Catalog Doctor: The Amazing, Portable, Low-Cost, Handheld Device for Delivering Sales

PATIENT: "Doc, I'm discouraged. All I hear is that online is where the sales are and I gotta pour more money into my web channels. That means I need to cut back on my catalog program, probably big time. What should I do?"

CATALOG DOCTOR: "What if I could prescribe a versatile, portable, handheld device for delivering sales that you can buy in volume and that costs less than $1?"

PATIENT: "Wow! To replace my catalog?"

CATALOG DOCTOR: "No. The device I'm referring to is your catalog."

Your catalog is one of the best devices available for delivering sales and return on investment — by phone, mail and online. Here are some of the ways it delivers:

Catalogs Can Beat PPC for Prospecting
Really? Yes. Pay per click (PPC) was once magical for prospecting, just like list co-ops originally were. Now, however, each is simply another tool in the prospecting toolbox. One catalog brand I know did careful testing: If it mails 50,000 catalogs, prospecting via PPC is cheaper. However, if it mails 250,000 or more catalogs, its per unit print and postage costs are driven down enough that the prospecting cost per new order is cheaper with a catalog than it is with PPC. With this knowledge, the company has set limits on its PPC budget, including when to prospect with PPC and when to prospect via catalog. Its total prospecting budget now minimizes cost while maximizing return on investment and conversion of new buyers to its file.

Calculate your own cost per order (i.e., the cost to acquire a new customer) for PPC and catalog to see if you can improve your prospecting results and ROI by strategically increasing your catalog prospect mailings.

Catalogs Are Really Good at Increasing Web Sales
An informal poll I conducted of B-to-C and B-to-B catalogers revealed that they consider their catalog to be their No. 1 tool for increasing web sales. In fact, the majority of them have increased their catalog circulation (yes, even in this economy) for that reason. The degree to which catalogs drive web sales correlates directly to how easy and pleasant it is to order from your website. If online ordering is clear, fast, easy and pleasant, more of your sales will occur online. If your website is difficult to navigate and use but your call center offers a fast, easy and pleasant experience, then more of your sales will come via the phone. (If both are bad, overall sales decrease.) In all cases it's the catalog that's delivering the majority of online sales.
If you want to test this premise, consider a mail/holdout test. This is where a portion of your list is held out from receiving catalogs to compare against a control segment that receives catalogs. Mail/holdout tests are used to determine how well all other (i.e., noncatalog) marketing initiatives are driving sales without the help of a catalog. I've reviewed such tests and the control group consistently outperforms the holdout group — and usually by a lot. The control group wins on both sales and ROI. This isn't to say you should drop your other marketing channels; it's telling you that your channels are synergistic.

Keep your eye out for trends in behavior when determining your catalog circulation strategy. For example, customers who first came to your brand via an online channel and purchased via the web can actually perform better when mailed fewer catalogs.

Catalogs Communicate Your Brand Better
A catalog offers a larger canvas on which to meld your brand message, products, offers, support editorial, testimonials, etc. You can have all of this on a two-page spread with no clicking, no decision tree, then do it all over again on the next spread in an entirely different, fun, creative way. And what if you want consumers to read your guarantee, your mission statement, your history or your made-in-the-USA story? Many folks looking at your catalog cover will turn inside to see your branding story on pages two and three, but few people on your homepage will click on a link to the same story. Your brand can come across both better and more pervasively in your catalog, helping increase brand interest and long-term brand loyalty.

Catalogs Have a Longer Shelf Life
A catalog can keep delivering sales over a longer period of time than other sales channels. Let's say you're mailing a catalog every three weeks. You'll continue to get sales from each catalog for six weeks to eight weeks or more before the sales taper significantly. A catalog is one ad that keeps on giving.

Catalogs Can Sell More Effectively
It's easier to display products in a catalog in ways that get consumers thinking about how your products can improve their lives. Most e-commerce websites' product pages are fairly structured, with each product having a main view, alternate views (that need to be clicked on), details (the copy also needs to be clicked on) and customer reviews (another tab to click on). Consider a catalog page. It's unstructured. You can have a giant headline if you want; a photo that shows an entire room setting; five mix-and-match pieces of apparel in every combination; a testimonial with giant quote marks; a big red circle that says "Save 25% when you buy the set"; a sidebar telling a "made from recycled tires" story. The possibilities are endless, and you can have it all in a beautiful, eye-catching design. Your catalog page can drag the viewer in to the point that their mouth waters, making placing an order unresistable. It's easier to captivate a consumer with your catalog.

Catalogs Deliver Less Clutter
We've become so ingrained with the phrase "mailbox clutter" that we've lost sight of how much the landscape has changed over the past few years. The U.S. Postal Service's mail volumes are down — rather drastically. Mailboxes are less cluttered than they've been in years. Your catalog is more likely to stand out and be read by recipients. The real clutter nowadays is online. Users are constantly inundated with a stream of emails, by ads that pop up again and again as cookies track users throughout the web, by animated nonsense that distracts and annoys, by websites that are so busy and cluttered that they're confusing and hard to navigate. Today's online environment is a torrential downpour of clutter.

In contrast, a catalog can feel like a peaceful haven, a quiet world of aspirational products that you can curl up with, dream about … and buy.

Susan J. McIntyre is the founder and chief strategist of McIntyre Direct, a full-service catalog marketing agency and consulting firm. Susan can be reached at susan@mcintyredirect.com.