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Customer communication is going to look far different in the near future than it does now. The key is going to be honing your database to give all customers what they want, when they want it, the way they want it.

There was a term in vogue in the late 1990s—mass customization. The notion was that many successful companies had gone beyond the old paradigm of mass production and had put processes in place to give customers what they need. It centered on Dell building you the computer you wanted when you called or Levi Strauss sending you custom-tailored jeans.

But we’re past that now. Now the idea is what my friend and noted direct marketing expert Tracy Emerick calls “mass customerization.” The notion of customizing for each customer needs to go beyond mere production. I talked about custom invoices earlier, and this same concept needs to apply to every touch point. It is especially important in terms of marketing communication.

In direct marketing, for example, the main components are the list, the offer, the format/medium, and the copy. Nearly all companies I’ve worked with spend the bulk of their direct offering time on copy and format. That’s the opposite of what they should be doing. Everything comes from the list and the offer. The rest are details. If you are offering the right deal to the right people at the right time, you can deliver it on a nap-kin or explain it in a two-minute phone call.

In the world of commercial printing, every product delivered has always been mass customized. The good folks at PrintingForLess.com have taken this concept to the next level. A large part of the company’s growth can be attributed to the ability to better understand the unique nature of every customer. For instance, when the company first started taking online orders in 1999, they accepted only a few file formats. Now five years later, they accept 42. You can have your order shipped by any method you want, in any time frame that you need. Need your order faster? Not a problem. PrintingForLess.com can accommodate you for a nominal (but very profitable) surcharge