Solutions

A simple one- or two-page letter to your best customers ofering a 10- to 20-percent "thanks for your business" discount on a few popular items generates additional sales and goodwill with your best buyers. -Tony Cox, president, Catalog Solutions (www. catalogsolutions.net)

By Debra Goldstein More and more catalogers are discovering this winning method of increasing revenue. Package inserts, catalog blow-ins, ride-alongs and statement stuffers — these are just a few of the ways catalogers are generating additional revenue. By creating profit centers through various insert media, catalogers are taking advantage of the current climate in which every dollar counts. They're creating larger pools of opportunities for themselves, in addition to instituting programs that benefit their insert advertisers. The usual published rates for a cataloger's package-insert program range from $50 to $60/M, while catalog blow-ins generally are priced from $25 to $35/M. There are about

Use postcards and e-mail to promote gift certificates; you can ship them via two-day delivery for under $10. This helps last-minute shoppers get their gift delivered before Christmas without paying $15 to $25 for expedited delivery. —Tony Cox, president, Catalog Solutions (www. catalogsolutions.net)

Use postcards and e-mail to promote gift certificates; you can ship them via two-day delivery for under $10. This helps last-minute shoppers get their gift delivered before Christmas without paying $15 to $25 for expedited delivery. —Tony Cox, president, Catalog Solutions (www. catalogsolutions.net)

Don't wait until January to find out you printed more holiday catalogs than you mailed. If you do have extra catalogs, run your numbers usuing incremental costing to see if it's profitable to mail them. —Tony Cox, president, Catalog Solutions (www. catalogsolutions.net)

Don't wait until January to find out you printed more holiday catalogs than you mailed. If you do have extra catalogs, run your numbers usuing incremental costing to see if it's profitable to mail them. —Tony Cox, president, Catalog Solutions (www. catalogsolutions.net)

Use last-minute e-mails to: a) Confirm orders. Include a bounceback offer in each one; and b) Announce the last day for Christmas delivery using standard, two-day and overnight shipping options. —Tony Cox, president, Catalog Solutions (www. catalogsolutions.net)

Use last-minute e-mails to: a) Confirm orders. Include a bounceback offer in each one; and b) Announce the last day for Christmas delivery using standard, two-day and overnight shipping options. —Tony Cox, president, Catalog Solutions (www. catalogsolutions.net)

Want to raise productivity levels in your mail and call centers? Who doesn’t—especially in the wake of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) latest round of rate increases. To be sure, postal/mailing solutions encompass a vast array of products and services. Here we offer a small sampling of the numerous technology applications designed to save your company’s mail and call centers time and money. This list, while far from exhaustive, includes software that you can purchase, free applications available to customers of some outsource providers and Web-based application service providers. When known, we’ve included some cost estimates for these solutions and services.

By Gretchen Kirby Peck Advertising-insert programs: How to make them work for your catalog. Despite a rocky 2002 economy, catalogers are forging ahead, turning their attention to new manufacturing practices to support—and, in some cases, supplement—their sales efforts. Order forms aren't the only things you'll find nestled in your favorite catalog these days. Increasingly, catalogers are partnering with third-party mailers to insert advertising into catalog pages. And the ads are taking myriad forms, most commonly as blow-in and bind-in inserts. (Blow-ins are loose ad inserts, while bind-ins are inserts that are bound into the book.) For catalogers, these initiatives often