Cable Provider Selects InfoPrint And CSG Systems for TransPromo

InfoPrint Solutions Co., a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, successfully implemented a colorful, customized, and targeted marketing campaign for one of the top U.S. cable operators, set up via the independent consortium, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, under the Council's Routes to Revenue project.

The campaign was carried out with CSG Systems, providers of customer interaction management and customized color print communications. The pilot highlighted an impressive 27 percent increase in registrants to the cable operator's, or Multi-System Operator's (MSO), digital phone service.

"We put inserts in the customers' statements who subscribed to cable but had no digital phone service," said Lee Gallagher, manager, Direct Marketing Solutions, InfoPrint Solutions Co.

Double-Digit Increases

The team demonstrated the value of combining data analytics and customized content directly on monthly customer bills, also known as transpromo. The pilot's results show that the MSO experienced a double-digit increase in the number of customers responding to the color images and personalized messaging of the transpromo billings.

This pilot comprised two similar groups of the MSO's customers. The call to action encouraged subscribers to sign up for the provider's digital phone service. The sample group consisted of 100,000 customers, of which 50,000 received the color transpromo statement and the remainder received the standard B/W statement.

"In a short eight weeks, we worked closely with InfoPrint to ensure accurate data analytics, create controllable content and achieve manageable results," said Pam Sellenrick, senior vice president of Output Solutions at CSG Systems. "Through our successful work with our client and InfoPrint, we validated the importance of leveraging color for one-to-one communications."

The power of color on printed communications was supported by a recent end-user study completed by InfoPrint and Zoomerang, in which 45 percent of consumers questioned felt that colorful promotional materials stood out as more interesting and enticing to read. Not only were respondents more likely to read these documents, but 64 percent of those surveyed stated that if the color advertisement was relevant to them, they would then follow a call to action.

Color Adds Readability

The pilot showcases how recent innovations in the digital printing industry have set new standards in quality and affordability, and it validates the fact that color added to bills and statements effectively enhances readability, while guiding readers to important message points and inciting a response.

CSG also advised the client on the document design and strategic usage of color on the billing statement. The pilot was conducted at CSG's facility in Florida using the InfoPrint 5000 solution, a full color drop-on-demand inkjet continuous forms production printer.

"On the back of the exponential success of our last transpromo pilot, we didn't want to expect too much," said Gallagher. "However, we could not have been more pleased with the impressive results we saw with CSG. The true value of transpromo can only be seen when color is implemented. This topic has been debated throughout the industry for years, but a 27 percent lift in the results due to the use of color is significant, and the theory is now fact."

According to the recent Routes to Revenue study by the CMO Council, a surprising 76 percent of senior marketers believe they are not realizing the full revenue potential of their current customers. And less than half of these say they have good insights into retention rates, customer profitability and lifetime value. It was discovered that marketers now realize there is a lack of real-time data analytics with the ability to capture insight of customer habits from all touchpoints and this data is also found to be restricted and isolated from other departments of the company that could positively use the data. Transpromo has become a proven solution to this growing problem.

Driving Loyalty and Retention

"Without a doubt, best in class companies are looking at the delivery of highly personalized, highly targeted and highly relevant promotions as a key driver to advocacy, loyalty, retention and most importantly, bottom line growth," said Liz Miller, vice president of Programs and Operations for the CMO Council. "What is impressive about this latest InfoPrint pilot program is that it serves as another important benchmark proving the power of personalization."

"I'm out promoting transpromo, one of the reasons being that it cuts back 30 percent paper, whereas direct mail with no personalization generates a lot of waste: Comparatively, the response rate of this direct mail is only 1 to 3 percent. Because transpromo is more personal and targeted, the likelihood of success is improved. We run these pilots so that marketers can learn how to improve their response rates. Also, customer retention is key," Gallagher further explained.

"With transpromo, the biggest obstacle is getting to the right person who understands what you're doing. The pilots we run help us with conversations to use transpromo effectively. As far as being a strategist, transpromo is an emerging technology. We spread awareness to markets through the pilots," he added.