Nov 13, 2007
The Boss Wants TransPromo, Now What Do I Do?
Combining transactional documents with promotional marketing messages is a no-brainer ... at least in theory. For example, statements that are already being printed and sent to the customer could easily include some marketing information -- right?
Uh ... sure!
Transpromo is best implemented as an overall strategy for communicating with customers and should involve marketing, production and others involved with the organization's production and communication activities. For those of you on the production side of this strategy, here are a few questions that can stem from the challenges posed by combining these two types of communications. Hopefully the answers provide some ideas on where to start.
Question: What if I can't change the design of my transactional document?
Answer: Many transactional documents are restricted to a specific design format for reasons that could include government regulations, lack of resources to modify the design in a timely manner (perhaps programming is required), and limitations of the printing equipment (to name a few).
The only real show stopper here is if regulatory or corporate policy guidelines do not allow you to include promotional information. Other than that, there are some creative ways to mix promotion information into an existing document without changing its basic design.
The key is to identify how much real estate can be made available on the document -- preferably, the front of the document.
Identify information on the transactional document that is not related directly to communicating the core transactional information, such as contact information, change of address areas, or instructions. Can any of this information be moved to the back, rewritten into fewer words, or both? Any minor rearranging of this nature provides additional space for the promotional message.
Question: What if my printer does not support color?
Answer: Color is an obvious choice to bring focus to a particular area or message, but it's not required. Consider these special effects: Shaded text will pop off the page if all the other text is 100% black, especially if it's a bit larger or even smaller than the rest of the text. Try using an outline font so you actually get two colors (the interior and the outline itself). Black and white photographs, if chosen carefully, can add sophistication and interest to the document and marketing message.
Question: The type of design that the marketing group wants to print is outside the scope of what my printer can produce. What now?
Answer: My advice is to meet with the marketing team and explain what your printing equipment can do -- instead of focusing on its limitations. Once the creatives know the landscape, they're more likely to come up with something that can be produced efficiently while still carrying a successful promotion. It might be worth mentioning to the group that showing some return on investment using existing equipment could very well be parlayed into budget money for new printers and software capable of producing the marketing team's original requirements.
Can't hurt!