The Power of One-to-One Marketing with Variable Data Printing

Personalized marketing has been proven to work. And it doesn’t just work, it actually can increase overall consumer spending up to 500%.

With such a big number, why don’t more businesses take this approach?

First, there’s a little more up-front work. You have to do your research, have a fantastic customer relationship manager (CRM), and make sure you have the right technologies to keep up (like an email marketing platform – if email is your weapon of choice). After that, it’s pretty much smooth sailing, and will help you deliver a highly relevant and effective solution to connect with one consumer at a time.

Let’s dive in to how your business could use one-to-one marketing.

Let’s First Understand One-to-One Marketing

One-to-one marketing, also known as personalized marketing, is a strategy to target individual users with personalized messages through data analysis and digital technology.

The more relevant the information you have is, the greater the chance for you to make a connection with your prospects.

One-to-one marketing isn’t a new idea. This strategy has been used since the invention of sliced bread (and it might be the best thing to happen to your business SINCE sliced bread).

Personalized marketing helps businesses understand their customers, what they like and don’t like, and helps brands up-sell, cross-sell, and provide better service.

And on the consumer side, they can quickly see when a marketing campaign misses the mark and doesn’t apply directly to them.  When your message is more personal, customers are more likely to feel that you understand them and believe that you have their best interests in mind. This belief makes leads and customers more open to hear what you have to say and increases their likelihood to purchase from you.

One of the best ways for businesses to communicate is to use marketing technologies and automation to personalize marketing messages on the individual level. This can be easily integrated into digital campaigns such as email marketing, text messaging, and more.

A word of caution:  personalized marketing isn’t just sending the same materials to your whole contact list, changing their names, and calling it a day. Just using their name doesn’t make them feel like they have a relationship with you. Personalized marketing needs to delve deeper than that. You need to understand what their needs are and then help provide solutions that best address those needs.

Once you figure out how to get more personal with your potential customers digitally, you can take things to another level and impress them even more by using one-to-one marketing in your printed campaigns. This is possible through variable data printing (VDP).

Variable data printing allows for customization on the individual level. With the right data segmentations and a printing partner with the right capabilities, VDP enables you to personalize things such as images, headers, and copy. Variable data printing is a great tool for direct mail campaigns as it yields a higher ROI on a platform that already has a pretty great return on investment.

With variable data printing, your customers will feel like your company is attuned to their interests and they’ll feel super appreciated by your company.

The Benefits of Variable Data Printing

1. Better ROI

Response rates for non-personalized direct mail are around 2%… but with a personalized piece, response rates increase by 300%. Now that’s impressive.

2. Higher Customer Satisfaction

The more you understand about and interact with your customers, the more you can adjust your offerings to create great customer experiences, and the more loyal they’ll be to your brand and become repeat customers.

They’ll also become your biggest advocates! People who tell their friends and family about your products are your biggest (free!) marketing tool.

3. Quick Turnaround

Variable data printing is FAST. Some machines can turn around 84,000 sheets of paper with variable data printing on both sides in one hour. At over 1,000 sheets an hour, it won’t slow down your campaign’s message to market.

How to Use One-to-One Marketing

Whether you choose to do a one-to-one campaign digitally (video, email, text, etc.) or by print (or both!), these are the steps you’ll have to take to do any sort of personalization.

1. Identify Your Prospects and Customers

You’ll have to put some work into this on an ongoing basis, like gathering and recording lead and customer data from any of their touchpoints with you.

2. Interact with Them

You’ll need to have conversations and build a relationship with your customers to collect data. By asking for feedback, you’ll be able to better understand your customers and their needs.

And what’s a better place to start than by learning from your best and most valuable customers? The more you understand about their needs and preferences, the more you can adjust your offerings to attract more people just like them.

Then, you’ll be able to provide those customers with not only the products and services they want, but also get an edge on your competitors.

And, as you make the push to learning more about your individual customers, you’ll be able to develop a better relationship with them. Bonus points!

3. Segment Them

With the information gathered about your customers, your next step is to segment them into groups. This will vary based on what kind of business you are and what details are most valuable to you. Segmenting customers is the step right before you personalize on an individual level.

4. Personalize Your Marketing Materials

Now, it’s time to personalize your products, messages, and services to your customers. With variable data printing, you can also personalize the images on your printed pieces.

5. Track Your Results

Don’t miss this key last step! Track your results so that you can make your next campaign even better.

One-to-one marketing is becoming increasingly important as consumers pay less attention to mass marketing as they gravitate to more personally relevant connections. You should be using it in every aspect of your business, including both digital and printed marketing materials.

We think direct mail is a great platform for one-to-one marketing. Check out these articles to see how you can get more up close and personal to your customers with direct mail:

How to Run a Successful Direct Mail Campaign in 2020

The Power of Print and Digital Messages

For more information or to get started, email us: hello@prismagraphic.com