Microsoft Corp.

In a session at the Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants earlier this month in New Orleans, Kevin Lee, chairman and CEO of the search engine marketing firm Didit, and Amy Wong, e-commerce marketing manager at the women's apparel retailer New York & Co., presented several takeaway tips to help companies optimize their search marketing dollars across all channels.

Do you find the same words cropping up repeatedly in your catalog copy? Words like "great," "perfect," "designed," "style" and "provide?" If so, then one of the hazards you face is that your copy soon becomes predictable and can quickly lose consumer interest.

The marketing manager was suspicious. The pay-per-click Web campaign results looked too good. A matchback revealed that 40 percent of the campaign’s customers, representing 60 percent of its sales, had actually received a catalog before placing their orders. Scary, isn’t it? That’s just one reason why order tracking still matters. Here’s another: The chart accompanying this article is a real — and typical — example of key code capture rates. This unnamed cataloger captured key codes for 46 percent of its orders that represented 62 percent of its sales. Untracked data represented 54 percent of its orders and 38 percent of its sales. The

By George Hague Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on analytics and measurement. The first article appeared in Catalog Success, May 2006, pg. 91, and covered circulation essentials. Part II covers merchandise analytics. Regardless of what you sell, your merchandise is the reason people purchase from your catalog. Appealing product can give your catalog a 20 percent to 30 percent lift in sales with no additional marketing expenses. Since merchandise is the driving force behind your catalog's success, product development and selection should receive the most attention in terms of strategic planning and analysis. The state-of-the-art tool for merchandise analysis

By Matt Griffin, Alan Rimm-Kaufman and Joe Dysart There's never a lack of new ideas in online selling. The trick is finding those approaches that work for your business and implementing them properly. Everyone's looking for the next big thing in online marketing — namely, a tactic that will allow marketers to connect with their online customers in hitherto unparalleled ways. And while you're searching for that singular method to drive customers straight to your checkout page, this special report is designed to expose you to a few tactics you may not have considered. Or, if you've considered some or all of these ideas,

Ten days before Sept. 11, Jason Beck, a former hand-to-hand combat instructor for the Marine Corps, invested $100,000 and launched Diamondback Tactical, a direct marketing company selling special operations and tactical law enforcement equipment. In just four years the company has grown into a $34 million a year business selling tactical gear and supplies to the U.S. military and homeland security forces at the state and federal level. But even before Sept. 11, Beck was noticing a shift in military procurement. World events were leading many officers to specify more gear and accessories for Special Operations stationed in the United States and abroad.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. As you read this, hackers are scanning your servers for open ports. Or perhaps at this moment a hacker is pasting odd strings into your catalog request form to steal credit card numbers. Worse yet: Your machines might already be compromised — and you don’t even know it. Yes, my intent is to scare. And yes, I sound paranoid. But I’m actually not. As one security expert told me with no trace of humor, “It’s not paranoia when they really are trying to get you.” As a multichannel merchant, your days should be spent worrying about merchandise, customer

By Noelle Buoncristiano Four tactics for multichannel success. Today's multichannel merchants continually are searching for viable channel-integration solutions — a seamless blend across the key points of customer interaction, including catalogs, Web sites, retail stores and kiosks. "Providing seamless integration communicates a consistent message to consumers and results in higher transaction values," note the authors of the LakeWest Group's Fifth Annual POS Benchmarking Survey 2004. But as most catalogers will tell you, achieving that seamless blend across all sales channels is more difficult than it appears to be. Following are a few tactics that can help you make the most

When designing your Web site, you can make a significant impression by deftly using graphics and color. Authoring programs such as Microsoft Front Page come with a number of themed corporate page sets that can help. If you're more courageous and plan on doing your own coloring, pick colors that make sense and don't offend. Companies designing sites for an international audience especially must remember that colors, symbols and other graphic nuances have different meanings in different cultures, says Paul Fox, vice president of engineering at Excel Translations (www.xltrans.com), a business that specializes in Web-site localization. Once you've leapt the cultural

By Joe Dysart Seasoned etailers realize a Web site is more than just a "billboard in cyberspace." They know the best sites create inviting, easy-to-use environments. Indeed, they're interactive tools where prospects and customers can learn about a company and buy products. To be sure, a Web site is not a technological homage to yourself, your company or a Web designer. That said, however, showy, forever-to-download sites that are cool but little more than impediments to e-commerce are all too common on the Web. Indeed, the Webscape is littered with them. This article will explore how to avoid adding yours to the heap