Today’s printing technology lets you communicate one-to-one with your entire customer base

Sometimes it’s OK to be a little more personal.

Variable data printing has allowed printers to personalize documents on a one-on-one basis for more than a decade. But now, thanks to advances in data mining and collection, it’s really taking off.

“The biggest advances have come in data-mining information and how you can look at shopping histories and demographics for particular areas,” says Jeff Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. Digital printers allow companies to use this data to tailor their pitches to the past behavior of customers. “Instead of ‘Dear Jeff,’ now you can say ‘Dear Jeff, you bought X and now let’s tell you about Y,’” he says.

It’s no surprise that businesses want to make their communications with customers more intimate. “By personalizing their messages, businesses create better stickiness for their customers, which allows them to get a better rate of response and better ROI,” says Hayzlett.

What’s more, prospects actually like it when you get more personal. Frank Romano, co-author of Personalized & Database Printing: The Complete Guide, reports a 500-percent increase in response rates when marketing pitches are customized with information about recipients’ buying habits, hobbies, pets, you name it. Even more impressive, personalization increases order size by 25 percent and repeat orders by a whopping 50 percent.

Hair salons in the Fantastic Sams chain, for instance, send out color postcards every six weeks using data captured at the point of sale to lure back previous customers. The cards are customized by salon, by gender and by individual guest activity.

According to Bart Foreman, president of Group 3 Marketing, which develops marketing campaigns for Fantastic Sams, one campaign that consisted of 1,135 pieces costs roughly $500 and netted a 36-percent response, resulting in an advertising-to-sales ratio of more than $14 for every dollar invested.

To take advantage of variable data printing, businesses need to bring together digital printing technology – whether their own or an outside printer’s – and customer data. The personalization is limited only by the amount of data you’ve collected and your ability to use that data in creative ways.

For example, Wolverine Shoes, which makes work boots and outdoor boots, sent out personalized postcards to 50,000 buyers of similar products. The cards featured a full-color, customized map showing where the recipient could purchase Wolverine brand products. “It’s a great use of data merging in a printed piece to create action,” says Hayzlett.