Outsourcing data print management for more personalised results

Craig Green

Craig Green, electronic print manager for Point, says that marketing campaigns need to be increasingly consumer-centric and this demand now sees the company offering a variable data management printing service. This is where nuggets of consumer information are mined from a good database and then utilised in a personal communication with a specific client in a printed or electronic format.

He says that knowledge of the individual client is required to achieve effective one-to-one marketing, including simple address information as well as more targeted information such as buying patterns, product specific choices or income information.

"This is the variable data required for one-to-one communication. Various fields in the data are marked to personalise the message to the recipient. It is generally accepted that the more personalised the offer, the better the response. Printing a name and address on a generic pre-printed form for example has a much lower response rate than a colour, fully personalised letter or a tailored email if this is the means of communication the consumer prefers."

Because of the need to capture the attention of the recipient in a very short space of time, the more precise the variable data is, the greater the success of the communication campaign is likely to be. However, many companies do not have the resources or the time to effectively gather and utilise this variable data to achieve the most successful results.

The company now offers this outsourced variable data print management function. It uses a web portal, where campaigns can be customised and personalised to appeal to individual consumers. This is done through a streamlined online process where artwork developed by the client or its agency is tagged so that the fields that are to be personalised are marked. These fields will vary from recipient to recipient. The tagged artwork is uploaded to a website and then the client can upload a data file, which the backend system uses to personalise each individual communication.

"The simple storefront and shopping basket arrangement allows the customer to proof their campaign prior to submitting for distribution. The package allows the communication to be emailed, printed or sent to a personalised URL or website," he concludes.