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In a world where customers are constantly getting bombarded with marketing material vying for their attention, customisation is becoming more and more important for brands to differentiate themselves from the competition. Variable-data printing helps brands do this.
What is Variable-Data Printing?
Variable-data printing (VDP) allows brands to create customised marketing campaigns to engage their customers more specifically and give them a more personalised experience. In a Linksys study, 86% of people said that personalisation has at least some impact on what they purchase. Additionally, variable-data printing offers brands the opportunity to reach more customers as 72% of customers say they only engage with personalised messaging.
Examples of print-marketing VDP campaigns include:
- Coupons and special offers
- Thank-you notes
- Envelopes
- Labels
- Postcards
- Packaging
- QR codes
- Brochures
- Fact sheets
- Proposals
Variable-data printing allows brands to create customised marketing campaigns to reach customers on a more personal level. Before variable-data printing, each label or product packaging would have had to be customised individually. This invariably took an extremely long time. But with VDP technology, it's all automated. After choosing a design for your print product, the software will utilise the data from large customer databases and fill in all the variables for each customer. Variables can include anything from a name or a personal message to fully customised pieces with a bespoke design, images and text.
How to use Variable-Data Printing To Create a Personalised Brand Experience
1. Print Personalised Discount Coupons Based on a Customer’s Purchasing History
The purchasing behaviour of customers can be effectively used to drive further sales through personalised coupons. The past purchase data of each customer can be taken from your e-commerce store and then presented in the form of a discount for frequently purchased items. This form of marketing is effective because it’s extremely targeted – providing customers with discounts on items they already purchase and dissuading them from purchasing them elsewhere.
2. Add Personalised URLs to Marketing Campaigns
Personalised URLs (PURLs) are the online version of variable-data printing. PURLs can be customised using variable-data fields from databases.
For example, if your business is in the travel industry and you send a postcard to John via email, he clicks on a URL that will take him to a personalised microsite with a postcard personally addressed to him containing a special offer enticing him to visit the destination pictured on the postcard.
Image source: printingforless.com
If John has been on your business’s website lately and searched for travel deals to a certain location, this customer-behaviour data could be incorporated into a PURL marketing campaign. Retargeting John by linking to a personalised offer through a PURL not only increases the chances of conversion but also gives companies the ability to track the results of the campaign more effectively.
By being able to track the click-through rate of PURLs and the number of conversions that come from each PURL, companies can track how well this form of marketing works, as well as adjust it when they see customers leave the sales funnel at certain times.
PURLs have been shown to be an effective form of marketing. In fact, studies indicate that using PURLs can improve response rates by up to 50%.
3. Speak Your Customers’ Language
If your brand offers goods or services worldwide, changing the language of your marketing material to match that of the customer’s home country can really make an impact. The same can be true if you market in a diverse and multilingual country like South Africa.
By tracking what language their browser is set to, businesses can tailor their communications to a customer’s preferred language, thereby reinforcing their resonance with the brand.
Image source: subtle-straus.com
Furthermore, communicating with customers in their language, instead of stock-standard English, gives brands an extra edge by proving that they are willing to go that extra mile to connect with their customers.
4. Create Personalised Location-based Offers
If you’re opening up a new branch, or you simply just want to increase awareness of an existing one, location-based store coupons are a great way to do this. You can use the cookies on your website to see where customers are based and send them a coupon via email with a discount code that they can use at their closest branch, along with a map that directs them to it.
Image source: econsultancy.com
5. Send Out Date-specific Coupons
When customers sign up for a mailing list or rewards scheme, they often have to enter their date of birth. Use this data to your advantage and send out personalised birthday coupons on their special day. The same can be done with anniversary dates – if your business is wedding-oriented, it’s common to request the wedding date when a groom- or bride-to-be purchases something from your online store or signs up to your mailing list.
Image source: printingforless.com
6. Create Personalised Brochures Designed Around Clients’ Buying Data
Providing an extremely customised experience, personalised brochures have text and graphics that are totally unique to the recipient. As a health or wellness company, think of the data that you might have on your customers’ spending habits, such as the vitamins and minerals they buy.
After having customers complete an online questionnaire that asks very specific health questions, they would then receive a brochure detailing their own health profile in graphs and text, as well as suggestions of what to buy in the future. The brochure could also include special offers for them to take advantage of, and perhaps even a buy-in to get them to do another “free” health evaluation in 6 months’ time to track their progress. This is a great way to encourage them to engage with you as a caring wellness company. The ROI here is priceless.
Key Takeaways
As you can see from the above examples, there are numerous ways to utilise variable-data printing to create personalised brand experiences and increase engagement. Customers don’t want to feel like they are just another number in a customer database and variable-data printing can help them feel like they aren’t.
By using data already at your disposal, brands can customise offers depending on location, language or purchase history, as well as add a personal touch by presenting clients with a birthday- or anniversary-specific offer. With variable-data printing, the possibilities for customisation are endless.
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