PrintingNews.com

Given the tremendous onslaught of direct mail that land in consumers’ mailboxes every day, businesses face a formidable challenge in ensuring their messages stand out.

One way is to use personalization. A recent test by the Maine Office of Tourism, using the Xerox Corporation 1:1 Lab – a variable print testing ground – demonstrated that a relevant personalized mailing generated a 24.1 percent improvement in the response rate over a traditional generic or static piece. The Maine Office of Tourism projected that the personalized mailing also generated 23.4 percent more revenue from state visitors than the control generic group.

The 1:1 Lab analyzes a customer’s traditional static direct-marketing campaign and compares the results against one that uses personalized, one-to-one messaging based on demographic data and printed on a Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press. This helps print providers and their clients develop customized, more relevant direct marketing programs produced with digital printing that grab attention and increase response rates.

Long-time Xerox customer DMM, a direct marketing solutions provider based in Scarborough, Maine, proposed the test opportunity to its client, the Maine Office of Tourism.

“With tourism being the second largest revenue-generating industry in the state, it is vital for Maine’s tourism department to more effectively market itself to prospective visitors around the world,” said Theresa Cloutier, senior vice president of marketing, DMM. “Reaching the right audience with more relevant information that addresses consumers’ needs in a personalized way gives the state a competitive edge. This test program validated the power of personalized mailings.”