Unlocking Added Value with Inkjet Solutions

By Ashley Roberts

The following article was originally published by Printing Impressions. To read more of their content, subscribe to their newsletter, Today on PIWorld.

“Once you put in a Web-to-print or a connected solution with a client, it is very difficult to unplug you. You are now a part of and an extension of their team.”

Gina Danner, CEO of Kansas City, Missouri’s NextPage, shared those sentiments on W2P solutions during an Inkjet Summit panel exploring how to deliver added value communications with production inkjet. Danner explained how to build customer stickiness with value-added services, pointing to the opportunities in the storefront space, including pick-and-pack, fulfillment, variable printing, short-run communications, and direct mail.

“What we really get excited about is when we can connect directly to a customer’s dataset,” she said. “We’re making real-time direct mail for a customer journey.”

(From left) The value-added panel was moderated by Barb Pellow, manager of Pellow & Partners; joined by Frank Arostegui, executive vice president of sales and marketing at American Litho; Sheree Byrd, vice president of technology at L&D Mail Masters; and Gina Danner, CEO of NextPage.

Danner was joined on stage by Frank Arostegui, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Carol Stream, Illinois-based American Litho; and Sheree Byrd, vice president of technology at L&D Mail Masters in New Albany, Indiana. The panel was moderated by Barb Pellow, manager of Pellow & Partners, led attendees through the meaning of value-added services - which includes personalization, special effects, finishing, omnichannel marketing communications, and trigger-based marketing - and then walked through real-life examples with the panelists, who have all seamlessly integrated value-added services in their businesses.

Arostegui explained that American Litho is able to “literally personalize every single piece” in the company’s digital printing environment, which is made up of an HP Indigo 12000 device that was installed in 2017, as well as a fleet of HP PageWide devices (an upgraded T240 installed in 2019, a T250 added in 2020, and the most recent being a T490 added in 2022).

For one program in particular, he explained “there are over 415 variable elements” with 35 variable blocks on each piece. This could include personal information, graphic and text images, personal interests, previous buying episodes, and more.

American Litho is also active in the area of geofencing, which Arostegui describes as an opportunity to “prime the mailbox.” He described one program his company did for a brick-and-mortar store that was running a campaign for customers. American Litho was able to identify target consumers in a specific area based on latitude and longitude coordinates and then target those consumers with an omnichannel experience 10 days prior to a piece of direct mail hitting their mailboxes.

“We identified the folks within those homes, and then we identified all of their devices,” he said. “Their cellphones, laptops, and tablets. … We were able to push emails, develop display ads, and social. What we saw was an enormous uptick or repeat on hitting those folks with the same offer with the same graphic images as that mail piece.”

For L&D Mail Masters, it uses its digital capabilities - including two SCREEN Truepress JET 520s, a Konica Minolta KM-1e and several high-speed inserters - to offer customers full-color, full-bleed envelopes.

“We are essentially a white paper company,” she said. “We don't care if it's direct mail. We don't care if it's transactional. We have white paper, we have white envelopes. We make it what you want it to be.”

L&D Mail Masters doesn’t stop there though. Byrd explained that many of the company’s customers believe they’re in for a one-off job, but L&D Mail Masters will follow up with customers to suggest further personalization and variation after every job.

“We follow it up with, ‘Have you really thought about adding a barcode to this? Have you thought about doing a personalized URL for your customers to provide feedback?’” she said. It’s about working with the client to push the boundaries and offer them what they want .. and more.

Danner complemented the other panelists by describing NextPage’s blend of both offset and digital devices, including an HP T200, a fleet of HP Indigo devices, two 40”, eight-color Komori presses, large-format devices, and dry toner devices. One advancement in particular driving value-add services at NextPage are trailing edge envelopes with high-color and full gloss.

“The lift that we're able to get for our customers when we do those types of envelopes is very significant, it truly jumps out of the mail,” she said.

Recommendations from Real Users

With ideas abounding, the panelists provided attendees with some actionable recommendations to drive business with value-added communications.

Arostegui suggested that companies need to make the right investments, deeply understand their craft while being able to articulate their business model and the value they deliver, and collaborate with customers to deliver solutions.

“I think probably the most important thing that we can do as partners for clients is to take a step back and have a conversation,” he said. “Identify what is their current challenge? … How do we make sure we’re targeting the right individuals versus the old the old methodology of spray and pray?”

Danner points to the need for thinking about investments “beyond the press.” More than just the printing and finishing side of things, she explained that it’s important to think about partnering with a creative agency if a company doesn’t already have one in-house, thinking about ways to “engage with data,” and working directly with clients to move them into new markets, like direct mail, if they aren’t already in that space.

Integrating AI: Start Small

The second panel of the day was moderated by Conference Chair Marco Boer, vice president of I.T. Strategies, who was joined by Lisa Cross, principal analyst of NAPCO Research, and Barb Pellow, to discuss what artificial intelligence (AI) means for the printing industry. Beyond its more obvious uses in predictive maintenance and data management, there are some very easy ways for print service providers to use AI to their benefit across departments.

Marco Boer, vice president of I.T. strategies, asked Lisa Cross, principal analyst of NAPCO Research (middle), and Barb Pellow, manager of Pellow and Partners (right), about the AI opportunity for business leaders in the printing industry.

The panel discussed four immediate ways to integrate AI for content creation in marketing and sales copy; for HR purposes in hiring new employees; for decision making to achieve operational excellence; and for streamlining customer service.

The key, Pellow explained, is to start small, identify priorities and clear goals, evaluate options, monitor progress, and scale up when AI is successfully implemented in one mission-critical function.

Inkjet Delivers Results: Five Key Takeaways

Lisa Cross, principal analyst of NAPCO Research, shares some insights into a recent research report exploring how production inkjet delivers results.

For the final session of the day, Lisa Cross remained on stage to lead attendees through the research findings from “Production Inkjet is Delivering Results and Expanding Application Opportunities” report from NAPCO Research. Although Cross walked through many of the more salient points from the report, she distilled it into five key takeaways: