The TransPromo space is alive and well – are you taking advantage? This Printer Did, Reducing Client’s Statement Costs by 30%

Written by Bill Michael
eMarketing Manager, Xerox Corporation
You may have noticed that print has been capturing it’s fair share of media attention as of late, mostly in regards to mail delivery (in light of a February announcement that the US Postal Service will end Saturday delivery, beginning in August), as well as the protection of select printed statements/communications (with a new Congressional resolution seeking to reverse recent federal initiatives to completely eliminate paper-based government information, such as earning statements and income tax forms). Call me a traditionalist, but I still prefer to receive my statements and transactional communications in print form. This is likely due to a combination of things:

• Fearfulness of forgetting to make a payment without the physical prompt a printed statement delivers
• Not wanting to add to my collection of usernames and passwords I have registered across a few handfuls of websites (and then straining to remember my log-in credentials)
• An excuse to re-familiarize myself with an experience that doesn’t involve an electronic device and a screen

And I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. Post & Parcel recently reported results to a survey showing that while over 75% of consumers can view their bank accounts online, over 85% elect to continue receiving statements by mail. Last year, the USPS released a statement citing that transactional statements are “opened more than 95% of the time and, on average, the receiver spends two to three minutes with each piece”. It’s clear that consumers value their transactional mail. Phoenix Marketing International reported that 73% of all bills and statements are still sent by mail, and according to PayItGreen, the average household receives approximately 19 printed bills and statements each month. Nineteen! With roughly 30% of the American population-alone without Internet access, printed communications and statements, specifically those of the TransPromo or transactional-promotional breed, represent huge opportunities for those involved.
And for advertisers and printers, this is likely music to their ears. But let’s be clear about something – when we say TransPromo, we aren’t talking about the stand-alone filler inserts that accompany a transactional statement, fall out of the envelop as you are pulling out your bill, and eventually end up in the trash. We are talking about utilization of a client’s ever-precious consumer data to deliver targeted, personalized, and relevant promotional information and offers that are integrated directly onto the transactional statement –  engaging the recipient and creating a higher likelihood that an action is taken. The service provider sending the TransPromo statement can either occupy the promotional space for their own advertising purposes (promoting a new reward program, CRM marketing strategy, and/or attempting to up-sell or cross-sell products/services) or sell the advertising space to outside companies who can target specific consumers with targeted, personalized messaging. Either way, the promotional opportunities and endless and can serve as a huge revenue-generator.

The benefits for all involved are very clear, and can be illustrated through the work former Best-of-the-Best winner Telemail, S.L. provided Iberia – Spain’s largest air transport group and one of the 10 largest airline businesses in the world. In this case, Iberia offered passengers credit cards that allowed them to earn frequent flyer points, while boosting the company’s bottom line. The monthly statements were printed in mass quantities through offset printing and later variable information was introduced through a separate digital print run. This created excessive waste, limited opportunities to offer personalized and targeted promotional messaging, and became a costly nightmare when trying to pair the multiple promotional inserts to the individual recipients.
By taking advantage of the TransPromo model, Telemail was able to provide Iberia with a fully integrated solution printed on their Xerox 980 Color Continuous Feed System. This solution reduced production costs by 30% for Iberia as their statements were now printed in a single run, ensuring document integrated was 100% accurate. By integrating the promotional content directly onto the statement, Iberia’s mailing required fewer inserts and thus lower mailing costs. In addition, Iberia was the beneficiary of increased revenue from 3^rd party advertisers as a result of the ability to include more targeted promotional content.
The TransPromo space is alive and well – are you taking advantage? How do you view the potential opportunities made available through providing TransPromo offerings?
Interested in learning more about the TransPromo opportunities? You may want to check out:

• Printed Customer Communications – Marketing Opportunity or Inconvenience?
• Digital Printing Cuts Soaring Coast of Monthly Statement by 30% for Global Airline
• Optimism about the Future of Print Highlighted by Printers in Survey
• Radical Redesign of Bond Statements Generates Flood of New Business

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Are you a member of the Xerox Premier Partner Global Network? Don’t miss out on your chance for international recognition! There’s still time to enter your best print work into the Xerox Best-of-the-Best Contest – but hurry, entries close at 11:59pm EST on April 3, 2013!