The Power of Personalization

"Personalization is not a trend. It is a marketing tsunami, here to stay,…" Forbes magazine 2015

People are fed up being constantly bombarded by useless, impersonal mass-marketing messages. They struggle to keep their individuality wanting only a smidgen of acknowledgement, appreciation and respect. That's what makes personalization so powerful…it recognizes their individuality.

The following postcard includes 10 simple personalization elements using the sport shop's customer database. Can you identify them?

 

Click to enlarge

#1 & #2 – The recipient's name is used in the text on the front and back. While this is very simple element to use is so commonplace in 2015, it can be a turn-off if used without further personalization.

#3 & #4 – The sport shop's database indicates the recipient, Michelle, previously purchased women's golf equipment and clothing. The name "Michelle" indicates the recipient is female with a 99% degree of certainty. This information suggests the use an image of a female golfer to make an instant visual "connection" with Michelle.

#5 & #6 – Similarly, the message focuses on women's golf clothing with a picture of such clothing on the front and back.

#7 & #8 – The "unadvertised" message strongly implies the store recognizes Michelle as a previous (and valued) customer. The "online" code acknowledges that Michelle buys online as well as in the store.

#9 – The return address shows the location and phone number for the retail store closest to Michelle's mailing address rather than a corporate address.

#10 – This is a message personalized for Michelle. Therefore, the terribly impersonal slight, "Or Current Occupant", makes no sense and has been eliminated from the address.

Michelle could hardly miss the fact that the sports shop knows who she is and is working to offer her things she wants. You shouldn't miss the techniques used to track response to the postcard. If you don't see it, give us a call.

Mining a Mailing List for Gold

Most people see a mailing list as a simple collection of names and addresses. We see a mailing list as an opportunity to know your customers or recipients better. This knowledge makes it possible to focus your message, promotions or appeals to match and provide more value to the recipient. And, making your communication valuable is key to increasing response rates, selling more products and services, receiving more donations, acquiring new customers…whatever your communication goal might be. In the following, we explore some of the “gold” you can get from your mailing list.

Geographic Location – The town or city and street addresses provide you details such as the school district, local schools, voting district, fire and tax districts, cable, water, sewer and utility companies, etc. for those addresses.

Location Demographics – While a town/city and street addresses provides specific information about locations they also give a reasonable idea about the demographics of those living at those locations. For example, it’s easy to identify the relative affluence of neighborhoods or different areas. This information then suggests with reasonable certainty characteristics such as minimum annual income, typical education level, home value, etc. Regardless the business, this if often very valuable to identify target audiences or target areas.

Residence type – Residence type (apartment versus single family home) often provides good clues about a person’s lifestyle. For example, apartment dwellers typically do not own lawn mowers or have need for landscaping, roofing, plumbing or electrical services. The opposite is true for those living in single family dwellings. Addresses that include “Apt.”, “Bldg.”, “Unit”, etc. are most likely apartments and may be identified as such by the USPS address processing software.

Prefixes – Prefixes can tell you about the recipient’s gender, likely marital status, education level and occupation. “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, “Miss” and “Ms.” are dead giveaways for gender and potential indicators of marital status for women (don’t take the marital status as a certainty, however). “Rev”, “Fr” (Father), “Dr”, “Atty”, “Prof”, Hon (Honorable) and the whole gamut of military ranks provide good clues about occupation and possibly education level.

Suffixes - Suffixes are sometimes called post nominal letters meaning “letters after the name”. They might start to look like alphabet soup, but they can tell you a lot about the recipient. Some common suffixes include “J.D.” and “Esq. (lawyers), “MD”, “OD”, “DO” and “DMD” (doctors), “CPA”, “CMA” and “ABA” (accountants)…and there are hundreds more! Suffixes provide very specific detail about occupation and education level which can be assumed to a relative gauge of income level and other characteristics.

Gender – Having a gender field (male/female or M/F) in a mailing list is a huge benefit since gender is a major differentiation for many communications. It might be sexist, but very few men like to shop for women’s undergarments. Similarly, not many women shop for hi-performance truck accessories. If your mailing list doesn’t have a gender field, there are techniques for creating one from the addressees’ names.

Do you ask customers about their mailing lists? Some of them might be quite interested to know more about their customer base or their market. This information helps determine if they are sending the wrong message, sending to the wrong audience or missing a key element to get more attention or business. You simply can’t know without mining the gold from a mailing list.

We can help you with this. PrintShopMarketing.com

Re-Think Mailing

It’s no surprise. Given the general downturn in mailing volume (see graph below), many print shop owners are questioning why they should spend several thousand dollars to renew their address presort and processing software. That question usually leads to other questions about printing and VDP software as well all of the time, cost and risk of doing mailing jobs. Add to those more questions about what’s in store regarding the USPS’ delayed Full Service Intelligent Mail Barcode program.

Fortunately, we have an answer. You can outsource all of your data merge and clean up, address list processing and print file creation work to us. You do what you do best: design, printing, finishing, etc. You simply send us mailing lists and artwork. We do all the hard stuff and deliver to you pre-addressed and pre-sorted, printer-ready VDP files imposed and ordered the way you want.

That means there is no software to buy, learn, update or renew or specials skills to learn. It also means you and your staff have more time to do important things such as selling, serving customers and all those things that make your business profitable. You also will likely also come to realize that by outsourcing you have gained a whole new set of capabilities from more data and data management services to all types of personalization and advanced VDP solutions.

Is it time for you to re-think your mailing process? If it is, give us a call.

Digital Formatting Services

The Magic Bullet for Small Print Shops

When confronted by difficult or complex situations, it’s normal to look for easy solutions, painless cures and so-called “magic bullets”. Magic bullets supposedly work almost instantly, require no significant effort or investment and have no adverse effects. Small and quick printers need not search for magic bullets to improve their businesses…they can get them from any unicorn. Seriously, you can find magic bullets if you look in the right places.

Not-So Magic Bullets

Before telling you where to look, it’s important that we understand why so many supposed magic bullets have proven ineffective…why so many printers get so little out of the vast array of tools promoted by the print industry. Suppliers may argue to the contrary, but most magic bullets are too expensive, too complicated and/or require skills small printers don’t have and can’t readily acquire. Many magic bullets may work well for larger print shops with adequate financial and staff resources, but for small and quick printers they’re duds right out of the box. 

The website development magic bullet, for example, doesn’t work for many small printers because they don’t have the necessary skills of online marketing, copywriting, programming, search engine optimization, etc. Marketing services might seem like a viable magic bullet for small printers, but the websites (or lack of thereof) and online presence of many small and quick printers indicate this is likely to be another misfire. 

Many magic bullets such as QR codes, promotional items, email campaigns, signs and banners never left the gun for many small printers. Perhaps the classic case was the variable data printing magic bullet that ended up being nothing more than a very loud blank cartridge. Small printers bought VDP software by the truckload but were thwarted by the breadth of skills and extra software needed to create data-driven print files. 

What Are Magic Bullets?

All of this points out that magic bullets for small printers must be affordable, easy to use and sell and require minimal or no additional skills in order to be beneficial. See if you think the following three examples meet the criteria of magic bullets:

Magic Bullet #1 – DIY Mailings

You print pre-addressed postcards on your digital press using print files made from your customer’s design and address list. You cut, sort and drop off the job at the post office…done! You do all of this without buying any software, without studying the postal regulations, without cleaning up the customer’s address list, without filling out the USPS paperwork and without selling anything. If you know how to print, cut, count and the location of your post office, this is a potential magic bullet for you.

Magic Bullet #2 – Simple Personalization

Your customer needs tickets or forms which include unique numbering and a custom barcode. You send out the customer’s artwork and numbering/barcode requirements to a vendor who sends you printer-ready files, imposed the way you want, for your digital press. You print, cut and deliver the job without knowing anything about barcodes or creating them and without any new software or special skills. This fits the requirement of a magic bullet and you probably don’t even have to do any selling (customers usually don’t care how you things done). 

Magic Bullet #3 – Capturing VDP Opportunities

Your largest customer says his new marketing campaign requires mailing 20,000 self-mailers per month for about a year. He then says he needs to include some variable data such as image swapping, personalized salutations and the local agent’s contact details for each recipient. You simply say. “Send me your artwork and data and I’ll take care of it”. You contact your VDP print file vendor and forward him the customer’s material. Your vendor does all the data and address processing work and creates the VDP files for you to print. After printing and approving the proofs, you print, cut, sort and mail the jobs…month-after-month. Your biggest customer has become even bigger. You’ve done little more than find your vendor, take an order and do what you do best: printing and satisfying customers. Wouldn’t you call that a magic bullet? 

Look again at the three situations above and see how they fit the requirements for magic bullets: 

• Easy to use (you outsource the data and print file work then you print and deliver)
• Easy to sell (in many cases, selling isn’t necessary)
• Minimal or no additional skills needed (any skills relate primarily to taking orders)
• No upfront investment (services are pay-as-you-go)
• Immediate application (you can start selling and using today)
• You’ll have to trust us about the cost…but that’s a great reason to call

We aren’t unicorns but we do have plenty of magic bullets for you. Get yours and put them to work.

Web: www.ez-vdp.com

Phone: 888 977 4711 x134

Email: support@ez-vdp.com

Stop Stupid Marketing

Stupid Marketing: The process of trying to attract business while accomplishing just the opposite.

You'd be amazed how many print shop owners are quite good at stupid marketing. They aren't actually stupid but they aren't professional marketers, either. Stupid marketing mistakes are often obvious and can be disastrous.

One classic example of stupid marketing is: 

A print shop owner looking to expand his business finishes some lessons and decides to identify himself as a marketing services provider. As a good marketer, he knows he must let all of his customers know about his new services. He designs a very clever direct mail postcard campaign and adds some personalization to impress his audience. 

The campaign is hugely successful as evidenced by the print shop’s website experiencing a 45% increase in traffic immediately after the postcards are delivered. However, no phone calls, emails or any other communications are forthcoming. In fact, business overall seems to turn down rather than up! 

What’s the problem? Stupid marketing, of course!

As happens too often, the print shop owner failed to stand back and look at the image he was projecting to the marketplace. What’s that?

The owner did a great job announcing his new services and pushing his customers to his website…but, his old, ugly website delivered a totally different message to his customers:

• He does/did a lousy job of marketing himself
• He doesn’t keep his own marketing up-to-date
• He’s not particularly good with details
• He doesn’t have much sensitivity to image or brand
• If he’s this sloppy in his marketing, what else suffers?

Ouch! If you think the “stupid marketing” label is too harsh, consider this: the printer spent time and money to deliver a very negative message about his capability, image and brand to a large portion of his customer base. More to the point...he paid to drive away his existing customers! What do you call that?

We make this point intentionally edgy because we continue to see print shop owners doing this. But, now the good news!

We also see many other businesses doing exactly the same thing.

If your print shop does website design, you may have just learned a new trick for identifying and selling website opportunities.