The TransPromo Revolution

On Demand Conference and Expo

January 2008

multipage

Over the past 18 months, a combination of new technologies, postal changes, and market conditions have created an environment in which transaction documents such as statements, invoices, and notifications can be used effectively to generate sales and long-term relationships. Now, companies are starting to use these communications to create ongoing, sustainable customer dialogues that promote products and services in addition to communicating transactional information. This transition is being coined the "TransPromo revolution," and it is resulting in the use of more attractive, easier-to-understand statements that also encourage buying and other desired behaviors.

Key TransPromo Drivers

There are four key drivers that make right now the perfect time to adopt TransPromo:

o The need for better ways to reach customers

o Advances in technology

o Savings on postal costs

o Challenges faced by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Reaching Customers

While the statistics are all over the map, one thing is clear: today's consumers are drowning in a sea of unrelated marketing campaigns. Corporate marketers are seeking new methods of communication that cut through the clutter of marketing messages that consumers are exposed to every day. As most companies are placing an increasing emphasis on marketing ROI, marketers must seek ways to communicate with customers in a manner that is likely to carry some level of certainty that the message actually reaches the recipient. Unfortunately, many conventional methods of communication can make it difficult to determine which messages are actually getting through. To further complicate the situation, consumers are becoming much savvier about filtering out unwanted information.

Nevertheless, one document that is always opened and read is a statement or notification. Because 95% of transaction documents are opened and read, they provide an excellent vehicle for reaching customers with other types of messages and information. Studies have shown that on average, a consumer will spend one to three minutes reviewing a bill--that is how much time the marketer has to capture a recipient's attention when using the transactional document as a marketing tool.

In addition, in InfoTrends' 2006 Future of Mail study, respondents were asked to evaluate two different types of statements. One was a traditional statement that generally arrives at their doorsteps and includes advertising inserts, and the other was a document with graphics and offers printed on the face of the statement that are relevant to their account information--in other words, TransPromo documents with "onserts." Not surprisingly, statements with personalized onserts were preferred by nearly two thirds of respondents. There is no question that TransPromo implementation carries an incremental cost, but many marketers are finding that their return on investment from TransPromo communications more than offsets this cost.

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