The owner of a bike store has received the new line of bikes. Wanting to announce the arrival of the new models, the owner decides to send out a direct mail announcement to all past customers. A "Valued Customer Discount" will be included for all bicycle wear for those customers who have purchased a new bike within the last twelve months.

Using a database, the bike store owner designs a postcard. Like all direct mail, using the customers first name in the body of the ad copy is easy.

But to truly individualize this mailing the bike store owner can include not only names, but reference past purchases and make recommendations for complimenting products.

With variable data integration, the bike store owner could even use different images of products based on customer preferences. Image sending one postcard to all female customers showing ONLY women's clothing, and a different one to men showing men's clothing.

The bike owner can even change font type, size and color depending on any number of variables relevant to each customer.

Imagine how each customer will feel when they receive the postcard from this bike store owner. They'll feel like he has written specifically to him or her - because he has!

A local real estate agent has developed a monthly newsletter, which includes tips on local and national market conditions, interest rates and city news interesting to her clients. She sends out her newsletter not only to past customers, but new prospective customers, too.

Wanting to remind her prospective customers of the homes they have toured and shown interest in, the real estate agents includes one or two images of houses she has shown each customer in the recent past.

She also includes images and information about homes that have just come on the market, and includes the homes meeting her prospective customers needs. She segments her mailing by age of prospect, area of town they are interested in, and even home style and price ranges.

In other words, the real estate agent only send information relevant to each prospective client, including images of the properties.

It's this type of individual attention that prospective clients appreciate and respond too.

Is it difficult for the real estate agent to have so many different "versions" of her newsletter? Not all - that is the power of variable data printing.