It’s pretty much a given that everyone wants their marketing materials to stand out. But what elements genuinely make a piece of marketing stand out? Is it flashy graphics, obnoxious (yet eye-catching) colors, or the font? Some arcane combination of all of the above?
In most cases, the answer is much simpler. Standing out often just means connecting with your audience on a truly individual level. This is difficult, of course, with marketing materials intended for large audiences.
Unless, of course, you’re using the right technology: Variable data printing (VDP).
We recently discussed VDP in our blog post Why Variable Data Printing Is Hugely Effective for Small Businesses. Essentially, it’s a printing technique where you can customize your prints with different text, images, or info, like printing personalized letters where each one has a different name and address, all in one print run.
One of the best ways to start using VDP is with Xerox’s XMPie uDirect plugin for Adobe InDesign. Let’s see how it works:
Is uDirect the Ideal VDP Solution for InDesign Users? We Think So!
uDirect is a plugin for Adobe InDesign, the most commonly used desktop publishing software by small businesses and enterprise organizations alike. If you’re creating marketing materials in-house, you’re probably familiar with it!
With uDirect, there’s no need to learn an entirely new software platform. You simply add the plugin and continue working on your design—just with some new perks.
The plugin connects your design templates to external data sources that contain the data you want to use for personalization. The data sources you can use are things like customer databases in various formats, excel spreadsheets, or CSV documents (uDirect is pretty flexible!).
How Marketing Material Personalization Works With uDirect
Once you’ve connected a data source to uDirect, you can assign specific areas of your design as “variable data” zones. That data might be customer names, addresses, trackable coupons or discount codes, or personalized product offers based on the customer’s purchase history. Really, the sky is the limit.
You can get extremely creative with variable data printing. As a small example, think of the images you’re using in your design. If a customer lives in Denver, you might want to show show a mountain photo, but if they’re in Miami, a beach image. You can customize and personalize anything.
uDirect comes in two flavors. uDirect Classic is what most organizations will want, as it provides the core VDP functionality. uDirect Studio is an upgrade in the sense that it has two additional tools for particular use cases: uImage for personalized imagery and uChart for dynamic charts.
Ready to Start Using InDesign Like a VDP Pro? We’re Here to Show You the Ropes
Is personalization just a “nice-to-have”? Modern marketers would likely disagree. Variable Data Printing with tools like uDirect gives designers the ability to create engaging, recipient-specific materials that, statistically, will drive better results, help build customer relationships, and increase brand loyalty.
Whether you’re just getting started with VDP or you’re excited to integrate this awesome technology with your inDesign workflow, our team is here to guide you. Contact us today or request a free online quote to learn more about how Xerox tools and equipment can help you achieve your most important objectives.
