Digital printing has two properties that make it one of the most common choices for producing print copies.  The first one is its print-on-demand feature that allows people to acquire copies of their printed materials at certain time intervals.  This is appropriate for quick document reprints whenever a need for a fresh set of copies arises.

Another is short run printing which lets you have small volumes of copies printed at affordable rates.  If, for instance, you need posters but you intend to limit the advertisement to a certain locality, more than 100 copies would be uneconomical.  With short run prints and digital printing, you can avail a few posters at a considerably lower price.

Aside from low cost short run printing, digital printing also offers quick turnaround times so you can easily beat a tight deadline.

Another plus

And when it comes to fast personalized mails and marketing materials, digital printing goes another step ahead of offset printing.  Digital printing facilities have what is called ‘variable data printing’, a function which makes it possible to get information like texts and objects from a database and produce printouts with certain data unique to each copy.

For example, when printing a set of invitations, you have a template of the design which is printed on each copy.  To add a personalized touch to each piece, you can supply the names of your guests encoded on a file.  Each invitation copy will bear one name from your guest list.

And the best part is that this is accomplished without delaying the printing process.

Pluses and uses

According to an article on the use of variable data printing, there was a cumulative 72% increase on response rate with Reader’s Digest’s direct mailing test.  This favorable result was achieved by varying the product offered according to customer affinity, and another is by adding individualized texts and details which suited the demographics of each mail recipient.

This study helped establish how variable data printing can be used to achieve a direct marketing advantage.

Furthermore, a little creativity on your part can make this digital printing function even more rewarding.  You can make it seem like you’re talking directly to target clients by posing a question or by using information that a potential customer would take interest in, on the basis of his/her age, gender and location.

Although digital printing still has a long way to go in terms of affordability with large volume printing, as with offset printing, you could still take advantage of its variable data printing feature to boost your sales.  With that kind of response rate, the returns may be more than enough to offset the cost of digitally produced prints.