Ideas for Small or Start-up Catalogers (1,131 words)

Idea #7—Test, Test, Test

Testing is the lifeblood of any direct marketing operation. Make sure you've set up a program to test something in every mailing you make. Test paper, timing, number of contacts, new products, new product categories, cover concepts, repaginations, offers, page count, etc. You won't know what opportunities you're missing if you don't test. But make sure you know up-front what you're testing, what your hypothesis is, and what will happen if the test is fruitful. Don't bother testing something if you can't roll it out. Also, make sure you construct the test so you can read the results cleanly. Don't test more than one variable at a time or test something that has subjective results. For example, if you don't understand the difference between the cover concepts, cover tests can be a disaster to read. If the execution is different, such as using a lifestyle shot on the cover but using two different models, you won't know how to translate the results in the future.