Special Report Lists

Tip #5: Analyze lists using your own criteria. As Trollinger explains, when catalogers mail outside lists, the tendency is to focus on the better selects to get better buyers. That certainly is logical.

But, he notes, "It also creates a problem where everyone is essentially mailing to the same core buyers." Therefore, when you're talking about list fatigue and smaller catalog list universes, he thinks each catalog marketer should look at its numbers individually. "What's happening to your results? Is it simply that response rates are falling off? Or is it that dollars per book and average order values are down? Or, are you looking at contribution per order, which is after you take out your advertising costs?"