Precision Printing Chooses DirectSmile Cross Media

UK commercial print specialist, Precision Printing, installs DirectSmile Cross Media software to provide customers with highly targeted, integrated marketing campaigns and visibility of results. Using Cross Media, the company anticipates improved campaign success and increased return on investment (ROI) for customers. 

At mediaPro 2009, Precision Printing announced it would be adding DirectSmile Cross Media software to its extensive range of commercial print capabilities. This leading print service provider has been supplying printed marketing materials to many high-profile customers for over 40 years, and is now extending its offering to include marketing services across the digital media communication channels (URL, SMS and email).

Gary Peeling, Managing Director of Precision Printing, explains, "Much of the research into current marketing trends suggests that an integrated approach is much more effective than using just one communication method. This approach can raise campaign success rates by about 30-50%. Therefore, expanding our service offering to include Internet marketing methods, as well as print, seemed like an obvious progression for the business. When we reviewed the various solutions that would enable us to take this next step, the team at DirectSmile had a good understanding of the market and Cross Media software met all of our requirements, including being compatible with our HP Indigo print technology. Cross Media offers a complete package, rather than separate modules, and it provides a transparent customer ‘dashboard' for monitoring feedback and cleansing data - an invaluable tool for keeping clients well informed and clearly demonstrating ROI for their campaign."

Cross Media not only enables the creation of personalised marketing campaigns across the communication platforms of print, SMS, email and URL websites, it is also used to track campaign responses and measure activity, presented via online reports. This allows the user to improve their customer database and strengthen customer relations through better targeted, follow up campaigns.

"Providing campaign recipients with a means to communicate with the sender opens up a dialogue that companies wouldn't otherwise have," continues Gary. "It's a fantastic way to ascertain exactly what your customers are looking for, and this new understanding is indispensable to ensure future marketing campaigns are successful, and ultimately, your sales and profits increase."

Cross Media was installed at Precision Printing during the week commencing 16^th November. However, at mediaPro 2009 - two weeks prior to the installation - Precision Printing received many new business enquiries from companies interested in its new personalisation and Internet marketing capabilities.

Gary says, "DirectSmile's online Cross Media tour (www.crossmediatour.com) has provided us with a great tool for communicating the benefits of an integrated campaign to potential and existing customers. Even if they have never produced personalised emails and URLs, it helps them to immediately visualise their own online campaigns.

"Some of our customers are already using personalised emails and URLs, as part of an integrated marketing campaign. While we were their preferred printer for these campaigns, they had to enlist multiple agencies to complete the online part of the job. Now that we can provide personalised marketing materials in every format, these customers only need to deal with one point of contact and, having worked with us the past, they know that they can expect a high-quality, reliable service from start to finish."

DirectSmile is the inventor of image personalization and one of the leading suppliers of software for variable data printing and cross-media marketing. Award-winning DirectSmile solutions allow users to implement sophisticated personalization tasks with ease, efficiency and smooth workflows, and leverage the power of one-to-one-communications across all media.

DirectSmile solutions are designed for true mass-personalization, allowing million-volume database-driven communication both in print and digital media with the ability to track detailed campaign feedback.

For printers, designers and agencies, using DirectSmile opens up new profitable fields of business ranging from selling high-value image personalized print products to the end-customer and producing high-impact customized direct mailings to creating personalized response-tracking websites and establishing web-to-print portals.

On May 1, 2009 DirectSmile launched DirectSmile Cross Media, a new, integrated solution for cross-media marketing. DirectSmile Cross Media enables users to create personal URL websites for real-time campaign tracking and send high-volumes of personalized e-mailings. The solution is designed for all providers of marketing services who wish to deliver highly personalized, targeted and efficient cross-media campaigns with full response transparency.