Today, publishers of all types are finding that significant sales opportunities exist within everyday customer interactions. That’s because the primary sales challenge has already been addressed: The customer decision-maker is front and center to receive any message the publisher wants to deliver. Your opportunities to receive rewards from customers in the form of more business lie in your ability to contribute to their success.

We all know that it’s infinitely cheaper and more profitable to sell to existing customers than to go out and find new customers to generate additional revenue. In fact, it’s widely understood throughout many businesses that existing customers are the perfect means by which to increase revenues by as much as 20 percent. Good news! These additional dollars are significant and often easier to capture than one might think.

Leverage existing relationships

How can a company make the most of interactions with existing customers to sell more? By leveraging existing relationships with existing customers. One method for generating these new sales, which has tremendous merit, is to capitalize on selling to customers through points of contact that are necessary in the execution of everyday business. Think about every touch point that you engage in with your customers post sale — that’s right, after the sale. Now, start exploring ways to convert these everyday exchanges into profit centers — even those that are currently cost centers. What post sale points currently exist where you can embed a sales offer?

Untapped selling opportunities

Within the newspaper industry, one less-obvious touch point is during the advertising proof approval process. Advertisers are already reviewing proofs on a daily basis; at the conclusion of that process is the perfect time to present them with a reward or exclusive offer in appreciation of their approvals. With their minds focused on what you can do for them with the current ad buy, advertisers tend to be receptive to ideas that help them grow their business. This is especially true in the case of contracted advertising, which may be weeks or months into the contract run.

The typical offer is usually a complimentary advertising product such as an insert, participation in a special section like a Home and Garden or Auto section or the addition of an online version of their ad to the newspaper’s Web site. Combining these offers with the ad proofing process makes sense.

With Internet technologies available today, a simple way to execute this up-sell or cross-sell is to use an online proofing application that has these marketing functionalities built in. When directed to the Internet to log in and approve their current ad, advertisers are dropped to an offer as a reward for completing the online proofing process.

Let’s look at the numbers. If a newspaper posts 2,500 proofs per month for select advertising customers, and presents those customers with an offer priced at $300, a 5 percent acceptance of the offer translates into $450,000 in additional annual revenue (125 proofs x $300 x 12).

Not only does the added revenue come with nominal costs, but also with nominal effort because you already have the attention of a decision maker; you are simply leveraging that existing customer interaction — a touch point.

Relevance matters

Your advertisers, like all consumers, are likely inundated with marketing messages. In addition, they’re strapped for time and they only want information they consider relevant. And although the “where” of the offer is important, the quality of the offer is also critical. Meaningful context is something you can provide — a valuable message at the right time, to the right audience.

This form of selling and marketing is typically called transactional promotional marketing, a.k.a TransPromo.

TransPromo is based not only on existing relationships and transactions but also on the knowledge of customers’ specific needs and objectives. TransPromo provides you with the opportunity to deliver messages based your customers’ needs in a way that builds trust and loyalty.

Traditional TransPromo marketing was typically a message layered onto or within an invoice or receipt statement. Humana, a health benefits company, took that a step beyond and today uses TransPromo marketing to create a personalized health finance and benefit statement for its members. By embedding TransPromo messages, Humana has reported results that include a 52 percent increase in product membership, a 50 percent increase in coupon redemption and a 17 percent increase in loyalty and retention.

Less obvious areas

While it’s true that TransPromo marketing isn’t new, adding TransPromo in less obvious touch points, such as the proof approval process, is new and holds tremendous potential.

You know your advertisers. You know what they sell and whom they want to target, and you have programs designed to effectively reach their audience — often times uniquely created for each specific advertiser. While uncovering the touch points in which to insert your offers, think of ones that are especially relevant to each particular advertiser. Remember, technologies can help. By flagging your advertisers to receive relevant promotions by category, your messages reach decision makers that value the offering much more than general messaging.

For instance, look back at the online proofing example. A real estate company offered an opportunity to participate in a special homes showcase publication will likely respond more positively if it sees a relevant offer during the ad proofing process.

A word of caution

Today’s buyers are sophisticated. They recognize when they’re being sold and their antennas go up. They’re cautious and sometimes reluctant to bite on TransPromo offers. Overcome this type of reluctance with offers that are so compelling and so enticing they are impossible to pass up.

Making them exclusive to the TransPromo delivery medium helps too. Deborah Smiddy, corporate advertising director for  E.W. Scripps, put it this way, “Our advertising customers must see TransPromo opportunities as so enticing, so tremendously valuable, that they jump on them without hesitation.”

Exclusive offers

Smiddy explained that the company intends to make these offers exclusive to the specific touch point so customers look forward to seeing special TransPromo offers they won’t see elsewhere. Scripps sees tremendous value and opportunities for growth by leveraging existing customer interactions.

“It really comes off as our sincere interest in helping our advertisers, which is what we are all about,” Smiddy said.

Adding TransPromo

You’ll find that by leveraging existing touch points, you’ll uncover hidden opportunities to better serve your advertisers and to capture that additional 20 percent that will significantly impact your bottom line. Here are five suggestions to explore:

1. Examine your processes and identify existing touch points with your advertisers. List them all.

2. Start with the one touch point that you feel would have the most impact and would be the easiest to implement. Remember, technology can be your tool.

3. Generate an offer that has the most relevance to your advertisers and that caters to their specific needs.

4. Determine how to deliver the message — the vehicle and implementation.

5. Go for it.