A couple of weeks ago, the US Postal Service announced it’s new 2nd Ounce Free pricing.  This is a program designed to “add value to the mail”.  The press release talks about how this promotion will help mailers have a greater impact by using higher quality paper stock, larger envelopes, and combining more promotional material in transactional materials, aka transpromo.

I’ve been stewing about this for a couple of weeks, so today’s post is a little longer than usual.

Transactional documents like bills and statements are important communication vehicles.  Unlike ad mail, these envelopes almost always get opened, and the time we typically spend looking at the contents is measured in minutes.  These are regular monthly appointments with every customer.  They are expecting them, and they read them.  What an opportunity!  This is the opportunity that lies at the heart of many of the services Blue ID offers.  Handled properly, promotional messaging in transactional documents can have a tremendous impact.

I try to avoid using the word transpromo.  First of all, it tends to be an industry term that few understand – I’m all about having our clients understand what we’re talking about.  Secondly, too often it is used to describe what USPS is suggesting we do with that second ounce…throw in more buckslips!  Or, using intelligent insertion, throw in more of the right buckslips!

Is that second ounce really going to improve your customer experience?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want more buckslips with my statement.  I think we need to put most of  our mailings on a diet.  The typical mailing needs to shed some wait, not gain it!  The secret to the bills and statements I receive is that they are filled with relevant, personal information that I require to take action.  I would prefer to take our mailing threshold and figure out how to make EVERYTHING in the envelope relevant to me.  When it comes to marketing effectiveness and customer satisfaction, the payoff comes when you design a document that presents itself as something that was written for you.  When promotional messages appear ON the document you are reading, and it is placed there because it is connected to a known affinity you have, that’s when you will read and act on it.  Adding more to the fat, insert-filled envelope you rescue your statement from before discarding is not where the promises of personalization show up.

This IS possible.  At Blue ID we build documents like this all the time…but that’s a discussion for another day.

In the meantime, let’s say we put our mailings on a diet and put that 2nd ounce on hold.