The 50 Best Tips

✱ Four e-mail sales tactics.

1. Grab recipients’ attention and get them to open your e-mail; 2. Say it with style; give your e-mails a distinctive look and feel; 3. Mix it up by running special offers, such as sales or free shipping, using each sparingly; and 4. Experiment with animation; this captures attention and engages readers.

— Reggie Brady, Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions, E-mail Applied column, “Effective E-mails That Sell,” July, Catalog Success

✱ Entertain customers online.

Shopping in the 3.0 era will move from a solitary, utilitarian task built around convenience, to a destination activity where consumers specifically seek out sites that offer rich, entertaining and exciting experiences they can share with their friends and family.

— Joe Chung, Allurent, The Editor’s Take column, “Improve Customers’ Experience,” August, Catalog Success

✱ Don’t allow messages to be image-dependent.

Given the fact that Outlook 2007 will strip out your images if you don’t design things just right, don’t allow messages to be image-dependent. It’s a good idea to ensure you’re e-mail is intelligible even if the images don’t show up for the reader.

— Joe Dysart, freelance writer and business consultant, “Look Out! Why Outlook 2007 is a giant step backward for e-marketing,” November, Catalog Success

CO-OP DATABASES

✱ Study data from co-op databases carefully.

Novelties cataloger After 5 discovered through some of its co-ops, such as NextAction, that it was very strong in gift sales. “I never thought of us as a gift catalog, nor did I want to be, because we’d end up focused on gift-giving.” But that’s what customers dictated, which led After 5 to start a gifts-related Web site.

— Eric States, After 5/Surf to Summit, “Kayaking, Partying & Profits,” February, Catalog Success

✱ Train your reps.

Your customer service reps should know what to do to make consumers’ requests effective, whether they ask to be taken off your mailing list, be given the source of their information, not have their information shared or reduce mail in general with the DMA Mail Preference Service. When your reps tell consumers their information came from a co-op source, it’s best to name the co-op and then offer to contact it on the consumer’s behalf.