INTERVIEW

As a B2B company that educates other companies about the implementation of cross-media digital campaigns, Xerox knows it is important to use these services in order to sell them to others. Vice President of Graphic Communications Gina Testa explains that their transpromotional nature is part of the reason for their expertise in this area.

While Xerox provides document services, they also provide IT and e-services, hardware and software for the graphic communications space, and education to help clients provide these services to their own customers. Not long ago, they acquired a software company called XMPie, which creates cross-media marketing campaigns and has grown Xerox’s expertise in this area.

“We utilize a combination of print, e-media, pearls, email blasts, etc. in our own marketing efforts and are able to help our clients do the same,” she says. “We don’t have everything, but the bottom line is we are working to enable direct marketing campaigns that are cross-media. Everyone is talking about how to integrate multiple channels—especially combining print with digital—so there isn’t a conversation where digital isn’t part of the mix.”

Rather than relying on their internal IT department to build digital campaigns, Testa says Xerox works with an outsourced company to manage the customer database and build the infrastructure. They conduct testing and primary research, in addition to purchasing secondary research, to ensure they are utilizing the appropriate channels for the customer base they are targeting.

“We do comprehensive A/B testing with some of our clients and their end users to prove the viability and ROI that you would get by using a true cross-media campaign with digital components versus a control group that utilizes the methods they traditionally use,” Testa says. “We are then able to show clients the difference, which causes them to change their approach and engage in some of these newer methods.”

Sales and marketing functions go hand-in-hand, as Xerox leverages revenue and response metrics, as well as online customer and e-commerce data in partnership with telemarketing centers. These data help the company determine the best way to target offers to particular sectors.

“We have a product spectrum that ranges from $200 to $2 million, so we have to vary our techniques based on where we are within that spectrum,” she says. “The fact that we’re able to use these modern multimedia techniques and then sell them to our customers puts us in a unique position. We’re probably more advanced in our adoption and knowledge of these solutions than the average Fortune 500 or 1,000 company.”