Marrying print with emerging media

Where do you see the future of digital print?

 

Color digital print is growing mainly because of the migration from offset printing. But print on the whole is down and we aren’t going to see it come back to the pre-recession levels. Marketing budgets were slashed because of the recession and communicators were forced to look at more cost effective ways to get their messages into the market place.

 

Stand-alone print of any kind is not the future. Print, as a medium, is not dead, but the world is learning that it works best in conjunction with other forms of communication.

 

Cross-channel or multi-channel communication is the future of marketing. As an industry, our opportunity lies in looking at forms of communicating that are also stand-alone and stealing that market by adding multiple channels, including print, to how they are used.

 

For instance, think of billboards which include a ‘gurl’ (generic URL) for response which now make it possible to track the value of the billboard advertising, create an interactive conduit for learning what is important to the prospect, and incorporate a nurture and conversion process for that lead that may include print, email, mobile phone, or even social media.

 

What’s the uptake of variable data like in the US? What’s driving it? What’s holding it back?

 

Digital colour print is the only part of print volume that is growing at this time in the US. Many in the US are still mistakenly thinking that print volume will rebound after the recession but I don’t think it is going to. There are just too many other ways to communicate today and we’ve learned that there are more effective ways to accomplish business objectives than sending out a million pieces of mail and hoping for a .08% response rate.

 

A lot of marketers had just taken the easy way and continued to do mass mailings because it’s something that they had always done. But it’s a different world now. Everybody is looking at more efficient and effective ways to communicate their message.

 

That’s where variable data comes in, although I really don’t like the name ‘variable data.’ It doesn’t mean anything to those outside of our industry. The point is that you can communicate with individually-relevant copy, images, response mechanisms and offers. It’s the relevance that cuts through the clutter and gets noticed.

 

We’re not talking about putting a name on something that’s more clever than anything else. I’m talking about unique content based on your demographic characteristics, buying patterns, interests etc. Once you marry what can be done with relevance at the print level with multiple channels also using relevant content, you have something that can generate interest, consideration, conversion and loyalty cost effectively.

 

We all know it works but for years spreading the word about it was left in the hands of the printers who had spent tons of money on the equipment and software but very little on a sales force capable of understanding communication needs and building a business case for their clients to integrate relevant print into their mix. It simply can’t be sold by ‘pitching’ the capabilities and technology. It has to be sold by sales professionals who understand how to develop a need for business results into a solution incorporating variable data print and now relevant communication using multiple channels.

 

How has the global financial crisis impacted on relevant digital print? Has it presented any opportunities for targeted marketing?

 

The global financial crisis is really helping to open the eyes of a lot of marketers out there to other methods of communication. It is at the root of the growth in social media as a business tool because it can be done relatively cost-effectively.

 

However, digital print hasn’t grown like it should because there really aren’t enough sales people out there who know how to sell it. Poorly trained sales reps turn everything into a conversation about price which has resulted in margin erosion.

 

Right now in the US, printers are selling whatever they’ve got for whatever they can get for it. In many cases, the sales price is less than the raw material costs. Obviously this can’t go on indefinitely for those businesses but it will have a lasting effect on the perceived value in the market place.

 

Digital print can do so many good things from increased response rates to reduced inventory costs to better cash management. The sales price should be based on the return it can bring not the actual cost to produce it. Our industry just has a terrible time with that concept. Think of Starbucks: it doesn’t cost them $4 to make a latte but I gladly pay it because of how I feel when I drink it. I’m paying for that feeling, not some coffee and milk in a cup. The price of digital print should be based on the value that it brings the buyer not the production costs.

 

There are tons of opportunities out there for targeted marketing right now but again we are handcuffed by our sales people. They are used to calling on people who see print as a commodity. Those folks in production or purchasing or traffic have been told to reduce spending so they are looking around for people who will cut their prices, and on any given day there will always be a printer more desperate than the next one. But if we were calling on senior level decision-makers, we would learn that they don’t just want reduced spending they want increased sales too.

 

Digital print can help them do this but in most cases they don’t hear about it because someone below them has made a decision based on price, not on the return. If I had one wish for this industry, I’d wish for one big webinar with every CEO in America where I could show them examples of how getting the right message, to the right person, at the right time and, now, in the right way, can make them money and save them money.

 

Kate Dunn is president and founder of the US-based Digital Innovations Group (DIG). She will be presenting at this month’s PODi AppForum and Expo.

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