Omnichannel

It’s September, and as a cataloger and e-marketer, you know what that means — the all-important holiday selling season is just around the corner. In this issue we offer several strategies that may help boost your sales during the fourth quarter. Consultant Alan Rimm-Kaufman offers practical tips for testing offers in your online sales channel, including keeping test notebooks, checking one variable at a time and assigning unique tracking codes. See his “E-commerce Insights” column. And if you’re thinking about prospecting via insert media programs, don’t miss Associate Editor Matt Griffin’s feature “Do’s and Don’ts to Help Boost Response.” In the article,

While a glowing customer testimonial might not have the power to make or break your catalog or Web site, it certainly can help tip the scales in your favor to convert a few more browsers to buyers. In particular, says Lea Pierce, a consultant and freelance copywriter in Santa Rosa, Calif., and former creative director with catalog and online marketer Windsor Vineyards, many direct marketers find that testimonials influence sales of highly priced products (say, a $1,000 wine cellar). Pierce offers the following advice for collecting testimonials that pack enough punch to boost your sales numbers: 1. Don’t ask for testimonials, ask your customers what they

Many catalogers have evolved during the past decade from dedicated print catalogers to multichannel marketers. In expanding into other sales channels, most catalogers wisely have brought along e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail specialists to run the additional channels. But if your own efforts at multichannel marketing have been less than stellar, following are some success strategies that may prove useful. Multichannel Rules Virtually every study that looks at consumers who shop via more than one channel shows that multichannel shoppers spend more. For instance, a recently completed Shop.org survey found: - the average retail customer spent $1,267 per year in stores; - customers

Fruitcake, while a much-maligned holiday gift-giving tradition, nonetheless comprises a serious mail-order business in Corsicana, Texas. Fifty miles south of Dallas along Interstate 45 stands the home of the DeLuxe fruitcake and Cryer Creek Kitchens catalog, a wholly owned subsidiary of world-renowned Collin Street Bakery. In recent years, Cryer Creek Kitchens has taken great strides in testing new concepts that have, in turn, fed the parent company’s appetite for sustained growth. Here’s what actions the food cataloger has taken, some of its results and lessons learned along the way. Birth of a Catalog The food-by-mail industry, and Collin Street Bakery with it, enjoyed

Seventy-five percent of consumers believe they have lost all control over how personal information is collected and used by companies, according to a recent Privacy& American Business survey, said James Koenig, co-leader of privacy practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers, in his session”Marketing in a Privacy-Sensitive World” at Direct Marketing Days New York held last month. Following are a few tips Koenig offered to manage internal communication to better protect your customers’ data: * Implement a marketing oversight management process. “All marketing programs and campaigns should be reviewed quarterly,” said Koenig. Representatives from each distribution channel should be included. The process should be used as a tool to reinforce

“Letting the customer choose how to interact with your company is critical, but interactions across channels must be as seamless as possible,” said Steve Trollinger, senior vice president of client marketing for catalog consultancy J. Schmid& Associates, at his session “7 Ways to Increase Customer Value Today and Tomorrow” at the Annual Catalog Conference held in May in Orlando, Fla. Following are some tips Trollinger offered to make the multichannel experience easier on customers: * Use common branding cues. Your Web site should look like the catalog or retail store that spawned it, said Trollinger. * Make products easy to find. Include a catalog”quick buy” feature

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

Opt-in e-mail campaigns continue to be a cost-effective way to generate sales and traffic to your Web site. If you execute your own campaigns in-house, the cost practically is zero. Even if you use an outside e-mail marketing firm, the cost to send each e-mail is miniscule compared to the cost of a mailed, printed piece. However, as consumers get more and more frustrated with inbox clutter and shady offers, it’s even more important that you ensure your offers are effective and provide value and/or interest to your customers or prospects. Otherwise, the cost to you may not be in simply executing the

“Although less than 40 percent of catalog companies conduct a lifetime-value analysis of their customers, it can be a powerful tool in new customer acquisition efforts,” said Steve Trollinger, senior vice president of client marketing for catalog consultancy J. Schmid& Associates at his session “Seven Ways to Increase Customer Value Today and Tomorrow” at the Annual Catalog Conference held last month in Orlando, Fla. In that session, Trollinger offered the following tips: ¥ Don’t just focus on initial acquisition costs. It’s tempting to try to make your money back on prospects as quickly as you can, but it’s also possible that a higher acquisition cost

What key performance indicators (KPIs) are critical to a catalog business? What can you learn from tracking them? And how can you make changes and implement improvements based on your results? In this article you’ll learn about 10 KPIs that are critical to any catalog business. KPIs vary by catalog, as each has specific objectives and needs. You may have a KPI of, for example, the gross margin ratio, contribution ratio or net income — whichever best reflect your company’s goals. When selecting KPIs, choose ones that are quantifiable and therefore can be tracked. For example, a KPI to improve customer service can’t be