Posted on Mon, Jan 23, 2012 @ 01:09 PM
Death of the Mailbox
We are at the dawn of the death of the mailbox. Just like the buggy whip and the VCR, postal mail has become a casualty of changing times. More and more people are simply using less and less paper to communicate. The numbers bear witness to the passing as the US Postal Service continues to loose between 7 and 8 billion dollars every year. The reason is simple; business and society has moved away from paper in favor of online and mobile communications. As a result we will see an irreversible decline in the use of mail. According to a recent study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, 2020 projections fall by at least 30% from the 2006 peak USPS volume.
For many consumers, postal mail has become an annoying afterthought. According to
41pounds.org, an advocacy group working to eliminate unwanted and wasteful mail, the average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year. The reality is that other than a few remaining bills or an occasional card from grandma, all that remains in the mailbox is a slurry of unsolicited direct mail, marketing catalogs and coupon flyers. This may be one reason why most people tend to open their mail over the trash or recycle bin. Forty one pounds offers a service to
stop unwanted junk mail and catalogs.
Another fatality of the Facebook age is the demise of paper phone books. Both the white pages and the yellow pages are becoming a thing of the past; people prefer to look for information online or simply have their Smartphone connect them. As a result, consumers are moving to opt-out of phone books and yellow pages. According to
yellowpagesoptout.com, a national yellow pages opt-out site, demand for a paper directory has declined nearly 30% since 2006. Another site,
YellowPagesGoesGreen.org, helps consumers conveniently
opt-out of printed yellow pages delivery while providing a simple, effective, online alternative to printed directories.
At OMI, we're leading the charge for a paperless revolution also.
TransXAction, our flagship Managed Communication Service, helps companies transition printed communications to the paperless world. We provide a single point for creating, managing, and measuring online communications. What's more, we help you build strategies to utilize daily, weekly and monthly customer communications as focal points to increase brand loyalty, reduce costs, increase revenue and boost customer service.
Posted on Thu, Jan 19, 2012 @ 09:24 AM
Why 2012 will be a Revival for Transaction Marketing and TransPromo Strategy Initiatives
By Brad Banyas CEO @OMI
For the last decade Transaction marketing and Transpromo strategies have been a known practice for document composition software providers and print and mail services providers. The technologies and techniques have been incubating under the confines of niche printing areas but have yet to break into the mainstream of marketing and branding efforts. Now is the time to revitalize the concepts in the face of evolving customer communications.
Transaction marketing has its roots in utilizing information relevant to the transaction to create action. It makes sense to highlight the overdue amount in order to trigger the recipient to take action to pay a bill. Research has shown that highlighting certain words in red creates urgency to act, and using this simple cause and effect can reduce day’s sales outstanding or collections of overdue payments. Transpromo strategies extend that call to action by using transactional communications like statements, invoices and notices as vehicles utilizes to market new services to existing customers. Existing customer data is used to call attention to relevant and personalized messaging with the hope that every day communications take on a new value as revenue-generating tools.
The value of Transactional marketing lies just ahead of us as organizations quickly embrace online communications
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2012 – A Year of Revival
The value of Transactional marketing lies just of us ahead as organizations quickly embrace online communications. Until now the success of transaction marketing has been confined to the operations side of organizations, but with the explosion of online, mobile and social media channels, businesses and consumers are spending more time online. The social enterprise is a reality. As a result, statements, invoices and other traditional communications are no longer being ignored as a back office problem. Customer Communications Management via smart phones, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter are taking center stage, as are personalize online portals that become a gateway to engaging, listening and growing existing client relationships.
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The revival of Transaction marketing and Transpromo initiatives will be lead by companies that refocus communications to engage customers where and when they chose to interact with the brand. Successful marketers will concentrate on transactional communications that have immediate impact to the bottom-line and engage existing customers through creative use of transactional communications beyond the print-centric practices of the past.
Driving Factors for the Revival
- United States Postal Service decline – mail losing relevancy
- Smart phones – consumers communicate on the run
- Big Data analytics - target personal and relevant content at point of interest
- Social Media – consumers communicate and hang out online
- Lower Cost – the cost of communicating with existing customers vs. new ones
- Less Complexity – unified solutions for effective multi-channel engagement
Effectively applying Transactional marketing practices across these electronic venues will be essential in order maintain brand recognition and boost customer loyalty in these new mediums. Success will depend on giving customers the opportunity to embrace your brand where they spend their time…and these days that means online, not on paper.
Posted on Mon, Jan 09, 2012 @ 09:20 AM
Welcome to 2012...the year of the Paperless Revolution.
Over the past several months a quiet revolution is taking place as business and society adopt
paperless communications. The signs are clear and undeniable -- the U.S. Post Office is in rapid decline, physical phone books are a thing of the past, and paper communications are giving way to social and online media as the preferred channel of choice for a majority of consumers. As a result, companies world wide are eagerly adopting strategies to replace paper communications and provide a better engagement with customers in the media that most prefer...paperless.
The time has come for organizations to
join the revolution; not only to save money and save trees, but also to communicate in a modern paperless context. Customers, business partners and governments now expect and demand no-paper interactions. Indeed, in all facets of business and society today this transformation is taking place. Companies that ignore this evolution risk losing market share, credibility, and most importantly...customers. Regulatory compliance will become an increasing challenge and containing the cost of doing business will be nearly impossible without relieving the burden and of paper.
OMI is leading the Paperless Revolution and we can help you make the transformation.
TransXaction from OMI provides a single platform to manage all of your customer communications whether they take form in paperless statements, web-based correspondence, email or social media. Now you have a central point where communications meet to deliver value to the day-to-day transactions of your business no matter what channel you use. Most importantly, TransXaction gives you a way to go paperless without the need to invest in additional and costly systems, hardware and consulting services to get the job done.
2012 is the year of the Paperless Revolution. Will you be on board?
Posted on Tue, Dec 13, 2011 @ 05:28 PM
Social Media Portfolio Services
The social marketing channel continues to evolve. This evolution has become a Revolution!
The revolution is lead by consumers that control information consumption and re-distribution of communications. The social enterprise is now a reality and implementing the correct strategy, process and technology is no longer a fad. Facebook, Google+ and Twitter are dynamic and ever changing platforms, so marketing, public relations and brand owners require a partner that can stay in front of dynamic changes required to deliver multi-channel communications. Social enterprises must continually capitalize on and maximize customer communications as social media channels become the key channel to brand interaction and experience.
OMI’s Social Media Portfolio Services build on our existing Customer Communications Management Services by providing a Platform as a Service that builds off of everyday communications with your clients. Through utilization of standard business communications such as invoices, statements, notices and other transactional communications, OMI allows our clients to target social communications that may be used to endear customers to the brand throughout the social ecosystem.
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Brand owners can now ensure social assets can be used anywhere across the Internet, including websites and blogs to provide consistent communications across multi channel venues.
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Social Media Portfolio Services by OMI enables your Business to create, distribute, manage and analyze social channels including Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. OMI also provides agency type services to develop a strategy, digital assets, and execution to build brand endearment in the markets our customers serve.
Posted on Tue, Dec 06, 2011 @ 03:53 PM
Transactional Marketing - it's simple really....
Marketing is full of concepts and acronyms that can confound even the most savvy business professionals. Concepts like "Transpromo" and "Transactional" and "Relationship Management" all attempt to provide clear direction while often clouding the landscape instead. We prefer to keep things simple with this straightforward philosophy: Whenever you communicate with your customers you have a unique opportunity to expand and extend each "appointment" to include a more deeply relevant and more satisfying customer experience.
Transactional Marketing takes advantage of the fact that transactional documents like a customer invoice, statement or confirmation demands attention - for a few seconds at least - because it requires some sort of action on the part of the reader; your customer. Indeed, transactional documents often represent the only touch point an organization really has with a customer. You create thousands of bills and statements every month; why not take advantage of this opportunity?
TransXaction Communication Management Services from OMI helps you take advantage of each opportunity to engage, promote and serve existing clients with services they are not aware of or are not effectively being presented in other marketing channels. We give you a single platform to manage all of your customer communications whether they take form in paperless statements, web-based correspondence, email or social media. We make it easy to include relevant and personalized marketing content on each transactional document so that it will rise above the din of competitive messages and transform into a beneficial marketing edge.
Contact us today to learn more about how TransXaction can help you plug in and juice up the marketing engine using every day customer correspondence for outstanding transactional marketing results.
Posted on Thu, Dec 01, 2011 @ 12:27 PM
Your Customers, Their Advertisements. Who Gains?
There is bidding frenzy for your customers being conducted print service bureaus nationwide, and it is going on right under your nose. This stir in the market is being driven by large print-centric hardware and software providers hoping to extend the life of their antiquated, print-based business model. They figure one way to ward off becoming a commodity is by making your customer statements a billboard for advertising brokers and third-party retailers. On the surface it may seem tempting to sell available white space on your printed statements to advertisers and make a little money in the process. But before you buy into the hype let's look at the real world implications.
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For years you have worked hard to secure customers, build brand loyalty and foster a meaningful relationship with your customers. Your transactional documents -- statements, invoices and other business correspondence -- go to customers that have an established association with your organization. Is it worth a couple of pennies per statement to confuse your clients with advertisements that have no relation to your brand or the products you provide?
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Suppose a particular advertisement imbedded in your white space is issued from an organization that your customer had a bad experience with in the past. You now have endorsed that third party by virtue of the advertisement. Your company is forever linked to that organization in the mind of your customer. Any relationship your customer has with that advertising organization, either in the past or in the future, will reflect on you. Is it worth the risk?
Selling your white space rarely results in meaningful return and is hardly worth the risk and effort. In reality, the hardware and software provider takes the bulk of the revenue between the advertising brokers and retailers. The remainder of the revenue is used to entice the print service bureau into offering the service to their customers. In the end, user companies don't see much, if any, return other than perhaps some free printing in exchange for intimate access to your customers.
Customer loyalty, respect and trust are too valuable to be sold on the open market for pennies on the dollar. Contact us today to find out how we can help you use your monthly transactional communications to offer additional services, products that build your brand...not someone else's.
Posted on Tue, Nov 22, 2011 @ 12:16 PM
BSA Technologies & OMI Partner to Provide Integrated Communication & Compliance Services to the Financial Services Industry
Miami, FL (November 21, 2011) - BSA Technologies, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia based OMI and BSA Technologies (BSAT) have formed a strategic partnership to integrate OMI’s Statement2web® and TransXaction™ communication services with BSA’s software application BSA RADAR®, a solution that provides a comprehensive approach to customer due diligence, automated client risk rating and transaction monitoring processes in one easy to use application. BSA RADAR’s® primary objective is to provide an efficient way to capture, store, analyze and report customer information needed to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) regulations while simplifying the account opening process. The partnership will assist credit unions and bank clients in lowering their costs by automating existing compliance processes that are currently performed manually. In addition, BSA RADAR® will further improve the quality of the clients overall AML/CTF compliance efforts with changes in operational processes that address the many challenges of complying with the USA PATRIOT Act and the Bank Secrecy Act.
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“Through this partnership, utilizing customer information we can assist our clients in identifying possible OFAC Specially Designated Person matches that will lead to enhancing our client’s compliance regime.” In addition OMI communication services will be utilized to deliver critical communications such as wire notifications, account related alerts, statements and other critical communications delivered to constituents associated with the Financial Institution.” said Brad Banyas, Managing Partner at OMI. |
“BSA RADAR® is a welcome improvement to institutions that have been struggling to manage their account opening and customer due diligence process. BSA RADAR® is also a single repository of customer information which can provide management with comprehensive reports identifying account holders and relationships by risk stratification, high risk industries, high risk geographic areas or high risk transaction activity. The integration of OMI communication services such as Statement2web® and TransXaction™ allow BSA Technologies to streamline critical communications real time for our clients “said Dominic Suszek, President of BSAT.
View Press Release
Posted on Mon, Nov 21, 2011 @ 10:01 AM
Why Limit your Message to White Space?
In the face of the paperless revolution, print communication providers continue to look for ways to extend the life of printed communications. While the business world is steadily moving to online customer correspondence, old school print-centric vendors and providers continue to be one step behind the curve.
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One example is the promotion of the use of white space on your transactional printed documents. For years this idea has focused on using the open real estate on printed pages for additional marketing messages. While in theory this would help companies avoid the additional cost of printed inserts and increased postage, the approach is about 10 Years too late.
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Today's connected world has moved far beyond paper and whitespace to modern multi-channel online communications. In contrast to the paper-pushing past, current approaches requires a much more cerebral approach to creating, delivering, managing, measuring message content for end recipient consumption and acceptance. Teaching old dogs new tricks is somewhat challenging considering the proliferation of the mobile communications, social media channels and other web based services and portals.
The world has changed and the time has come to step out of the 1990's. Effective communication these days happens where the consumers spend their time -- and that means online not on paper. It is time to reevaluate how online correspondence can not only eliminate the burden of paper, but also give you the ability to communicate with your customers in a way that - in growing numbers - they tend to prefer.
In the end it's about customer experience and satisfaction, and worrying about white space on stodgy old printed bills is simply a diversion from the real world of modern customer communications. Now is the time to consider the paperless revolution as a business imperative to build a new type of customer loyalty and satisfaction today and beyond.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you use online customer correspondence for outstanding transactional marketing results.
Posted on Wed, Nov 02, 2011 @ 02:15 PM
Don't Get Left Behind! Unify Your Paperless Correspondence
Are you still communicating with paper? If so, you may get left behind in the paperless revolution. Everyone knows there is growing concern about the continued viability of the US Postal Service. Indeed, the numbers don't look good (see our Oct 20 post here). The reason for these concerns stem from one simple fact: the volume of physical mail is on dramatic decline and shows no signs of slowing any time soon.
According to a recent study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, over the next eight years we can expect "a sharp decline in volume and increasing online diversion driven by increased customer acceptance". What does this consultant-speak really mean? It means that more and more consumers prefer to get rid of the paper and go paperless instead. The result? If you are still communicating using plain old paper your organization will be at a disadvantage in the market.
That's where we come in. TransXaction Communication Management Services from OMI provides a single platform to manage all of your customer communications whether they take form in paperless statements, web-based correspondence, email or social media. We recognized that "going paperless" is a journey and TransXaction helps you manage the process with a thoughtful strategy to eliminate the paper where it makes sense yet continue business on paper as needed. Now you have a central point where communications meet to deliver value to the day-to-day transactions of your business no matter what channel you use.
With TransXaction you save money by getting rid of the paper, but you also satisfy the growing market demand of customers who prefer paperless correspondence. As a result you increase brand loyalty and have new tools and online services that make the most of those experiences and relationships. By utilizing TransXaction as your Customer Communication Management platform you unite your efforts to save money, improve market share and ultimately sell more to your best customers...the ones you already have.
Contact us today to learn more about how TransXaction can bring all the pieces together in an affordable and effective Customer Communications Management platform for today's multi-channel world.
Posted on Tue, Oct 18, 2011 @ 01:02 PM
Stamp Lickers...just added to the endangered species list
A time-bomb it ticking for the US Postal Service. The USPS is losing between 7 and 8 billion dollars each year, is maxed out on its $12 billion line of credit with the Treasury Department, and is at real risk of default on a $5.5 billion payment it must make to a retiree health benefits fund. These financial straits are pressuring Congress to act and a number of proposals in both the US senate and the House of Representatives take different approaches to solve the problem. But many in Washington and elsewhere say the postal service is clearly in need of a radical overhaul and that the USPS is at real risk of shutting down sometime later this year as it piles up billions of dollars in losses.
Even the Postal Service acknowledges the troubling downturn. "A significant portion of USPS losses in the past few years has been due to an unprecedented decline in mail volume -- down more than 20% since 2007," the USPS said in a statement recently. "The replacement of letter mail and business-transaction mail by electronic alternatives continues to cause downward pressure on mail volume."
According to a recent study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group we will continue to see a steady and irreversible decline in first class and standard mail, with 2020 projections at a 30% decline off of the 2006 peak USPS volume.
What does this mean for American businesses? It means that it is time to join the paperless revolution. In growing numbers your customers prefer to receive business correspondence online rather than in the mail box. According to the Boston Group study, bill receipt will decline 45% and statement receipt will decline by 40% over the next eight years. Clearly, now is the time to evaluate and implement paperless correspondence. Companies that fail to recognize this societal and business trend face the risk of being left behind.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you join the paperless revolution. Don't become the latest addition to the endangered species list!