In his Catalog Spotlight column, circulation expert Jim Coogan offers a list of tips to help catalogers squeeze the most sales and profit from their circulation this holiday shopping season.
Jim Coogan
Catalog marketers are overwhelmed with data. They need to measure what’s important and keep track of the data that’s critical to the health of their catalog’s circulation, and do away with the rest. Here are tips on how to do just that:
Catalogers rely on matchbacks to compare catalogs mailed against the response rates from their various housefile and prospecting list segments. However, matchback attribution rates, which are the percentage of orders that can be allocated back to a catalog mailing, are decaying. It’s important that the attribution of orders can be as high a percentage possible.…
This year’s IRCE had everything — the big picture overview of where the industry is evolving, specific strategies and tactics for the Q4 selling season, and a wealth of marketing and operational opportunities in an exhibit hall filled with vendors detailing how their products can build your business. The big picture story from this year’s…
To compare the economics of mailing a catalog vs. mailing a postcard or direct mail piece, you need to compare the cost of mailing, the different response rates, the breakeven and the profitability of the different formats. Catalogs would cost between 50 cents and 80 cents in the mail with the cost of printing, paper,…
The postage rate changes proposed by the U.S. Postal Service on Oct. 12 are to go into effect on Jan. 22, 2017, pending approval by the Postal Regulatory Commission. The good news? This isn’t a flat-out rate hike; in fact, some catalog postage rates may actually decline. The changes include the following: Standard mail flats will…
As you’re all well aware, we’re closing in on the election of the 45th president of the United States of America. (I’ll keep my thoughts on the two candidates to myself.) And though you might not have thought to connect the two, elections impact catalogers’ circulation plans. Presidential election years cause high anxiety for catalogers.…
The Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) held in Chicago this June was a snapshot of the big trends that are driving the retail industry. How do these trends reflect the shifting landscape for internet retailers? Here are my takeaways from the event: “Retailers see double the growth in mobile share of transactions … and mobile…
Catalogers are finally seeing some cost relief with the expiration of the exigent postage increase on April 10, as well as softening paper prices. Aggressive work over the past two years by the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) in challenging the ceiling of the exigency rate before the postal regulator and in a U.S. Court…
The question is as old as the internet itself: Can’t internet marketing simply replace the expense of printed catalogs? The answer remains an emphatic no. Here are some reasons why internet markting can’t replace the expense of printed catalogs:
Here are some ways to look at your holiday catalog results to understand how your business responded to its catalog circulation: Compare your housefile and prospecting results vs. the previous year and your break-even point. Are results stronger, weaker or comparable to the 2014 holiday season? Compare your daily sales flash to the previous holiday…
Working the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) in Chicago is always a snapshot into the state of e-commerce. My first priority each year is to walk the show floor to find out what are the obvious “needle movers” that need to be part of everyone’s internet marketing plans. This year’s list of “duh, of course…
A primary question for catalogers is how deep is their prospecting universe. Catalogers need to know how deeply and frequently they can prospect above breakeven for new customers. Knowing your catalog’s profitable prospecting universe is necessary and important because the business model for catalog marketing is really pretty simple: prospect for new customers at or…
The buzz at the NEMOA directXchange Spring Conference earlier this month was a scathing critique of the cooperative databases. A lot of people were shaking their heads and asking, "Were the co-op database criticisms simply factually wrong?"
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Comments
Catalog marketing is a simple economic model: profits are maximized when you mail all circulation that exceeds your break-even point. However, knowing the incremental sales and profits that come from a catalog drop is complicated because your customers are receiving so many multichannel messages from you. Marketers are spending a lot of time and resources trying to determine how to allocate or attribute sales to the various marketing channels.
