By DPS Staff

Part 3 of 4

The past few years taught us that transactional statements provide much more to marketers and consumers than account details. TransPromo acts as a canvas where transactional data and marketing assets connect to make a piece of communication to benefit all involved parties.

Over the past two weeks we took a look at emerging trends surrounding TransPromo communications and looked ahead into integrated analytic functions that help marketers reach their customers more effectively. With part three of our Web series on TransPromo communications, Diversified Information Technologies—a company currently producing these advanced communications, discusses its experience creating these complex documents.

Diversified provides full print, mail, and electronic delivery solutions. The company employs a mix of production equipment from Canon, Océ, and Xerox to meet its clients’ print requirements. Diversified provides front-end solutions including design and document creation. Its IT team is well versed at converting different types of datastreams to incorporate variable messaging onto transactional documents with data found within its clients’ transaction files.

Additionally, Diversified offers a growing range of information management services designed to allow its clients to focus on core competencies. Diversified provides imaging processes as well as active, archival, and vital media storage procedures—certified ISO 9001—making it one of the few information management companies to be certified in both of these areas.

For healthcare clients, Diversified’s processing infrastructure and procedures for medical records, claims, and other documents, ensure full compliance through its HIPAA certification.

"Our customers benefit from our strategic approach to the development of TransPromo materials and experience service serving the Fortune 500 in financial, insurance, and healthcare industries," says Susan Cotter, director, account development, Diversified.

The company uses a cross-functional team approach, with the goal of bringing operations, finance, client services, and IT together to understand the clients’ strategic needs and fulfillment strategies.

Diversified understands that companies are always looking for innovative and cost-effective ways to promote products and services. They also seek innovative methods to communicate and interact with customers to increase loyalty and boost response rates, which is why TransPromo is so popular. "With a 98 percent industry-reported open rate for transactional documents, TransPromo messaging is a strategic way to communicate and distribute additional information to customers without the added expense of printed inserts or postage," says Cotter.

Another important consideration is the way customers like to receive correspondence. Electronic presentment provides benefits such as postal savings, lower print costs, and increased turnaround time. "When email is used to link back to a company Web site or a Web site is used as a payment or customer service vehicle, it is a new opportunity to target customer-specific messages and cross-sell services," she says.

While beneficial, the creation of TransPromo documents does not come without challenges. "We find that TransPromo communications and messaging is most successful when departments collaborate with sales and marketing," explains Cotter.

However, that isn’t always the case. "The production of invoices and statements is typically managed by the finance or IT department. If the finance department insists on leaving all of the terms and conditions in a piece—leaving only a small amount of space on the back of the document for a marketing message or sales promotion—the TransPromo message may not be as effective," she says.

Today, transactional documents can be transformed to add value, educate, and promote. "TransPromo is not only used for the communication of marketing messages, but also for informational and educational messages," concludes Cotter.

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