How can I offer this to my clients? Sounds like a nice niche. Do you have supporting Jpegs I can send out to my clients?  Tell me about  the set up process then monthly file and mail fees etc. Is this effective for people emailing invoices too?

      I figured that many other traditional commercial printers reading about transpromo might be thinking along the same lines.  Get quantities, find out what stock, get an estimate and give the job to the company with the lowest per-piece price.  In digital printing, variable data printing and certainly transpromo printing, service providers had better change their thinking or they will be going the way of the dinosaur.   

      Generally speaking, transpromo is not type of work that allows for cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solutions.  There is no way to simplify and standardize this type of service as every company’s goals, resources and applications will be different.  Each program’s needs will differ and the design, messaging and even legal requirements will vary depending on your customer’s vertical market.  A bank’s legally required messaging might drive the transpromo design where a magazine publisher could want to use the messaging opportunity for up-selling (extend for a year and get 10% off) and cross-selling (if you like Dog Magazine, you might also want to subscribe to Cat Magazine)  So the “set up” is really pulling together an entire team to create the piece, execute the production and then continue to update the messaging so that it is consistently fresh and relevant to the recipient. 

      Initially, you would want to meet with your customer’s marketing department and IT department, as well as your variable data expert.  You might even need to have meetings  with the customer’s legal counsel to get their approval of the document for compliance purposes.  Thankfully, not all applications would be that complex or heavily regulated.  Once you know what data the customer has, you need to learn what they want to accomplish with the transaction document re-design and messaging that is going on the document.  That will require you to work with the customer’s designer as well.  Once the design is created and approved, and the data is tested for accuracy, design and the like, the transpromo piece is ready to go.

      A data feed would go to the Print Service Provider who would use whatever variable data solution they work with to program the various parts of the transpromo statement.  This is where the data segmentation and message personalization comes in.  For example, males might get a statement with one graphic and a targeted message, while females receive a totally different piece.  The more data your customer has the better because it can be segmented and analyzed to create more relevant and more personal messaging.  Another example would be segmenting by purchasing history, offering discounts to those who spend the most or to entice customers who might not have purchased in a while to come in and buy from you again.  Again, the customer’s goals will drive the design and the message which is why it is so important to have a great team working on the project. 

      One last point, please keep in mind that the term “transpromo” is somewhat misleading.  You do not have to be dealing with a statement or other transactional document, it could also be a newsletter, or even an email.  The key is to have exceptional data and consistently relevant, fresh content that is personalized for the specific recipient.  However, the main benefit of using the white space on transactional documents is the high open and read rate – 95%, which is unmatched is any other advertising medium. 

      Do you have any questions about variable data printing or transpromo documents?  Care to share any stories – good or bad?  Your feedback is welcome.  Remember, none of us are as smart as all of us!

 Until Next Time,

I am guessing that if there are any readers who know what transpromo is, a poll of ten of those readers would yield 12 different answers.  That is because there is no one answer to the question, “what is transpromo?”  A simple answer offered by InfoTrends is that “TransPromo is a highly effective and economical method of communicating individualized promotional and educational messages by leveraging the white space on transactional documents.” The simplest view is that transpromo is simply putting ads on recurring billing documents, account statements, insurance compliance documents, and the like.  And there is good reason to want to do that.  Unlike most direct mail, or inserts, transactional documents are delivered, opened and read 95 percent of the time.  Any business would kill or die to know with such certainty that their message would reach their intended target.  By leveraging the unused space on these documents, which most companies have to send out anyway, you can reach your customers with relevant, targeted information.  And by updating the design and adding color to what have been traditionally ah… mundane, black and white documents, you increase the readability of the document, the value of the document to your reader, and chance that the message riding the coat-tails of the transaction will invoke action on the part of the reader.

Another key point is that the message does not have to be promotional  for a document to be a transpromo document.  It could provide information, like safe driving tips on an auto insurance statement or energy saving ideas on a utility bill.  It could also be an educational message, explaining a medical code from an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) .  This serves a number of purposes that benefit the company sending out the messaging and the recipient.  First, the sender can relay important, personalized information on a document that is being sent anyway (no increase in postage) and that will likely be read and, more importantly, valued by the recipient.  The recipient has a clearer understanding of the message being conveyed and a greater appreciation of the relationship with the sender, which could lead, depending on the message, to increased purchases, referrals and other revenue generating actions (helping the top line).  All the while, this cuts down on paper, (helps the environment), postage and customer service calls (helping the bottom line).

Now before we go and change our billing statements to look like New York’s Time’s Square after dark, let’s take a step back and look at why messaging on transactional documents can be effective and how, if you go too far, you can lose the effectiveness of the message and the transaction.  Transactional documents are read 95 percent of the time.  If we design a transpromo piece poorly, you could hurt the trust that leads to the phenomenal open rate for transactional mail.  There is too much that goes into an effective transpromo piece to get into it all in this post.  Thereare  many sources for this information available, and if there is a demand, we will address those here in future posts.  Suffice to say, that you do not want to lose the “transaction” in the “promotion” or you could lose the readership of both.

This is a huge topic in marketing today and is likely to continue to grow.  Let me know what interests you and please share any of your transpromo success (or failure) stories.

Until Next Time,

Let’s take a look at some different types of data that you probably already have and can use to enhance your marketing efforts.  As we have discussed in the past, there are a lot of ways to capture data, including buying lists that match your desired customer demographic.  But buying a list is not always necessary.  You could be sitting on a gold mine of data that you own free and clear and can use immediately to further your targeted, personal marketing campaigns.  In this post we will look at two types of data you probably have in one form or another.

TRANSACTIONAL DATA:  This is simply the data that you obtain as a result of doing business with a customer.  It will be different for different businesses, but every business will have some kind of transactional data they can use today.  It could be as simple as a name and address where you sent an invoice.  It could be an email address you have on record as a result of an ebay transaction.  It could be a massive and highly complex, cross-referenced database like the one Amazon.com uses.  The point is that in your regular, daily transactions you can find a wealth of information that will help you pinpoint your target customers.  Of course, the better the data, the more useful the information.  By keeping good transactional data, you will know who is buying from you, when they are buying, what they are buying and how they are buying (online, retail, etc…).  That is really valuable stuff.  You can use that information to drive new sales.

EXISTING PROSPECT DATA:  Unless you are a start-up, you probably have a pretty good list of prospects – even if you never refer to it that way.  The form of this data could be anything from a detailed CRM database with information about when you met or acquired the prospect, how you met them (did you meet in person at a conference or did they sign up for your blog – like you can do for this blog!), what efforts have you made to market to them and what has been the result of those efforts?  Again, the more detail you have the better.  But your prospect list could be a stack of business cards that you have collected over the years.  Just remember that the more up-to-date your data, the better your results will be.  Either way, make use of your prospect data to find new leads,  heat up cold leads and close more business.

I will GET TO THE POINT, every organization has some type of existing data they can use to help make their marketing efforts more effective.  More effective marketing means more goods sold or services rendered, and hopefully, an even better bottom line.  Remember, the better you maintain your data, the more effective it will be in your marketing efforts.

Until Next Time,

P.S. Please take advantage of our offer for a free FSC labeling guide by signing up to receive email notification of new posts to “GET TO THE POINT.”

     So where do we get the data we need to personalize our communications with our customers?   Well, there are a lot of places we can get data.  Some of it is great and helps us to better serve our customers, and other data leads to wasteful spending and spam.  The real question is how do we get GOOD data?  How do we get data that helps us understand our customers and their needs?

     The best place to get started with data is our own customer list.  We (should) have data about every customer.  Aside from name, address and email, we should also know about their buying habits.  What do they order? How often do they order?  Within what time-frame do they need their order filled?  The basic customer data that is collected will differ with every business.  A national Donut franchise will have very different data than a local law firm.  How you compile and use that data will also differ. 

     For the purposes of this post, let’s assume we are starting at square one.  We are looking to acquire customers and data regarding potential customers.  How do we do it?  There is no single way, or even a best way, but there are ways.  Here is one suggestion.  For this scenario, let’s assume that you have no data and are starting a data capturing campaign.  (In future posts we will look at alternate approaches, but for now we are casting a wide net).

     STEP 1:  GET A LIST – First look at a set of very basic demographic data into which your customers, or potential customers, fit.  The target audience for a video game system is very different than that for a seasonal rental in Florida for the winter.  So you have a basic idea who you want to target and your marketing service partner should discuss your needs and then obtain for you a list that meets with those needs.  You will use tis list to send a message, whether by printed materials or email. 

     STEP 2:  CREATE A COMPELLING, PERSONALIZED MESSAGE – Now that you know your intended audience, you will want to target your offering to them.  Remember, every person in your audience is unique.  Treat them that way, regardless of whether you are using ink on paper or email to communicate directly to your audience.  Use their name in your message.  Use variable graphics and variable data to personalize the message to each recipient.  Your goal here is to engage your potential customer.  Personalization has been shown to improve your ROI. 

     STEP 3:  HAVE AN APPEALING CALL TO ACTION – Now you want to get your audience to do something, perhaps supply an email address, perhaps complete a survey, but you definitely want them to opt-in to future communications from you.  To achieve this you must grab your reader’s attention immediately and let them know the benefits of what you are offering.  Use strong headings like:  John, the information in this message can help your company wallop the competition.  Or:  Don’t miss your chance to be among the first to receive an industry-changing information.  While the call to action must be compelling, it mist also be true or you will lose your credibility. 

     STEP 4:  CAPTURE AND USE THE DATA – make it easy for the reader to provide the data.  And then keep the data to use in subsequent campaigns.  While the data you have now is a great start for ongoing marketing campaigns, it also can help show you who is interested in your products and services.

     None of this is rocket science, but if you are busy running a company or a department, you can always have the bulk of this work done by a marketing service provider.  They can help with everything from analyzing your current customer data, obtaining a relevant list, crafting the message and call to action and analyzing the new data. 

So let me Get to the Point:

STEP 1:  GET A LIST

STEP 2:  CREATE A COMPELLING, PERSONALIZED MESSAGE

STEP 3:  HAVE AN APPEALING CALL TO ACTION

STEP 4:  CAPTURE AND USE THE DATA    

     So if you have any thoughts about this topic, let me know.  I welcome your input.

Until Next Time, John

     In our customer-centric, interactive universe, it is just a simple fact that in order to market effectively, you need good data.  Data, and the results of correctly analyzing data, are the Holy Grail of targeted marketing.  It allows you to craft your message in such a way that it is more relevant to the recipient.  If your message is one of a hundred or so received by your target, it had better be relevant to them or it will simply not get a second look.  And you need to know more than just name and address, regardless of whether that mail is electronic or on paper.  The days of sending out mail to “addressee” or “current resident” and expecting it to end up anywhere but the recycle bin are gone.  But targeted communications full of rich, relevant graphics, timely information and personalized messaging will almost always get a second look.  And that gets you more business.       

SO WHAT IS THE POINT?  You must know that your audience expects you to know them, and if you want to reach them, you better get to know them.

     So I hope that you are now at least convinced that you need data and you need to target your audience and personalize their experience.  Now we face another set of questions:  where the heck is all this data supposed to come from?  What form should the data be in?  How do I use my data to create relevant, personal messages for my target audience?  And most importantly, what is the payback for this effort?

     There are answers to all of these questions and the good news is that it does not have to be a costly or time consuming process.  However, you will have to wait for the next post where the subject of data acquisition will be discussed.  In the meantime, please leave your comments about any data issues you have experienced or any personalized communications you found to be really effective.

Until next time,  John

     So here are some more tips to make you a PUBLIC SPEAKING HERO!

1.  Know your material.  Study it from every angle so that you know it inside out.  

2.  Video tape a dress rehearsal of yourself giving your speech and tweak your presentation.  

3.  Have back up plans for your back up plans.  Things will go wrong and you have to be ready for that.  There are too many horror stories out there to share them all, but the more you plan, the better the outcome.

4.  Study your audience.   Know who are talking to and what they want to hear.   You are there for them, not the other way around.

5.  Tell your audience what you are going to tell them, tell it to your audience, and them tell them what you just told them.   

6.  Have genuine enthusiasm for your subject matter.  If you don’t, your audience won’t either.   You just can’t fake it.

7.  Adapt to the needs of the audience on the fly.  If you’re losing their attention, move on.  Remember, it is their experience that counts, not yours.  

8.  Provide outstanding graphics and relevant presentations slides.  But don’t kill your audience with a Power Point from hell.  Nobody wants that.
 

9.  Leave great printed materials after you are done talking, at the end of your speech.  Printed take-aways will help people remember you and what you said.  But if you give them out when you start your presentation, they will actually detract from what you are presenting.     

10.  Practice Practice practice.  There is no substitution for hard work and a complete understanding of your subject matter.  People can see bullshit a mile away. 

Please share your experiences with presentations.  None of us are as smart as all of us!  Let’s hear your comments.

The point of Get to The Point is to help improve communications.  A huge part of communicating in the sales and marketing context is giving presentations.  To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, in the Book of Lists, fear of public speaking is the number one fear.  Death is number three or four.  That means that the average person attending a funeral would rather be the corpse than the person giving the eulogy.  While this might be a bit of an exaggeration, there can be no denying the fear people experience when asked to speak in public and the importance of presentation skills in marketing and communications.  But there are ways to alleviate the anxiety that might accompany a public speaking engagement.  The first and foremost, and the subject of this post, is preparation. 

As a former litigator and Professor of Communications, I can say from experience that no matter what the assignment, you should not underestimate the work that must go into a presentation.  As a guide, I generally spend an hour of prep time for every minute of presentation time.  Obviously, if I am speaking on a subject that I have talked about before to a group I am familiar with, the time required is less.  Still, as a general rule, the ratio works well.  This prep should include knowing as much about the venue, the audience size and specific make-up of the audience to the greatest extent possible.  A talk to an audience full of sales people should differ from a talk to a room full of CFOs.  Also, double and triple check your presentation materials and have back-up plans for when things go wrong, because they will go wrong. 

     I have experienced nightmares such as having a projector bulb blow as I was prepping at the site, having UPS lose shipments of presentation materials, and having to deal with the fact that a good deal of  conference center AV equipment is reliable, at best, 50% of the time.  That can be a very scary thing when contemplating facing a room of hundreds of faces with no contingency plan.  So plan for the unplanned. You will be glad you did when the feedback from the microphone requires you to talk without amplification.

     So what do you do to prepare?  How do you foresee the unforeseeable?  Share your experiences and help us all.  Who were some of the best speakers you have ever seen?  What made them so good?  How about the worst?

     Confused?  Let’s see if we can clear some of this up.

     The most successful companies, or product lines, are the ones that have their customers selling for them.  Now, you have likely guessed that I’m not talking about simply hiring some customers to act as your sales force.  What I am referring to is the kind of company that does such a great job of providing value to their customer, that the customer becomes an Evangelist for you.  They talk about their experience with your company to friends, family, co-workers, anybody who will listen.  They talk about how fast their call or email was returned.  They talk about how friendly the service rep was on the phone.  They talk about the amazing quality of your product.  This is the Holy Grail of marketing.

     And how does a company achieve this?  It creates and fosters a culture where the entire organization is fanatically focused on solving the problems of and marketing to their customers.  Companies that want to not only survive, but thrive, must create an internal culture that has every person in the organization working to provide more value to the customer.  From a cheerful “hello” when the phone is answered to a cheerful “good-bye” when the delivery is made, and every step in between, every customer interaction is an opportunity to market the business, to show the customer how special they are. 

     And this goes for members of the company that typically do not have contact with customers.  Line workers must truly desire to build a great product.  Research and development teams must interact with real customers to create the things those customers want.  When the customer is at the heart of a business’s operation it shows, and the customer knows it.  And when the customer knows that they are special to the company, it fosters a sense of loyalty that not even the best marketing strategy can duplicate. 

     So what can your company do right now to turn every team member into a marketer?  How does a company foster this customer-centric attitude?  There are lots of answers to this, but the easiest to implement is to simply start doing so yourself.  Lead by example.  Talk to your team about what a great feeling it is to really help a customer.  Seek out satisfied customers and ask them what made their experience so good and then share that information with every person in the organization.  Seek out dissatisfied customers and find out what went wrong and how you can fix the problem.   Survey customers to see where you are strong and where you need to improve. 

     Marketing is challenging enough in this economy.  Get some help from the people who know you best – your customers.

     If you have any stories about how a customer marketed your business, please share them.  None of us are as smart as all of us!

Until Next Time,

John

Take Away 1:  When preparing a marketing plan, make sure you budget less than the revenue the plan is forecasted to bring in.   

This was actually brought to my attention at my daughter’s softball practice yesterday.  I happen to be her coach (eleven 6 and 7 year olds – so please pity me).  There are 5 teams, and each team is sponsored by a local business for about $300.00.  So, being the marketing freak that I am, the question that ran through my mind was “why the heck am I coaching eleven 6 and 7 year old girls on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning?”  (See answer)  OK, that was not the marketing question.

The marketing question was, in strictly business terms, what is the ROI on that $300.00 sponsorship?  Now, if a sponsor is being altruistic and making a kind donation, that is a different story.  The sponsor’s generosity may be appreciated by the community and perhaps they will remember the sponsor when they need the service the sponsor provides.  I hate to say it, but I have coached 3 years in a row and I could not tell you who’s name was on any of my team’s  shirts (including the one I wore yesterday).  Perhaps the company is looking to “build their brand” with no particular ROI in mind.  Many companies engage in brand building, but it has to a part of a larger, overall communication strategy. 

Take Away 2:  Brand building has value only when part of a comprehensive communications strategy. 

Now I admit I have done no research outside of talking to the parents of the kids on my team, but I do not know one person whose buying decision was swayed one bit by the team sponsorship.   

So was that $300.00 well spent? 

We’re back to the desired outcome.  If the desired outcome was to make a donation to the little league, yes, it was money well spent.  It is very much appreciated, but it is charity.  It is not marketing.

What if you really wanted to market your business instead?  What if you had that same $300.00 to spend on some type of a campaign?  It is not a large amount of money.  Even in this depression (yes, it is a freaking depression – stop being afraid to call it that), you could plan and conduct a very simple, very inexpensive, cross media campaign for the cost of a few t-shirts.

Using basic, intuitive design software available on most computers (or even at your local library), you could design a simple postcard with your company’s message and a compelling offer, along with the URL for your web site.  Assume you send out only 50 postcards to a well planned, thoroughly researched, strategic group of prospects who read the card and go to your website to learn more and take advantage of your offer (there, prospects will complete a brief survey that will provide you insight into their needs and also require the respondent enter an email address, opting-in to follow-up messages).  If three out of the 50 answer that survey (an admittedly optimistic 6% response rate), you have, for about the same price one pays to have their name on some shirts, 3 qualified leads. 

If what you are selling yields you an average profit of $100 per sale, and you land 3 out of that 50, you have paid for the entire campaign.  Even better, you now have 3 more customers who will, if you treat them the way you should,  become evangelists for your company.  They will provide  not only a continuing stream of revenue, but something even more valuable: referrals. 

This is especially true if you provide incentives for that kind of thing…but that is a subject for another post.   

Take Away 3:  A comprehensive marketing plan does not need to be expensive, just well planned and well executed. 

Please share any thoughts or experiences you have on this subject.   And if you happen to be the sponsor of my kids little league team, thank you.  

Until Next time,

John

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It is the person, or company, or team, that is focused on the customer’s needs, and how they can meet those needs that will find success s in this economy or any other. In this modern age of social media, email and the Internet, we all have such a fantastic array of tools at our disposal. Tools that help us help our customers communicate with their customers. Never have we all been so connected, so interrelated, so open and so willing to share our collective knowledge. So when I want to be able to show a client that a blog can help their company capture market share, the methodology is new (there were no blogs 20 years ago), but the desired results are not.

It is a simple equation: the effort you put in is directly proportionate to the results you achieve. And making the  effort to accept change, to learn new things daily, to focus on how you can help your customer even more effectively today, will get you amazing results. 

Do you agree? I welcome you input on this. Let’s share and help each other be better today than we were yesterday.