True Personalization:
Using Transactions to Build Relationships with Customers

By Bill Parker, GMC Software Technology

Someone once described the major conferences we attend as, “the same ten people talking to the same ten people about the same thing they were talking about ten years ago.”

Admittedly, progress has been slow.

And if you went to a conference---let’s say Xplor just for argument’s sake—some 10 years ago, you’d probably have heard a great deal about personalization. Go to any show in print output these days and you’ll likely hear the same thing.

And yet in my experience, people—industry people, insiders—still don’t quite understand the term.

If something is personalized—and granted, we’re now thankfully a long way from simply populating fields with a name and address—it means it must be geared to the recipient specifically. In their language, in their idiom, via their preferred channel. 

We have the means, the technology is robust and mature, we know the audience …and thus we can speak to our customers as people, en masse, as if we were having a private conversation on the side during a town hall meeting. 

True personalization. We can send out 100,000,000 pieces to 100,000,000 individuals that are, to a more than reasonable degree, individualized personal communiqués—and 40% can be printed, 30% to email and 30% to mobile, as they wish.

We have moved from static documents to interactive communications. We have moved from single channels to multi-channel: print, mobile, email. The next phase is to move beyond what has traditionally passed for “personalization” and use this technology to establish an actual interactive, iterative relationship with customers. True personalization.

What follows are some thoughts—not quite random—on relationship building via transactional documents.

First the why: research shows that bills and statements have the greatest open rates among all forms of mass communication. Near 100% of respondents open bills they receive. Consumers read the document for 3.5 minutes. That’s almost five minutes to get a point across—much more time than you get for a TV commercial, for a billboard on the highway, for a print ad, for digital ads.

A personal message placed on a bill is the single greatest marketing medium known to man. You don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to give some helpful tips, let them know about a new service they might be interested in, or present them with a free gift from an affiliate.

Engage with your customers. Interact with them. They will find ways to repay you.

“Nobody who ever bought a drill actually wanted a drill.
--They wanted a hole.”
Perry Marshall

Marketers bombard consumers with 200 to 3,000 messages per day. About half of these are, to some degree, personalized.

How will your voice be heard? With true personalization.

Successful marketing depends on your ability to join the conversation already ongoing within a customer’s head. To do that you need to understand them better.

Actually, to understand the customer better, all you need do is listen. To listen, engage with them; get them to interact with you. To get them to interact, join the conversation already ongoing within their head.

Pick any point in the cycle to begin. The key is to join that conversation already ongoing in their head. Chances are it’s about making or saving money. So, if you are a utility company and you want to begin to interact more effectively with customers, post a season-specific white paper about how to save money this season and advertise it directly on the bill itself. You can measure how many people respond by clicking on the paper. If they respond, you can ask them what they thought of the advice, if they plan to take the advice. You can ask if they prefer another format for this kind of advice in the future.

If they don’t react to it, you can simply ask “why not?” Ask them if they would prefer an embedded video instead of a white paper. Or if they already do these things. Ask them if they have any advice they could share with other customers?

The dialogue can commence any number of ways. It can begin on paper and migrate to the web. You can create an online message board. You can establish a Facebook page. A Twitter account. Post relevant content on YouTube.

Or you can keep the dialogue on paper. A simple checkbox if they went online to view the paper or if they would prefer to get it in the mail. If they want it, mail it to them. They will appreciate it.

There are good reasons to interact with people online instead of offline. But the key is to join the conversation they are already having in their head. And as I said, it probably has to do with cost savings of some kind….

Ask them how you can help.

And you have begun to interact. Which is good, because:

Consumers get 200-3000 messages per day. They select very few to pay attention to.

Which prompts the question: how do you get selected?

To answer, let’s review what have we learned since the beginning of last decade. What have we learned from the pioneers—from Napster, TiVo, eBay, Amazon, Google, YouTube, TripAdvisor, DailyKOS, Drudge Report, MySpace and FaceBook…?

Primarily: that we want What we want, When we want it, in the Format we want it in, via the Channels we prefer, for little or no money…

…and we want to talk it over with other people and see what their experience was…

…and we want to influence others, too, if we can…

The Phenomenon of Influence and Transpromo

There are fewer and fewer news providers and more and more opinion givers. Media outlets are in process of becoming opinion aggregators—these days What happened doesn’t matter nearly as much as what (we, they) think about what happened. Editorial leaders are anyone who wants to be a thought leader. Twitter is the new Associated Press. If you want to disseminate news, tweets and retweets will get the job done.

People look for useful content. They will take it where they find it. They use it as long as it is useful and then they drop it for something else. To be useful, you first need to be found. You need to be searchable (a terrible word). Linked in. Connected, affiliated.

How does your transactional document play a role in this?

It is, for the purpose of this conversation, a starting point. Provide a link to useful content. Provide a community. Find the common ground between everyone in your files—geographical, demographic, common interest, whatever…provide a place where people can post an opinion, read an opinion, get your opinion…even leverage your site for affiliate marketing (but be careful).

It can also sustain the relationship: a regular reminder that You are There for Them. And given the average attention span these days, each time it arrives you have a new chance to make a first impression.

And most marketing experts agree that the message must be reinforced—many times over multiple channels—even after the target views you as a recognizable, acceptable, do-business-with brand.

That, my friend, is true personalization.

Another way to engage a customer is to post great content on your website.

Think about what happens when you attend a webinar sponsored by a company – an organization you may or may not know very well (it doesn’t really matter).

But the content looked interesting so you log in and get the slides and the voiceover begins, be it live or canned.

You browse through their site and maybe click to download a white paper that is also of interest to you. Maybe after that you click over to look at their management team and read the bios.

You have an ear tuned to the content and you go back to the slides every so often. You may look at a list of existing customers or references, or PR or news—you are learning about them and at the same time they are learning a lot about you—information captured through their website.

It’s a mutual learning experience. Each party gains from it:

• You get useful content. They get to see what content they had that you find useful. They can provide more of it.  
• They get to see what didn’t work, what you blew past in your desire for better stuff. They can provide less of it.

What did you focus on, what drew your attention? How long did you stay, where did you go from there? Did you use a link to some other site? Did you return?

How can you compare that experience, that exchange of information, to buying an ad and hoping someone looks at it? You can’t.

It begins with having content that is useful, interesting and targeted. Making that content available however and whenever someone wants to access it. Easy to find. Searchable. Inbound marketing is probably the best kind of marketing because if someone sought you out they are likely to give you a fair shake. But content it can also be pushed out through blogs, webinars, white papers, PR.

Whatever works is fine. Because consumers get 200-3000 messages per day. They select very few. Give them a reason to select your message. Give them something useful.

The New New Marketing Thing

The obsessions of marketing currently and in the recent past: Search, Social, Web.

Personally, I take great pains to leverage all channels, all technology. It’s not just a matter of “covering all bases”—it’s simply that, as Woody Allen once said, “90% of life is just showing up.”

Any number of approaches can work. Blog commenting—literally leaving a comment about someone else’s blog posting—can be a masterful way of boosting hits to your website.

Search optimization and other web-related factors are big business and can provide good results for an organization that wants to build new relationships.  

But then again there’s the mail.

Like many people in this business, I’ve been afraid that we are whistling past the graveyard when it comes to snail mail. But the power of mail continues unabated, despite the cost and effort. Let’s look at some of the reasons why:

The effort to gain traction with an audience should include a mix of channels.

Of this we are certain. Statistics reveal that consumers using three or more channels when shopping spend 10x more than those that use only one channel consumers. This generates 25%-50% more profit…brilliant and useful information.

So when you plan your mix of marketing it’s always a mistake to forget about postal mail.

In a survey performed by the US Postal Service regarding consumers' relationships with the mail, 98% of consumers retrieve the mail the day it is delivered, and 77% sort though it immediately. You cannot underestimate the power of that response.

If you combine a mail and e-mail hit on the same day—with an email alert that an important mail piece is arriving today (with a good offer) it is possible to lift response rates to10%.  

Likewise, InfoTrends’ 2008 Multi-Channel Communications: Measurement & Benchmarking study revealed that campaigns blending print, e-mail and customized landing pages yield a 35% improvement over print only….

Whether you have embarked upon a Transpromo program or use direct mail to connect with customers, the mail is still your friend. Use it well and it delivers.

And yet it has been suggested-- by Graphic Arts Monthly-- that Transpromo has been hampered by a disconnect between the databases harboring audience data and the ability to format it in an appealing way. Due in large part because “the databases driving the work are structured in formats selected by data processers—great for computer systems, but not so easily printed in an aesthetic manner.”

Piffle. At this particular point in time there should be no problem accessing multiple types of data from multiple locations. What used to take tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of person-hours in IT support can now be done within seconds. Whatever the data format you need for all kinds of business reports, operational efficiency, customer service…it’s all perfectly contained in a single solution.

When we discuss true personalization, Transpromo, Customer Communication….something that has been largely over-looked is that it’s really all about data: integrating data, transferring data and making that data business-useful for the good of the organization.

Business owners want to implement best of breed, purpose-built systems that connect externally as well as internally—supporting relationships throughout their value chain—for multiple applications. Which is exactly what we provide.

So whatever format you need the data to be in to perform a specific purpose is fine with us. What format(s) allow you to best interact with other business processes? How quickly can you change formats? Do you need to query data, reformat data, are you forced to code for weeks and months? Like the old hamburger chain jingle: special orders don’t upset us.

No matter what applications you are running, no matter what formats you need the data in, this unified platform saves time and maintains continuity across all document design and production functions. We not only simplify the job of personal communication, we simplify the integration of it throughout the enterprise.

For one example, take Tribune Direct

Tribune Direct, a subsidiary of the Tribune Company, became the first installation for GMC PortalBuilder. I applaud them for their vision.

There is a growing need for mid-size companies to create and deploy websites quickly, without having a group of web programmers on staff. Portal Builder operates as a doc composition tool in that it uses templates to create web applications.

We realized that the basic features of a web portal could be found within the PrintNet solution. So any application found in PrintNet can serve as the basics for a web site. A simple site can be built and deployed in about fifteen minutes.

PortalBuilder helps PrintNet users create online “storefronts” so they can add items like web-to-print services to their offering. It’s very efficient. No coding is required. Existing marketing assets are used to build the front-end. The back-end supports production, ordering, scheduling and multi-channel distribution. A modular, standards-based storefront core links to third-party accounting systems, tracks delivery and on-line payment processing and further integrates the production workflow into the business.

It creates a simple way to make microsites for Purls. Customers land on their own personal page, customer service can be personal…it adds to the entire experience.

It creates an efficient, effective way for customers to order personalized marketing communications. End-users gain more flexibility and faster results by having easier access to all the variable components they need and users can enjoy centralized brand management and messaging as well as cost control with decentralized creation, order entry and output.

For anyone hesitant to purchase a server-based Web-to-print application, it's easier than you think. Unlike most storefront packages, PortalBuilder is self-hosted. You are not paying a monthly hosting fee, it doesn't take a lot of IT resources, it is easy to use, simple to install and makes microsites and web-to-print portals a cinch to deploy.

Personal, on demand communication has never been this easy.

True Personalization. It’s happening all around you. But GMC Software is here to help show you through the door...or portal

TransPromo Made Simple

So we may conclude as follows: interpersonal communication is a business imperative, not an option. We’re at a stage of the game where more deeply and effectively engaging with your customers is needed in order for you to survive as a business.

They aren’t just files anymore. They are people.

And they want you to communicate with them that way.

You have to get their attention with substantial information rather than trickery and thin material. As technology gives consumers get more control over what they read and pay attention to, providing relevant content is increasingly important.

Delivery method also matters. Transpromo essentially means a multi-function document. 

Transpromo makes use of a specifically designed, regular communication that the recipient expects to get—a bill or statement—and combines it with additional personal messages or information.

It’s cost-effective. And it provides relevant content in a manner that is guaranteed to be read and more likely to be acted upon.

It can be—and should be—your most basic customer communication. It should be the meat-and-potatoes communication with every customer.

Transpromo communication can be the gateway to all your other initiatives. Print, email, mobile, web – even social media channels.

Once you have introduced your customer to all those options you’ll need to manage communication across every channel: it’s a complex environment that we can simplify for you with our tools and our skills as your partner.

We can help you take IT out of the equation to reduce cost…

We can simplify the multiple workflows associated with high volume customer communication…

We can help you make changes in minutes rather than months, weeks, days…speeding response and improving time to market….

We can optimize your operational efficiency, monitor every step, manage every aspect, and in the process create data that helps you improve every day, continuously…

We can connect that data to the rest of the enterprise…into every system, flawlessly and seamlessly…so that every communication is better…

…and creates a better customer experience.

True personalization.

Bill Parker is the CMO of GMC Software Technology. To learn more >>>.