Managing Your Company’s Housefile
The “house file” is the most valuable asset of any mail-order catalog company. It is a file containing the names of all previous mail-order buyers—that is, people who have actually made a purchase from your catalog. In maintaining your database, it is important to separate previous buyers from general inquiries, as each group requires a very different mailing strategy. It is also necessary to make a clear distinction between a buyer and a customer. I prefer to think of a buyer as a person who has made only one purchase and a customer as a person who has made repeat purchases. Obviously, customers must first start out as buyers! However, since profits are only made after a buyer has made at least two purchases, your company’s focus should clearly be on converting buyers into customers. Let’s discuss how to manage and get the most out of your house file.
- Companies:
- Lett Direct Inc.
Steve Lett graduated from Indiana University in 1970 and immediately began his 50-year career in Direct Marketing; mainly catalogs.
Steve spent the first 25 years of his career in executive level positions at both consumer and business-to-business companies. The next 25 years have been with Lett Direct, Inc., the company Steve founded in early 1995. Lett Direct, Inc., is a catalog and internet consulting firm specializing in circulation planning, plan execution, analysis and digital marketing (Google Premier Partner).
Steve has served on the Ethics Committee of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and on a number of company boards, both public and private. He served on the Board of the ACMA. He has been the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies. He is the author of a book, Strategic Catalog Marketing. Steve is a past Chairman of both the Catalog Council and Business Mail Council of the DMA. He spent a few years teaching Direct Marketing at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
You can contact Steve at stevelett@lettdirect.com.
