We’re now entering the second decade of 1:1 printing. It’s had lots of names – variable data printing, 1:1 printing, personalized printing and data-driven printing among them. Regardless of what you call it, it has delighted and vexed printers and marketers alike.
Done right, personalization offers tremendous opportunity. The mountains of case studies attest to that. But as the marketing environment changes, the type of single-channel 1:1 campaigns that printers have come to understand has begun to require an even greater wealth of marketing expertise than most printers have developed.
Printers are used to thinking about 1:1 printing combined with email teasers or follow-ups. They are used to incorporating direct-mail with personalized URLs. But increasingly, the most successful case studies are being integrated into a larger, more complex marketing environment. This means pulling in different elements, or combinations of elements, than we’ve traditionally seen.
We’re also seeing tighter integration of branding (maintaining the same images, messaging and even business rules) across channels and multiple media into marketing “dashboards” that allow marketers to monitor and compare the effectiveness of various channels from a single location.
Rather than being a standalone marketing approach, 1:1 printing is becoming integrated into larger multi-channel campaigns. This requires printers to have experts or even entire creative and marketing teams (as many marketing firms do) that are able to look at the entire spectrum of media and make decisions about how to combine them to achieve campaign goals most effectively.
Emphasis on social media
One example comes from DIG Creative, which produced a highly successful fundraising campaign integrating personalized direct-mail with social media. By getting alumni to “friend” the institution, this created an engagement that heightened awareness of direct-mail solicitations and increased the chance that alumni would contribute. The efforts were successful. In fact, when the giving from alumni is tracked over time, DIG Creative has found that 50 percent of alumni givers are from the Facebook pool.
This emphasis on social media as part of a multi-channel marketing campaign is something we’re going to see more and more. In its “Interactive Marketing Forecast” (2009), Forrester Research estimates that social media marketing will grow at an annual rate of 34 percent over the next five years, faster than any other form of online marketing, and hit $3.1 billion in 2014. “At that point, social media will be a bigger marketing channel than both email and mobile,” notes reporting in Mashable: The Social Media Guide.
So expect to see social media combined more and more with 1:1 print. Kellogg, for example, is tripling its spending over the previous three years (Media Daily News, February 17, 2010).
Case in point
While social media components will grow, it is more typical these days to see campaigns using email, print and personalized URLs. While this combination isn’t that unusual, what is unusual is the level of integration.
A great case in point can be found in Peter Wann’s February 2010 “Measurable Marketing” e-newsletter. It integrates the typical email, print, Web combination, but there are elements that go beyond what we have commonly seen. There is testing and personalization at all levels and a sense that all elements are working together holistically.
The multi-channel campaign was sent by a software manufacturer to 25,000 prospects, which was designed to get them to upgrade their business software.
It started with a series of personalized emails and direct mail pieces designed to send recipients to personalized URLs. The direct mail pieces were broken into two segments to test different offers. Each test group was first versioned based on industry vertical and then personalized for individual recipients.
The branding on the personalized landing pages — images, text and offer — was integrated across print, email and Web.
After the initial direct-mail and email, triggered email follow-ups were designed to nudge non-responders into action. Incentives, discounts and offers were increased in order to encourage response.
Once logged into their personalized URLs, respondents were surveyed about the pain points in their businesses and their activity was tracked to provide additional insights. Subsequent Web pages and follow-up emails were personalized on the fly based on the information given.
The relevance and personalization continued to a thank you page. Rather than the standard thank you text, the page was populated with a thank you video also based on the information provided by each respondent.
Data from survey responses and click history was provided to salespeople so they could follow up immediately.
What’s important here is the combination of elements, the integration and how everything — from personalization, segmentation and the test offers in the beginning to provision of tracking and survey information to salespeople at the end — is designed to work together. The integration of relevance-based video on the thank you page shows just how beyond the traditional this program was.
Benefits of 1:1 personalization
Printers just getting their feet wet in databases and relevance-based marketing may feel overwhelmed at this level of complexity. The good news is that it’s worth wrapping your mind around because there are so many benefits for your customers. Some are obvious; others are not.
Increased response rate
The number one benefit of 1:1 print is increased response rate. The typical response rate for a static, undifferentiated direct mail is .5-1.5 percent. Personalized direct-mail can dramatically increase this rate, with rates of 8 percent, 12 percent, or even higher for well-designed campaigns. The actual lift will depend on the type of campaign. Loyalty programs and fundraising programs, for example, have much higher response rates than initial prospecting campaigns.
Higher per-order revenues
Not only do response rates go up, but when customers respond to a 1:1 marketing program, they often spend more. This is proven out in side-by-side tests. When West Coast Marine (Newport Beach, CA) wanted to boost end-of-year sales, it created both static and personalized mailers, with both sent to the same mix of its loyalty program members. Not only did the 1:1 mailer have a 27 percent lift over the static mailer, but respondents to the 1:1 promotion had a higher per-order value than those who responded to the static promotion. This is fairly typical.
Ability to track and prove ROI
Although marketers have used barcodes, redemption codes and other techniques to track responses for years, 1:1 printing offers the ability to track and prove ROI at a far different level. The personalized nature of these jobs enables marketers to track responses far more minutely and for the lifetime of the customer, if desired. Moreover, with the greater value in the 1:1 marketing program, building in tracking mechanisms has a higher value of return.
Save money. When we think about direct-mail, we usually think about the “print ‘em in the millions” flyers or prospecting letters that most consumers throw away without even opening. With response rates averaging one percent, you have to print huge volumes to generate enough responses to even bother. Not surprisingly, most small and mid-sized businesses don’t bother. But what if you could mail fewer pieces and get the same or even a higher number of responses? This is standard practice with 1:1 printing. In the end, marketers can end up spending less on their print marketing while bringing in more revenues.
If you have been printing undifferentiated booklets, you can also save money by slimming them down only to the most relevant information to each recipient, saving paper, print costs and postage.
Building customer loyalty
It is well known that it is more profitable to keep the customers you have than to go out and find new ones. Hence, the value of customer loyalty programs. Consistently, companies with long-term, successful 1:1 printing programs find that their customer loyalty increases by using them. In fact, when Gannett Co., Inc, a major U. S. media company, wanted to bolster its new customer retention rates, it used a combination of personalized print and email to achieve over 20 percent ROI and boost 13-week retention rates an average of 13.7 percent.
1:1 printing is “green”
Today, environmental printing is not just good social responsibility; it’s good marketing. Companies with green programs have a marketing advantage through positive association.
How is 1:1 printing “green?”
1. The output technology is socially responsible. 1:1 printing is output from digital presses, which don’t use process chemicals (although liquid ink presses and non-wide-format inkjet presses use mild solvents in their ink formulations; dry toner presses do not). They don’t use film or plates. Start-up waste is minimal — 10 sheets or less, compared to 100 or more sheets for most offset presses.
2. 1:1 printing reduces postal waste. High percentages of junk mail never reach their destinations because the focus is on cheap, not accurate. This wastes an astonishing number of trees. It also wastes the fossil fuels used to produce the paper, envelopes, ink and coating, as well as to run the presses and distribute the documents to the trash.
3. It reduces trash can waste. Even if documents reach their destinations, most direct-mail is thrown away before it’s opened. So the result is the same — wasting precious environmental resources. By personalizing, you are increasing the chance that your mailer will be opened. Even if it still ends up in the trash, at least it got read first.
4. It reduces overall print volume. Effective personalization often starts with culling the database for the most likely respondents. This reduces the number of documents that get printed, mailed and delivered at the outset. If you replace a large, static mailing package with a personalized version, you might also be reducing the number of pages you send. By doing so, you save paper, ink, chemistry and fossil fuels.
So, yes, 1:1 printing is “green.” You start out with an environmentally-responsible printing technology. Then, instead of using the “throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks” approach, you send out smaller, more environmentally-friendly volumes.
Take J. C. Penney, for example, which recently discontinued its semi-annual Big Book catalogue. By switching to smaller, more targeted catalogues, the retailer expects to reduce catalogue paper use by 25-30 percent in 2010.
Key applications for 1:1 print
Capitalizing on 1:1 printing involves understanding not just the mechanics, but also the full range of opportunities. Many people associate it with direct sales, but there are so many other applications for which it is tremendously effective. Let’s look at the primary application types for which strategies and track records have been developed.
Lead Generation
These are applications not designed to result in an immediate sale, but to generate interest among existing customers or pull in an entirely new pool of prospects.
Loyalty programs
These are one of the most powerful applications for 1:1 printing. By virtue of the fact that recipients already have a relationship with the marketer and are opting in to these programs, respondents are more likely to respond, making the return on investment for 1:1 printing that much greater.
Fundraising
Like loyalty programs, by building on the existing affinity between the recipient and non-profit organizations, these are also some of the most successful 1:1 printing applications. Pitches are made based on the recipient’s relationship to the organization and past giving history. The solicitation might reference past donations, perhaps upping the ante based on giving history.
Direct sales
With 1:1 print personalization, marketers use the power of databases to speak directly to each recipient on an individual basis based on demographics, past purchase habits and more. This creates a relevance that has a proven track record for improving sales.
Customer Relationship Programs
This is an often overlooked but highly effective use of 1:1 printing. Marketers can personalize even non-sales communications to engender customer loyalty. Examples include personalized newsletters from financial advisors and personalized information packets from insurance companies. By making non-sales documents more relevant and easier to understand, marketers create a sense that their company is relevant and easy to do business with.
Personalized URLs
These applications use 1:1 production to print a personalized URL on each mailer (www.bobsmith.ca/janesfurniture), encouraging recipients to log in to take a survey or view information, often in exchange for a free gift. Once logged in, respondents’ movements can be tracked and their responses measured in near real time. Survey pages allow marketers to gather information, build databases and pre-qualify prospects.
Pre-filled response cards
Although many marketers may not think of pre-filled response cards as 1:1 printing, this is an important application. If you are sending any kind of response card, simply pre-fill it with the recipient’s name, address, company and other information. By doing so, you remove one of the barriers to response (the time and energy it takes recipients to fill it out themselves). This alone can dramatically increase the response rate.
Transactional
Any bill, statement or invoice is a personalized document, whether it’s a statement from a credit card company or an update on a customer’s rewards points from the local natural foods store. Marketers are personalizing these documents beyond just the data itself (such as purchases and total payment due), highlighting past due payments or using coloured messages to communicate with recipients about actions to take (make a payment, call a phone number, submit a form). This can boost the bottom line by reducing calls to call centres, speeding payments, reducing errors and more.
Transpromotional
If you add marketing messages to transactional documents, they become hybrid transactional and promotional documents, or “transpromo” documents. Examples include credit card statements with relevant offers based on the recipient’s purchase history and special rewards or offers based on a card member’s use of a club card at a retail store.
Envelopes
Increasingly, marketers are taking the personalization outside onto the envelopes themselves. In most cases, it is simple name personalization or demographically-driven imagery, but gradually, these applications are becoming more sophisticated.
Databases don’t have to be difficult
Of course, all these applications require databases. Not only do too few customers have workable marketing databases, but many 1:1 shops are just getting their feet wet in database development and management, too.
Lack of existing data doesn’t remove 1:1 print marketing from the equation, however. There are a variety of strategies for helping customers maximize the data they have (which can often do more than they think), purchase and append new mailing lists and build databases from scratch, even on smaller budgets.
- Mailing lists are increasingly affordable. For $25 or so per thousand, you can add demographic qualifications, such as income level, general interests and age.
- Even if all the customer has is an undifferentiated mailing database, you can still use specialized software, like genderizing and mapping programs, to create relevant marketing pitches based on the recipient’s geographic location or distance from a location or event.
- You can purchase a database or append an existing database by a smart selection of third-party data.
- Customer profiling solutions are being developed even for small and mid-sized marketers and can expand simple databases by creating a customer profile (or a “desired customer” profile) and then appending the relevant demographics to that database.
- Creating a loyalty program is a very effective way of building a database of customer preferences and spending habits, while at the same time allowing your customer to reward customer behaviour.
- You can use personalized URLs to send recipients to their own personalized Web pages, where you can survey prospects, qualify them and gather additional information to be used for future marketing campaigns. The software allows this information to be automatically appended back into the client’s database (or to create one in the first place).
Developing a customer database sounds complicated and expensive, but cost-effective techniques are being refined all the time. This is by no means an exhaustive list of possibilities.
Relevance, not volume
Although the concept of building a database may sound intimidating, the success of a 1:1 campaign is about the ability to create relevance to the recipient, not the number of variables you have. The level of detail you have to “build” (whether through purchasing it, collecting it or refining it) can be relatively low as long as the data you do have is relevant.
As explained in “1:1 (Personalized) Printing: Boosting Profits Through Relevance,” a marketing primer from Digital Printing Reports:
If you are marketing a store opening, for example, all you may need is a qualified mailing list (such as household income, geographic radius) to create relevance. A customer’s address and mapping capabilities just might do the trick. If you are a florist, you can do well with a customer’s name, age and spouse’s birthday. You can get great ROI even without the “ideal” amount of data.
This is where the importance of good marketing comes in. Personalization, by itself, doesn’t produce better results. It’s how the technology is used to improve relevance to the recipient — a marketing strategy — that does the trick.
Proving your efforts
You might be able to sell the initial 1:1 campaign based on results from industry case studies, but you’ll sell the subsequent campaigns based on the results of the ones you’ve created for that client. This means being able to prove the campaign’s worth.
Importantly, the success of 1:1 printing isn’t like measuring other types of campaigns. The metrics are often different. In the early days, response rate was the primary measure. Today, the metrics need to go much deeper. In addition to response rate, we also need to evaluate:
- Lift over previous campaigns (even a single-digit response rate can be phenomenal in contrast to prior campaigns)
- Cost per lead
- Cost per sale
- Dollars generated per sale
- Conversion rate
- Lifetime customer value
- ROI
- Other bottom line savings, such as the ability to get people to respond more quickly to offers or increased clarity of invoices that speed payment or reduce calls to call centres. These may be indirect savings, but the money is still green.
It’s a lot to put together, but for those who take the time to do so, the benefits can be substantial. The challenge is that even once you get a handle on it, the creative and marketing requirements are always changing.
For years, industry leaders have talked about 1:1 printers needing to become marketing services providers, and it’s never been truer than now. The more deeply 1:1 printing becomes embedded in larger multi-channel marketing programs (perhaps one day even being integrated into T.V., radio, billboards and other traditional channel marketing), the more it will continue to put printers’ marketing mettle to the test.
