Variable Data Archives - The Marsid M&M Group Blog

4 Unique ways to Utilize Variable Data Printing

Variable Data printing has been around for some time now, but innovation of the technique is always being expanded upon. This is the process of printing a changing field on a static background. Most commonly, a design will be set up with a blank field where a unique name or message can be inserted in different fonts or colors. It is also a great technique for creating custom cards and coupon codes.

More and more companies are realizing that personalizing a mailing or a printed piece will generate both a higher read-through rate and more interaction with their audience. We see the same techniques with e-mail blasts, where the subscriber’s first name will be inserted into the email instead of a generic “Hello” or “Greetings”.

Variable Data doesn’t only have to be used for personalizing names and addresses. Here are some unique examples of variable data that raise the level of a marketing campaign and build stronger connections between an organization its audience or a host and their guests.

1. Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke® Campaign

variable data labels — Photo From – http://goo.gl/1ZYNAW

For the first time in ten years, Coca Cola have increased their sales. This is likely due to a clever marketing campaign utilized variable data. Starting in the summer of 2014 (in the U.S.) Coke began printing labels with the phrase “Share a Coke with…” and 150 variable names imprinted on the labels. These personalized labels act as a unique call to action, urging customers to not only buy the product, but also to create a second interaction by gifting (sharing) it with someone else.

Even further than this consumer-company interaction, the Share a Coke campaign has fostered interaction on social media through image posts and shares. This increased user created content and produced even more exposure for coke products and their brand. By using variable data on their labels, Coke was able to not only increase sales, but also generated consumer interaction with their company and brand.

2. Variable Data Coupons

Customer’s love to receive coupons, especially from places they frequently visit. Coupons are also a great way to drive new business in, or keep customers coming back for more. One way to make customers even more excited about receiving a coupon in the mail is to make that coupon personalized exactly for that shopper.

This can be done in two ways. First, coupons can be personalized with the customer’s name using prospective shoppers or previous shoppers. The otheroption would be to cross sell products and services to customers based on their shopping history.

For Example:

Somebody just bought a bicycle? Send them a personalized coupon for a new helmet. Another customer just bought a new snowboard? How about a discount off your store’s next ski outing!

3. Office Supplies

Having a neat and organized office is a key to productivity and efficiency. One way to achieve this is to provide your employees with custom stationery options such as notepads, journals, letterhead, calendars and more!

Personalized stationery appears more professional, and provides clear indication to who a note is coming from. Also as an office manager, it may be a good way to keep the employees in your office happy. Workers will appreciate the extra attention!

4. Personalized Invitations

Have a special occasion coming up and need custom invitations? Try printing your invites with personalized names to add class and distinction to your event. Your guests will appreciate the extra effort and your event will be off to a great start. With custom field printing, you can use different fonts to match the theme of your invite to keep the whole message consistent and professional is always an important aspect to a successful occasion.

You can even take it one step further by matching your invites with personalized place cards or name tags.

In Summary…

Variable data printing is an extremely versatile printing technique that can be useful for marketing, event planning and office organization. What are some unique ways you’ve seen variable data utilized?

Looking for expert advice on variable data printing or need a custom quote? Feel free to reach out in the comments section or visit our variable data page!

Saving Money on Direct Mail with QR Codes

Although QR codes are quickly being adopted by major companies and industries, adoption is moving slowly throughout the small business sector.

In an effort to promote Direct Mail and create awareness of the benefits of using QR codes in Direct Mail, the United States Postal Service is offering a special postage discount during the months of July and August 2011:

Direct Mail marketers and mail houses can save 3% on their First Class Presort Mail and Standard Presort Mail postage simply by including a QR Code that must be easily visible on the outside of the mail piece. Simple as that.

Although the savings can be substantial, it is important to keep in mind that if your Direct Mail campaign is not thought out thoroughly and optimized for success, then all of your efforts and cost of printing and postage will go to waste.
On the bright side, you can always learn from your mistakes.

Direct Mail is about trial and error and consistency; improvement and repetition. I don’t think any one Direct Mail campaign can be the one or the best one for that matter.

If you are thinking of taking advantage of the 3% postage discount and this would be your first QR Code Direct Mail campaign, the following paragraphs will help you begin with an advantage.

QR Code Malpractice

Creating and Reading QR Codes is easy and FREE! But the biggest issue lies with what happens after the QR Code is scanned.

Obviously (or maybe not obvious enough), a QR Code is scanned with a smart phone which typically has a screen size between 2 to 4 inches. This being the case, wouldn’t you expect to be taken to a mobile-friendly website that is compatible with your smart phone’s screen size?
Well, believe it or not, this is a very common mistake made by marketers that makes the whole Direct Mail/QR Code campaign a complete failure.

Let’s say your Direct Mail piece is a postcard that promotes a new product that you are selling and the customer scans your QR code. The customer lands on a mobile friendly page that contains a great description of the product but does not have a Buy Now! button anywhere on the page. The purpose of your Direct Mail piece is to offer a product that you sell, yet a way to purchase the product is not easily made available. This Direct Mail campaign can pretty much be considered a lost sale opportunity.

QR Code Best Practices

A complete Direct Mail campaign using QR codes must include a mobile landing page where a call to action is the main focus of the page. Whatever the purpose of your Direct Mail campaign is, it should reflect in your mobile landing page.
If your QR Code directs the user to a video preview, make sure the video is formatted for mobile screens and should start playing right away. The purpose of a smartphone is accessibility and convenience – No downloads!

The following are a few key rules to follow to create a successful Direct Mail QR Code campaign:

Use a vector QR Code in your artwork to make sure that it prints clear and works 100% even on low megapixel cameras. I find BeQRious lets you generate vector QR Codes you can download in PDF format easily
Test your QR Code on at least 4-5 different QR Code scanning apps and different smart phones before printing the whole run
Include information on how to scan the QR Code
Your QR Code should direct the user’s mobile phone directly to the landing page
Your Landing Page must load quickly, keep images to a minimum
Include Call-to-action buttons or links such as “Buy Now!”, “Sign up here!”, or “Call us now!”
Keep the focus of the page on the purpose of the campaign and the Call-to-action buttons/links
Make your QR Code link using a link shortening service such as goo.gl or bit.ly (free versions) so that you can track the number of scans and other analytics

How have you used QR Codes in your latest

Direct Mail or Marketing Campaign?

Please share any lessons you have learned when using QR Codes in Direct Mail campaigns below…

3 Key Marketing Tips for the Modern Real Estate Agent

In today’s fierce Real Estate market you have to stay on your toes. Marketing your open houses, agency, available properties and yourself as a Real Estate agent is a key component to drive business, sales and changing that For Sale sign into a Sold! sign.

As a printing company we get to see what is new and what is working across different markets using different strategies. Here are some key marketing tips inspired by what we have seen work best for real estate agencies and agents in their marketing efforts:

1. Apply the Content is King Concept to your Real Estate Marketing Efforts

To begin with, most home buyers want to know what they are getting and how much it costs; They peruse through the property listings on your website and find a few pictures, a list of features and a few bullet points with a sales price which gives them the skinny on the property. But where is the value?

Content is King is a phrase well known to today’s internet marketers, SEO gurus and social media experts. It’s a very successful concept on the web and has been for years, these days even more so. Content adds value to a product beyond its functions or assets. Is there a positive story behind the property, the street or the town? Did someone famous or worth mentioning live there at one point? Content can give a property personality; transforming a house for sale into a home for sale. Words can influence, that’s why Content is King.

2. Modernize your Real Estate Marketing Materials

With the sharp increase in consumer purchases of smart phones, it is a big mistake not to consider incorporating mobile into your Real Estate marketing.

As a home buyer, I can remember the frustration caused by seeing a beautiful house with a for sale sign outside as I drove by and saying to myself: “I can’t wait to get home and look up the listing on that house!”
By the time I got home I had forgotten the address, the Real Estate Agency that was selling it and of course, I didn’t stop to write down the phone number on the sign. For the Real Estate agent this meant a lost sale or a lost lead at the least.

Behold, the QR Code. It began as a special barcode to track car parts and has evolved into the connection between offline and online marketing. The QR Code can be scanned with a smartphone to display information or initiate an action on the mobile phone.

A For Sale sign with a QR Code on it can lead a person who is interested in the home to a mobile friendly website where they can view pictures and contact the seller or Real Estate agent. QR Codes can also store contact information directly into the mobile phone’s contact list simply by scanning the code. QR codes are open for personal and commercial use. Here is a list of free QR Code readers and generators.

3. Personalize Communications

Real Estate agents and agencies have access to a vast amount of data about potential customers and their interests. Too often, this data goes unused to its full potential when in reality, it is bursting with value.

There is a little hidden gem that doesn’t seem to get the exposure it deserves…yet! Only the big ad agencies and corporations seem to be using this technology to their advantage. The printing industry is currently experiencing a digital evolution and from it we have the birth of Variable Data Printing, also known as VDP.

Variable Data Printing is the personalization of each individual piece in a print run. Let’s say you have a database of 5000 potential home buyers and in that database you have details about the type of homes these potential home buyers are interested in purchasing: Cape, Colonial, Ranch, two family, etc.
In your magnificent database of real estate information you also have access to all of the listings of homes for sale that have these features.

Now tie it all together. A printing company with Variable Data Printing capabilities can take your database information (usually in MS Excel format) and customize each printed piece with information pertaining to the recipient such as their name and information related to their home buying interests such as images and open house dates.

Here is a sample Postcard with Variable Data Printing

Here are the Variable Data Fields:

Variable Data Printing is a remarkable technology will absolutely increase your read rate. Most generic postcards are glanced at and discarded. If the recipient sees their name on it, they have a higher probability of reading all of your content and contacting you.

Have you used QR Codes or Variable Data Printing in your Marketing? What other technologies are you using in your Real Estate Marketing Campaigns?

Please comment below

Digital Supremacy: Variable Data Printing

Digital Printing has been adopted by the print industry for its efficiency, plethora of functions and small run capability. It is the underlying foundation of Variable Data Printing also known as VDP.

Variable Data Printing is a”Mail Merge” on steroids

VDP offers the ability to print personalized messages, images or graphical aspects on each printed piece using data collected about an individual, leveraging familiarity to increase ROI.
A simple example of the use of variable data is personalization of the greeting in a letter. No longer does a letter have to be informal as “Dear Customer”. We can now, thanks to Variable Data Printing, personalize the salutation to include the name of the intended recipient such as “Dear Marcy” or “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith”. This feature alone can drastically increase the chances of the letter actually being read.

advanced uses

Variable data can include the use of personalized images or graphics to really dig into the familiarity advantage of variable data. For example:

The owner of a local cellular phone store has a database full of data about the cellular service and devices of all his current customers use. He wants to send a postcard to each of them reminding them that their contract is about to expire and that they are eligible to upgrade their current cellphone. The owner contacts his print shop and explains what he wants to do. The print shop then explains that variable data can help him accomplish this and together come up with a killer personalized marketing piece.

The postcard would include 3 personalized fields:

The recipients name in the greeting
The expiration date of the recipient’s current contract
A picture of the cellphone they currently own

While the designer creates a beautiful layout, the store owner creates a simple database that holds the following information separated into columns:

First Name, Last Name, Address, Address 2, City, State, Zip, Contract Expiration, Device Model.

After the graphics and database have been completed and submitted to the print shop, it is the job of the pre-press technician to connect the artwork file with the database using Data Fields. Each of the column names will become a data field such as <First_Name>, <Last_Name> and so on.

Variable Data Software such as FusionPro or Darwin is then used to prepare a VPS file that merges the artwork with the database on the fly as each piece is printed.

Efficiency

The process of a standard mailing without variable data usually begins by printing the static artwork on an offset press first leaving a blank “mailing panel” for the recipient address information to be imprinted after the run is completed using a separate mailing machine that inkjets the address on to each piece.

With digital printing, the mailing address is considered variable data that can be printed at the same time the piece itself is being printed. The printing, the indicia and the address are all printed in one fell swoop. Not only is this faster, but the customer also saves on mailing setup fees and removes any possibility of smudges to the address resulting in possible lost revenues.

This post is an addendum to “Digital Evolution: The State of Commercial Printing“, which defines the changes the print industry is visibly undergoing at this time.

Tag: Variable Data