Trans-Promo Marketing – Communicate in a new "Old" road

In case you’re not familiar with the term “trans-promotion,” you’re not alone. A relatively new concept in mainstream marketing, the term was first coined in 2005 and was largely greeted with blank stars and puzzled expressions. In 2006, as the latest buzzword, transpromotional marketing, also called claim-based marketing, began to take shape. Now, in 2007, it has real-world appeal as more and more companies take advantage of this “new” marketing tactic.

Transpromotional communication is really not that new. Credit card companies have been using it for years, albeit at a fairly generic level. Now, businesses of any size that send monthly invoices or statements to customers can implement it as a lean, targeted marketing vehicle.

The idea behind trans-promo is this: We all open our monthly bills or statements to review, so why not include a compelling offer or promotion right in the document? Trans-promo open rates vs. direct mail are much higher because the prospect doesn’t immediately identify it as “spam” and throw it away.

Trans promotion is no putting additional brochures or flyers in the envelope with a declaration. Rather, the offers are printed directly on the statement, where they are much more likely to be read, and can be targeted directly to the prospect’s buying patterns if desired.

Although this is a relatively new tactic with little analytics data available, according to InfoTrends, 63% of surveyed consumers said they would rather receive trans-promotional statements than traditional fillers.

If you’re a business that issues regular monthly statements or invoices, adding cross-promotional communication to your marketing plan can be a smart move.

There are three basic ideas of trans promotion to keep in mind: design, data, and delivery.

Design

To improve the customer experience, a good design and layout of the information is essential. The use of color can aid in document navigation, while adding images or charts and bar graphs can help educate the recipient about their current relationship with your organization or other services you offer.

Of course, the stumbling block here is printing. Color printing has traditionally been slow and expensive. Statement executions are generally performed within narrow windows at low cost, ie fast and cheap. There are new printing technologies that address this problem, making it much faster and less expensive for large print runs like bank statements. One solution I know of has a capacity of 5 million images per month.

If you want to implement trans-promo right away, the answer is to start adding the promotions using the technology available to you now. That may mean printing in black and white, but it’s a good start. Check with your IT people or software provider about what adjustments can be made to your current statement or billing system templates. There may be some flexibility to change the layout, which will help you get around the limitations of black and white.

Data

To target your promotions to your customer base, use the data you have about the customer, especially the products or services they have purchased and/or are currently purchasing. This information will help you tailor promotions or special offers that are relevant to the customer and most likely to generate a positive response.

As your cross-promotional marketing activities evolve, you may find that you need to collect more detailed information about customers and engage more in data mining to present offers in a more targeted way.

Delivery

Delivery in this case does not apply to the mail service. The delivery for this purpose is to provide a value-added service directed to each client. For example, if you’re involved in financial planning, you might include investment advice, differentiating between those saving for a new home and those planning for retirement on a monthly statement. Communications companies may offer calling plan upgrades based on a customer’s call history. High-tech or durable goods organizations could create trade-in programs where the customer receives an allowance toward their next purchase, or perhaps a model upgrade.

It is important to recognize the scope and flexibility of transpromotional marketing. This technique is viable for all levels of customer communication and for companies of any size. The trick is to implement what you can now given the resources you have available and to create a more detailed plan in your marketing strategy to make the most of the opportunities that are within your reach.