ersonalization is the mainstay of variable publishing. With personalization, information from a database is inserted into each variable document. The result is a message that seems to be written especially for each intended recipient.

For direct mail campaigns, research shows that simple personalization increases the response rate. Personalization engages people, and makes the marketing message that much more compelling.

The first efforts at personalization let printers insert black and white information on a postcard or other direct mail piece. This was especially helpful for automating postal information. As the technology has grown, more and better uses of personalization have developed.

The project database can be almost any structured data file. You can use a simple comma separated-value file (CSV), a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet or a Microsoft Access® database. For more complex projects you can use a multi-table relational database. Pageflex works with any ODBC-compliant database such as Oracle®, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual FoxPro®, dBase®, MySQL®, or IBM® DB2®.