The Marketer’s Dilemma

The Background: There is still a pandemic, though with the advent of various vaccines, people are feeling a smidgen of hope. Yet, much of the country is still in lockdown afraid of a possible surge. People are still working from home where feasible. Online. Virtually.

PDF proof of one of the flyers to be printed

Your challenge is that you have a virtual trade show and online conference to plan. It’s not an unusual task. Since March of 2020, Zoom and a plethora of new conference and trade show products and gadgets have cornered the market. You are in luck; your company has experience in this field and can recommend a solution it has used before…successfully.

You select the team. You set up a budget. You need to break even at the very least. The sales team gets working, the online environment people get to work. The technology is in place.

Planning is underway. The overriding theme. The date is set. Presenters selected. Potential sponsors are contacted and contracted successfully. Content written and polished. Your marketing strategy and tactics are selected. A complex marketing and communications mix that includes email communications, digital advertising, targeted social media campaign and programmatic marketing, podcasts, webcasts, newsletter articles, barter deals and published digital magazine articles. Got it all covered. Right?

Well, not really. Not when you’re an association for print technologies targeting printers and suppliers/manufacturers in the variable data and direct mail space.

Where’s the PRINT?

Today, so many marketing teams go all digital, but this is an event about VDP so of course you need to include a printed VDP mailer, a tangible piece to complete your marketing efforts.

It’s the simplest variable data; name, with versioning that comes from knowing the recipients’ job titles. But it’s a great example of basic personalized printing. This is VDP 101. At the Variable Data Print & Mail Summit, you’ll learn about taking this to a new level—programmatic, triggered, retargeted direct mail—think of it as VDP 4.0.

For the printing, you turn to a specialist, Minneapolis-based print service provider Bolger a certified green sustainable printer with a broad portfolio of technology and services. Bolger’s SVP Sales and Marketing Erik Norman says his team printed the job on an HP Indigo 1200 on 100lb cover stock.

The data drives all direct marketing, but when it comes to a printed piece, the recipient has this physical piece with their name on it and that’s an added incentive to open it up and see more.

And when they do, we can drive what feels like a personal message and, with a QR code link, and the smart phone they probably have nearby, this physical experience is also a digital experience. There are few barriers to interact and with print you get that extra haptic experience and instant registration online. Best of both worlds! Your mission is complete.

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