Experian

Contact data quality plays an important role in the retail market as it touches every part of the business, from package delivery to decisions around new store locations. But when contact data is managed incorrectly, costs are wasted and customer relationships are damaged.

One of the fastest ways to get email recipients to open and click on messages is to send notices of abandoned carts. As Sara Ezrin, senior director of strategic services at Cheetahmail, explained to eMarketer, recipients of such messages are already thinking about the items in their cart, and that they are in the market for those products will spur them toward quick response.

Promotions are an important part of every marketer's email strategy - sales, discounts, discounts with purchases, gifts with purchases, free shipping, etc. These workhorse communications shouldn't be overlooked. They work well to motivate buyers to take actions, but they're not showstoppers. They won't make you stand out from the pack.

In the final installment of this three-part series on how multichannel merchants should adjust their marketing budgets to account for an influx of Web traffic and buyers, this week I continue with my list of online programs that make sense to invest your resources in.

With mailing costs rising and the economy slumping, will catalog co-op databases remain relevant in tomorrow’s multichannel direct-marketing environment? The pool of hot names is certainly drying up as the number of catalog mailers is thinning. Witness the passing — or likely scaled-down futures — of the Lillian Vernon, BlueSky Brands, Bloomingdale’s by Mail and The Sharper Image catalogs. Likewise, the number of co-op databases fell to seven over the past year, with American List Counsel pulling the plug on its PerformanceLink database after two years. This year’s report, with each co-op listed in alphabetical order, recaps what each of them has

PacBlue Digital Imaging, a Van-couver, British Columbia-based digital printing firm, drew more than 20,000 attendees to its recent Vancouver Sun EPIC Sustainable Living Expo. The three-day green exposition enabled consumers and merchants to come together in support of environmentally friendly products and companies. The event touted the use of waterless printing and its benefits to the environment. The process involves using heat, rather than water, to transfer ink to the substrate. A conventional press the size of the waterless press used by PacBlue Digital uses as much as 12,000 liters of water per year. In contrast, PacBlue’s waterless press eliminates 98 percent of

In its recent webinar, How Casual Male Keeps Customers Coming Back, international name and address software provider QAS, an Experian company, provided insight on how the multichannel merchant has profited from front-end address verification software and how the collection of incorrect address data can cause significant problems. Geoff McGehee, director of database marketing for the Casual Male Retail Group, reeled off several things his company has learned from acquiring customer addresses accurately and efficiently at the point of sale. Here are some of his observations. 1. Customer experience comes first. Customers want to receive the information they’ve signed up to receive, whether it be

Patient: Doctor, although I have a consumer catalog, I’ve found some business customers on my list. I’m unsure of whether or not to try to find more business customers. Is B-to-B a good growth tonic for me, or a snake-oil serum? Catalog Doctor: B-to-B can be a good segment for some consumer catalogers to try to grow, especially if you sell business-appropriate gifts or productivity products. Plus, average order values can be double that of consumers, which can help cure slow growth and profitability. To grow that B-to-B segment, however, you need different treatments than you’re used to. Here’s a nine-step prescription. 1. Hang a welcome

In addition to the nine tips on maximizing your B-to-B customers, here are a couple of others. 10. Start locally. A good way to get started building your B-to-B list is to place personal calls to local businesses. Show them your line, offer them your catalog and a few samples. For example, if you’re a food-gift cataloger, bring a couple of your best-selling products and a good-looking gift sampler to leave behind. Remember the importance of presentation! Listen more than you talk. You’ll learn about their needs, such as timing, volume, price points and the (ease of the) ordering process. Some companies start their

It’s no secret that if you use data correctly, you can add tremendous value to your company. The real key is the techniques to find and use this data to your advantage. That was the message offered during a session last week at the DMA’s List Day conference in New York. A panel — consisting of Erik Findeisen, co-founder/CEO of FC Data, a direct marketing consultancy; Janette Barret, director of marketing services and analytics for International Masters Publishers; and Hao Chen, manager of decision science at Experian Marketing Solutions — discussed ways mailers can drive up their return on investment through the use