Database Marketing

Do you want to create a reporting system that quantifies your catalog company’s successful interaction between customers and employees? Start with the five R’s: Retention analysis. Review both employees and customers. Companies with long-term employees can offer better service to customers than those with high staff turnover rates. Losing employees due to low wages and/or high stress is counter-productive when you look at the costs associated with recruiting and training quality employees. If you have a challenge retaining quality people, reallocate funds to improve existing employees’ wages. Becoming an employer of choice will improve your retention rates significantly and will reduce costs. To retain

Multichannel marketers’ customer files change rapidly with new information being contributed on a daily basis from stores, catalogs and the Web. Even with the most strenuous efforts in place to qualify new-to-file transactions, your customer file no doubt continues to accumulate disparate and seemingly un-related transactions. These dynamic factors make it difficult to correctly identify and value each customer with traditional identity consolidation processes. Most merge/purge processes were developed more than 20 years ago and were never conceived to recognize the fluidity of movement, name change and channels in which customers interact today. Even the most advanced de-duplication processes use character-based logic and look-up tables

Rising costs, changing customer demographics and the privacy paradox will continue to impact merchants in the years ahead, said Chris McDonald, executive vice president and general manager, North America, at marketing solutions company Abacus. He offered tactics to help alleviate the impact of these trends on your business. 1. Rising cost structures and low inflation will continue to put pressure on merchants. Energy, healthcare, postage, paper, fuel -- all are adding to your costs, McDonald said during his talk “Charting an Upstream Course” at the New England Mail Order Association’s fall conference, held in Groton, Conn., last week. Compounding these cost increases, consumer discretionary income

Looking for industry groups that are most likely to buy your products? Following are the results of an Abacus Alliance study of b-to-b purchases in 2004: ¥ Electronics, gadgets and tools are five times more likely to be bought by officials in heavy industries. ¥ Seminars and training classes are five times more likely to be booked by government agents. ¥ Books, newsletters and magazines are 18 times more likely to be purchased by those in the healthcare industry. ¥ Cards and stationary are more likely to bought by executives in finance/insurance and healthcare. ¥ And computers are more likely to be purchased by

Buying data to append to your housefile can seem like a risk. How can you be sure that your investment will pay off? And perhaps more importantly, how can you be sure you’re not squandering your IT department’s limited time in uploading the appended data? Your answers to these questions will depend on how you plan to use the data you buy. Some data purchases, such as National Change of Address, have a clear and measurable return on investment (ROI). You can directly account for the expense of the data purchase and upload, then compare that expense to the new or additional revenue

Since the founding of cooperative database Abacus by Tony White in 1990, consumer prospecting has changed considerably. While results may have fallen off (mailing the same names too often), co-ops remain an important source of prospect names for catalogers. When deciding whether to participate in a co-op, know that at least 95 percent of your customers already reside in one of the myriad co-op database files. What’s more, buyers on your housefile who haven’t made a purchase from another catalog aren’t retained by the co-op. (These are your unique buyers, and they’re not used for modeling or rental by the co-op.) This

The key to successful analysis is to define everything that counts and measure it if possible. When information is available and the importance is questionable, ask these questions: * How can the information be utilized to improve sales, service or profitability? If the information can be leveraged into increased revenue or customer satisfaction, it should be measured and utilized. * Does the information measure performance of new systems, procedures or processes? The implementation of these items often requires new measures. * Is the information recognized as an industry benchmark? Every company should define their own standards, but reviewing industry benchmark comparisons (if applicable) provides a point of

If sales are dipping and your internal expenses are based on a plan you aren’t meeting, you need to get back on track. The questions to ask yourself: How do you react to less-than-desirable sales results? And how soon should you take action? While there may not be quick fixes, I’ve identified some strategies that can help you avoid a disastrous year. This month I’ll discuss generating additional demand revenue — not cutting expenses. It’s difficult to slash your way into profitability, and the long-term effect of that type of quick-fix can be devastating to business. Following are 12 ideas to take for

Cataloging usually is a predictable world. We track everything, study it, place data in spreadsheets and end up knowing pretty well in advance how things will work out. In fact, if businesses had human personalities, cataloging would be your Aunt Matilda and Uncle Gus: safe, predictable, no surprises. But then there comes a day when Uncle Gus calls to say he has flown to Rio with his secretary, and Aunt Matilda has joined the circus. What do you do when the predictable becomes, well, unpredictable? The Mystery of the Rotten Rollout After several years of slow growth, the mid-sized niche cataloger decided he needed

By what level you can grow your business is dependent on the increase in your 12-month buyer file, as you can see in this issue’s list of the Top 200 catalogers. If your housefile is growing, your revenue likely will increase, and vice versa. No doubt you pay a lot of attention to your catalog’s daily and/or weekly demand report. Is it up from last year? How does it look against budget? But you probably don’t pay enough attention to the increase/decrease in your 12-month housefile. This month I’ll examine why this file is critical to your growth rate. And I’ll offer strategies