Don't Miss Out on Free Advertising - Print & Mail Wisely

A recent report by a top UK mailing systems specialist has highlighted a major missed promotional opportunity amongst European organizations.

Such businesses are missing out on ?2.8 billion worth of free advertising. And how? Simply by failing to make better use of invoices and statements they send to customers.

This mailing specialist has calculated the value of the wasted space on such documents to be equal to 24% of the combined annual direct mail spend in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain put together. A major slice of this estimate - almost ?1.8 billion of advertising space left unused - is made up by the Banking Sector.

It is becoming clear that international business is taking this missed opportunity very seriously. Technology analysts in the USA have given it a name ' "transpromotional advertising" - a sure sign that this is a phenomenon to be embraced and implemented as a mainstream advertising method. Transpromotional advertising ' or "transpromo" for short ' is set to become a buzzword amongst marketers in the months to come.

What to do to activate Transpromo Advertising?

The advice for business large and small is to review the layout and style of invoices and statements, and plan for regular update of billing templates with suitable advertising messages and images.

Not only that, but it is a good idea to think in terms of the reverse of any statement or bills too: these days, printers with duplex (double-sided) mode are readily available - and are a must in any case in terms of paper-saving. Using the available space, visible when the paper is folded, is excellent advertising "real estate".

Having decided to revamp the printing process, it's always a good idea to check paper and envelope weights. Is there extra capacity for a small leaflet within the postage charge? In which case, the invoicing print run could easily comprise additional sheets with important advertising or communications messages.

Finally, it's a good idea to make sure you have the right printer for the job.

Which printer for Transpromo Advertising print runs?

High volume printing systems suitable for printing bills and statements include the new Xerox 650/1300 Continuous Feed Printing System which uses a new toner-based printing technology to achieve mono print speeds of 650 pages per minute (or 1,308 images per minute when printing on both sides of the page). Such systems are aimed at high volume, high end users.

But at the other end of the scale, for small enterprises looking to impress their clients and enhance their customer base, many robust printers are available with black and business colour capability (for attractive presentation without mission-critical colour proofing) and full duplex (ensuring most efficient use of paper). Such printers are available with budgets of a few hundred £'s for robust regular use and fast paper output for longer print runs.