The document discusses how personalization is crucial for marketing success in today's cluttered advertising environment. It emphasizes that personalizing communications based on customer data helps cut through the clutter by engaging customers on an individual level. The document also provides examples of how companies have increased response rates and sales by implementing personalized marketing campaigns that tailor content and offers to each recipient's needs and purchase history. It describes tools like variable data printing and marketing asset management systems that make personalized marketing scalable and cost-effective.

1. Marketing Success
Starts with Personalization

2. We already know that today’s consumers are bombarded by marketing,
advertising and promotional messages like never before. It’s an endless sea
of clutter that is becoming exponentially more difficult to rise above.
Fortunately, digital technology and marketing smarts have provided a solution
to this problem. It’s personalization.
In an age when Web sites remember names, purchases and even shopping
patterns, customers and prospects have come to expect and desire a more
personalized experience. As a marketer, knowing your audience and sending
out communications that individualize offers and opportunities is a powerful way
to cut through the clutter and engage the customer on a one-to-one level. Of
course, the critical success factor is the relevance of the information itself. Your
initial contact with the customer is the ideal time to start collecting as much data
as possible. Obtaining more information with each subsequent touch point will
enable you to further tailor your communications and begin laying the foundation
for a more effective relationship marketing program.
Personalized Communication Engages the Customer
Boost Sales with the Power of Personalization
Direct mail can be a powerful marketing tool, because
it lets you drive sales with powerful offers at exactly the
right time. But the difference between keeping that mail
in a recipient’s hand and out of the trash is how well
targeted your offer is. It has been proven that response
rates are dramatically higher with personalized direct
mail than with generic, static mailers (DMA, 2003). In fact,
InfoTrends recent direct mail research indicates that
64 percent of consumers prefer highly personalized
materials and unique offers.
More investment
in personalized
communication is
critical to the success
of marketing campaigns
and, to some extent,
business results
as a whole.
Because personalization
demonstrates your
understanding of a
prospects’ needs,
it enhances relationships,
improves response
rates and, ultimately,
boosts sales.
Integrating personalization throughout all elements of your marketing mix
can help cultivate a powerful long-term relationship.
Advertising Collateral Direct Letters
Personal Communications
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3. A telecommunications company realized the opportunities available through
personalization. Since the company gathers customer information at the time of
purchase, management decided to put this to use by implementing an ongoing,
personalized communication campaign.
When new customers sign up for local or long distance phone services, the
company sends out a 17-page personalized booklet with reference information,
product features and instructions on how to use their new services. Each booklet is
customized to the customer’s choice of service, phone number, equipment and more.
Information on additional related products and services is also included. At the same
time, the company asks for permission to share customer data with other divisions
within the company. This process not only benefits the customer through better
service, it also gives the company future cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.
Take a
Closer
Look
More Personalization
Means
Better Communication
• Information
communicated
to customers and
prospects is more
valuable, since it’s
customized to them.
• It gives the marketer
the ability to educate
the audience with
information that’s
relevant to them.
• It enables cross-selling
and/or up-selling
appropriate products
and messages in future
communications.
These future contacts
should be based on
that customer’s sales
history and must be
helpful, not intrusive.
As mentioned earlier, research proves that personalized
direct mail will increase response rates and customer
loyalty. According to James Mekis, director of technology
for PODI, companies are doubling response rates when
they make the switch from static to personalized direct
mail. For relevant, personalized campaigns, typical
response rates range from more than 3 percent for
direct sales to 13 percent for loyalty campaigns.
Variable data printing provides an option to integrate
customer or prospect information into highly personalized
materials that can be marketed individually or to the
masses. What is variable data printing? It’s a form of
on-demand printing using information from a database
or external file to change text, graphics and images from
one printed piece to the next without stopping or slowing
down the printing process. Thanks to modern digital
presses, VDP is an inexpensive medium that allows quick
response to the marketplace.
Fine Tuning your Marketing Strategy
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4. Many marketing asset management tools are available to
help companies implement template-based personalization
where variable data is preset within brand-compliant
artwork. The best tools are offered through an easy-to-use
Web interface that does not require additional hardware
or software installation. This inexpensive approach puts
marketing assets at the user’s fingertips and provides access
to information 24/7. Integrating the customer/prospect
data and printing processes allows the marketer to
optimize personalization and provides the opportunity
to contact customers and/or prospects at more touch
points without adding personnel.
Benefits of Variable
Data Printing
• Produces printed
items for a fixed
cost per piece.
• Ideal for smaller
print runs, as the
average cost is lower
than traditional
print runs.
• Enables the sales rep
or marketer to have
access to materials
that can be targeted
to individual needs.
• Allows materials
to be produced
in a condensed
time frame.
• Provides a quick
response to the
marketplace
with high quality,
professionally
produced materials.
A Path to Success
Levels of Personalization
The integration of personal information can be broken
into three levels:
• The first is a basic level, in which only the name or
salutation featured on each version is personalized.
[Contact Name] Mr. Paul Couch
[Contact Title] Purchasing Manager
[Company Name] Couch Construction Co.
[Street Address] 11701 Beach Road
[City, ST 00000] Chesterfield, VA 23838
Dear [Title] [Last Name], Dear Mr. Couch,
• A second, more complicated level includes varying
amounts of customization for different markets, such
as text or image changes.
• Finally, fully personalized materials feature
customization specific to individual recipients.
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5. One example of a highly effective marketing asset
management tool is Conduit. Conduit offers an
easy-to-use Web interface, a template catalog full
of materials that can be personalized and a turnkey
printing option where materials are sent automatically
for fulfillment. Conduit gives users the opportunity to
version materials for different markets or individual
recipients through pre-designed templates that meet
the corporation’s brand guidelines and campaign format.
This program also delivers a robust data management
center in which customer and prospect information can
be added, maintained and segmented based on specific
criteria. From start to finish – accessing materials for
customization, selecting specific audience information
and submitting for fulfillment – this process can be
completed in a few simple clicks. Conduit can even track
which materials have been sent to customers, along with
the frequency of communication.
To learn more
about Conduit, or to
see a demonstration,
contact WHM at
866-376-7108 or visit
www.conduitonline.com.
More About Conduit
The Conduit™
Solution
Conduit has been proven the most efficient way to
get the right message with the right offer to the right
prospects at the right time. Salespeople control the
offer and the timing, while brand management controls
the look and feel of the marketing pieces. The on-demand
fulfillment options eliminate overhead associated with
pre-printing materials.
Conduit was created by WHM, an integrated marketing
communications agency that has helped companies
with large dealer networks and field sales organizations
for more than 25 years. Designed by marketing
professionals for marketing professionals, Conduit is
user-friendly, online technology that drives local sales
and enhances branding.
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