There has
been a lot of buzz about TransPromo recently, buzz
about the concept
of customizing common transactional documents
like bills and
statements with personalized messaging
aimed at wooing
existing customers. Vendors and pundits
extol the value of
transactional documents that capitalize on
knowledge
collected about customers, but for many users,
the jury is still
out. Is it time to adopt a TransPromo strategy?
Consider the
following.
TransPromo
represents a unique marketing opportunity
because transactional
documents are the lifeblood of every
organization. No
matter the market or the industry, bills and
statements drive
the business functions that make any company
run. Indeed,
transactional documents often represent
the only
touchpoint an organization really has with a customer.
By including
relevant and personalized marketing content,
monthly statements
can rise above the din of competitive
messages and
transform into a beneficial marketing edge.
Consumers
are bombarded with thousands of advertising
messages every
day. Experts estimate that over the course of
a year, we are
exposed to over a million messages from television,
radio, the
Internet, newspapers, magazines and direct
mail. As a result,
customers actively block out the great majority
of these marketing
messages.
Nowhere
is the competition for customer attention as
tight as in the
mailbox. The Postal Service estimates that US
households receive
over 150 billion pieces of mail each year.
With all this
clutter, it's no wonder that most people tend to
open their mail
over the waste basket.
The
unique advantage of TransPromo is found in the fact
that monthly bills
and statements rarely find their way into
the trash.
Analysts estimate that 95% of transactional documents
are opened and
read. And since they require an action, bills and statements command and hold
our undivided attention. That attention span - about 42 seconds - is over
twice as long that
given to a television advertisement or an
email
solicitation. This is a unique opportunity to expand each
monthly "appointment"
in new and more profitable ways.
Despite
the surge in online communications, research indicates
that customers
prefer to receive marketing messages
via transactional
documents, as opposed to email and direct
mail. As a result,
companies can benefit by regarding bills and
statements as a
vehicle to bolster revenue through a channel
that customers
have come to trust and expect.
As
most marketers will tell you, email and direct mail marketing
commonly perform
at rather disappointing response
rates. According
to the Rochester Institute of Technology, the
response rate for
bulk mail is typically under two percent.
When targeted
personalization is added, customer response
jumps to nearly
14%!
TransPromo
technology provides the ability to produce
transactional
documents that perform well beyond generic
junk mail. With
selective data mining, thoughtful document
composition and
digital printing technology, it is possible to
produce documents
that command dramatically improved
customer response.
There
is a quantifiable profit advantage for companies who
use TransPromo
documents as a direct marketing tool, especially
as the level of
personalization increases. If you have
looked at
TransPromo in the past and found the approach to
be too costly and
complex to consider, now may be the time
to think again.
The technology has matured, applications are
more realistically
designed, and price points for solutions
have been
right-sized to fit almost any budget. As the potential
for additional
revenue generation increases, reevaluating
the available
technologies and options becomes more vital to
company
performance.
After
all, you are already paying for the creation,
production and
delivery of your monthly transactional documents
- why not take
more complete advantage of this existing investment?
KEVIN
CRAINE is a writer focused on the document industry
and the author of the popular book Designing a Document
Strategy. He is the host of the Document Strategy Podcast
heard around the world, and he is a former editor
of DOCUMENT.
For more information or to contact Mr. Craine,
visit www.CraineCommunicationsGroup.com | 
