RESOURCES
In the second episode of our recent Podcast conference, The Future of Print: From Physical to Digital, Mike Scrutton from Adobe, Robert Mothershead from USPS and Scott Houck at XMPie joined Deborah Corn to discuss how to deliver meaningful Direct Mail, the steadfast relevance of physical print in a digital world, and how each organization is helping to promote these avenues for their customers. This conference was presented as a Podcasts From The Printerverse Conference Series.
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for assuming that print has taken a backseat in the digital era. In fact, numerous Direct Mail innovations have already pushed this successful print marketing tactic into the digital age.
Instead of taking a carpet-bomb approach to your next print marketing project, profit from the latest Direct Mail innovations to set your brand apart and create a campaign that converts.
Door drop campaigns might seem cheaper in the short term, but they’re for lazy marketers. No one wants to receive a generic Direct Mail piece (or even a generic marketing email, for that matter), and thanks to automation technologies like XMPie, no one has to.
Marketers can drive their Direct Mail with personalized text, images, layouts, Personalized URLs, QR codes and even promotional codes to provide timely and relevant communications. Whether your campaign must reach ten, a hundred, or a million recipients, your campaign will still be effective.
XMPie helps businesses of all sizes create and produce production-grade variable data output using a single, easy-to-use VDP plugin to Adobe InDesign, which supports the complete InDesign workflow, including set-up, preview, and composition. At the core of the Platform is its award-winning personalization engine, which merges customer data, business logic, and print design to tailor each printed or digital touchpoint for increased relevancy, and higher engagement rates. XMPie’s open architecture lets you start anywhere, add higher volume capabilities, and protect your investment all along the way.
Combine Printed Direct Mail with Omnichannel Marketing Technology
Despite the emergence of digital marketing technologies, Direct Mail continues to deliver one of the highest rates of marketing investment. Once you’ve added personalization to increase your response rates, why not try the following Cross Media tactics:
OMNICHANNEL ELEMENTS
Infuse your Direct Mail with omnichannel capabilities to bridge your print marketing with the digital world, enhance the customer experience, and tie into marketing strategies in the same way a digital touchpoint can. Capabilities like QR codes, Near Field Communication (NFC), and Augmented Reality (AR) have opened new opportunities for marketers to make print interactive and coexist cohesively with digital initiatives to optimize the customer experience.
With automation, you can create all the touchpoints and response scenarios before the campaign is even launched. XMPie uses a single personalization engine, so every interaction seamlessly extends to the previous one. Each digital touchpoint is generated automatically when the recipient accesses the personalized link or QR code.
TRIGGERED DIRECT MAIL
Create on-demand print pieces delivered to the recipient’s address, triggered by customer actions on websites, apps, emails, or other digital channels. XMPie software always uses live data, so the print communication will always match the recipients’ journey status, and because it will land on the recipient’s doorstep, it is practically guaranteed to be received.
TRIGGERED DIGITAL TOUCHPOINTS
You can also trigger on-demand digital touchpoints after your printed Direct Mail piece has been delivered. USPS’s new Informed Visibility service will send a notification when customers receive your communication. You can follow up with timely, relevant digital campaigns such as paid search, paid social media or emails.
If you have separate print and marketing teams, it’s time to combine them. XMPie’s omnichannel and collaboration tool, Circle, brings together the XMPie personalization engine with a marketing automation workflow, so one marketing team can manage the project from start to finish.
Direct Mail Edition of PersonalEffect
The latest version of PersonalEffect and uDirect includes numerous features to increase efficiency and reduce the cost of sending large mail runs of multipage Direct Mail. It comes with all the features required for executing data-driven Digital Direct Mail campaigns: supporting the Adobe workflow from set-up through preview, Direct Mail-ready composition, and output to the latest formats, including the new PDF/VT-3 standard, now a near requirement for digital print production.
How to Get Started
“[This] exemplifies the highest levels of marketing Direct Mail… and [XMPie delivers] unlimited creative, unlimited personalization and unlimited delivery,” – Scott Houck, Director of Business Development CXM Initiatives at XMPie.
XMPie continues to shape the future of personalization with innovations to make creative variable communications practice accessible to many and ensure that Direct Mail, and more importantly, meaningful Direct Mail, benefits both marketer and recipient.
Not sure where to begin?
Get started with XMPie’s unlimited free trial version of its entry-level plugin into Adobe InDesign before exploring the Platform’s broader capabilities. Many resources are available to help you identify which strategic direction to take your business and how to get the most out of the software, including our Resource Library and training videos on the XMPie Campus.
You can also get a demo of our full platform by reaching out using the form below.
