Reduce Your Direct Selling Expenses
You also can save costs on postage by using lighter-weight paper, provided your catalog mails at the pound rate. A simple change from a 34-lb, #5 basis weight to a 32-lb, #5 basis weight will save about $12,000 in postage on a mailing of 1 million 80-page catalogs.
5. Use a lower grade of paper. Changing grades can have a similar effect to that of changing the basis weight of the paper. Be careful not to go to extremes. For example, test a #5 grade against a #4 or #3 grade. Unless your offer is extremely upscale, a slight reduction in paper grade can reduce your direct selling expenses and ratio without hurting sales.
Steve Lett graduated from Indiana University in 1970 and immediately began his 50-year career in Direct Marketing; mainly catalogs.
Steve spent the first 25 years of his career in executive level positions at both consumer and business-to-business companies. The next 25 years have been with Lett Direct, Inc., the company Steve founded in early 1995. Lett Direct, Inc., is a catalog and internet consulting firm specializing in circulation planning, plan execution, analysis and digital marketing (Google Premier Partner).
Steve has served on the Ethics Committee of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and on a number of company boards, both public and private. He served on the Board of the ACMA. He has been the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies. He is the author of a book, Strategic Catalog Marketing. Steve is a past Chairman of both the Catalog Council and Business Mail Council of the DMA. He spent a few years teaching Direct Marketing at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
You can contact Steve at stevelett@lettdirect.com.
