How VDP Embodies the Dale Carnegie Principles

I had an "A-ha Moment" recently about variable data marketing. It is this: variable data marketing embodies Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends & Influence People" guiding principles.

Yes, the book is a classic "must read" for those that want to succeed in the business world. And, you know if you've read the book and tried some of the principles, Dale's principles work.

Here are the correlations I see between his principles and variable data marketing that are why variable data marketing works:

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
   Assuming you start with decent data about the recipient, your marketing piece should use that data to show you are interested in the other person because it embodies their interests (be it culture, sex, or something that person is passionate about).



2. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
   Although it is a basic function of variable data using the person's name in the piece (repeatedly) is mandatory these days.



3. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
   Good variable data marketing always directs the campaign message to the person's interests and passions. Not your own, not your corporate vision, but what truly interests the other person receiving the piece. When you do this well the recipient will look at the piece, read the message and might be interested enough (you hope) to move to the next step in your campaign.



4. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.
   Variable data is all about making the recipient feel important, from the data used to the message delivered by the piece. It should center on the "one-to-one" -- one message for one individual, which makes the person feel important. And if you do it well, it is sincere because you've put thought and effort into the campaign to ensure all are included.



5. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
   Who doesn't want to do this with any marketing campaign (or really anything in life)? Focus on keeping your message relevant to each recipient and you will meet this objective.

Variable data marketing is making your marketing message relevant to each person you target through your campaign. The above principles are the ones that make variable data one of the most effective tools a marketer has available.

The Original VDP Guru - Dr. John Leininger

This week I had the pleasure to meet and listen to Dr. John Leininger of Clemson University's Graphics Department (graphics.clemson.edu) speak at length about variable data printing. He offered very good information about VDP return on investment, how to test response rates and why variable data printing is useful for marketing efforts.

A little background for you, Dr. Leininger is a Professor in the Department of Graphic Arts at Clemson University located in South Carolina. He has lead several studies about variable data printing and it's effectiveness from a marketing standpoint, is a member of the Digital Printing Council Board and reviewer for PODi (and that is just what I know from our meetings).

I thought you all would love the information that he provided. He has published some excellent white papers available for download: http://graphics.clemson.edu/vdp_roi/.

The downloads he provides show the trends and explain his method of "5-5-5" and how to track if a variable data campaign is effective. The concept is that you cannot honestly compare a previously static printed marketing piece to a new variable campaign to see honest response rate changes. This is because market conditions and other influences at the time of the first campaign are not the same as the second campaign.

His recommendation is that you should plan to include a test of the effectiveness in your VDP campaign with the "5-5-5 Rule." Here's a quick summary of the "5-5-5":

1 - Using your variable data software to randomly select 5% of the mailing to receive a static piece (these are still printed variably but instead of personalized they use the same images and the same text, i.e., "Dear Customer").

2 - Using your variable data software to randomly select another 5% of the mailing to receive a basic variable piece (where the text is variable but the images are the same across all pieces).

3 - Using your variable data software to randomly select another 5% of the mailing to receive full variable (where the text and images are variable).

4 - The balance of the names on your list get full variable (text and images).

Then, assuming you've a method to track responses (what's the point if you aren't tracking effectiveness), track how many of the randomly selected recipients respond to each piece. You'll see what the response rate would be if you hadn't used variable data (#1), if you only did basic variable data (#2) and the rates for full variable data (#3). And you'll be able to justify the ROI.

Dr. Leininger has an absolutely great VDP ROI calculation spreadsheet that you should check out that works on the principles described above.

Target Marketing Webinars

Today I stumbled upon this site to share with you for Target Marketing. It has all sorts of good information about direct marketing that can help with your campaigns:

http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/

Prior webinars are posted too:

http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/webinar/

Enjoy!!!

What is the Total Cost of Ownership?

Any direct marketing project has costs. Most of the time these costs are measured as what you spend on outside vendors. Such as what you pay for printing and postage. But what about the total cost of ownership?

The total cost of ownership is all the costs that go into a project including:

• Internal staff time dedicated to the project


• Internal database needs


• Graphic design


• Information technology needs


• Inventory and fulfillment costs


• Printing


• Outside programming


• Mailing preparation


• Postage fees

As you can see the total cost of ownership really can add up to a much higher number than what you pay your outside vendors.

So...given how much goes into any marketing project you have to ask yourself these critical questions for each project:

1. What are your goals for the campaign?

2. How will you measure the success of the campaign?

3. What data do you actually have to meet your campaign goals?

4. What can you do to lower the total cost of ownership?

If your vendors aren't talking about this then consider looking to other sources. It should be the goal of every single vendor in any economy to provide a lower total cost of ownership.