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An Intelligent Approach to TransPromo
Breakthroughs in relationship marketing are transforming the role of transaction mail — and those who manage it.
Download the full white paper PDF or read the summary below:
What Is TransPromo?
TransPromo is the combination of transactional information with promotional materials in a single document, such as using statements and invoices as a marketing vehicle.
The TransPromo Revolution
Over the past 18 months, transaction documents — statements, invoices and notifications — have become increasingly effective at generating sales and long-term relationships.
Communication Intelligence in the Mailstream
This successful transformation of transaction documents into powerful strategic assets is tied to companies leveraging communication intelligence in the mailstream to:
- Make messages more personal, timely and relevant
- Target more effectively with precise location and demographic data
Statement-Based Marketing
TransPromo Makes Statements More Relevant
Statement inserts have been used by some businesses for over 60 years. What is different today, however, is that new technology enables the creation of marketing messages that are just as personal and relevant as the transaction information itself.
TransPromo Makes Statements Profitable
TransPromo statements are communications that recognize and act upon specific opportunities to increase customer value and long-term profitability.
Now, instead of cost–per–piece, today’s managers are measuring cost–per–response, customer loyalty and retention.
What they’re finding is that TransPromo documents are not only more cost-efficient compared to other media — they can be far more effective.
Five Reasons Why Statement-Based Marketing Works
- Unrivaled Openability: Statements and invoices are expected. As such, more than 95% of transaction documents are opened and read each month.
- High Involvement: Bills and statements receive more attention — between one and three minutes — than any other form of communication.
- Trusted Media: Nearly everyone trusts the postal service to send and deliver mail.
- Functionality: As a paper-based communication, statements are often viewed more than once as customers pay bills, submit expense reports, prepare taxes and file documents.
- Greater Returns: Because companies are already mailing statements, this is one of the most cost-efficient communication channels. Also, because the target audience is current customers, there is a greater potential to increase profits, as compared to targeting new customers.
The Time to Act Is Now
Transaction documents are now seen as critical to achieving overall corporate objectives — thanks to new technologies, regulatory changes and market realities:
- Proven value of relevancy: Today the market realizes that better use of relevant, variable messaging can increase revenue, order size and response.
- Complex competitive landscape: Every industry is facing new competitors and new cross-sell opportunities, creating added pressure on customer retention — and a new-found interest in share of wallet.
- Advances in color variable print: Studies show that the effective use of color and personalization outsells traditional black and white messaging by up to 80% or more. And the costs of color variable print are decreasing rapidly.
- Ability to more easily access customer data: The latest data integration solutions make it easier to create a single view of customers. On-demand customer analytics provide for real-time segmentation with no need for ongoing IT support.
- 2007 postal rate increase: Under the USPS rates effective May 14, 2007, businesses are given incentives to do more with existing communications. While the postage costs on nearly every class of mail increased, it is now less expensive to send higher-weight letters.
- Hard-dollar results: Published reports detail how companies are using TransPromo documents to generate greater ROIs than with other media choices — along with increased returns on previous investments.
Key Considerations
True Relationship Marketing
Effective TransPromo goes beyond product marketing to incorporate:
- Product life cycle
- Brand relationships
- Personal preferences
To make the switch from campaign marketing to true relationship marketing, companies must overcome organizational roadblocks — often integrating teams across IT, marketing and operations.
In many cases, statement managers will take on new roles and may need to establish protocols and processes to overcome interdepartmental hurdles.
Leverage Existing Data
The necessary customer data already exists, but for most companies this information is stored in disparate systems using inconsistent formats — making it unwieldy if not impossible to get the answers you need.
By creating a single view of your customers, however, you can turn this disparate data into actionable information.
Maintain Focus on Cost Reduction
Just like traditional statements, TransPromo efforts should embrace statement clarity and cost management.
Efforts to add personalized, variable messaging and color graphics to statements should be designed in ways to improve the effectiveness of your documents in terms of invoicing, remittance, etc.
Savings from Fully Variable Print
Savings can also be achieve in transitioning from pre-printed forms to fully variable print:
- Reduced footprint of print operations
- Lower warehousing expenses
- Increased throughput and productivity
- Greater flexibility
- Reduced call center expense (fewer calls)
Cross-Channel Reporting & Metrics
Establishing measurable objectives — and then tracking results over time — will provide you with the feedback you need to make adjustments and fine-tune your approach.
This requires an ability to provide consistent messages across channels — and monitor customer activity whether they respond via mail, online, over the phone or in person.
Strategic Customer Communication Management Framework
For successful TransPromo efforts, companies first need to increase their ability to cost-effectively create more personal,timely and relevant communications.
Customer communication management (CCM) provides a strategic framework to address these needs. By optimizing communication intelligence, CCM solutions have already proven their ability to boost customer acquisition, build customer loyalty and reduce costs.
Communication Intelligence: Key to TransPromo Success
An effective TransPromo strategy incorporates all facets of communication intelligence:
- Location
- Customer
- Production
- Channel
Location Intelligence: The Power of “Where”
Location-based information is one of the most valuable assets in marketing segmentation and decision making.
Not only can you identify sales opportunities by pinpointing proximity to retail locations, competitors and partner sites — you can increase your understanding of customer demographics, preferences and spending habits.
- Street-level profiling: Enhances your data set with rich demographic, lifestyle and consumer attributes — age, income, occupation and retail spending behaviors.
- Mapping and geocoding applications: Provide a comprehensive view of customers for more targeted customer outreach and enhanced market analysis. The ability to visualize data highlights patterns and opportunities, while giving you the capability to present a more local, community-oriented image to your customers.
Customer Intelligence: A Single, High-definition View
Customer intelligence makes statements more relevant and purposeful: Who you will target, what you will offer and when you will communicate.
- Customer data integration (CDI): Links all customer information — even when it is stored in multiple databases — to provide a single comprehensive view of each customer. With that, you can streamline workflow, gain valuable customer insights and make better business decisions.
- Database and marketing analytics: Help you segment customers and pinpoint high-potential opportunities.
Production Intelligence: Turn Information into Action
Production intelligence transforms traditional print and mail production into a flexible and highly productive operation.
By turning the data and documents running through your operation into actionable information, production intelligence increases speed, productivity and personalization at every step of the process.
- Variable data design: Combines template design, built-in business logic and automated printstream creation to deliver variable content based on segmentations.
- Document output management: Allows you to modify and redirect printstreams on the fly, without disrupting underlying systems or operations — giving you the flexibility to integrate color output devices, manage multiple print centers and manage output based on business rules.
- File-based processing: Provides an added level of assurance, so you can have the controls in place to guarantee that the right information is sent to the right customer at precisely the right time.
Channel Intelligence: More Powerful, More Consistent Experiences.
The power of TransPromo is in the ability to integrate communications across channels and create a mutually-managed customer experience.
Channel intelligence breaks down the barriers between the physical and digital worlds to enable more effective and consistent communication across every customer touch pint.
- Effective channel management: Enables you to react to customers’ changing preferences while coordinating messages across print, online media and your call centers.
- Integrated real-time feedback: Enables better customer service at lower costs by providing intelligence on what products and services customers may need.
Make a Statement of Value — Today
The rewards of TransPromo couldn’t be greater:
- Increased satisfaction and customer retention
- Improved loyalty and cross-sell
- Greater profits from customers
Turn to the Experts at Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software
Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software, Pitney Bowes Emtex, Pitney Bowes MapInfo and our world-class system are all part of the comprehensive TransPromo solutions that are helping businesses around the world transform transaction documents into powerful strategic assets.
Contact Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software today to find out how TransPromo initiatives can add value to your organization.
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