Transpromo: Beyond the Buzzword

“TRANSPROMO” IS one of the hottest buzzwords in the business world at the moment, and it’s a safe bet that we’ll be hearing even more about it in the coming months. The term stands for “transactional promotion,” and although the concept has received a lot of attention lately, it really isn’t a new idea—just a new catchphrase.

You may already know that transpromo means combining an organization’s regular transactional documents, such as monthly invoices or quarterly statements, with promotional messages. For years some credit card companies have been adding products and services to the white space of monthly statements. Telephone and utility companies print messages directly on bills for “bundled services” or tips on energy savings directly on their customers’ monthly bills. The software and printing technology to produce these items is readily available and has been for a long time. So, if transpromo is nothing new, what is all the buzz about?

Perhaps it is the increasing awareness of the powerful potential of transpromo—if and when it’s done effectively. But that’s a very important “if.” Before implementing a transpromo initiative, it’s important to consider several things.

Moving Beyond Spam

First, take a look at both spam and junk mail. What do they have in common? Both are defined as unsolicited messages that often are irrelevant to the recipient. Can we turn this around and say that requested information, which is relevant to the recipient, is in a different and better class all together? This is exactly what transpromo aspires to deliver—targeted, promotional messaging that recipients want and that reflect their tastes and interests. And this is how transpromo can be used most effectively, translating invested time and money into sales that boost the company’s bottom line.

Transpromo proponents claim that customers will not only open, but also read their invoices and statements, so accompanying items have a better chance of being noticed. But going from transactional to transpromo successfully requires well-defined criteria.

Making Transpromo Pay

The simplest type of transpromo application might involve integrating various marketing messages into a regular monthly invoice or printing them directly on the statement. Most of us get dozens of these every month—offers for limited-edition coins packaged with the gasoline credit card bill, or the promise of low mortgage rates printed on the checking account statement.

The problem is that these messages go to all customers, whether or not they have any particular interest in coins or they’ve refinanced their mortgage two weeks ago. This tactic is simple to implement perhaps, but ultimately less effective, as it is not relevant or customized based on the recipient’s interest.

An effective transpromo program is more sophisticated, more closely targeted, and more challenging to implement—but not as difficult as it might seem with the right technology in place. Such a program integrates data drawn from an organization’s various information silos, such as customer sales history, the customer relationship management (CRM) system, marketing and sales resources (including graphics), and perhaps even customer credit history and native language.

Bringing all these resources together with the right technology allows the marketer to create business rules that enable them to send an offer for sporting equipment only to those customers who regularly buy sporting equipment. More specifically, marketers can offer ski equipment only to those who have purchased winter sports gear within the last two years. Companies can go even further with promotional creativity and relevance by sending out the offer in time for holiday shopping—and only to customers who pay their bills on time.

Studies show that 64 percent of companies lack a formal strategy for using their customer data—but, depending on your ability to target your messages to your individual customers, you can experience up to 20 times the responses over a generic message. This requires accessing information from several different—and often segregated—sources, as well as the ability to analyze the data according to given rules or criteria, then match the offers to the appropriate recipients. And all of this has to be accomplished according to increasingly shorter go-to-market timetables and promotional cycles.

Following the Transpromo Path

The software (and the hardware) for this type of very high-level, high-return transpromo program already exists and has been successfully implemented worldwide for almost a decade. If you are just starting down this road, however, it’s important to seek out software that serves as a platform that can accept data in any type of format and produce any type of output. It must provide enough flexibility to create a range of targeted, relevant marketing messages, including graphics. And it’s critical that it is user-friendly and flexible enough so that business users across the enterprise can generate these targeted messages.

Furthermore, the solution must be able to automatically prioritize these targeted messages by user-driven rules to ensure the best messages are included in the available white space of the communication.

Another key feature you will want to look for is the ability to store whether or not a customer responded in a database. This not only allows for that all-important capability of measuring the effectiveness of the transpromo campaign, but also makes it possible for responses (or lack thereof) to messages to become the trigger for subsequent messages.

For example, an initial mailing might ask if a bank customer is interested in receiving more information about credit cards or other bank services. A “yes” answer can automatically generate the second mailing with a form to fill out or direct the customer to the appropriate page at the bank’s Web site.

Transpromo is not limited to print, however. Marketers can create online or interactive applications as well, with the right technology. Nevertheless, with each round of outreach and response—or no response—the organization learns more about the customer for follow-up and subsequent promotions.

Today’s digital printers can produce both black-and-white and photographic-quality color images almost instantaneously and more economically than ever before. Additionally, every page can contain different text and images. It’s best to choose software that allows you to insert customized, full-color graphics like charts and graphs based on each customer’s individual information that can be composed on the fly, in full color, and then output to any medium. The identical images developed for print should also have the opportunity to be delivered through e-mail.

Sending customers relevant, effective communications, with a high level of personalization, shows you understand their needs and are working hard to serve them. If you have the right data, you have the ability to implement a powerful transpromo program. Select the one that works best for your business model today and lay the foundation for more targeted offers in the future. IPG

Scott Draeger is product manager at Exstream Software. Exstream Software helps organizations of all sizes connect with their customers through more effective, fully personalized communications. Find out more at: www.exstream.com