Most marketers understand that consumers typically respond well when they receive the kind of personalized communication that is produced using variable data printing. However, when XMPie Inc. wanted to showcase its VDP technology to GraphExpo attendees, simply printing their names on a postcard wasn’t enough.
Instead, the one-to-one marketing software provider created a campaign that was segmented by the recipient’s title and featured multiple touch points and a personalized newspaper.
“We wanted to do good, smart direct marketing,” said Kimberly Meyers, XMPie’s director of marketing communications.
She said that meant creating a better campaign than the company’s previous trade show marketing efforts.
Xerox Corp. bought XMPie in November. Among the New York-based XMPie’s selling points is that its software, PersonalEffect, allows designers to use InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator to seamlessly add variable data to any image.
In previous campaigns, XMPie had focused on the software’s personalization capabilities by mailing out pieces that directed recipients to a personalized URL. While the results were good, XMPie wanted to demonstrate to prospects that the software can also carry a campaign’s message and the personalization through multiple touch points, including high-impact four-color photographs. In addition, XMPie wanted to showcase the software’s ability to segment a list.
The first element of the campaign was a postcard that went out in mid-September to multiple business titles within 7,994 companies. The list consisted of XMPie’s internal database of customers and a purchased list of prospects.
On one side, the postcards highlighted XMPie’s abilities, invited recipients to create a newspaper with their own name in the headlines by visiting a personalized URL and displayed XMPie’s booth number.
On the other side, the postcards featured one of three different images, depending on the recipient’s title. If the recipient was a C-level executive, the image was of a large office building with his or her name on it. For people from the production side, the image was a luxury yacht with the recipient’s name on the side. Everyone else received a postcard with an image of a personal jet that had his or her name printed on the side.
People who went to their personal Web site were asked to verify their information. The interactive software also asked them a series of questions to help it create a headline and pick the stories for each individual’s newspaper. Lastly, there was a question about the biggest concerns for the visitor’s business, which would be forwarded to the sales force.
If visitors said they planned to attendGraphExpo, they were asked to pre-register for one of XMPie’s theater presentations at the show, where they could pick up their personalized newspaper. If they weren’t going to GraphExpo, they were asked if they would like to attend a webinar and to receive their personalized newspaper in the mail. Visitors could also simply request to receive the newspaper.
After visitors completed their session, they received an e-mail a couple of hours later from the sales representative for their territory. Another e-mail was sent out to people who signed for the GraphExpo presentations a week prior to the show.
People who didn’t respond to the initial postcard received a second one at the beginning of October with a different personalized image.
The campaign had a 5 percent response rate, with 438 companies signing up for a personalized newspaper. Of those, 89 companies and 116 people signed up for an XMPie presentation. In addition, 44 companies and 48 people signed up for a webinar.
“The prospects were better qualified and XMPie was able to gather more information up front on each prospect,” Ms. Meyers said.
“Additionally, by experiencing the entire campaign, several prospects contacted their sales rep prior to the show and came to XMPie’s booth at GraphExpo ready to buy.”
