It’s no surprise that marketers are continually looking to understand how they can find new techniques to gain competitive footing and steal market share. The rise of digital printing has introduced such techniques, and for many organisations these have provided an opportunity to introduce more engaging communications to customers.
The increased sophistication of digital printing alongside document composition technologies and data management and analysis now empowers marketers to create communications that are driven by an individual’s preferences, such as their purchase history and credit and lifestyle information.
This goes beyond the benefits of simply personalising communications that are the result of data and digitally print capabilities, instead it individualises the communication as the result of a complex combination of insight, modelling, data analysis and digital printing.
Personalisation will always be a cornerstone of successful marketing, but where possible it’s now time for marketers to look beyond personalisation and consider the next step of fully embracing individualisation. One reason why this development has become so necessary is down to how much the internet has altered consumer expectations. When entering an email address and password to log in to a particular site, users now fully expect that site to ‘know’ them and their behaviour.
Amazon.co.uk is often held up as a great example of this, and for good reason. The online retailer was arguably one of the first major companies to appreciate the value in individualising the customer experience, and has long been pushing products at their customers that they think will be relevant and of interest based on previous purchases and browsing habits.
Due to Amazon’s huge success, this process of utilising powerful interaction and call to action attributes such as relevance, timing of offer, automated service and a strong recommendation system has now become the desired standard across all aspects of online retail.
As a result customers now not only accept this, but in many cases have come to expect that a site will have some element of personal tailoring based on their previous behaviour. Companies who get this right are rewarded with a strong brand affinity from the consumer, and higher levels of customer loyalty.
In order to apply this successful retail model across other aspects of marketing, businesses need to be in a position to combine the technological advances in data quality, data analysis, content management, document composition and digital print.
However, despite the obvious benefits of such a model, it’s fair to say that many will be hesitant to take the plunge due to the cost implications of employing such technologies.
These concerns are understandable, but targeting the right message through the right channel doesn’t have to be cost prohibitive. Many marketers are now able to turn to their marketing service provider to manage the integration of data, composition and print for them meaning that huge technology investments aren’t needed and a monthly managed service can be provided.
The ultimate aim of individualisation is to improve communications, and it’s been proven time and again to do just this. Further still, when executed effectively it also serves as an invaluable tool in increasing retention and engaging prospects.
As well as achieving its primary objective of enhancing the customer experience, individualisation can also dramatically reduce costs by streamlining the marketing function – crucial in the current climate. The ability to target your message via the right place, time and channel is an attainable goal for all businesses, and enables them to practice responsible marketing.
Targeting customers only at suitable points and with relevant messaging is vital for gaining consumer trust, and it’s clear that those organisations that embrace individualisation will emerge stronger and with a more loyal and engaged customer based in the eventual upturn than those that choose not to.
