Written by Heidi Tolliver-Walker, Print Industry Analyst

Guess what? Your tax dollars just bought you more data — or at least better access to data. That’s the hope anyway.

Last week, President Obama signed an executive order, with the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy released an “open data policy” declaring that data gathered by the government is a national asset and should be easily accessible by the public. Much of this information is available already, but the goal, according to the administration, is to make it even more so.

In a press release, the White House Press Office gave several examples of how open data has spurred innovation and product development that ultimately has helped the economy. Examples include the economic sector of agricultural advisory services stemming from government weather satellites and ground stations (something we can thank for The Weather Channel, too) and commercial GPS-based products resulting from the release of formerly military-only data.

While much government data is already available to the public, the White House is declaring its continuation of this commitment and intent to make the data even more accessible. As part of this commitment, you can watch for a re-invigorated and improved data.gov (the central hub for open government data), including new services such as easier navigation, better mapping tools, and robust API access for developers.

For XGPPN members and print providers alike, this is an open invitation for your business development and IT staff to poke around and see what business opportunities you can generate. You’ve been handed a treasure trove of data at absolutely no cost, and over time, that treasure will become increasingly easy to use. What will you do with it?

Interested in other topics similar to data and how to leverage data in your business? Check out:

• Define Your Target Market as Tightly as Possible
• Current Trends Present New Opportunities: 7 Tips For Selling To Direct Marketers
• The TransPromo space is alive and well – are you taking advantage? This Printer Did, Reducing Client’s Statement Costs by 30%
• Direct Marketing: Get Relevant, Get Results – Part I:

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Interested in becoming a Premier Partner or looking for more information on the Xerox Premier Partner Global Network and the many benefits received by its exclusive membership? Click here.

Written by Bill Michael
eMarketing Manager, Xerox Corporation

You understand the benefits of direct marketing, its effectiveness for your customers and the value it can deliver for your bottom line. But actually doing it, and doing it well – now that’s a completely different story!

DMA states the response rate of direct mail is more than 30x higher than that of email, with an average response rate of 4.4% compared with 0.12%. Offering direct marketing services can help you deliver endless value to your customers, transitioning your company from a print provider to a trusted adviser for marketing strategy and print production.

But becoming a strategic partner involves more than simply adding to your service offerings – you’ll also need a sales team in place capable of selling direct marketing services. If this sounds intimidating – just remember, you aren’t alone and Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day. If making the jump into marketing services was so easy, everyone would be doing it!

We recently gathered with a large group of print providers, marketing service providersand industry experts to discuss everything-direct marketing at the Gil Hatch Center for Customer Innovation in Webster, New York. Our Thought Leadership Workshop covered:

• Psychology based marketing and how to trigger the unconscious minds of your consumers
• The art and science of selling direct marketing
• Real examples of how customer database information can be utilized to market more personally
• Integrated direct marketing opportunities using XMPie offerings

Psychology-Based Marketing: Direct Marketing that taps into consumers’ unconscious mind
During our workshop, Jeanette McMurtry of e4marketing explained the importance of understanding the thought processes and unconscious mind of your consumer. This allows you to better position direct marketing campaigns for success. Brand loyalty doesn’t exist today like in the past. 52% of a company’s ‘highly loyal’ customers will be reduced in one year’s time, with 33% leaving for a competing brand. 60% of brands will lose at least half of their customers from year-to-year.

So what does ESP and direct marketing have in common? Jeanette explained how human behavior is based upon two fundamental premises: the avoidance of pain and pursuit of pleasure. Identifying the pain your customer’s end-users are trying to avoid, and addressing through a well-thought out direct marketing campaign can drive incredible results. Each consumer’s behavior is guided by its id, ego, and superego, as explained in Freud’s theory of personality. If your customer is looking to create a campaign to reach 100 consumers, they are actually reaching out to 300 because of the varying personalities! As a marketer – it is critical to understand how different personalities affect loyalty to brand and purchasing behavior.

Do you know what makes your customer’s target audience feel happy and what they value? Happiness and an understanding of what is important to them can drive purchase behavior. By knowing what messaging will resonate with end-users, a campaign can more accurately be designed. Edelman Good Purpose Survey found that 71% say they will make a point to buy from companies with similar values as their own. Is it a coincidence that this year’s Super Bowl ad that generated one of the top purchase-intent scores was created for Got Milk? They understood their female audience and what messaging would resonate, crafting an advertisement that conveyed how their product can help in the caring for their family.

Jeanette then went into detail on the importance of color and messaging in campaigns, and how they each uniquely affect consumer response. Studies show within 90 seconds, a consumer will make an unconscious judgment of a product, and 60-90% of that judgment is based upon the use of color. Choosing the right messaging can help tap into consumers’ unconscious. Words such as ‘dependable’, ‘limited time’, and ‘approved’ are proven to be emotionally charged. How a message is framed is also a critical consideration, as ‘free’ speaks louder than ‘two-for-one’.

Easier said than done, but by understanding the unconscious mind of your customer’s end-user, you can better develop a psychologically relevant campaign that will drive a desired behavior.

A Look Inside Relevant Direct Marketing Programs
Shelley Sweeney, Vice President Service Bureau/Direct Marketing at Xerox, shared several examples of direct marketing campaigns that have utilized database information to market more personally. One that really stood out was a campaign for the New York Mets, who were moving into a new stadium but were struggling to drive attendance. In a typical day, a consumer is exposed to roughly 3,000 media messages. They pay attention to 52 and will positively remember 4. For the Mets, a relevant and highly personalized campaign was necessary to drive a behavior – purchase of ticket sales!

The campaign targeted group sales, using a database of 3,000 groups that had attended games in the past, as well as a purchased mailing list that brought the total to 6,800 groups. Database information included the organization name, contact name, address and email address. Variable marketing pieces were created and included the name of the organization, the group leaders surname sprawled across the back of a jersey (using XMPie uImage) and specific messaging and imagery reflecting the group’s category and likely interests (boy scout organizations included different messaging/images than business organizations, for example).

The list 6,800 groups was split in half to create a test group (Shelley emphasized this during the workshop), with 3,400 receiving static mass-marketing pieces similar to what the Mets had been sending in the past – while the other 3,400 received the newly- created customized mailers. Three weeks later, a follow-up mailing was sent to the same divided list.

The results were quite impressive: the data-driven mailer saw a 57.2% increase in group ticket sales over the static control mailer. Revenue from the data-driven mailer was 40.9% higher than revenue from the static mailer. Even more impressive, the Mets saw an 80% increase in group ticket sales over the previous season.

What have you found to be critical considerations for successful direct marketing? Check out these other direct-marketing related posts:

• Define Your Target Market as Tightly as Possible
• Tough Questions about the PSP-MSP Evolution
• Leveraging a Self-Promo Direct Marketing Campaign to your Benefit
• You Don’t Have to Become a Marketing Services Provider to Offer Marketing Services

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Part II of our Direct Marketing recap will discuss the art and science of selling direct marketing services, as well as a look into integrated direct marketing opportunities using XMPie. Jeanette McMurtry of e4marketing can be contacted for more information on the Psychology of Direct Marketing.

Written by Gordon Kaye
Editor, Graphic Design Magazine USA Magazine

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a Google+ Hangout on the future of print design and the value of design in business. Xerox was the host and sponsor, appropriate because it has long been an advocate for print and Xerox products have done so much to advance the graphic arts industry. Google+ Hangouts are an interesting new option for meetings; I found the technology reasonably easy to adapt to, and it invites a relaxed and informal give and take. My sense is that the camera put about 10 years on me – maybe twenty. Just kidding. I can’t blame Google for the extra years, though I would if I could.

The heart of our hangout was an exploration of the myth that “print is dead.” Luckily, our magazine, Graphic Design USA, has been polling on this issue for half a century, and had just completed our 50^th annual survey on just this topic. So I was loaded with rebuttal information. And, luckily, no one loves the feel and smell of a printed piece more than me.

The conclusion we reached during the Hangout is simple but profound: print is unique and powerful because you can touch and feel and hold it. Print creates a human connection missing from the ephemeral and desensitizing media world of digital communications. Designers value print for its classic strengths – tangibility, sensuality, permanence. The good and great designers know how and when to employ these traits to advance a message, a brand, an emotion, an idea, a cause, a sense of authenticity. That is the fundamental take-away; all the rest is but a footnote.

That said we collectively managed to mine several other nuggets about the strength and prospects of print. Among them:

• Print is practical. It is portable, convenient, accessible, easy to read, unplugged, it goes anywhere.
• Print is crucial to how designers make a living. 93 percent of designers work in print as part of their mix, and 75 percent of their time is spent on print-related work.
• Print is a team player. Print may no longer be the superstar, but it is an excellent complement and collaborator, a vital component in the marketing mix. From print to inbound telephony, or online to direct mail, print drives and motivates consumers.
• Print is getting smarter. New technologies to customize, personalize, sharpen, target, interact and integrate are wringing out the waste and infusing responsiveness.
• Print is novel. As the digital deluge, the online onslaught builds; print will be even more effective because it is fresh, rare, different, and welcome.
• Print is sustainable. I hate the canard that print is dirty and digital is clean. I ran out of time to harangue the Hangout audience on this point so let me do it now. Print and paper are becoming “greener” and more transparent up and down the supply chain; the online world should only be as honest about its energy use and other sustainability issues.

GDUSA has been conducting our Print Design survey for 50 years. So let me close with a question. What do you think designers will be saying about the role of print 5, 10 or even 50 years from now?

Interested in other topics similar to the practicality of print, its many benefits, and its future? Check out:

• Enduring #PowerofPrint: How Print Stays Relevant in a Digital World
• Promoting Value of Print: Communication that is Environmentally and Socially Responsible
• Optimism about the Future of Print Highlighted by Printers in Survey
• A trip to Dusseldorf paints a global picture for the future of print

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Gordon Kaye is editor and publisher of Graphic Design USA magazine. He joined GDUSA in 1990 after a first career as communications lawyer for a private law firm and then for the NBC Television Network where assignments included NBC News and Saturday Night Live. He received a BA from Hamilton College, and a joint degree in law and public policy from Princeton University and Columbia Law School. Gordon lives in New York City with his wife Susan and has two daughters, Sasha and Charlotte.

Contact: editorial@gdusa.com

Written by Susan Weiss
Manager, Xerox Worldwide Customer Business Development

Two firms with starting points in different locations and decades have had their paths indirectly cross by how they have chosen to serve their customer bases. QuantumDigital began business in 1986 specializing in postcard mailings for real estate agents, while PIP Printing and Marketing Services Columbus got its start in 1974 as a general-purpose commercial printer. Today, the two firms have arrived at a similar place: finding growth by aggregating production volume from small and medium-sized businesses that share industry-specific marketing needs.

Both told their stories during a recent webinar in the 2013 Xerox Business Development Webinar Series, “Targeting: Small and Medium-Sized Businesses…the Volume Aggregation Opportunity.”

And a good-sized opportunity it is with about 6 million SMBs in the United States, according to InfoTrends. “They want to do what every other business does: gain new customers, expand existing relationships and do customer retention effectively. But they are constrained by a lack of budget, time and expertise,” said Barb Pellow, group director, InfoTrends, the webinar’s moderator.

Those are the needs QuantumDigital and PIP Columbus are meeting with solutions that blend print, mobile, social, email and Web components. “We automate marketing to take it from a random act to a systematic one that frequently takes place whether the client touches it or not,” said Eric Cosway, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Austin, Texas-based QuantumDigital.

For years, QuantumDigital focused on real estate clients, building an information technology expertise that helped them guarantee 24-hour turnarounds. More recently the firm has leveraged its expertise to win work with franchise businesses, such as Hallmark Crown Stores, Michelin and John Deere.

In addition, QuantumDigital partners with AT&T Systems to run Digital Express, an end-to-end direct mail service that serves small businesses from a QuantumDigital-hosted Web site. “We make small businesses look bigger than they are,” Cosway said.

Columbus, Ohio-based PIP Columbus has long counted small- and medium-sized businesses as its heartland customers, but recently began offering marketing services and targeting verticals in a systematic way.

“We’re all aware that a lot of printers who are only printers are going out of business,” said Susan Layman, general manager, PIP Columbus. The franchise took the advice of its franchisor, Franchise Services, Inc. (FSI), she said, “to broaden our base, and develop the expertise to provide a range of marketing services to our customers.”

Among their targets: the 700 dentists in the Columbus area. “They don’t have time to develop marketing plans,” Layman said. “We show how we can help grow their business, and they appreciate it.”

To hear a replay of the “Targeting: Small and Medium-Sized Businesses…the Volume Aggregation Opportunity” webinar, click here. And to sign up for upcoming 2013 Business Development Webinars, including “Targeting: Vertical Markets…The Enterprise Opportunity on June 12,” click here.

Do you target the SMB market? What’s your approach? Is it working?

Interested in other topics similar to growing your business through strategic opportunities? Check out:

• Define Your Target Market as Tightly as Possible
• How to Increase SEO and Generate Sales Leads
• When it comes to Direct Marketing Campaigns: Practice what you Preach
• How do I Market Better and Offer Marketing Services?

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Susan Weiss, manager, Xerox Worldwide Customer Business Development, is Xerox’s host for the 2013 Business Development Webinar Series.

Written by Bill Michael
eMarketing Manager, Xerox Corporation

Xerox will discuss the enduring power of print in a Google+ OnAir hangout on April 25 – details at the bottom of the post

We live in a digital world; always-on, always-connected, and growing more so by the day. Information disseminates almost instantaneously, yet our thirst for more suggests we are trapped in a desert. It’s come to the point where the hospitality sector has even dubbed a term, ‘Digital-Detox’, as a way to encourage guests to unplug and unwind. Yes, today’s digital world is having an impact on all industries; and the print, advertising, and design communities are not immune. Despite an abundance of digital mediums (email, social media, web, e-readers, mobile, etc.), print remains an effective, revenue-generating tool.

A blog post by Lisa Rawa, Marketing Manager for Printing Industries of America, spoke to the value of print as an integral component of a successful campaign. She stated that when combined with online, digital technologies – you have all the makings for an effective communication tool. In fact, recent studies showed 76% of small businesses stated their ideal marketing mix was a combination of print and digital advertising. It also found 67% of online searches are driven by offline messages, with 39% ending with a purchase. Research found by Printing Industries of America showed websites supported by a printed catalog yielded 164% greater revenue than those that are not.

The influential role print plays in impacting purchase decisions should not go unnoticed. The graphic design, print, and creative communities may find great interest in a March 2013 study conducted by VTT, gauging consumer response to advertising in various mediums. The effectiveness of print was clear, as consumers scored advertising in print media as the most trusted medium; higher than television and Internet advertising. Nearly 7 of 10 consumers said advertising in print was the most important and influential in supporting purchase making decisions.

So how does print find its place among all these digital devices and technologies that allow users to always stay connected…and what must print provide in order to stay relevant and effective? Susan Weiss, Manager of Worldwide Customer Business Development, discussed this in an interview with Hdemo Network, citing the unique applications enabled through digital printing. With personalization, augmented reality, PURLs, and QR codes – to name a few – print has the ability to cut through the clutter, engage with the recipient, and act as a bridge to the online world. This is critical for marketers and brand owners communicating their products and services.

By making this connection, print and creative communities can tap into multiple communication channels and deliver substantial value to end-users, as well as boost their own bottom line. InfoTrends found firms offering cross-media marketing services were able to boost their digital printing volumes by 14% on average. Alphagraphics of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, used a cross-media campaign of their own to promote an open house event and tout their services and offerings. The campaign incorporated a cross-channel mix including print, e-mail, QR Codes, and PURLs – generating more than eight new orders from current customers for new projects.

Want to learn more about the enduring power of print? Check out the replay of our Google+ Hangout, which discussed the future of design and print, blending print and digital approaches, innovations that are making print smarter and greener, and why good design is critical to business success.

Interested in topics similar to the enduring power of print? Check out:

• Promoting Value of Print: Communication that is Environmentally and Socially Responsible
• Fan of Travel Guides? You Aren’t Alone.
• Craving Offline Experiences: In Today’s Digital World, Do You Turn to the Physical and Tactile?

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Xerox was joined by Gordon Kaye, editor and publisher of Graphic Design USA Magazine (GDUSA), Ilana Greenberg, creative director for GDUSA, and Carlos Perez, creative director for Anderson Direct Marketing, during the Google+ Hangout.

Written by Lisa Rawa
Vice President, Marketing, Printing Industries of America

The printing industry is constantly facing challenges regarding its place in messaging, its environmental impact, and its future. As recently as January of this year, Google launched a campaign to “Go Paperless in 2013,” and who can forget Toshiba’s ill-fated “National No Print Day,” announced in the summer of 2012? Both campaigns encouraged switching from paper to electronic communications as a means of protecting the environment. These are only two of the most recent cases. With industry giants making false claims about print, it became clear we needed to fight back.

Printing Industries of America created the Value of Print campaign in March 2012 as a response to false claims about print’s negative impact on the environment and the loss of its effectiveness. This campaign has served as a resource for the industry to spread the message about the power of print and is available in a printed Flip-Book, PDF version, and a mobile app. Our President and CEO, Michael Makin, even referenced facts and statistics from the Flip-Book in his open letter to Google in response to their “Go Paperless in 2013” campaign.

Lisa Rawa in a behind-the-scenes image from the In Focus Video Shoot. Lisa stands in front of Printing Industries of America’s latest press, the Xerox iGen4, donated by Xerox.

What started as direct mail pieces—including a brochure, poster, and a PR tool kit—grew into a bigger campaign, crossing several platforms. The campaign is now promoted on Printing Industries of America’s social media channels—you may have even seen our #FlipbookFactFriday tweets, which include quick statistics from the Flip-Book. The purpose of social media is to discover and share content you wouldn’t find though normal means. This campaign has reached audiences that we wouldn’t have been able to reach with just a social media campaign, or just a direct mail campaign. By integrating the various outlets available, we have been able to maximize our reach.

The industry knows its value. When you marry the power of print with the efficiency of electronics, you can create an extremely effective marketing mix that is also environmentally friendly. Coming this spring, the campaign will even cross over to television. Printing Industries of America will be featured in a video to be aired on In Focus, a television series on PBS. The video promotes the industry’s sustainability and print’s effectiveness and features segments from Tim Burton, President, Burton & Mayer, and Chairman of the Board, Printing Industries of America; Michael Makin, President and CEO, Printing Industries of America; and Lisa Rawa, Vice President, Marketing, Printing Industries of America.

Now, more than ever, it is vital to communicate that printed products are environmentally and socially responsible, and are an effective part of the marketing mix. Stay tuned for more developments from the Value of Print Campaign by visiting printing.org/valueofprint and be sure to download the mobile app for the latest facts and statistics to support our industry and spread the true message about print to your customers.

Do you find yourself battling conceived notions that print is dying or that electronic media is more environmentally friendly than print? How do you see the future of print, web and mobile working in unison?

Interested in learning more about the print industry, its environmental impact, and its future? You may want to check out:

• Printed Books Making a Comeback Over E-Books
• The Controversy About Paper Waste
• Book Printing: It’s Easy Being Green
• ‘Almost Live’ Blog: PARC’s Steve Hoover on ‘The Future of Communications,’ Presented at the Xerox Premier Partners Congress at drupa 2012

Written by John Conley
VP Commercial Print and Publishing, Xerox Corporation

Have you been following the story of Google’s acquisition of Frommer’s Travel in August of 2012, and the subsequent news just last March that the newly-owned Google company would no longer be producing print versions of their travel guide? Well, there is now another twist in this ongoing saga, but this time it’s a positive turn for consumers of the travel guide series and the print industry as a whole.

Just last week, news broke that Frommer’s had reacquired their business from Google. The Wall Street Journal reported that a delighted Arthur Frommer, founder of the Frommer’s business, stated his intention to “publish some 40 titles, 20 of which will be available digitally and in print, and the other half available only in print”.

In a world with the prevalence of tablets and smartphones growing by the day, print should not be forgotten. This is especially true in the eyes of a traveler, either with a desire to disconnect and unplug while traveling, or a necessity to do so due to lack of Wi-Fi, exorbitant roaming charges, or confusing/expensive/incompatible international phone plans. For these reasons, printed guidebooks help provide travelers with peace of mind and an always-faithful resource.

Case in point: a 2012 study was conducted to assess the types of technologies and resources being used by tourists visiting Ireland.

The intent was to provide tangible data to tourism businesses on usage of travel guides and mobile devices by visitors. The study identified that the majority of respondents (37%) stated to using physical hard copy travel guide books for information and reference, with the second most frequently used resource being information provided by a tour office (17%).

Mobile devices and travel apps represented the third most frequently used category at 14% – a surprise to Ireland’s Tourism Department who initially speculated that mobile devices would be used at a considerably higher rate.

These findings are in line with a recent study conducted by JWT, showing  81% of respondents (and 84% of baby boomers) stated that physical objects personify an endurance that digital objects are not able to recreate. In that same study, 77% said they enjoy the smell and touch of printed books.

This isn’t to say that print should be mutually exclusive to tablets, mobile devices, and other gateways to the digital world. There is a meaningful connection between print and digital, as we’ve seen in countless examples where a digital experience was made more enjoyable by the presence of print, and vice versa.

With an affinity for the tactile and tangible coupled with a baby boomer population that currently accounts for roughly 80% of domestic and foreign leisure travel – there is certainly an enduring value in offering printed travel guides. And Frommer’s agrees.

While print will continue to thrive for Frommer’s in the near term, it will be very interesting to monitor the strategy moving forward for how print and digital are integrated, and how Frommer’s will balance the needs of the emerging digital consumer with the remaining conspicuous consumption years of the baby boomer.

This represents the real opportunity for Frommer’s rebirth in print. It is one thing for print to merely survive, but this is an opportunity for print to thrive and evolve.

Interested in more topics similar to the book publishing industry, digital print, or cross-media integration? Check out:

• Craving Offline Experiences: In Today’s Digital World, Do you Turn to the Physical and Tactile?
• Optimism about the Future of Print Highlighted by Printers in Survey
• Printed Books Making a Comeback Over E-Books
• Connecting Print to the Digital World One Scan at a Time