Contributions to Profit Think Inside the Box

By Jim Gilbert

Your most strategic asset is your outgoing product package. It's one of the customer touchpoints that can build a powerful brand identity, and be used to convert new customers into multibuyers. But I've often found this asset to be under-utilized — from not inserting any marketing collateral, to treating marketing materials placed inside as an afterthought.

People love to get the products they've purchased. It's like opening presents during the holidays. When an individual opens the box, the enclosed items are seen in a positive light — even the marketing materials. That's why most catalogers place bounceback catalogs in the box: to take advantage of the euphoria of opening a "present."

Some marketers ask why they should put the same catalog from which someone just ordered back in the person's hands. Because it works. Here's how you can use outbound packages strategically.

- Segment your offers. One company I worked with sold products for both men and women. We developed a powerful cross-selling program to take advantage of this company's appeal to both genders. The fulfillment staff inserted offers specific for each gender. We inventoried the inserts so items easily could be picked and packed. The 6-by-9-inch inserts included a coupon border order form.

Our simple cross-selling program helped increase return on investment and was extremely successful in building customer lifetime value. And we didn't stop at just one insert. While some inserts did better than others, we found there was no top end in how many inserts we could place in the box. We kept things fresh by continually testing new creative and swapping out products.

- Convert single buyers to multis. You also can segment what goes into an outbound shipping box by where a customer is in his or her lifecycle. For example, put a welcome letter and special offer in a new customer's first shipment.

- Target giftees. By including a special offer to turn this segment into customers, you can tap into new customers for almost no cost. Create a welcome offer insert or letter that reinforces your brand and entices a future purchase.

Beyond a bounceback catalog or inserts, consider adding the following in your outbound packages:

- special offers for spouses and family members, or a member-get-a-member (tell-a-friend) program to send catalogs to friends;

- product samples;

- a newsletter with background information on your company, employees and anything that will help your brand;

- mini-catalogs or sales flyers for liquidated or discontinued items;

- test products to learn about a new item's sales potential;

- a customer satisfaction survey — ask about customer service experience and how customers received the shipment (e.g., timely, damaged, right product);

- a customer demographic study — find out more about your customers, the magazines they read, catalogs they also shop from. You could uncover a magazine to advertise in or a catalog list to test.

A Box Can Make Money

Create a package insert program and allow other companies to place their inserts in your outgoing packages. If you mail a large number of packages, you potentially could offset your shipping costs this way. Tip: Find other companies with products that complement your own, and trade package insert space. This can become a new source of customers for you and doesn't carry the traditional catalog expenses.

A final word about bounceback tracking: If you insert a catalog in your fulfillment packages, add a source code or keycode to track results. Many catalogs are printed inline, where the mailing address is ink-jetted as part of the printing and binding process. Since, you don't need to put this into the mail stream, ask your printer about ink-jetting the codes in a separate process. Review your print contract for a line item on this.

What do you put inside your fulfillment package? Send me an e-mail, and I'll use your suggestions in a future article.

Jim Gilbert is president of Gilbert Direct Marketing, a catalog and direct marketing consultancy. He can be reached at (561) 302-1719 or jimdirect@aol.com.