It’s fair to say that the business model for health insurance is in the process of being completely redefined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or ACA). Health insurers can expect to spend the bulk of 2013 getting ready for the new post-ACA marketplace. How far reaching are these changes? Well, they impact critical factors like:

• Who insurers can sell to: individuals in addition to groups.
• Who insurers must sell to: no ability to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions.
• Where they sell their products: new Health Insurance Exchanges (HIE) in addition to the usual channels plus new retail branches.
• How they can sell their products: products offered through exchanges must conform to one of 5 standardized options.
• How they can price their products: they must devote 80% (in some cases 85%) of premiums to actual customer medical expenses leaving only 15% to 20% for all administration and overhead.

In addition to the changes that are mandated by the plan, there are many changes that just naturally flow from adapting to a consumer-driven market. In 2011 approximately 50 million people – or about 16% of the US population – had no health insurance coverage or eligibility for government sponsored health programs. In 2014 approximately 60% of that population is expected to purchase private health insurance coverage – that’s about 30 million new customers. In addition, another 17 million customers may come on the books as states expand Medicaid eligibility to more low-income Americans since most states contract Medicaid coverage to private insurers.

Insurers are trying to turn their marketing and sales organizations into retail operations to tap the consumer market. Like retailers, they are trying to leverage data on their customer base to drive effective marketing and communications programs. Since, other than marketing Medicare supplement programs, most insurers have had little or no consumer marketing experience they need help in this area. Compounding the problem, according to PWC, this new insurance market is made up of consumers who are likely to be less educated and many will need material in a language other than English.

Since many of these new insurance consumers have never enrolled in a health plan before, they are likely to shop for health insurance they way that they would shop for any other major purchase like a home appliance or a car – by seeking out a familiar brand. To become top of mind before these people enter the market, insurers are investing in a wide array of advertising: TV, radio, web, print and billboards to build awareness. Direct mail, email and mobile marketing will only increase as new products become available and market data is refined.

But the retail transformation goes beyond branding, insurers are opening branches where consumers can learn about insurance options and buy on the spot. In May, Horizon BCBS announced that they would be opening a new retail center in New Jersey and Blue Shield of California recently opened a “Blue Shield Store” inside of Lucky’s Supermarket in San Francisco. These are two of several retail store-fronts in 5 or 6 states with more to come in 2013.

These retail operations will naturally need to be staffed with knowledgeable people and supported with kiosks and other technology but, they will also need printed collateral, the ability to order and manage collateral across locations and the kind of seasonal and tailored signage seen in the best branch banks and retail stores.

I’ve been thinking about response rates, and you know what? I’m starting to wonder why we use them. They are in every case study. Every Webinar. Every presentation slide. Yet they don’t really tell us much of anything.

Response rates simply tell us whether the basic marketing elements of the piece are compelling enough to get people to take an initial first step. The respondent makes a phone call. They scan a QR Code. They log into a personalized URL.

If they do, great! But you can have an 80% response rate and the campaign can be a money-loser. Why? Because simply taking the initial action doesn’t necessarily translate into a purchase. If they make the call, scan the code, or log in but don’t actually make a purchase, sign up for the loyalty card, or take the other desired action, the response rate didn’t do you much good at all. That’s why we need to know conversion rates.

At the same time, you can have a high conversion rate but the campaign still loses money. Why? What is the cost to develop and execute the campaign? How much did it generate? If it costs $2.00 each to send the postcard, but each postcard only generated $1.80 in revenue, you’re going to lose money no matter how high your response rate and conversion rates are. That’s why we look at metrics like dollars per sale and ROI.

Here’s a look at some of the common metrics used in evaluating campaign success today:

• Response rate
• Conversation rate
• Cost per sale
• Revenue per sale
• Return on investment
• Lifetime customer value

There are additional metrics for online campaigns, such as open rate, click-through rate, form fill rate, and more.

Do you know which marketing metrics are most effective? Do you talk to your clients about using the right metrics to evaluate the true success of their campaigns? (For info on a brandable white paper on this topic, click here.) If not, this is a conversation you should start having . . . because knowing the response rate isn’t enough.

A recent InfoTrends study entitled The Evolution of the Cross-Media and Marketing Services Provider reveals 58% of the 280 print service providers surveyed are offering cross-media services. There’s no doubt that the cross-media market is dynamic, growth-oriented, and a major contributor to the future of the printing industry.

The marketing executive is the key decision-maker in cross-media services. These marketers are facing a number of challenges in the transition to cross-channel marketing, from strategy to design and deployment to tracking and measurement. The sheer scope of the cross-channel marketing model, and the new innovations that continue to appear, make it difficult for marketers to keep up.

The opportunity is that marketers are reaching out to their traditional print service provider and agency partners for assistance. During an October 2010 study entitled Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, InfoTrends surveyed more than 500 marketers to find out answers to questions such as: What selection criteria are essential to the marketer? How does that service provider move to the top of the list so they can participate in the more lucrative marketing value chain and the incremental digital print revenue associated with cross-media services?

You can download the full white paper for free here. (Click in the bottom, left corner). Find out the answers to what Marketers are looking for and how YOU can participate in the lucrative cross-media revenue stream!

We all know that marketing is about the strategies and tactics you use to identify and cultivate the market for your products/services. The degree of importance can vary based on the industry, but it’s hard to think of any businesses that can survive without at least thinking about how to grow demand for what they’re selling.

Firms that are successfully delivering cross-media marketing services are investing time and resources to marketing and business development. Savvy executives are pursuing radical new approaches to change up their organizations. They are getting their companies to concentrate on developing new revenue streams from new products and services, while optimizing income from existing lines through innovative marketing and the rapid exploitation of changing customer needs and tastes.

The Facts

InfoTrends just completed a study entitled The Evolution of the Cross-Media and Marketing Services Provider. The study surveyed more than 280 print service providers to understand the current state of cross-media and the evolution taking place in the graphic communications market. The first key message is that service providers as a community understand the critical importance of getting into cross-media services. Of the 285 total respondents, 58% are currently offering some level of cross-media services.

Furthermore, nearly 87% of print-for-pay respondents were either offering services today or had plans to start offering them within the next 24 months.

These print service providers understand that print is still a very relevant medium, but they have also acknowledged that the communications channel has changed dramatically and altered the role of print. In turn, print service providers must transform. Print used to be the only tool in the box, but now it’s just one of many integrated services in the marketing solutions mix. There is clearly a good understanding of the technologies available today to connect print with new media options, so printers can take advantage of all cross-media channels and help customers market smarter with relevant 1:1 content.

Getting There Takes Marketing Focus
Marketing needs to be a core concern in any business. When it comes to running a successful business, marketing is often the cornerstone for driving results. Firms that offer cross-media marketing services were more likely to cite a focus on sales, marketing, and business development when asked to describe their primary area of responsibility. The critical message is that success in cross-media requires leadership with a focus on marketing and new business development.

Want more? Visit www.OceWow.com to download the InfoTrends white paper The New Value Add Equation!

Putting the Wow in any offer requires understanding and delivering value. If you want to understand the value of TransPromo, you need to look at it from a few different perspectives:

• What does marketing (your customer) value?
• What creates value for the organization producing the document?
• What does the end-recipient of the document (your customer’s customer) value?
• If you can understand and deliver value for all three of those groups, Wow! What an offer!

TransPromo, which involves leveraging transaction data to deliver relevant, personalized customer communications, provides this opportunity. The capability to add relevant marketing content to transaction documents, such as statements, invoices, and electronic payment notifications, is tremendously valuable to marketing because it allows the marketing budget to be used more efficiently and, in many cases, more effectively. For example, TransPromo can:

• Replace direct mailings to customers by leveraging campaign content on the transaction document
• Reinforce and promote campaigns delivered via other channels (see our new ad on MTV! Visit our website for the latest discounts!
• Generate improved response rates and develop stronger customer relationships by making offers that are relevant to each reader and delivering “point-of-need” content triggered by customer data

Relevant offers have been shown to increase response rates by 300% over those that are simply personalized, according to research conducted by PODi. Similar studies conducted by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) indicated that personalization alone can boost response rates by 44% over static communications, while personalization plus color can take response rates up 135%. When campaigns are personal and relevant (defined as one-to-one content) and produced in color, response rates increased by 500% over static — meaning that relevance provides a bump of 365% over personalization and color alone. Transaction documents provide the customer data that enables relevant campaigns — and relevance delivers stronger response rates.

While TransPromo is usually positioned as a solution for the marketing folks because of its proven ability to increase response rates, decrease campaign costs and shorten campaign cycle times, it has tremendous value for print production operations as well. Print service providers and in-plant printers maximize profits by streamlining document processing to the nth degree (or to the sixth sigma if you prefer.) This means maximizing the “up time” of all equipment and simplifying warehouse operations. TransPromo enables many of these benefits in a black and white environment — and offers even more Wow when you add color. With TransPromo:

• Inserts can be turned into “onserts.” This avoids batching mail to fit selective inserter limits and can allow mail to be manifested, potentially reducing postal spend and bypassing physical presorting machines
• Inventory management of physical inserts and setup of inserts on intelligent inserting equipment can be eliminated, increasing up-time for inserters and reducing storage and handling costs
• The relevant messages will also be delivered online for your e-presentment clients (which is not usually the case with inserts)

Printers are also happy to add another profitable service area to their bag of tricks with the ability to manage and report on campaign messages. While marketing departments have many tools for managing campaigns on other channels, few have extended their technology to support TransPromo. Providing the ability for your customers to leverage their existing campaigns and digital assets on the transaction documents you produce for them has the added value of deepening ties with marketing and making your services more “sticky.”

The final bonus in the TransPromo value chain goes to the end-customer, who receives a document tailored to their requirements with valuable offers based on an understanding of their buying habits. They will also be less likely to receive additional annoying and irrelevant offers from the sender, perhaps slightly diminishing the clutter in their mailbox (or inbox). Well-executed TransPromo initiatives have been proven to improve customer loyalty and reduce customer attrition.

A solution that saves money and generates better response rates while making operations more efficient and keeping customers more satisfied? It sounds like TransPromo is a winning proposition.

Visit OceWowFactor to download the InfoTrends white paper entitled Electronic Use of Transaction Data, a Catalyst for TransPromo Across ALL Chanels.

Barb Pellow posted an interesting article (free access) on WhatTheyThink last week that provides insight into marketing trends related to metrics and measurement. She highlights several case examples of companies that are integrating print into campaigns that include additional, digital channels. This multi-channel convergence is an important topic for our industry and this article helps to put the issues into perspective.

In addition, Barb points us to the Marketing Outlook 2010 from the CMO Council. I reviewed the executive summary (available for FREE) and found a few very useful insights. I then decided to purchase the full report.

Much of the report confirms Barb’s assertion about the importance of metrics and measurement. It also points to some key trends that impact agencies. Finally, the report supports the position that print service providers are, or should be, transforming into marketing services providers. Key points include:

1. Agencies are struggling to evolve as marketing and traditional media go digital in all areas of campaign execution and audience activation;
2. There is a power shift from master agency control of accounts to control by a more digitally empowered client wielding new partner and provider connections and resources;
3. The agency model is also threatened by new service providers such as IT integrators, consultants, and offshore business process outsourcing firms providing marketing data integration, customer analytics, predictive modeling, and performance measurement.

The study indicates that senior marketers expect to recruit more data analytics, strategic planning, interactive design, online advertising, and digital marketing competencies in house as well. There are changes coming in the way that companies conduct and measure multi-channel campaigns. You may find the full study worth the investment of $200 – I certainly did.

Digital print applications and the postal stream are not always the best friends. The wear and tear that automated handling system used by the USPS can turn a eye catching personalized mail piece into scratched and marred piece of junk mail destined for the recycling bin.

A few years ago I attended a conference in which members of the postal service were asked to provide insight into how printers could work around the core causes of machine caused wear and tear. The major take away from the talk was that lack of handling system standardization (E.g the post office in Minneapolis might have different equipment then the post office in Atlanta) it was hard to provide a concise set of best practice for designing print applications around handling systems.

A new white paper from the Digital Printing Council at PIA/GATF aims to provide some insight into what happens when digital print applications are mailed. In Digital Printing and Survivability in the U.S. Postal System researchers at PIA/GATF came up with a basic test to analyze the issue:

The basic methodology for the study was determined: design a postcard, print it on various digital presses (with no coating) on 10pt C1S paper, then mail it from four different points of origin to PIA/GATF headquarters. Additionally, a postcard was also produced via offset lithography for control and comparison purposes. The full white paper details the results of this study.

To find out more about the study or request a copy, visit New DPC White Paper – Digital Printing and Survivability in the U.S. Postal System

Have you done your own research into digital print applications and the postal stream? What tips and ticks do you use in the design and production of mail pieces so they get to the recipient without unsightly blemishes?