By Dave Hook

In Transactional Documents, the idea of adding additional messaging to a document that will be viewed by a customer isn't new. However, before we dive into this, let us define what we mean by Transactional Documents. 

Industry terms can be confusing at times. They are used differently by different people and sometimes our end-users want to understand how these terms relate to their business. In this case, a transactional document would be a bill, statement, invoice, policy declaration or other any other documents that communicate information about a transaction between a business and its customer, with each one being different in regards to content than the other documents in the print run.

The other term you might have heard of is Transpromo; a term Crawford Technologies also uses and promotes through our Transpromo Express offering. Transpromo - derived from merging the terms transactional and promotional - is really just a way to engage people in the idea of using mandatory transactional documents as a revenue generation and communication vehicle. In reality, Transpromo implies that you will use data to target customers with individual and personalized offers that are relevant and valuable to them. 

Now, we know what you are thinking; this term has been out there for a while and you have probably had nightmares about what is required to implement it. The time, cost and effort required to implement Transpromo puts a roadblock in place that prevents organizations from even beginning to evaluate their data and how they can bring relevant offers to their existing customers. The stories of multi million dollar investments can make the thought of putting a business plan together daunting. 

The most cost-effective approach to Transpromo is to utilize unused real estate on your transactional documents. This is the unused “white space” that typically exists at the end of variable length tables within the current documents. This white space exists in a large percentage of documents as pages are filled with variable information.  It is difficult to predict how much white space will be on each recipient’s document, and they will generally all be different from document to document.  The trick is to find this white space and fill it with valuable content. Alternatively, you can add pages to the documents, although this increases printing and mailing costs, without as much probability that recipients will actually read those pages. In either case, document re-engineering is the most logical approach to implement Transpromo by replacing white space.

Recently a web site has been announced that connects transactional document producers with advertising placement services to sell Transpromo space through document re-engineering. This type of service addresses those producers that don’t have their own content that is relevant and valuable to their customers to achieve loyalty, increased revenues and increased profitability. Those offerings require buy-in to proprietary systems that carry significant costs if you don’t already have the solution as part of your document workflow. The question you have to ask is “Do you really want to sell ad space on your transactional documents that are being sent to your customers?” This web site and its approach can do that and create a revenue stream for you, once you have paid for the system if that is really your goal.

Today, most organizations have messages of their own, or those from sister organizations, that can help further their business goals. If they can just get those messages in front of their customers in a cost effective manner, it can help improve sales, improve customer support, improve customer loyalty and reduce costs. Many organizations look at the available space on transactional documents as a valuable asset, and do not want to sell it to just anybody. Why not leverage this asset for your own business purposes?

Taking a step back, we have identified that there is a need; organizations want to place promotional, educational, legislative or informational content in the available white space of the transactional documents they produce. The key advantages to this approach are:

• The production printing costs don’t change to deliver this promotional content.
• The postage costs don’t change to deliver this promotional content.
• These documents have very high read rates and are therefore one of the most effective communication methods available to your marketing team.

The challenge lies in the cost to implement, the software upgrades required, the project lead time and compatibility with current workflow components. So what is the solution and how can achieve your Transpromo objectives?

CrawfordTech’s Transpromo Express utilizes an approach that leverages your existing workflow and uses open approaches for the exchange of data to minimize the barriers to implementing Transpromo. 

The strength of our approach is that we utilize document re-engineering methods to add Transpromo messaging at the print file level. This means that you don’t need to change or upgrade any of your existing applications or processes that drive your print workflow. For those familiar with CrawfordTech products, it will come of no surprise that not only does Transpromo Express integrate with all other CrawfordTech offerings it also will integrate with almost any workflow environment.

Here’s how it works. Our software analyzes each customer transactional document within your existing print ready file. We create a file (CSV, XML, etc.) that contains the relevant data to determine what messaging you want to add such as name, address, account number and the location and size of available white space within each document. This file is sent to your CRM system for analysis to determine the relevant, valuable content that is appropriate for each customer in the list that it analyzed. It sends the results of this analysis back to our software and using a library of provided marketing assets, we will place the correct-sized images with the correct content into your existing print file.  There is no need to redesign your documents. There is no need to move your documents to a new document composition system.   

Some CRM systems do not have features to do the analysis, although they contain all the information needed.  In this case, some scripting may be required to implement the customer’s desired business rules. This can be done by your marketing or IT staff. If they do not have the time available, CrawfordTech’s Professional Services group can take care of this for you.

If you have been looking for a way to implement Transpromo in your organization and have hit too many roadblocks in terms of time, cost and effort, this is the perfect moment to think about a new innovative solution. With Transpromo Express you can achieve your Transpromo goals for significantly less costs, effort and time-to-market than other than other solutions on the market.

Sounds too good to be true? Let us prove it to you with a proof of concept and references of successful installations. 2012 is the year to take control of your marketing opportunities and it doesn't hurt to be the trailblazer that brings forward an innovative solution to your company’s needs.

 Previous Article: Sometimes You Just Need to View the Print File

Next Article: Professional Services and Customer Support Set CrawfordTech Apart from the Competition