Imagine what a major marketing fiasco it would’ve been had a daycare spent numerous marketing dollars on households without any children. Irrelevant?

That’s an extreme example of the waste of a mass mailing.

Today, thankfully, we have VDP: Variable Data Printing. It’s a powerful and accessible technology that uses systems to collect information from your database, develop specific messages based on this information, and then print customized graphics and content to drive home your marketing message.

VDP is also known by other terms, such as personalized printing, one-to-one marketing, 1:1 communication, versioned printing, and variable digital printing.

In a nutshell, VDP marries your database with an advanced printing system to let you produce highly individualized printed materials that are relevant and effective. Each piece is different. You can change content. You can change images. You can change colors. That’s targeted marketing.

Regardless of whether your print run is one or 15,000, VDP can make each piece different. Think of the opportunities: newsletters, product brochures, invoices, statements, postcards, catalogs, white papers, and much more. With VDP, promotional and transactional printing are converging. Transactional documents such as statements and invoices now feature high-quality, full-color messages that relate to the individual.

You have the option of applying a push or a pull strategy using VDP. With push marketing, the vendor or marketer “pushes” information out to the customer. Let’s say you’re a veterinarian, and you create a postcard for customers to promote an annual check up for their pets. A customer with a poodle named Charlie will get an image of a poodle on her postcard – not a bull dog and certainly not a cat – and the name “Charlie” will be used in the messaging. That’s relevant.

With pull marketing, the customer is in charge of “pulling” information that’s relevant. Imagine getting a mailer from a car dealer about the latest model of a certain car. The mailer might include a web site link or even a QR code (Quick Response) or a PURL (Personalized URL), encouraging you to scan, click or visit a web site page to learn more. There, you can “build” your perfect car – by color, feature and price. Using this data that you input, a printed brochure is generated, showing your car, and it’s mailed to you within days. That’s relevant.

Why gamble with a mass mailing, when you can get incredible results with a targeted print campaign, thanks to VDP? Get someone’s attention with relevant messaging. Make it worth their time – and yours. Make it personal, and get results.