As companies feel the pressure of a stagnant economy and reduced consumer spending, they are searching for more cost-effective ways to generate sales. One of the best opportunities for increasing sales is to up-sell and cross-sell products and services to existing customers. Since existing customers are already familiar with the brand and the products or services offered, they are excellent prospects for additional products from the same brand or for upgrades and enhancements to current products they have already purchased. Existing customer conversion rates are typically much higher than that of non-customers.

Leverage the Space on Your Customer Communications

If you are not utilizing transpromo capabilities to print up-sell and cross-sell messages on your outgoing customer communications, you are missing out on an extremely valuable and practically “free” marketing opportunity. The marketing industry term “transpromo”, short for “transpromotional”, refers to printing promotional marketing messages on existing customer mail components that are not primarily produced for promotional purposes (such as invoices, statements, or other “transactional” mail pieces).

Transform Non-Marketing Mail Into a Powerful New Up-Sell Channel

Almost every business sends out certain types of “transactional” or non-promotional mail to customers on a regular basis, such as monthly statements, invoices, account updates, and reminders. Transpromo technology makes it simple to print virtually any marketing message or image, in color, on any mail component, including an envelope. A simple bill or statement becomes a flexible, highly affordable marketing communications medium.

Today, many businesses up-sell and cross-sell using transpromo technology to print the following:

  • A coupon on the bottom of a customer statement or invoice, offering a discount on the next purchase
  • A product cross-sell, up-sell or upgrade message
  • A sale or promotion announcement
  • Website addresses where products can be researched and purchased
  • “Coming soon” information about a new product, service or enhancement
Transpromo Messages Get Read

Another favorable aspect of transpromo marketing is the high probability that the message will be seen. According to recent studies, 83% of people open and read their mail right away when it is non-promotional and appears to be a statement, invoice or important information from a company with which they have an existing relationship. When your customers recognize the mail as something they need to open, they will also see your tailored up-sell message in full color.

Transpromo Marketing Saves Money

Some messages don’t require a separate mail package in order to be effective. Taking advantage of transpromo marketing can greatly reduce production, mailing and overall marketing expenses in a number of ways:
  • Transpromo messages allow companies to up-sell and cross-sell products without the cost of an additional mailing. Transpromo messaging can actually take the place of certain mail campaigns, allowing you to communicate frequently with customers while saving thousands of dollars in production and postage costs.
  • Transpromo printing technology is easy to use and can be brought in-house to negate outside vendor and production expenses.
  • Mailing fewer direct mail campaigns and reducing production costs with in-house printing allows businesses to maintain and even increase messaging opportunities with customers, even with a much smaller marketing budget.
  • Quality transpromo mail systems can print up-sell messages and images in color on an envelope at the same time as your postage, for maximum production efficiency.
  • Transpromo printing on envelopes can also be done with regular, high quality printers. This saves on the cost of high volume orders for pre-printed windowed envelopes – key when there are multiple departments involved, long lead times, or large print runs for each envelope design or desired marketing message.
  • Avoiding the need for pre-printed window envelopes and other components also saves days and even weeks in production and shipping times. Any business that sends invoices knows that the quicker the invoice gets to the customer, the sooner it gets paid. By printing envelopes on an “as needed” basis, receivables are turned into revenues more efficiently—a smart business practice, as money doesn’t work for you until you receive it and can’t earn interest until it is in the bank.
Transpromo Offers Data-Driven Variability for Tailored Messaging

The same equipment and technology that provides transpromo capabilities can also handle the data processing necessary to segment target audiences. Once data preferences are identified by segment, personalized communications can be generated. When transpromo cross-sell and up-sell messages are tailored to individual customer preferences, the response rates are substantially higher than a generic message delivered to all audiences.

How Does Transpromo Translate into Revenue Growth?

Once transpromo variable printing is part of the marketing mix, businesses are able to communicate with, and offer cross-sell opportunities to customers more frequently—even with fewer mail campaigns and fewer vendors. It’s easy to see how revenues can quickly grow when a company is spending less yet promoting its products more.

Don’t know where to begin? Talk to reputable companies that offer transpromo technology and equipment and also provide free consulting to help you get the most out of your new marketing channel. The small investment up front is easily worth the long-term marketing benefits, because once you have the equipment in-house, you can print unlimited up-sell and cross-sell messages at almost no cost.

Study Shows Direct Mail Still The Preferred Communication Method
Leflein Associates 2010 online survey made it clear that although consumers do regularly use other communications channels, such as e-mail and cell phone text messaging, direct mail is still the preferred channel for most communication types. Here are some highlights of the results regarding communication channel preferences:
  • Only 12% of Americans are on a “do not mail” list
  • Nearly 95% of responders regularly open physical mail, such as letters and packages
  • Consumers prefer mail to e-mail delivery, phone calls and text messages for most content; especially catalogs, but also for transactional and promotional items
  • Even 18-34 year-olds are more likely to read through their mail vs. e-mail
  • Mail is more likely than e-mail to be considered safe, secure, private and confidential
  • Mail is usually perceived to be coming from a trustworthy source

For More Information
Download our resource on how to use your invoices as a marketing tool.

Get our step-by-step guide to accelerating your receivables and buildings revenues.

Learn about Planet Press, an all-in-one print solution from Pitney Bowes.


Source: “Envelope Open-Ability Online Survey”. Leflein Associates. Feb-March 2010.