Meeting Custom Requirements with Ricoh’s 1to1 Create Marketing Services

Graphics Plus (GP) located in Lisle, IL delivers marketing services support solutions to a wide variety of industries including manufacturers, associations as well as nonprofits, higher education, publishers, and marketing agencies located throughout the Chicago area and the Midwest.

Whether the need is creative, print, distribution or multimedia solutions, GP works to offer multichannel solutions from its 22,000 square-foot production space that help create and capture opportunities, expand sales and deliver key messages to target audiences for its loyal client base.

Customers today have high expectations for what print service providers should be able to deliver.

Statistics show that marketers will use, on average, at least three channels when working to get their message heard. “It is my job to find new ways to expand our business in order to remain competitive in the marketplaces we serve,” said Mike Jais, a partner at Graphics Plus. “However, it is no easy task to create, deliver and track the multichannel marketing campaigns that our customers are beginning to ask for.”

In today’s connected world, printed materials simply aren’t enough. Consumers are more sophisticated and want marketing and support materials that are new and exciting. Because of this, more and more print service providers are seeking affordable avenues for delivering what their customers expect. “The more creative marketing services I can add to our portfolio, the more my customers—and my business—will thrive,” said Jais. “However, in seeking a solution, I knew it had to be easy to use and affordable. We didn’t have the time or the budget for anything complicated.”

GP recently replaced its Konica Minolta digital printer with a RICOH Pro C901. After Jais and Ricoh (Booth 1931) discussed the different ways he could expand his business using the RICOH Pro C901, he found his answer in Ricoh’s 1to1 Create Marketing Services. 1to1 Create is Ricoh’s cloud-based subscription service designed to help small to medium-sized print service providers create, launch, track, manage, modify and optimize turnkey cross-media marketing campaigns.

1to1 Create offers intuitive tools for customers who want to add personalized details like names, titles, target messages and images for a specific audience or individual. “There was a health club I was working with that I knew the 1to1 Create platform would be perfect for. However, they wanted to use their own images, change up the microsite and use their own house file for the email blast,” said Jais.

1to1 Create allowed the GP team to change 90 percent of the prototype to match the specific needs of this client. “Even with that many changes, we were able to work within the framework of each template and end up with 'agency' looking pieces because the integrity of the design was not compromised. This was a win-win for both my customer and me.”

Graphics Plus built a five-part campaign that included a direct mail postcard with a PURL, an email blast, an integrated microsite, a brochure and a rack card for the front counter. GP printed the postcards, brochures and rack cards on the RICOH Pro C901. The device’s extensive capabilities are a perfect match for the 1to1Create output, delivering the quality color important to the health club.

“Overall the campaign for the health club was a big success. The purpose of this campaign was to increase membership, and it worked. The campaign resulted in a 10 percent increase in facility attendance,” said Jais. “I was quite impressed with the results of the campaign and the 1to1 Create solution.”