B-to-B Cataloging: Boost Response With Nontraditional List Selects

The companies that succeed with this type of preselection criteria tend to keep it simple, broadly defining categories and not getting too granular in their divisions.

When considering business type as a select on your housefile, however, keep in mind that these selects tend to work best for cover versioning and offers. They may not be predictive of response rates, though they can be predictive of average order values.

Other X-factors for your housefile could include product categories purchased and contacts’ job titles. Regardless of what X-factors you decide to use, here are some general principles to consider:

• Choose X-factors that are predictive of response.
• Select X-factors that are descriptive of your housefile to allow for effective cover versioning.
• Use your X-factors as an adjunct to RFM selections, not as a replacement for them. Keep it simple.

Prospecting

B-to-B catalog prospecting often requires a variety of strategies for list selection. Here are some nontraditional prospecting techniques you may not have tried recently but are worth revisiting:

• Co-op databases.
B-to-B co-ops don’t have the best reputation. But they’re now delivering some of the most consistent, solid response rates.

Response from B-to-B co-ops may not be giving the highest response rates — such as consumer catalogers can boast — but the response often offers significant roll-out potential of thosands of names. If you haven’t tried a B-to-B co-op lately, it’s time to reconsider.

If you feel that you’ll be bamboozled into giving up your unique housefile buyers, explain your concerns to your sales representative from the co-op. In the past few years, some of the B-to-B co-ops have made significant strides toward positively addressing the legitimate concerns of B-to-B list owners.

• Yellow Page listings.
Some mailers don’t realize that they rent names from the Yellow Pages. Sounds too simple, but it’s true. Rent by heading categories, which is the way you look up businesses in your local phone directory.