Alf Nucifora

In spite of the Internet hoopla, people still like the printed page whether it’s their favorite magazine or a slick, glossy brochure.

An interesting fact about printing is that it really hasn’t changed much in the past 25 years, with the exception of the application of digital technology. Yet the merging of that technology and database information makes it possible for each printed page to be different from all the others.

As a result, text and images can be varied so printed pieces sent to customers and prospects can now be completely customized.

The starting point is a database that can be developed in a number of different ways. For the average small business, it could be data compiled from registration cards, business cards, sales contacts, and even inquiry information deposited on a Web site.

From there, the database is merged with a digital process whereby the final printed piece is created on a computer and digitally transmitted to the printing press.

Because the press is digitally driven, the data can be customized from page to page, brochure to brochure, prospect to prospect, just as fast as the printing system can image it. (Systems like the AGFA Chromapress can image up to 70 different letter-sized pages per minute.)

Of course it costs more to print this way, but the payoff comes in significantly increased impact. Industry research has shown that customized mailings can increase response rates up to 24.5 percent in average order size and 47.6 percent in repeat orders.

The beauty of variable-data printing is that you can speak to each person differently and treat each customer as an individual. It’s a recap of the one-to-one marketing notion coined by Don Peppers. Instead of selling one product at a time to as many customers as possible, “the goal of the one-to-one marketer is to sell one customer at a time as many products as possible over the lifetime of that customer’s patronage,” Peppers says.

Setting up a customized printing process is not without its trials and tribulations. Says Jason Altenberg of Nashville-based Omni Art Supply Corp., “People are simply not savvy with databases and the problem is that their files are not set up the right way.”

Jim Bodenbender is president of Madison Information Technologies, a Chicago-based provider of technology to the health care industry, and a heavy user of variably printed, customized sales materials.

Bodenbender identifies four problems that his firm has encountered in setting up the system.

The first involves the standard concerns of fine-tuning the sales message. Then there are the technical glitches involving customized binding and assembly. Add to that the constant concern of making sure the material always carries a professional look, followed by the necessity to train salespeople to use the system the way it was intended.

But companies that meet those challenges can see big results.

The Tropicana casino in Las Vegas created a personalized mailing targeted at its most loyal customers. The mailer was designed to resemble a passport and contained a message from the customer’s personal travel host, along with a reply card that allowed the recipient to select the gaming tournaments they were interested in attending.

The prospect’s name and address were printed on the back of the mailer and the name repeated on the front of the passport. The customer’s personal travel host also had a picture and message featured in the brochure.

But here’s the twist different travel hosts were matched with recipients based on screening criteria. The result was a 22 percent response rate and a sell-out of the slot machine tournaments in record time.

At Novartis Seeds, direct mail is personalized to the farmer and his or her unique operation. It’s done by using images and text tailored to where the farmers live and how they farm. Even the color of the farmer’s tractor (green or red) is taken into account in the photography.

Illustrations reinforce the type of farm (livestock or cash grain), and copy supports the relationship with the salesperson and what is being recommended. The customer’s name is placed on the cover and the piece is personalized throughout.

The brochure reflects the vendor’s acknowledgment of what the customer has already ordered and the promoted products are selected from 750 possible versions based on the customer’s geographic location and growing conditions. The result is that every farmer receives a highly customized, glossy printed brochure that is generating response rates of up to 17 percent.

At Madison Information Technologies, Bodenbender is also customizing responses to trade show leads, as well as standard new business proposals. He customizes by featuring photographs of the prospect’s facility, pictures of the sales representative and/or client/prospect, as well as an elaboration of the specific benefits to the prospect in question. Bodenbender works off 10 basic templates, each of which can be customized in copy and graphics.

For his company, the benefits of a customized mailing are obvious, as they would be for most growing businesses. Madison prides itself on being a people company, marketing itself to a health care industry that is very much driven by person-to-person relationships.

And, for the first time, Madison can engage in true one-to-one marketing, at least in terms of how it communicates through the printed word.

Alf Nucifora is an Atlanta-based marketing consultant. He can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected], his Web site www.nucifora.com, or by fax at (770) 952-7834.