Bringing TransPromo to Life with Inkjet
Spotlighting the state of the relationship between sender and consumer requires consistent communication of mission-critical and essential information. For decades, this involved delivering documents with lists of transactional line items, some information about required payments and how to make them, and very little else. The envelopes mailed might also have inserts with offers for insurance or cruises, but nothing about those offers relayed the relationship between the sender and the recipient. In most cases, the inserts were ride-along commercials that helped subsidize the cost of printing. As a result, the communication got its message across but failed to help build the customer relationship.
About a decade ago, the style and use of these essential communications began to change. Data analytics made it possible to learn more about customers based on their spending and paying patterns. By leveraging data already available to the organization, it became possible to identify new products, services, and features that were more likely to interest existing customers. This opened the door to building customer personas that could more reliably target prospective customers. Even as data was enabling more targeted communications, production inkjet devices were maturing. Production inkjet technology put the cost of full-color printing within reach of transactional communication providers, for outsourcers and in-plants alike. With full-color devices and increased options to redesign transactional communications, businesses were able to better educate and inform customers about the transactional relationship. Even more importantly, adding marketing messaging to the most trusted communications brought TransPromo?—?essential communications using knowledge about customers to provide marketing, educational, and informational content within the context of regulated documents?—?to life.
Why TransPromo?
The value proposition for adopting TransPromo communications begins with a simple fact: recipients reliably open direct mail bills and statements. In addition to opening the envelopes, recipients spend more time with the contents. The appeal of TransPromo is leveraging these vital bills and statements for marketing purposes beyond the static inserts commonly stuffed into the same envelope. Instead of delivering a series of unrelated marketing messages, the producers of bills and statements can use the available space on transactional documents to deliver targeted messaging based on the customer’s data. This practice also addresses the growing need for increased relevance delivered at a higher speed than traditional direct marketing and mass marketing campaigns.
Adding marketing messages to the most trusted communications brought TransPromo to life.
Since their introduction to the market over a decade ago, TransPromo-style communications have been used by inkjet-enabled print service providers who support banks, insurance companies, telecommunications companies, loyalty programs, and credit card providers. Now, essential communications customers review anyway can include relevant offers that will help drive customer engagement. By linking the marketing messages to consumers as well as national campaigns, it becomes possible to cross-sell and upsell across a range of products without accumulating additional postage and printing costs. Although reducing the use of preprinted shells and adding color at a reasonable cost was often the reason behind the early migration to inkjet, TransPromo has created a much bigger value proposition for high-speed full-color inkjet. The technology has made it possible to move away from preprinted shells that limit marketing options and cause production bottlenecks. For example, running out of the preprinted stock could result in missed Service-Level Agreements (SLAs). Loading the wrong preprinted rolls could generate waste and delay production. Regulatory changes could lead to the unexpected reprinting of rolls. Additionally, the use of static shells means that changes in corporate identity, taglines, and trade dress have to be carefully planned to coincide with preprinted roll schedules. Moving to an inkjet-enabled white paper factory workflow eliminates all of these concerns and opens the door to a number of new communication options.
Why Inkjet?
Inkjet printing enables successful TransPromo programs. Because inkjet devices are fast, they extend print capacity while enabling options for speedier SLAs. Inkjet devices also bring color to the communication equation, enabling brands to leverage marketing designs from print or online campaigns on essential communications. And because they rely on digital printing technology, these communications can be colorful as well as targeted.
Today’s inkjet presses enable vibrant color across a range of paper types. In addition to creating highly targeted marketing messages within transactional documents, marketing teams can create A/B tests to track color schemes, response rates, or specific word use as they develop TransPromo campaigns?—?and all of this happens at the speed of print.
Any organization that produces regulated communications can leverage high-speed production inkjet to create new TransPromo programs that enable more engagement and increase wallet share. Transactional documents remain among the most frequently opened and reviewed communications, so use full-color inkjet technology to breathe new life into your communication programs!
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