Why Are U.S. Marketers Sleeping on Transpromo?

That standalone, tip-in brochure that comes with your credit card, bank or utility statement each month—odds are pretty good you toss it into the recycle bin without a second thought. But what if the product or service advertised on that throw-away was instead dropped into a personalized message on the document you actually spend time poring over—the bill?

That technique is called transpromotional marketing, "transpromo" for short. It takes the proven high-response techniques of personalized direct marketing over to some of the most valuable real estate in the mail: transactional documents such as bills and statements.

Consumers are attached to printed, mailed bills and statements. At last year's National Postal Forum, Phoenix Marketing International released the results of its latest survey, noting that 65 percent of U.S. households said they prefer to receive printed bills and statements in the mail, even if they pay online. Businesses are well aware of the trend: according to the USPS, 95 percent of all transaction mail gets opened, and, not surprisingly, 73 percent of all bills and statements are still sent by mail.

There are a few key factors to make transpromo work effectively in your marketing.

• Make the right use of your data: purchase histories, demographic information and any other details that would help you create a meaningful, personalized ad, coupon or message for your statement. Chances are, you are already starting to do this as part of your digital CRM marketing strategy.
• The data does not have to be relevant to only your products and services: Transpromo statement white space is like almost any other desirable location. Depending on your data, transpromo could be a revenue-generator as an advertising space that you sell to outside companies.
• High-quality color printing: Marketers have always had the ability to print variable, targeted messages on statements, it took the development of affordable, full-color digital printing for transpromo to gain traction. Just like in the publishing world, full-color transpromotional messaging stands out against monochrome text. Even better, with transpromo, your marketing message only has to compete against a line listing of statement transactions, as opposed to a narrative article.

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