Emtex  Production Intelligence™

TransPromo and color enablement—the key to generating sales and building long-term relationships

By Ken Renko, Product Marketing Manager, Pitney Bowes Emtex Software

Last month we launched a series of articles about taming your print-to-mail workflow that will unfold over the next few months. In our inaugural issue, we examined the challenges, opportunities and solutions available to ease migration to the Intelligent Mail barcode —an initiative that is expected to deliver important efficiency and cost-reduction dividends.

As we focus on extracting maximum value from customer communications and print-to-mail operations, the natural next stage in the discussion covers two more trends that are gathering steam—TransPromo and digital color. Together, these two advances take statement-based marketing to a new level and are fueling what many are dubbing the "TransPromo Revolution."

What is TransPromo?

In simple terms, a TransPromo document is one that combines transactional data such as that contained in an invoice, statement, customer letter or purchase order with relevant, targeted promotional messages in a single document. The messages are imprinted directly on the transactional document in black and white, spot color or full color. The message might be an offer targeted to specific purchasing preferences, but could just as easily take the form of seasonal messaging or helpful hints and tips. And while statement inserts have been used by some businesses for more than 60 years, TransPromo, especially in concert with digital color, completely changes the tenor of the conversation.

Why do TransPromo and Color Enablement Matter?

Why do TransPromo and color enablement matter? The overriding reason is that today's consumers are deluged with information and mailings of epic proportions. Breaking through the clutter is more challenging than ever. However, statement-based TransPromo marketing offers unique advantages. The first is unrivaled openability—statements and invoices are anticipated and opened at a rate of more than 95 percent.

They also generate a high degree of involvement—recipients spend between one and three minutes with each bill, which is more than any other form of communication. Statements use trusted media—nearly everyone trusts the postal service to send and deliver mail. What's more, statement-based communications are highly functional, and often viewed more than once as customers pay bills, submit expense reports, prepare taxes and file documents. Finally, because companies are already mailing them, statements are one of the most cost-effective communication channels. And because the target audience is existing customers, there is greater potential to increase profits compared to targeting new prospects.

While color is not a requirement, it goes a long way toward capturing attention and driving home a message. Studies show that the effective use of color and personalization outsells traditional black and white messaging by a factor of 80 percent or more. A recent InfoTrends cost analysis shows the differential between a four-page color and black & white document to be a mere 6.5 cents. So, it's not surprising that the use of color in TransPromo documents is expected to grow by upwards of 33 percent by 2010.

On the Road to the TransPromo Color Document

As you consider migrating your traditional transactional documents to more powerful personalized, color TransPromo documents, getting there from here means asking and answering a few strategic questions. First, do you have the infrastructure to produce personalized color documents today? Do your document production and marketing departments work cooperatively to leverage this opportunity? And do you know how to turn available white space into additional revenue?

To create successful, personal, timely and relevant TransPromo color communications you'll need to do the following at the very least:

• Organize around a new marketing mindset that considers product lifecycle, brand relationships and personal preferences and integrates teams across IT, marketing and operations disciplines
• Use data in new ways, creating a single unified view of your customers to transform disparate data into actionable information
• Look for ways to add personalized variable messaging and color graphics to statements to improve document effectiveness as economically as possible
• Implement processes to "document" success by establishing metrics for tracking results over time so that you can make adjustments and fine-tune your approach as you go

Practically speaking

Practically speaking, how do you transform data and transactional documents into highly effective TransPromo communications—and transform your traditional print-to-mail operation into a flexible,  highly productive operation? The key is to leverage production intelligence to streamline and automate three key areas of the process:

• Variable data design—a system that makes it simple and effective to compose one-to-one communications that combine a centralized database, business logic and automated printstream creation
• Output management—a document output management system that lets you modify and redirect printstreams on the fly without disrupting underlying systems or operations.
• File-based processing—this is key. With file-based processing you have the controls you need to ensure that the right information is sent to the right customer at the right time, and to form the basis for comprehensive integrity capabilities

What are the benefits of TransPromo Color?

The benefits of starting now to transform your existing transactional documents into hardworking, customer relationship-building, revenue-generating documents are very convincing. Adding color variable data messaging to your statements and invoices can help you:

• Significantly increase revenues by leveraging up-sell and cross-sell opportunities
• Transform your current cost-based model into a revenue-generating process
• Incorporate customer intelligence information to add targeted marketing messages
• Leverage current opt-in relationships with your customers. Revenue from existing customers can be as much as five times as profitable.

To learn more…

Find out how making the move to TransPromo Color can help you improve the effectiveness, longevity, and strength of your customer relationships by reading the Pitney Bowes Emtex white paper, "An Intelligent Approach to TransPromo: Breakthroughs in relationship marketing are transforming the role of transaction mail—and those who manage it.”

To learn more about Emtex solutions, please visit our website at http://www.emtex.com

Stay tuned for next month's column…
Taming your document workflow with intelligent print control and management

In my next Output Links column, I'll explore how you can add further value and efficiency to your mailstream by implementing intelligent print control and management capabilities. Until then, you can contact me directly with your thoughts and ideas at krenko@us.emtex.com .

Ken Renko has been involved with printing systems and output management technology companies for more than 30 years. He joined Pitney Bowes' Emtex^® Software in 2006 as a Product Marketing Manager in Boca Raton, Florida and is responsible for product management and marketing support for industry-leading enterprise output management solutions including: Virtual Intelligent Presentation (VIP)™, Virtual Document Enhance (VDE)™, and FlexServer. Prior to joining Pitney Bowes Emtex Software, Ken held various technical and marketing support positions with Océ Digital Document Systems and the Xerox Printing Systems Group. The combined years of experience in the electronic document industry have provided him with an objective understanding of the requirements and challenges that impact transactional printing, document output management, multi-vendor workflows and variable data applications. He has developed a number of white papers, authored several industry articles and has been a regular presenter at Xplor and On Demand.