When talking about printing business promotional items like brochures and banners, offset and digital printing are the two major types that come to our mind. However, variable imaging is yet another type that is known for providing quality and precise results. If you are new to the world of variable imaging, then this is the right educational blog for you to consider.

What is Variable Imaging?

Also known as variable data printing (VDP) or variable information printing (VIP), variable imaging is an advanced version of digital printing. Variable imaging is a form of printing that allows you to produce customised printed documents by designating textual or graphical content that is then replaced using a database or an external file. One document is designed but, by with the help of variable data printing, many uniquely personalised promotional products are created. The content to be printed may be changed from one printed piece to the next, without stopping or slowing down the printing process and using information from a database.

Types of Variable Imaging

• Name and Address Variability – This is the most basic type of variability. When you have several documents to print with a different name and contact details. Printing I-cards or direct mailers can be classified under this type.

• Additional Versioning – This means that each piece has additional elements that are variable and personalised, such as specific parts of the text in a sales letter or salary slips.

• Transactional Information – This generally includes graphically variable figures. It may include a chart based on information specific to that recipient, a barcode, or QR code.
• Image Personalisation – As the name suggests, this type involves personalising images in a database for printing. Some of the examples of variable image personalisation type may include I-cards or contact details for a specific marketing campaign.

Benefits of Variable Data Printing

• Easy Printing Different Matrix – You must have seen items that have barcodes and QR codes. When you look at a line of products belonging to the same set, you will notice that each piece has a different barcode sequence and numbers. Barcodes are a method that identifies the product category and its manufacturer. Printing label of each piece individually can be a time-consuming, hectic, and confusing task considering that you have to pack about hundreds of pieces every day. Here’s where variable data printing can be highly advantageous. As you know, you can print several labels with changing barcode values without stopping the printing process.

The same benefit can be counted when it comes to printing distinct Quick Response (QR) codes on different papers. By slightly changing the matrix, you can obtain several prints with different QR codes in the usual printing time.

• Increases your Return on Investment (ROI) – Variable data printing gives you a choice to personalise and customise the content on your direct mail pieces. You can change the content based on the recipient’s interests, location, family status, or any other piece of information depending on your audience. This means that you can cover a lot of different printing tasks for the price you pay for this printing type.

• Supports Online Marketing – Online marketing has taken marketing to a whole new level with the help of modern technology. To have a successful marketing campaign, you need to be both strategic and tactical to achieve maximum effectiveness. One of the strengths of using online marketing is to deliver content based on the behaviour of the target audience. By using VDP print along with online marketing, your audience is more likely to spend more time looking at the information you send. If they get engaged, they will respond to the call-to-action, and they might hop over to the digital platform for more information. To stay competitive, you can include custom QR codes, personalised URLs, and more integrated into your direct mail to bring users to custom landing pages, valuable online content, or contact forms.

• Tracks Response Rates – VDP yields you with the opportunity to take your data segmentation and apply it directly to various marketing strategies. There are a lot of direct mails that your audience will receive each day in the form of flyers, coupons, ads, and many more along with the respective mail. When your audience sees their name or any other personalisation touches in their emails, they are more likely to get engaged and read through your mail. This can further lead to the increased engagement with your direct mail, thus improving the return on your investment. The same logic applies to physical flyers and gifting items. When people receive personalised promotional items or other marketing material, they tend to engage better with those products.

• Appeals to Millennials – This group of individuals have a great love for personalised items. They tend to use more devices than the older generations, making them closed to other forms of communication too. Around 63% of millennials respond to a direct mail within a three-month timeframe to make a purchase, making them far more likely to read and engage with personalised direct mail.

• Makes Tracking Easier – Tracking your audience is one of the most significant advantages of using variable data printing. VDP allows the usage of unique bar codes and coupon identification numbers to be placed on marketing platforms, providing marketers with a more comfortable and efficient way of tracking the results or gather information to analyse your audience.

Your audiences are becoming more adept at tuning out boring, traditional marketing campaigns. Variable imaging or VDP can help you create multiple, personal, and tailored direct marketing pieces to appeal to each of your customers to increase your ROI ultimately.