Teaching VDP to Speak

A common question is, “how do you sell VDP?” Perhaps you let VDP speak for itself.

The following is one of our favorite techniques for demonstrating the power and value of VDP. It requires very few words and no convincing. If your customer doesn't respond positively, check his pulse.

Tom’s university alumni group is soliciting money for the school. Tom receives the following postcard asking for money.

What would your response be to this postcard?

Now, assume Tom receives a different postcard:

In case you didn’t recognize him, that's Tom in the picture with his old football teammates.

At this point, it’s important to mention that a recent study found that 68% of people go through their mail within reach of a trash can.

Then, ask three simple questions:

1) Which of the postcards is most likely to go in the trash and which one is most likely to go on the fridge or the desk?

2) Which postcard will raise the most money?

3) Which postcard uses VDP?

There’s a good chance you have raised your customer’s interest in learning more about VDP. The next step might be recommend starting with one or two test projects to let the customer become convinced that VDP works.

With EZ-VDP, this approach is, well...easier.

Turbocharge Your Newsletter with VDP

If you send out a printed monthly newsletter, why not turbocharge it by using VDP to embed the recipient's company name (or personal name) in an attention-getting image on the front page? This falls in the category of "practice what you preach".

Some of the advantages of this include:

1. Getting more attention for your newsletter (few newsletters do this)
2. Demonstrating the power of VDP to your customers
3. Showing your prowess with VDP
4. Validating your company as a solution provider
5. Making your newsletter standout from the rest

Now, here's a special incentive...with Easy VDP^SM, adding some personalization to a newsletter may actually add nothing to the cost. Contact us for ideas about adding personalization your newsletter.

QR Code Tools & Tips



Customized vCard QR Code



One of the better uses for a QR code is to capture and share vCard information. Scanning the QR code (and a few button pushes) can very quickly store a host of contact information in a smart phone such as:

• First and last names
• Phone numbers - mobile, home, work, fax, etc.
• Email address, URL, web site, IM
• Company, department, title
• Street, city, state, ZIP code, country
• Notes, birthday, etc.

Here’s a web site that has a nice interface for creating a QR code from vCard information or many other types of input data: http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/qrcode-datamatrix-generator/default.asp?qrVCard.

When you look at the raw code, you will see that the secret to QR codes is the use of tags to identify or label each string of information.

Once you have created a QR code, the natural question has to be, “does thing work?” So, here’s another web site that will decode what’s in a QR code: http://www.onlinebarcodereader.com. You simply upload the QR code as an image and get back the contents in “code” form and in plain language. Try copying and pasting the QR code above to see how it works.

As the amount of information contained in the QR code increases, the “physical” size of the code symbol and the number of “dots” also increase. This means that QR codes with vCard information will need to have larger dimensions than a code with something simple like a phone number. Too small, and the scanning may not work well, or at all.

Once you have generated a vCard QR code, you will see it is a large and hideous thing. However, there are ways to dress them up a bit. The most critical factors are keeping the contrast high and the resolution good. See the example above.

A word of caution to avoid wasting a lot of time - the more information in a QR code, the larger the printed image must be. As the amount of information increases, the module (smallest square element) size decreases for a fixed size of QR code. One reference suggests that for a QR code containing only a URL the minimum print size should be 1.25 x 1.25 inches. A vCard QR code may need to be a minimum of 4 x 4 inches to be compatible with the resolution of the majority of smart phones.

QR codes can be used in your VDP project in almost any way that you would use variable graphics - in fact, that's what they end up being. On pieces where the customer includes individual pictures of their representatives, you might suggest adding a vCard QR code for the representative. Although not all that high-tech, that would certainly be at the leading-edge of common usage for both variable data printing and QR codes.

For more information see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qr_code

Glossary for Variable Data Printing (VDP) Printers

It may sound confusing, but we wanted to create a glossary for printers printing VDP. VDP isn't just about software nor is it simply about marketing. There is also database management, programming, addressing and mailing, among others.

As a teaser, how familiar are you with these terms:

• EMM
• Nixie
• Firmographics
• Seeding
• A/B testing
• Placeholder
• Key code

The glossary is available for download in PDF and will be appended (that’s in the glossary) as time goes on.

Feel free to recommend additions.

Team DFS

How to Sell Variable Data Printing with Confidence

Confidence is critical to selling anything. Just as animals can sense fear, customers are quick to perceive a lack of confidence on the part of a salesperson. Once this happens, customers’ apprehension levels increase and the sales process rapidly deteriorates. Offering and executing variable data printing (VDP) jobs, while turning a profit, can have so many uncertainties that exuding confidence is a challenge –

• Can I deal with the customer’s data efficiently?
• What if I bring up VDP job and can’t deliver what the customer ultimately wants?
• Will he want a special effect or something else I can’t do in-house?
• Are my staff and software up to the challenge?
• How many hours will all the data and file work take?
• Where do I go if I have a problem with some part of this job?

Any or all of these questions can certainly be confidence-busters. If it’s not obvious, the questions all boil down to a simple point: how do I create the VDP print files and how much will they cost? If the answers to all of these questions were clear and simple, the confidence in selling VDP would be much higher. 

 

Printers commonly outsource all sorts of work such as data cleansing and mail presorting. Why? They do it because they can’t do the work in-house or they can get it done cheaper/better/faster by outsourcing it. Why not outsource the VDP print file-related work, or, at least, all of the parts that raise questions and reduce confidence? 

Even print shops regularly selling and printing VDP jobs can have issues: a customer wants a tough special effect, the in-house is out for a week or there’s just too much work to do. Again, outsourcing would be the answer to keep things going.

Where do you find this outsourced VDP resource? You’re already there.

VDP Security Opportunities

There is no question that security has become increasingly important in modern society. The capability of VDP to create thousands of unique printed pieces provides some interesting security-related opportunities for printers.

Consider large gatherings such as business meetings or entertainment events. We recently created VDP print files for 6,000+ tickets for a nationally televised major awards program. Sorry, we can’t say which one…for security reasons. We were not privy to the security procedures, but the organizers did have a database with the identity of the celebrity invitees and each ticket had a unique bar code.

In this situation, the organizer might have used various techniques to verify the identities of ticketholders. Having scanned the bar-coded ticket, the ticket collectors could ask for something as simple as ticketholders’ phone numbers or even required some type of photo ID to compare to the database of invitees.

Depending on the type of event, there can be the potential to include the addressing directly on the ticket or invitation itself which could simplify mailing, increase security and deter counterfeiting.

Similar VDP techniques could be used to put personally identifying URLs, codes, serial numbers, QR codes, etc. on mailed pieces to verify receipt or access by the proper person, not unlike the process used by credit card companies. Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of VDP relative to security is the use of variable graphics to include photographs.

Our customers often use variable graphics to include pictures of their representatives on promotional pieces for personalization purposes. However, it also affords recipients a measure of security by knowing that the person knocking at the door resembles the picture they received in the mail. More and more companies providing “at home” services are moving in this direction.

Keep a look out for opportunities to provide or recommend the security-related opportunities with VDP. Customers may not readily recognize the need or the security potential of VDP. It’s a question that could bear interesting fruit. Besides, security-related applications, by their nature, may be less sensitive to price than other printing projects.

John Lennon and Variable Data Printing

What if John Lennon had envisioned a perfect world of variable data printing in his song, Imagine?. Perhaps it would go something like the following. In case you need some help, here's a link to the tune so that you can sing along to create an interactive multimedia blog experience - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCuzpB5p9hg

Imagine there’s no software

It's easy if you try

No need for merging

Just download all the files

Imagine all the printers

Printing VDP, ooh hoo

Imagine that there's no data

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to cleanse or presort

And no addressing too..

You get the idea.

Imagine if there were such a world of VDP, what would you do? What could you do? Here are some potential answers –

• Sell VDP with more confidence
• Discard concerns about dealing with the customer’s data
• Create any type of personalization
• Reduce the amount of work you send to the mail house
• Freely design VDP campaigns as simply or as extravagantly as you desire
• Don’t worry about keeping or hiring a VDP staff person…maybe you wouldn’t want one
• Show customers the value of data enhancement
• Forget about software and maintaining proficiency
• Always know your costs for a VDP job before quoting
• Expand your business without adding specialized staff

Just as John Lennon had visions of a world of peace and harmony, we have visions of a day when printers are free to use VDP any way they want to grow their businesses and better satisfy their customers.

The world of perfect VDP is closer than you think…http://www.digitalformattingservices.com/

CPrint Surprises

Being a new Premiere Partner for CPrint International Affiliates, we sent our CTO, Dave, to their Annual Sales Conference outside of Chicago last month. Of course, we are delighted to be working with all of the CPrint folks.

The first surprise about this event is that we cannot keep Dave from reminding us how impressed he was with all of the presentations. As a former print shop owner, it’s hard to impress Dave on print shop-related topics. Therefore, our hats are off to CPrint on that count. The rest of us at DFS had the additional surprise that someone could get Dave into a coat and tie.

The second surprise came the day after the conference. A CPrint Affiliate contacted us to say he had just “lost” his VDP person and needed some help. Happily, we had a new customer and the Affiliate got more VDP capability than he previously had while not feeling pressured to find a new VDP person immediately.

Sweet CPrint surprises!

QR Codes: Tattooed or Tasty?

Amid the quandry about good uses for QR codes comes two new stories - one quite clever and one blantantly bizarre.

A supermarket chain took advantage of several characteristics of life in Korea to use QR codes to more than double their sales. Cleverly, they replicated the supermarkets' shelves on subway platforms so that commuters can shop with their smartphones and have their groceries delivered when they arrive at home.

http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/koreas-tesco-reinvents-grocery-shopping-with-qr-code-stores-20110628/

On the other end of the scale and demonstrating the potential to be a future Darwin Award candidate, a man has a QR code tattooed on his chest that links to a whiskey company's Facebook page. There are so many things wrong with this, we can't even begin to cover them. After all, how can you focus the smartphone when the QR code's on your chest?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20078153-71/man-has-qr-code-tattooed-onto-chest-really/

The use of QR codes by the supermarket points to one of the better uses of QR codes - allowing the user to collect and use lots of information. For many smartphone users, scanning a single QR code to see a website is more trouble than it's worth. But, being able to scan lots of QR codes to get something done makes the effort worthwhile.

Skills Needed for VDP

For the average trade printer, there has been no such thing as “easy VDP”. If there is any doubt about this, see the 109-page paper from College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Designing for Digital: Skill Sets Needed to Design for Variable Data*.

The paper's author, Jessica Jordan, puts it this way,

“Eventually, designers will need to be familiar with the skills of a marketer, programmer, database analyst, and printer. The following list of skill sets for designers of VDP has been identified ...

• Information, knowledge, and experience in VDP
• Networking and system integration skills
• Business and marketing awareness
• Image, color management, and asset management skills
• Text manipulation and process skills
• Knowledge of programming skills
• Database administration
• Proper preparation and data-mining skills
• General design skills
• Proper layout for addressing VDP pieces
• Proper coding being placed along mailing address
• USPS rules and mailing penalties
• Cross-media development skills

In summary, …one possible reason for the delay in growth for VDP, was that designers do not have adequate training or skills needed for VDP.”

The paper’s conclusions are on the mark. However, developing or staffing for all of these skills is not practical for the average print shop. The paper focuses on how printers acquire these skills in-house but does not address the potential of outsourcing the work needed to create VDP print files for in-house printing.

Ta-Da!

*The full paper is available here: https://ritdml.rit.edu/bitstream/handle/1850/10895/35274_pdf_707B6614-DF7A-11DE-A4BD-8F409E1A67F9.pdf?sequence=1