The key to improving the effectiveness of variable data printing (VDP)

According to relevant statistics, the number of web pages circulating on the global Internet so far has exceeded 50 billion, and the Internet is taking considerable absolute impressions and relative shares from the traditional publishing and communication fields. Although the Internet has gradually evolved into the center of “one-to-one communication,” the development of personalized communication based on the Internet is not yet clear. Its impact on the traditional media market is even more unknown. Therefore, the printing and dissemination is still a highly tangible method of "one-to-one communication", especially in the business promotion activities. At present, the printing of most business letters is inseparable from the purpose of selling products and opening up markets. Not surprisingly, in the past few years, statistics have shown that the domestic direct mail industry continues to grow rapidly. Through digital printing, people have slowly discovered that the value of personalization is not something that can be achieved by a large number of direct mail letters produced by traditional offset printing. Even though many people understand and accept the concept and value of personalized marketing, the domestic personalized communication business is still in its infancy. Recently, people from the industry have learned that most domestic professional marketing agencies and commercial printing companies still do not appear to have achieved significant profits from the personalized media on paper media.

Investing in variable data printing for personalized or customized marketing efforts should not be misled by the marketing plan provided by non-professional representatives of some digital printing equipment or software vendors. In addition to considering whether to purchase suitable digital printing equipment and related software for personalized business correspondence printing, or outsourcing variable data printing to digital printing service providers such as those appearing in this publication, you also need to adopt it. New methods of production, new workflows and new marketing thinking... and a thorough understanding of how to improve the effectiveness of variable data printing! Below we list some of the essentials and hope to provide some help for friends who are ready to engage in personalized marketing.

The key to improving the effectiveness of variable data printing (VDP)

1. Precise customer database: Successful VDP promotion activities require the use of excellent marketing staff and accurate marketing databases. Both are indispensable. The use of advanced printing hardware and software technology alone must not make you immediately a marketing or advertising genius. What you need to know in order to make personalized business letters play an outstanding marketing role. “The cleverest woman is difficult to be free of rice”, the customer database with clear parameters and including all parameters required by the target people is the primary condition for effective VDP action. The timely updating and daily maintenance of the customer database is an integral part of the long-term personalized marketing plan. There are clouds in computer terminology: GarbageIn, GarbageOut - meaning "input garbage, out of garbage." Just think, when the wrong data generates a vast number of printed sheets, the marketing staff will only fully initiate the "garbage out" automation process. In addition, when starting to use a specific database for the first time, do not forget to check the data to see if it is true and accurate, and correct any problems found.

2. The recipient does not see what his own name is: Traditionally formulated direct mail letters can no longer produce any outstanding results. Customers are already numb to envelopes or letters with their names, printed by ink jets. Advertisements must be able to stimulate the brains of the audience in a matter of moments to get them at least momentary attention, otherwise the emails will be directly destroyed or recycled. Some advertisers print each customer’s name on a scheme that is worthless to them, rather than providing a personalized proposal for each reader. The result: Even if we see our name, it may not give us any special feeling!

3. Send the contents of the recipient's concern: The audience concerned about the contents of the business letter is directly related to the personal benefits he actually obtained from the business letter. So when sending a personalized business letter, marketers want to ensure that the same content is sent to the target audience, or that different audiences should receive their respective content of interest. According to the survey results and analysis, select specific things that the recipient cares about and are interested in, and put the related product pictures on the mail.

If you choose the right one, the picture will win the customer's attention, which means that the direct mail has achieved initial success. To show customers what they love, you must know the important things that everyone in the database really cares about. Marketing personnel's excavation of database contents and clever application of business letters will directly affect the final effect of personalized business letters.

4. First observe the data, consult, and then design the sales plan: the best VDP camp. The plan is to focus on the overall audience of the database source, rather than a partial group (such as potential buyers), and require the marketer to observe first Existing databases, and asked: "What do they need, what can we provide? How can we let them know the advantages of our products and services!" In contrast to the first question after understanding the product: "How can I find a buy? "If you have an individual with no unique and obvious features in a particular database, you will not be able to provide that individual with a unique solution." If you only have the address, you may still be able to use the data in the library to make the email more valuable. Just think: “How can I use this information to make life easier for readers?” For example, you can use a postal code to print a map of the reader’s location or provide information on the nearest dealer.

5. Content is simple and clear: content should be designed to make it easy for the recipient to understand, and to make the purchase of the trend, ordering the product must also be simple steps. Most people browse the publications with a relaxed and casual attitude. They do not remember the contents of the publications with a tense mentality. In order to leave the audience with a full and deep impression, the advertising design of the business letter is very complicated and the topics are unclear.

People's memory and concentration are limited. It is impossible to remember too many things in a short period of time. Regular recurrences or reminders are required to keep things in mind. The same applies to advertising marketing and marketing. The content of advertising is not expensive, and it is best to display only one or two points at a time. It is rather willing to provide different focused information through multiple emails in different phases. Do not express a variety of information in one letter and make recipients intimidated and lose interest in reading. In addition, if the marketer can design some readers willing to stick on the wall or on the desk for a long time to retain the reference or appreciation of the content (such as unique Chinese art and craft paintings with unique artistic colors, or triangular calendar with knowledge of the content , of course, with the nature of advertising), can extend the deadline for the audience to pay attention to information.

6. Attract audiences' headlines: Good headlines can increase readers' feedback rate by 2,100%... In a modern society where people are flooded with information, people are selective in getting the information they need. According to statistical surveys, when ordinary people look at popular commercial magazines, their average time spent on each advertising page does not exceed ten seconds! In fact, the average time for each piece of information to stay in people's eyes becomes shorter and shorter, and the information must be attractive enough to keep the reader's eye longer. The habit of readers in general reading is to look at the text and screen of the title to decide whether or not to continue reading the content. The comprehensive layout of the title text and the main body illustration, which are eye-catching and attracting readers' attention or resonance, will further improve readers' reading rate and response rate, and greatly enhance the effect of individual marketing.

7. Timeliness and Frequency of Information: “JIT” refers to providing the relevant information and products they need when they need it. If the marketer can grasp the time period that the customer needs the product, sending the market information required by the customer “in time” will often make the customer not hesitate to make a decision to order the product or service to be promoted. The information comes too early, the time is not yet ripe, customers will not move easily, only the information will be shelved and gradually forgotten. The information comes too late, the purchase decision or behavior is a foregone conclusion and cannot be changed! In many cases, marketers may not be able to accurately determine the customer's demand cycle for the product. They may only rely on high frequency or send relevant promotional emails on a regular basis. They constantly remind customers that they expect to beat the pace of the customer's procurement through multiple deliveries. Increase the success rate of advertising and marketing.

8. Adoption of multi-wave progressive communication: Experts in the advertising and communications industry know that short-term marketing and advertising promotions may not always bring immediate and obvious returns. Many products or services need to experience certain purchases. The brew cycle can only be completed, and customers often need a visual interaction and image exchange for a period of time before they can accept a new product or service provider.

Unless the content of advertisements and products can bring excitement or resonance to the audience, occasional or one-time advertisements and promotions often leave only a vague impression on the audience — deep impressions often require repeated and gradual periodic presentations. Train it out. Therefore, merely relying on a personalized e-mail is not enough to completely impress customers and facilitate purchases. It also requires additional two, three or more rounds of regular, targeted, and step-by-step letter-of-trade promotions. The customer's desire to buy becomes a practical action. Similarly, in the planning process of advertising, long-term, consistent, relevant and targeted advertising and recycling programs are guarantees for return on advertising investment.

9. Clearly mark the deadline: Modern urban life is busy, every second counts and there is always something to do. Most people have become accustomed to not hurry and do nothing, and according to a certain law to arrange the order of things. In addition to dealing with the importance of things, most people tend to sort by deadlines that must be completed, and the longer the deadline, the more often they are dealt with. To increase the customer feedback rate, marketers must try to create pressure for customers to respond. For example, setting a deadline for feedback readers to get gifts must not wait indefinitely. The deadline for sending messages is as short as possible, and should not be valid for the whole year or for the rest of your life, so as to avoid the recipients forgetting or placing non-prioritized matters on the feedback! In order to clearly reflect the concept of time, it should be clearly marked in the business letter when the customer must give the advertiser feedback to the customer's purchase decision, and to declare what must be completed before the deadline.

10. Promotion of instant response discount: According to statistics, advertisements with actual offers can increase the feedback rate up to 300%. Ordinary recipients have a growing period of response to a marketing letter or their advertising content, and may not respond immediately. If marketers and advertisers measure the effectiveness of business letter advertising with the final customer feedback rate, and require shortening the cycle of customer response, in order to see the effectiveness of advertising and promotion in the shortest time, it is necessary to take actions that stimulate customers to respond immediately. "Temporary" price discounts or disguised price incentives (such as Buy One, Get One, etc.) can usually stimulate customers' immediate reactions, transforming their existing purchasing desires into buying actions immediately, reaching short-term sales and markets. The purpose of soaring share. At the same time, advertisers can gain the patronage of additional new customers, convert more potential customers into existing customers, thereby expanding the current number of customers and enriching the database source.

11. Make it easy for customers to say “Yes”: Direct Marketing Experts know well for many years: Making customers easy to say “yes” will be a more effective business promotion method. Therefore, they provide 800 free direct dial telephone numbers so that people do not hesitate to pick up the phone and send orders to the seller. They work with banks to provide customers with instalments (sometimes even out-of-date), or with credit card companies, accepting customers to checkout via credit card - because they know that customers will pay in installments or use credit card numbers to purchase payments, it will be easier and Convenience. By filling out the order form for the customer