A common myth is that being green is difficult and costly; which couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are many opportunities to reduce your environmental impact while driving business results and growth.
I can easily talk to the inherited environmental advantages of digital printing, but what’s one way you can make money and provide a green solution to your customers, simultaneously?
The first suggestion on the list: Transactional-Promotional Documents
What is Trans-Promo?
Transactional-promotional communications—Trans-Promo for short—provides a significant opportunity in a large, growing market. In North America, full-color page output is projected to grow by 154 percent annually from 2007 to 2015, when nearly 40 billion pages will be produced, according Caslon, Inc (a market research firm).
Trans-Promo communications serve two missions. Like transactional documents, they present data from financial and other transactions in the form of an invoice, statement or report. But unlike traditional transactional communications, they also incorporate marketing messages that are targeted to be relevant to the recipient.
Environmental Advantages
Therein lies their key contribution to environmental sustainability—and to the bottom lines of print providers and print customers. By combining two documents that have been traditionally produced and mailed independently of one another, Trans-Promo cuts print and mail volume, thereby reducing production and postage costs, paper usage and delivery-related carbon emissions. And another great opportunity InfoTrends discovered is that transactional documents are opened and read at least once by 95 percent of recipients!
Some additional ways to derive environmental advantages from Trans-Promo communications:
- Electronic job ordering and submission; paperless workflow and soft proofing—These processes reduce paper usage, and associated costs, while boosting efficiency.
Optimized page real estate—Designs that make the most of the available space can reduce paper volume. Costs can also be saved with clearer designs that reduce call center volume from confused customers.
Green paper choices—Offer recycled paper or paper with chain-of-custody certification designating it has been produced in a supply chain that promotes responsible forestry practices from harvesting to packaging. Some customers are willing to pay extra to include a chain-of-custody logo on their printed materials.
Duplex printing—Cut paper usage and associated costs by as much as half.
A solution that uses less paper—Imagine a single software module that can generate both paper-based and paperless transactional documents. Xerox FreeFlow VIPP Pro Publisher makes it possible, saving steps and paper.
Transactional-Promotional documents are one of several applications that can deliver profit and growth opportunities for print providers, improved business results for their customers, and yes— environmental benefits as well!
Do you print Trans-Promo documents to send customers, and/or offer it as a solution for your customers?
Do you use its environmental advantages as a selling point?
