Catalog Marketing: How to Get the Most Out of Your Catalog Co-op

While working with multiple cooperative databases can help you reach new prospects you might not have found otherwise, how can you be sure you’re getting the best results from each database? Developing a close relationship with your representative at each co-op is probably the best place to start, says Gayla Kraus, vice president of sales at Harrison, N.Y.-based co-op I-Behavior. A clear understanding of each co-op’s services will allow you to make the most out of your customer file and models based on it. Following are other tips offered by Kraus:

* Keep your data up to date. Although it sounds simple, if every cataloger involved in your co-op frequently updates its housefile data, response rates would increase for all participants, Kraus says. Although updating your housefile information with the co-op may not benefit you directly, you contribute to the health and overall responsiveness of the database.

* Share as much about your business as possible. The more information you share with each co-op, the better the modeling will be. Kraus recommends keeping each co-op apprised of changing performance metrics, offer seasonality and merchandise shifts. All of this data can be used to create more accurate models.

* Take advantage of available reporting. including data audits, customer behavioral profile reports and demographic reporting. Such reports can reveal new prospect and customer models. Once a control model has been established, Kraus says, the only way to achieve incremental response increases is through additional modeling.