How Can My Business Use Variable Data Printing

There are often terms or services that printing companies offer that customers do not understand.

In this article, we’re taking a look at variable data printing and how it can benefit your business.

What is variable data printing?

Variable data printing — or one-to-one marketing or personalised printing — offers customised, targeted encounters with potential customers, making it a powerful marketing option.

In the digital printing process, each turn of an imaging cylinder is a unique impression that is transferred to a page. Variable data printing capitalises on this by picking up customised artwork for each page based on information from a database and rules that are set up within a variable data software program.

Variable elements can include text, graphics, photos, colours and more. In addition, the variable data can be placed onto each page on a simple record-by-record basis, or the contents of a page can be controlled by rules based on relationships among data fields.

This service allows marketers to produce customised printed documents by designating text or graphics that are then replaced using a database. One document is designed but, by using variable data printing, many uniquely personalised pieces can be created to target individuals or groups.

Why does my business need variable data printing?

Variable data printing has been shown to dramatically increase response rates, while reducing overall printing costs due to shorter, more targeted print runs.

We live in a media-heavy world, where the mass amounts of mail, email, billboards, TV and radio, all compete for consumer attention.

Printing variable data mailers that are customised to your audience, grab their attention and in return gives you a better response. Consider the power of being able to create a custom message for each recipient, catered to their age, gender, interests, buying habits, address and more.

Variable data printing is also a faster, more economical way to print because:

• you only need to print as many as you need (depending on the size of your database)
  
  
• you can test market a piece with a partial selection of your database, adjust the piece based on response rate and finish the run at a later time.
  
  
• you can print addresses directly on to the piece.

SOURCE: Imagine