Agility has become a marketing buzzword because it’s never been more important to be agile, particularly in your marketing approches. Customer preferences and market conditions have never changed more quickly, and being nimble is a crucial success factor: nimble in learning about your markets and in adapting your responses to meet your customers.
That’s why sophisticated users of digital printing technology are enjoying the benefits of exploring creative and marketing alternatives — without delays and without the start-up costs that came with exploring different design, messaging or packaging approaches.
Agile marketers can explore entirely different styles or different offers — in small quantities or large — and can quickly gather feedback that enables them to choose the right path(s) forward.
Your grandfather’s A/B Testing
Today, when people think about A/B testing they usually think testing multiple creative approaches for online media buys. But long ago, people used direct mail to test two different offers, to learn which one elicited the best response. This A/B testing was a crude preview of what you can do today — with infinitely variable imaging and finishing, all done with digital printing.
Creative Agility
The ability to test and experiment through quick pursuit, reflection, and adjustment.
Linda Hill’s 10-minute TED Talk will show you how Creative Agility fits into the triad of creative strengths at the world’s most innovative companies.
Digital printing technology permits you to compare user engagement with different creative versions of a printed piece, a packaging approach, or any other marketing asset. By tracking versions with QR-coded landing pages you’ll be able to measure the variations in response and determine your optimal course of action. All without the added expense of traditional versioned production.
You show one version to one group and the other version to another group, then watch carefully to see how each version plays. Careful analysis will help you to make an informed decision, and you can adapt your marketing response accordingly, changing your copy, your offer, your design, or your packaging — being much more confident that you’re on a path to making the right decision
That was then, this is now
Short-run digital printing allows you to go-to-market with several creative versions of a concept so you can see what wins with the buyer. Digital printing affords you the flexibility to test multiple offers, using personalization tools with variable images, variable text, QR codes, and even personalized landing pages for each recipient.
Using variable data, you can adjust creative for audience segments on the fly — using different creative for male or female demographics. So too, automotive promotions might tailor copy or logo art for specific car owners; or you can adapt messaging and art for different age groups. Whatever ways you can segment your audience, we can adapt your printed pieces to reflect that segmentation at full production speed, with no sacrifice in quality or increase in cost once the variable data has been programmed.
A Major Breakthrough in Short-run Packaging
This kind of adaptability is useful across the entire range of printed marketing communications. But it’s recently become a critical advantage in exploring high-end packaging options, because high-end packaging has always had high start-up costs that required large quantities to make the unit cost affordable.
Today, the newest digital presses are large enough and fast enough to permit exploration of different packaging approaches — using substrates that are thicker and more durable than ever before. And digital enhancements like metallic foils or high-touch coatings don’t require die-making or expensive set-ups, permitting you to explore endless variations, if you like — all without needless cost or delays.
In cosmetics, food, or pharmaceuticals, packaging is a major area of focus — because it often plays a major part in consumers’ product selection.
Digital short run package testing can play a major role in helping you to understand what types of shapes, colors and adornments impact buying decisions.
Just imagine
Imagine being a cosmetics marketing manager and being able to use a variety of images based on a consumer’s profile. Or if you’re trying packaging alternatives, imagine using a metallic foil adornment on one packaging test item, and glossy raised coating on another.
Imagine being a cosmetics marketing manager and being able to use a variety of images based on a consumer’s profile. Or if you’re trying packaging alternatives, imagine using a metallic foil adornment on one packaging test item, and glossy raised coating on another.
Imagine being a pharmaceutical product manager and being able to send targeted mailing pieces to your list of MDs and other healthcare providers. Gone are the days when you had to use the same piece for each member of your audience.
Imagine running a high-end fund-raising or team-building event, where you can personalize and enhance each high-value piece for each attendee. Maximizing impact drives maximized results.
Imagine being a CMO and being able to come up with different offers or different creative approaches and zeroing in on the ones that perform the best across multiple demographics.
Across an endless range of marketing communications approaches, you can speak directly to each recipient — one to one. More personally. More intimately, and with dramatically better results.
Whether you’re evaluating alternative ideas or simply trying to maximize impact through a highly personalized approach, there are things you can do digitally that you’ve never imagined would be possible.
Flexibility and agility can help to make your marketing strategy more dynamic and more powerful. That’s why it’s time for you to put high-end digital production to use. The results just might astonish you.
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