Personlization – IMG.LY Blog

Variable Data Printing: What Is It & Why Do You Need It

Klaudia — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 09:45:33 GMT

Variable data printing (VDP) has been around since the 1980s, helping businesses automate manual processes, scale personalization efforts, and utilize the power of direct mail marketing. While the term “variable data printing” may not be familiar to everyone, we encounter its use regularly in our day-to-day lives through bills, event tickets, or membership cards.

VDP’s ability to leverage data and create personalized tangible items, such as postcards or brochures, provides a more intimate experience compared to digital communication. Although process automation is a significant advantage of VDP, there are many other ways to use it.

In this article, we’ll explore the most common applications of VDP and the best practices for working with it.

How It Works

To fully understand the advantages of variable data printing (VDP), let’s start with a clear definition. VDP, also referred to as variable data imaging, is a digital printing technique that enables the creation of numerous customized materials in a single print run. This process is powered by software that can generate data-driven designs or templates by pulling variables from databases or files.

The variables used in VDP can automatically generate unique and personalized materials based on data sources. Anything that can be customized, such as names, addresses, messages, or images, can be utilized as a variable. These elements can be changed on each printed piece without slowing down the printing process.

To illustrate how VDP works in practice, let’s consider a scenario where a company offers a loyalty program for customers to collect points when they make purchases. To encourage more spending, customers can use their accumulated points to receive discounts or freebies. Although points and bonuses can be accessed through an app or website, the company can create immediate gamification by sending a personalized card with every new purchase.

To personalize that card, we are looking at three separate variables: name, number of points, and type of discount that can be applied. To manually generate all variations of the same template would be counterproductive, but with variables connected to a database it’s an automated process. A name is connected to a number of points, which in turn are connected to discounts. The software does all the heavy lifting, while marketers and designers can focus on other tasks.

Common Applications of VDP

Although VDP was originally used to automate manual mail processes, its usefulness extends beyond that. Its ability to personalize marketing and advertising materials quickly and efficiently has made it widely appreciated and used in various industries.

While there are many ways to use VDP, we’ll focus on its most common applications in marketing, advertising, and customer relationship management. These areas benefit greatly from the ability to tailor messages to specific audiences and create unique, personalized experiences.

Marketing

From quickly generating business cards to creating custom QR codes, variable data printing is a big part of marketing efforts for most businesses. Apart from handling internal processes, VPD also has a hand in scaling personalized marketing campaigns. The growing preference for personalized messaging and products goes alongside increased usage of VDP.

Production of personalized labels, packaging, or brochures is one of the best ways to leverage VDP in marketing. It can be used as a step in a broader personalization campaign, like generating custom QR codes to bring users to personalized landing pages. Or be a venture on its own, like “Share a Coke” by Coca-Cola and its widely successful personalization of labels.

Advertising

Variable data printing brought new life to direct mail, moving away from what once was perceived as junk and irrelevant advertising, and bringing about a new age of valuable and relatable mail. A recent study reported that 70% of consumers see direct mail as more personal than online interactions, with 54% claiming they want direct mail from brands that interest them. Moreover, direct mail has the highest response rate among all advertising channels being five to nine times higher than other forms, with a simple act of adding a name to a direct mail piece that can increase response rates by 135%.

Taking advantage of VPD in advertising usually includes customized leaflets or coupons with images and content based on age or demographics. One of the personalization examples is including custom maps with steps on how to reach an advertised location, making it much more relatable and easy to act on.

Customer Relationship Management

While VDP helps marketing and advertising drive acquisition, it’s also a great way to help with customer retention. Small and yet important gestures of appreciation like custom-made thank you and birthday cards can go a long way. As mentioned before, VDP can also be used to generate membership cards or personalized bonuses and discounts based on shopping preferences. Tapping into the power of variables, every printed material sent to a customer can be created in a way that will feel personal and appreciative, in turn helping sustain loyal customers.

Why Use VDP

Variable data printing is not reserved for a single industry or business type. It can be leveraged across multiple customer touchpoints, from the awareness stage via direct mail advertising, to a personalized label and thank you card shipped with a purchased product. VDP can also be used internally to show gratitude and appreciation to employees with custom-made cards and packaging. In fact, variable data printing can be used on any piece of printed content or design that can be personalized.

Benefits

The advantages of variable data printing go hand-in-hand with the advantages of personalization. Studies show that customers respond much better to marketing materials they can connect to, with 60% of consumers saying they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience with a retailer.

VDP can help create a valuable experience from start to finish and facilitate a meaningful connection between a brand and a customer. Some of the most prominent benefits are:

Providing personalized shopping experience in the form of custom labels, packaging & cards
Building strong customer relationships with personalized thank you & birthday cards, custom messaging, and discounts
Delivering meaningful direct mail advertising with higher conversion rates
Generating personalized marketing campaigns & materials that customers can connect with

Bringing variable data printing to your workflows, whether it concerts marketing, advertising, HR, or sales, is a great way to tap into powerful benefits of personalization.

Challenges

The main challenge of VDP is having software that can efficiently work with variables and generate print-ready designs, while also providing advanced design editing features.

Since the popularization of personalization, variables can be leveraged in many different types of marketing materials. However, the design of those materials is equally important, and so it’s an automated print validation process.

This challenge applies to companies that use variable data to generate designs, as well as Print Service Providers (PSP) working with VDP. For the PSP, another challenge is file format submission, especially if they don’t have a web-to-print editor their customers can use to submit their orders. Flawed print validation, incompatible format, low resolution, or insufficient quality could be costly mistakes to make. Hence, the best option for print service providers is to develop their own web-to-print editor with variable data printing that will take care of those problems and limit manual work to a minimum.

Example of Leveraging Variable Data Printing with CE.SDK

IMG.LY has developed CreativeEditor SDK to help integrate VDP into all designs in an easy and intuitive way. CE.SDK is fully customizable and can be integrated into a customer-facing web-to-print editor, providing powerful editing features, or an in-house design editor for all creative needs. Here’s an example of how you can leverage variables with our editor.

Creating Custom Thank-You Card

As mentioned before, thank you cards are a great way to show appreciation and build stronger connections with both customers and employees. Creation of a custom thank-you card is pretty straightforward, here are the necessary steps:

Creating a Smart Template

To create a personalized card, we begin by designing a template with variable fields. The front design remains consistent, while the back features unique personalized messages.

2. Assigning Placeholders

The next step is to choose the elements that will be personalized. For example, we may select a personalized greeting, such as “Hello {{name}}”, and address information. To insert a variable, we use double curly brackets {{}} and a placeholder name, such as {{firstname}} or {{address}}.

3. Connecting Template to a Data Source

The last step is connecting your template to a data source with list of variables. This can be done by using the Creative Engine variable API to programmatically set values for the variables and render the final personalized card.

4. Design Validation

In the example above, there shouldn’t be any issue with text exceeding beyond bleed line or other common print errors, however, design validation is an important feature of CE.SDK. It will automatically detect any issues that might cause a print error, cause trademark infringement or generate harmful content.

And that’s it! We have created a template for custom thank-you card in three easy steps. Here is what a card would look like.

Try creating a custom card with CE.SDK yourself on our showcase page!

Conclusion

Variable data printing can be a valuable tool to boost performance and take initiatives to the next level. It can help scale personalization efforts, acquire new customers, add value to the final product, and make employees feel appreciated. By using VDP, businesses can efficiently grow and reap numerous benefits, with only a few obstacles that can be easily overcome with the right solution.

To take advantage of the benefits of VDP and overcome its challenges, consider using CreativeEditor SDK and see how it can help you scale personalization and bring variable data printing to your company and customers.

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IMG.LY's Founders Discuss Personalization on the FESPA Podcast

Jan — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 11:41:40 GMT

The Personalization Experience is a new initiative by the global print expo FESPA that brings together over 3,000 stakeholders from every part of the print value chain, from brands and agencies to retailers, printers, and their suppliers. Its goal is to connect them with OEMs and software providers to explore the potential of personalization in sportswear, packaging, products, loyalty, and custom interiors.

The Personalization Experience Podcast features a series of interviews with key stakeholders to set the tone for the conference. In one such interview, Richard Askam spoke with our founders to discuss how IMG.LY’s solution fits into this puzzle.

Key Takeaways

Where does IMG.LY sit in the world of personalization?

IMG.LY started out by bringing photo and video editing to software on the web and on mobile as a classic SDK. This experience gave us some perspective on the overarching creative needs in digital and physical industries.

We set our eyes on this grander scheme and build a universal creative tool enabling workflows and automation in a fraction of the time and money you’d spent implementing creative capabilities yourself.

Personalization is at the core of IMG.LY’s CreativeEditor SDK, and it is being used to add personalization capabilities to print products as well as marketing and e-commerce applications.

What are the unique capabilities of IMG.LY’s SDK for personalization?

Any editing experience starts either from a blank canvas or a predefined design a user can adopt. The crucial insight is that every product needs a slightly different editing experience, both from the editor and templating point of view. Most design tools are far too complex for the average user to employ effectively, so we spent a lot of time figuring out the best starting point for every use case. Users can then tweak and adapt to add the core personalization element without worrying about designing non-essential elements from scratch.

Furthermore, personalization does not always have to require individual input, it can happen in an automated fashion as well. That is why CreativeEditor SDK also supports powerful automation features that enable variable data printing and mass customization using personal data.

What is the state of personalization in the print industry?

During his 15+ years in the personalization business, Richard has encountered a common objection: it’s just not cost-effective to print a single item. However, his go-to rejoinder is that you are printing a million ones. While the technical feasibility of personalization is present, the print industry has traditionally been hesitant to promote personalization to customers. Fortunately, this is changing with unit economics that are reducing the cost of small-batch printing, coupled with readily available personalization software such as IMG.LY’s CreativeEditor SDK.

While technology infrastructure can be a significant cost, CreativeEditor SDK can substantially bring down costs and facilitate a faster time to market. More importantly, personalization adds substantial value to any product and increases customers’ willingness to pay, easily offsetting any cost increase.

What is the biggest barrier to personalization?

Many things need to come together for personalization to go fully mainstream. In addition to the technical capacity and brands’ willingness to take risks with personalization, the process from the consumer end must also be accessible. However, it is not always clear how to add consumer-facing personalization capabilities to an existing product. Starting with a design generated outside the core workflow of a printing application can be cumbersome and create too much friction for consumer-scale deployment.

Nevertheless, as more print applications appear in the wild and positive examples are set, user habits form, and the adoption of personalization becomes more widespread, the easier it will become for all stakeholders to adopt personalization on a larger scale.

There’s a growing trend that is making simpler personalization increasingly important, and that is the decreasing costs of hardware. Even high-end industrial printers are becoming more affordable, which means smaller shops can now acquire industrial-grade printers. However, this also brings new challenges, as smaller shops may not have the design resources to implement personalization on the frontend of their powerful hardware. This is where IMG.LY’s editor comes in - it provides design capabilities to the printer’s customers and creates an ecosystem around the editor that offers templates and other assets to use for print designs.

If you’re interested in discussing personalization or want to explore a solution for your use case, we invite you to meet us at FESPA 2023 or reach out to us directly.

Personalize or Perish: Why Companies Need to Go Personal

Klaudia — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 11:34:58 GMT

In the past, tailor-made marketing campaigns and personalized products were seen as a luxury that only a few companies could afford. However, as we enter 2023, personalization has become essential for all industries. Consumers now expect to see relevant and relatable content on a regular basis, which means that leveraging personalization on at least one channel has become a must-have.

Many marketers already use personalization techniques to retain customers and boost conversions. However, with new trends constantly emerging, there’s a risk of falling behind. If you’re still unconvinced that personalization is the future, we’ve put together an overview of why it should be a top priority for your business strategy.

What is Personalization?

First, let’s clarify what personalization actually means. The most straightforward way to explain personalization would be tailoring of marketing materials, campaigns, and products to individuals’ specific characteristics, preferences, and needs in order to provide a more relevant and engaging experience.

With technological development, companies are finding new ways to apply personalization across their businesses, ways beyond mere “Hello [name]” emails. For industries like e-commerce or printers, the personalization approach has been extended all the way to the production stage - allowing customers to incorporate their own designs and purchase a unique product made exclusively for them. Others, rely on algorithms to make sure that customers are always presented with the most relevant and engaging content. Regardless of the industry, everyone is looking to take advantage of personalization approaches.

Benefits of Personalization

Personalization is by default a user-centric approach, prioritizing relevance, usability, and impact of provided content and features. Thoroughly planned personalized marketing campaigns can make or break new product launches, boost subscription numbers, or convert lingering customers.
For industries like e-commerce and print, enabling customers to design or customize their own product means higher sales and lower return rates - which translates to not only a higher profit margin but also a more sustainable shopping experience.

Companies efficiently utilizing personalization efforts can expect:

Deeper connection between brand and customer
Increased brand loyalty and customer retention
Higher conversion rates

Treating customers with individual attention and care creates a sense of connection going beyond just purchasing needs. When customers are faced with meaningful content they are able to find what they need more easily, creating a pleasant user experience. Instapage reported that 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized. Making them more likely to stick with brands that go the extra mile.

Moreover, presenting customers with relevant recommendations or tailor-made discounts significantly increases chances of conversion. According to Business Insider, 47% of customers turn to Amazon if the brand they are shopping with doesn’t provide personalized product suggestions. The ability to quickly find what is needed might just be the difference between making a sale and losing a customer.

Leveraging Personalization

Applications of personalization are limited only by imagination and creativity. The right personalization approach can sometimes equal to the success of an entire business. Hard to imagine Spotify being so popular without its flawless personalization algorithms alongside giants like Netflix or Amazon which heavily rely on personalization to retain subscriptions and push sales.

Fortunately, personalization is not reserved for large enterprises only, it can be used just as efficiently by any other company, regardless of its size. Thanks to its versatility, it can be utilized across different channels, platforms, and consumer touchpoints. Some of the most popular uses of personalization include:

Marketing

For brands and marketing agencies, personalization usually translates to displaying personalized content - be it product, service, or piece of information, alongside ensuring relevant outreach - with tailor-made emails and ads. The success of marketing personalization efforts usually depends on quality of gathered data and right algorithms. Unfortunately, finding a winning approach means little without having a way to scale it. Companies that wish to succeed with their marketing personalization strategy usually have to turn to automation of workflows and creative materials.

E-Commerce

Apart from applying personalization in their marketing efforts, e-commerce companies have the advantage of extending it all the way to their products. Allowing customers to add a custom engraving or artwork creates a more intimate shopping experience with irreplaceable product added value. Companies that cannot offer those services have also found a way to leverage personalization, usually by providing options to add a custom greeting card, thank you note, or even record a custom message.

Print Products

Print products might have the most exciting and yet still underutilized personalization growth possibility. While photo printers have been profiting from personalization for quite some time, there is still a large portion of the industry lagging behind. Personalization of any printed materials like photos, posters, cards, marketing materials, or apparel items is the future. And certainly, the future customers are impatiently looking forward to.

However, personalization leaves nobody behind. For those unable to provide such services, there is a whole world of personalized packaging and labels to take advantage of and create a meaningful customer experience.

Personalization Challenges

With all the benefits and possibilities of personalization, it seems like every company should have mastered it by now. So why it isn’t so? Scaling personalization can proven to be a challenging task. It requires a strategy on how to gather data sensibly, translate it into initiatives, and bring those initiatives to life. Some of the most common challenges of scaling personalization are as follows.

Data Collection and Preparation

In order to create relevant personalization of marketing content and materials first there must be data that can support this. With topics of privacy policies and data protection on the rise, targeted ads and campaigns might seem obsolete. The key to leveraging personalization is understanding the fine line between providing experience that feels relevant and welcomed, not invasive and overbearing. Another factor contributing to positive results is the transparency of collected data and how it’s being used. Harvard Business Review conducted a study that reported that when customers were openly informed their ads were based on their online activity revenue grew by 38%. With data becoming a currency of its own, honest communication seems to be the key to successful personalization campaigns.

Creative Materials Production

Personalization is loved by marketers because they know how much it helps with engagement and conversion rates. However, it can be dreaded by designers and creative teams. Production of personalized marketing materials can create a painful bottleneck and freeze resources for extended periods of time. The only way to scale production and reduce efforts is by implementing software that can automate a large portion of the work with templates and variable data imports. Designers can create adjustable templates and the marketing team can adapt them to their needs, making the process fast and accessible to all.

Custom Prints

The most significant challenges of personalized print products usually revolve around artwork supply and print quality. Different resolutions, file formats, and design quality might mean the back and forth of proofreading, rejecting, and proofreading again. Custom prints might also pose a risk of misprints and trademark infringements, as well as mismatched expectations - especially if there is no preview function of the ready product. A solution for those headaches would be a web-to-print editor, which can not only improve the design creation process, but also automatically validate designs and generate previews.

Scale Personalization with CE.SDK

CreativeEditor SDK was developed with the thought of bringing automation and scalability to creative materials. Because of its versatility and extensive features, it can be applied across all industries and utilized on all channels and platforms, and addresses some of the most burning questions limiting the current use of personalization.

Personalized Cross-Channel Content

How do you create personalized content that can be implemented for a large audience across multiple channels, all with limited resources? The short answer is automation. Creating countless variations of marketing materials has to be automated, otherwise, it cannot be scaled.

The most efficient way is to work with adjustable templates and data variation imports. Designers can create as many templates as needed, making sure they stay on brand, while marketers and social media creators can adapt them to their needs.

CreativeEditor SDK offers the possibility of creating smart templates with adjustable placeholders and constraints. This way, editing of any design is done in a controlled and predefined way. The editor can be used by internal teams, as well as external clients and customers, making the production of all marketing materials easily scalable.

How to Develop a Web2print Editor in a Timely Manner?

The most time-efficient way is to use Software Development Kit. SDKs contain powerful features with quick and easy integration and give the opportunity to stay on brand with customizable UI.

Choosing CE.SDK, whether for photo prints, apparel, or marketing materials, can streamline the web2print process and solve many of the custom print challenges. With smart templates, companies can jumpstart their customers’ creative process, ensuring right design dimensions and quality. While automatic design validation safeguards the printing process with notifications of artwork exceeding bleed margin, as well as checking for harmful content or trademark infringements.

Conclusion

Regardless if you use it as a key component or part of a bigger strategy, personalization is here to stay, and it will most likely determine the success of many brands and industries. Staying up to date with current personalization trends is becoming a must for marketers, with a growing need to think outside the box. The ability to scale personalized marketing materials, and provide bespoke user experience and relevant recommendations, are the future of reaching conversion goals and building lasting relationships with customers.

Companies will have to find ways to easily and efficiently scale personalization and bring it to their users. IMG.LY developed tools to help with those efforts. Learn more about CE.SDK capabilities or see how to use it for Creative Automation process or Web-to-Print.

If you want to learn more about integrating CE.SDK, check out our documentation or try it for free!

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