An MHC and BlueCrest discussion examines how print and digital communications are converging, why transactional and marketing mail still matter, and what these changes mean for print and mail service providers.

Digital adoption continues to reshape customer communications, but the shift from print to digital doesn’t necessarily simplify communications operations. Organizations must adapt to changing customer preferences while keeping print operations running reliably. At the same time, they need to introduce digital delivery and connect it with existing workflows.

In its article, Digital by Default: Why Transactional Print and Marketing Mail Still Matter, MHC explores these challenges alongside an Expert Insights video, Build on What Works: Connecting Digital Communications to Proven Print and Mail.

The discussion features Sharon Malloch and Kim Cook of MHC, joined by Joe Eremita of BlueCrest. Together, they examine how Customer Communications Management (CCM) technology, print and mail infrastructure, and digital delivery capabilities are evolving to support changing business requirements.

Digital Growth Changes the Role of Print

One of the more interesting observations comes from BlueCrest’s Joe Eremita.

As simpler communications migrate to digital channels, the print workloads that remain may become more complex, requiring greater attention to composition, processing, production, and delivery.

This raises an important consideration for organizations managing transactional communications: Declining print volumes do not necessarily mean declining operational complexity.

Print still serves customers who prefer or require physical communications. Meanwhile, organizations must manage additional requirements associated with digital delivery, including accessibility, presentation, customer preferences, and integration with existing systems.

The challenge is not simply choosing between print and digital. It is managing both effectively.

Marketing Mail Presents a Different Set of Considerations

While transactional communications are often driven by account activity, regulatory requirements, and customer service obligations, marketing communications serve different business objectives.

MHC’s article also examines the continued role of marketing mail, particularly where physical communications can generate measurable customer engagement.

During the Expert Insights discussion, Eremita describes how some BlueCrest customers are seeing stronger response and conversion from selected printed marketing campaigns compared with digital alternatives. These observations reinforce the importance of evaluating communication channels based on their intended outcomes rather than assuming digital delivery is always the better option.

For marketing communications, those outcomes might include customer acquisition, campaign response, conversion, or return on investment. Transactional communications, by comparison, often prioritize accuracy, timeliness, compliance, and successful delivery.

These differences influence how organizations evaluate their communication strategies, but they do not necessarily require entirely separate operational infrastructures.

Both depend on reliable data, appropriate content, effective composition, and coordinated delivery processes. Organizations also need to understand how physical and digital communications contribute to the overall customer experience.

For print and mail service providers, supporting both transactional and marketing communications creates opportunities to help customers select appropriate channels, coordinate campaigns, and measure business results.

The Service Provider Opportunity Extends Beyond Print

The MHC and BlueCrest discussion also addresses opportunities for print and mail service providers to expand their role in customer communications.

This evolution is not new.

Looking back through the association’s educational archives, a 2020 Xplor session by Aspire CCS analyst Will Morgan, Navigating the CCM-to-CXM Evolution, described how transactional print providers, digital agencies, and systems integrators were moving toward a common market for omnichannel communications services.

Six years later, the MHC and BlueCrest discussion illustrates how these changes continue to influence the technologies, workflows, and services organizations need to support.

For print and mail service providers, this evolution presents an opportunity to expand their role in how customers create, manage, and deliver communications.

A provider that traditionally produces and mails statements might also support electronic delivery, customer communication preferences, or the workflows that coordinate both channels. Similarly, a provider supporting marketing mail might help customers integrate physical campaigns with digital engagement, manage campaign data, or evaluate response and conversion.

These capabilities can extend the provider’s involvement beyond physical production while building on existing expertise in data processing, document composition, and reliable delivery.

The opportunity is not simply to offer more delivery options. It is to understand what the communication needs to accomplish and help customers manage the processes required to deliver it effectively.

Connecting Print and Digital Requires More Than Delivery Options

Another theme in the MHC and BlueCrest discussion is the importance of connecting the processes that create, manage, and deliver communications.

Data integration, content management, document composition, workflow automation, and accessibility influence how efficiently organizations can support multiple delivery channels.

Channel selection also involves requirements that extend beyond customer preference. Depending on the communication, organizations may need to manage consent, accessibility, regulatory disclosures, delivery evidence, and exceptions when a preferred channel is unavailable. These governance requirements are longstanding elements of CCM operations, but they become more consequential as organizations add digital capabilities.

These are longstanding elements of CCM operations that become increasingly important as organizations expand their digital capabilities.

The discussion also introduces the MHC and BlueCrest partnership, which brings together MHC’s NorthStar CCM capabilities and BlueCrest’s print and mail production expertise.

While the conversation reflects the perspectives of the two technology providers, the operational considerations extend beyond their individual solutions.

Organizations must determine how existing infrastructure, new technologies, and established production processes can work together without introducing unnecessary complexity.

This includes recognizing that transactional and marketing communications may have different business requirements, stakeholders, and measures of success. The underlying technologies and workflows, however, can often support both.

Explore the MHC Discussion

The MHC and BlueCrest discussion reinforces an important consideration for customer communications professionals. The opportunity is to determine each channel’s role in the broader communications experience, then build the operational capabilities needed to manage those channels consistently.

Whether supporting transactional communications, marketing campaigns, or both, organizations need to understand each communication’s purpose and the operational capabilities required to deliver it effectively.

🔗 Read the MHC Article and Watch the Expert Discussion

CXMPA News & Insights highlights educational resources, industry developments, and professional perspectives from across the customer communications ecosystem. This feature provides independent editorial context for content originally published by MHC.