Managing Your Company’s Housefile
5. Special letter and coupon to first-time buyers. Send your new buyers a special letter, signed by the president of your company and on company letterhead, immediately after they receive their initial orders. This letter should thank them for their order and offer an incentive to buy again.
A well-maintained and current house file is key to a successful mail order catalog company, and an RFM circulation analysis can be extremely effective in determining how to maximize profits and minimize direct-selling expenses. Because mail-order companies rely so heavily on their house file, it is imperative to maximize the purchasing activity of customers already in your house file and to convert first-time buyers into established customers. To this end, you should incorporate programs that will offer incentives to new buyers to continue to do business with you, and provide financial incentives that will encou-rage the loyalty of ongoing customers. A heal-thy, active, satisfied customer database will go a long way toward maximizing customer relations and company profit.
- Companies:
- Lett Direct Inc.
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.
