On the impact of variable data publishing

I'm going to get away from the topics of blogging and micro-blogging for a spell, and turn my attention to something that's gotten quite a bit of traction at our agency in the last 12 months or so.

That topic is Variable Data Publishing (VDP). VDP refers to to systems and processes that allow users to create documents that contain variable content based on a specific customer, product or set of business rules. Creating successful VDP solutions requires that our users, who are for the most part not publishing or design professionals, have the ability to use a simple self-service Web interface to select content from one or more data sources and compile this content into professional-looking, customized and highly-relevant communications.

Bader Rutter & Associates builds VDP solutions based on the Pageflex™ platform from Bitstream. Pageflex allows users to quickly and easily assemble and customize highly designed documents without the need for creative support or a knowledge of complex electronic design tools. Pageflex offers our clients unparalleled design control coupled with features created specifically for variable data publishing. Our clients are able to produce rich, creative marketing materials that look like they were given the individual attention of a graphic designer but were actually created 'on the fly' with our variable publishing technology.

We're now able to meet the demands of a wide variety of digital marketing projects, regardless of the medium used to deliver them. Some examples of VDP solutions include: 

• Catalogs, tech sheet and sell sheets
• Brochures, inserts and statement stuffers
• Personalized response cards and mailers
• Direct mail pieces
• On-demand print order fulfillment
• Personalized e-mail communications

Now...this is not a new topic or offering for a lot of organizations. As a matter of fact, VDP (also known as automated publishing or dynamic page publishing) has been in play in one shape or another for over twenty years. I was in the hardware and software sales business in the late 80s and with the advent of desktop publishing software (like Aldus Pagemaker) and desktop database applications (like Dbase) we were quite hot and bothered by the vision of automating the production of customized and highly-targeted marketing materials to collect leads, increase sales and facilitate customer retention. 

Twenty years ago, however, we were talking the talk but not walking the walk. These technologies have matured, and today the impact of providing VDP as a hosted service (SaaS) to our clients is significant. For the last eighteen months or so, we've been designing and developing variable data publishing solutions that are dramatically changing the way that marketing communications is produced and distributed to our customers and our customer's customers.

I'll share more over the next week or two about some of our success - stay tuned.

-John G.

On 'tweets' and the value of micro-blogging

I've been watching and listening to some of the folks who I "follow" on Twitter. I'm trying to wrap my head around what it means to be an active 'micro-blogger'.  I think I see a pattern. 

1. There are some folks (who might be readers of this author's blog and will thus remain anonymous) who seem to just get a kick out of seeing their own words appear on a digital canvas, only seconds after they post. What they post is less important than that they post, and I'll routinely see 'tweets' that can only be described at best as useless, or irrelevant. Fun, on occasion, but not consistently, and often just annoying. An example of this might be, "leaving the office, heading to Subway for lunch", or "at Lowes, looking for rubber cement". Of course, I've facilitated this, by allowing those vacuous tweets to make their way directly to my iPhone, via "device updates'.
   
2. Other Twitterers choose more carefully what they post, and will more often than not share a URL, or an academic or business reference that they find valuable or interesting, in the hopes that their followers might also agree. Today for example, I received Tweets pointing me to an article describing "rules for establishing a business presence on Twitter" and two days ago was directed towards a complex yet compelling article on "portable social networks"

It seems to me that micro-blogging as an editorial exercise provides proof that one can make very good use of 140 characters, in an information-sharing sort of way. Or that technology can just make it easy to waste time faster.

Back soon - 

John G.

On the Art of the Blog

I didn't decide to do this so I could hear myself speak or add more work to my already considerable workload - there's allegedly somewhere between 112 million and 250 million blogs already out there as we speak, covering every imaginable topic, any many of them are "ghost towns" (a colleague of mine used this term recently). We certainly don't need 112 million AND ONE blogs now, do we?

I am, however, interested in Tim O'Reilly's concept of the "Web as a global brain" whereby a collective intelligence can be increased when new voices are allowed to contribute to a given repository of knowledge.

So I thought I'd give this a go, and post as regularly as I can on topics with which I am familiar, and that represent that place where technology and communications meet, and where digital strategy can play a role in accomplishing business goals.

Merlin Mann just posted his thoughts on what makes a good blog and I especially have to agree with #7: "Good blogs make you want to start your own blog". I've been reading some good posts lately, and they do indeed motivate you to establish your own beachhead in the blogosphere. Starting a blog is the easy part - maintaining one of your own that remains current and relevant isn't quite so easy!

I archived this snippet about blogs a few months ago - I apologize for not recalling whose words these were, but I think they're nevertheless worth repeating:

"So what makes a blog work? Honesty. Immediacy. Infectiousness. If you have something to say that your audience wants to hear a blog can create tremendous buzz for you or your brand. But if you're only blogging because it's inexpensive, or you aren't posting at least one substantial message a week, then a blog isn't going to do much for you".

Stay close, and we'll see what happens.

-John G.

On blogging vs. micro-blogging

Now I wonder, "have a done things bass-ackwards, by being a regular and frequent micro-blogger first" (for some time on Twitter), and only now deciding to submit less frequent, albeit more robust postings in a traditional blog?

Methinks one's audience for blogs might be different than one's audience for "tweets" - I think consumers in the blogosphere have a greater appetite for content, whereas Twitters and Twittees (did I just invent that?) are members of the Short Attention Span Theatre, and are only interested in 140 characters or less of what (anyone) has to say.

I'll do some research and return to this topic again soon.

-John

First blog, many years into the business

Greetings,

The catalyst for my first foray into blogging came from a client who sat through my 60-minute presentation on social media today, appeared genuinely interested in my musings, and then proceeded to ask me where to find my blog. I sheepishly confessed that I've been too busy waxing philosophical about all things digital (for a living) to have time to post regular blogs (for fun), and so have avoided getting started.

Perhaps now's the time - I always wanted to add a blog address to my signature. Let's see what happens. More to follow.

-John G.