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:
•O
ver 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
•W
e 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
Banking
CPG
Insurance
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%
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
Manufacturing Pharmaceutical
Retail
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
Retail value of
production digital printing, N.A.
$ (bilions)
35
30
25
20
B/W
15
Color
10
5
0
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Source: Caslon & Co
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 GEOFENCING
Research 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.
Addresses
locr data center
GEOcodes
GEOdata
Map Builder
Maps
CLIENT SERVER ARCHITECTURE
The 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 WORKS
Print 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
impression is served. Utilizing a retargeting strategy can
significantly improve conversion rates and dramatically
lower the cost-per-acquisition.
integrated marketing products that help clients improve
their response” stated Joy Gendusa, Founder and CEO of
Postcardmania.
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.
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!”
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®.
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.
“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
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 CrossMedia 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. I nternet 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-schmidtinternet/
3. Gartner, Inc. “Predicts 2015: IT Leaders Will Need to Develop a
Stronger Relationship With Marketing.”
4. C
ross, 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%20
Paper/O/Optimizing%20Marketing%20Fulfillment%20in%20
a%20Digital%20World.pdf?la=en
5. T
he Future of Digital vs Offset Printing to 2020. (2015). Retrieved
July 29, 2016, from http://www.smitherspira.com/industrymarket-reports/printing/digital/the-future-of-digital-vs-offsetprinting-to-2020
6. C
aslon 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. F
orbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Aug. 2016. Paper
Beats Digital in Many Ways, According to Neuroscience
ABOUT PRINTING IMPRESSIONS
Printing 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)
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. 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
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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