prospects.

Hire and train If you don’t have the knowledge in house, hire a subject matter expert who can set best practices and educate your sales staff. It’s also important to have sales representatives well educated about VDP, who are armed with examples of successful campaigns, including ROI data. Having a dedicated, on-staff specialist who can manage, prepare, and price proposals can free up your account people to do what they do best – sell.

Prove your points Representatives should be ready to show how personalized direct mail translates into customer engagement and action, and how VDP can enable a unified experience with online media. Bring real world examples of mail offers based on purchases,

buying patterns, and lifestyle and demographic information - and that use PURLs with custom content for each individual.

Make an offer Some printing companies create educational white papers to demonstrate the benefits of VDP and the cost effectiveness of one-to-one direct mail marketing, offering them to prospects in a variety of marketing approaches (such as email) in return for their opt-in. This sets up the relationship so that the print service provider can continue to connect with prospects on an ongoing basis while demonstrating the very services they provide.

Know their business There are many business segments that can benefit from VDP, and each brings its own unique challenges – and opportunities. The most successful print service providers seem to focus on select verticals, and invest time and resources to be able to earn that business. For instance, regulated industries such as banking, healthcare, and insurance require business partners who understand the inherent regulatory and legal challenges, because there are big risks involved in sharing their data and in making mistakes. The print services partner who demonstrates their knowledge and who has built a successful book of business within that industry is going to instill confidence in potential clients.

There are several ways to gain knowledge of a vertical industry. You can hire account representatives who bring it with them, who can help train your team. Or bring in an external consultant who is familiar with delivering print and services to those types of businesses to help develop the right support and offerings to fit the unique needs of your targeted market(s). Or partner with an agency who serves the market of interest. Once you understand the needs of the segment and develop the correct mix of market-driven deliverables, and can demonstrate this value, the more likely it is that they will trust you to partner with…and will want to continue to do so.

SIMPLY PUT – IT GOES BEYOND THE PRINT. Savvy print service providers understand that to thrive in this digital and mobile world, they need to bring the value of extreme targeting and the services required to support this level of personalization. Embracing VDP will create stronger, more successful partnerships with clients – and has been shown to be effective in enabling higher profits for both providers and customers.

1. Internet Live Stats. http://internetlivestats.com

2. Google boss: Entire world will be online by 2020. (2013, April 15) – CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/tech/web/eric-schmidt-internet/

3. Gartner, Inc. “Predicts 2015: IT Leaders Will Need to Develop a Stronger Relationship With Marketing.”

4. Cross, L and Pello, B: Optimizing: The Future of Fulfillment. (2015). InfoTrends / Iron Mountain. Retrieved July 30, 2016, from http://www.ironmountain.com/~/media/Files/Iron%20Mountain/Knowledge%20Center/Reference%20Library/White%20Paper/O/Optimizing%20Marketing%20Fulfillment%20in%20a%20Digital%20World.pdf?la=en

5. The Future of Digital vs Offset Printing to 2020. (2015). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.smitherspira.com/industry-market-reports/printing/digital/the-future-of-digital-vs-offset-printing-to-2020

6. Caslon Inc. Another Good Year for Color Digital Printing. (2016, May 19). Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.blog.podi.org/another-good-year-for-color-digital-printing

7. Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Aug. 2016. Paper Beats Digital in Many Ways, According to Neuroscience

Canon is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. All other referenced product names and marks are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged. © 2016 Canon Solutions America, Inc. All rights reserved.

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ABOUT PRINTING IMPRESSIONSPrinting Impressions publishes authoritative coverage of industry trends, emerging technologies and the news in the graphic arts industry with a specific focus on the commercial print segment. Its core audiences include commercial printers, package printers and in-plant printers. Printing Impressions provides C-level managers, production managers, and operations and sales/marketing managers with critical information and news, cutting-edge technology features, case studies and company profiles. (www.piworld.com)

This analysis was commissioned by Canon Solutions America and NAPCO Media to help printers better understand how today’s technology can optimize their production and how they can benefit by adopting these solutions.

Canon Solutions America, Inc., a Canon U.S.A. Company, provides enterprise, production print and large format solutions, supported by exceptional professional service offerings. www.csa.canon.com

KAREN KEENAN, PRESIDENT, INTEGRATED METHODS GROUP, INC.

Karen’s entire career has been immersed in every aspect of print from creative through production. She is now responsible for heading up a specialized team of consultants at IMG that specializes in helping clients streamline and transform their print business into strategically focused, more profitable entities. Leveraging decades of dedicated printing experience, the IMG team assists in all aspects of process improvement, business analysis & development as well as marketing planning and campaign initiatives. Visit www.imgresults.com to learn more about IMG’s services. 

See her full LinkedIn profile and connect with her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-keenan-0541655.