Catalog Doctor: Rules to Live By
3. Prioritize what you test. Testing can get expensive. Catalogers have all kinds of ideas about what they would like to test, but it's not feasible to test everything. Identify which tests could have the biggest impact on your sales and profits. Rank test ideas by what looks likely to increase sales the most, reduce costs the most or contribute the most to the bottom line. Prioritize by the top ranks and forget the rest.
Susan J. McIntyre is Founder and Chief Strategist of McIntyre Direct, a catalog agency and consultancy in Portland, Oregon offering complete creative, strategic, circulation and production services since 1991. Susan's broad experience with cataloging in multi-channel environments, plus her common-sense, bottom-line approach, have won clients from Vermont Country Store to Nautilus to C.C. Filson. A three-time ECHO award winner, McIntyre has addressed marketers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has written and been quoted in publications worldwide, and is a regular columnist for Retail Online Integration magazine and ACMA. She can be reached at 503-286-1400 or susan@mcintyredirect.com.
