Omnichannel

In this, our fifth Catalog Success Latest Trends Report, we’ve come full circle. We’re celebrating the first anniversary of our groundbreaking quarterly surveys of your industry. Unlike the previous surveys, which focused on key multichannel issues, management and creative, this go-round returns to the focus of last October’s survey: mailing and marketing practices. And that gives you the opportunity to compare results from last October’s survey to see how your strategies have changed over the past 12 months. Simply look for the percentages in parenthesis that follow each result. As with our previous surveys, this is a joint venture with the La Crosse, Wis.-based

Quarterly Catalog Success Latest Trends Report on Mailing and Marketing Practices (November 2008)

Many retailers are adept at simultaneously handling sales through their catalogs and e-commerce sites. Cross-promoting catalogs and Web sites, however, can be more challenging. In addition to prominently placing Web addresses in their catalogs, retailers can engage in several methods to create a successful multichannel marketing program that continuously attracts and retains customers through their preferred methods of shopping. The following are four tips to help ensure successful promotions between catalogs and e-commerce sites. 1. Plan ahead. Catalogers know well in advance which promotions they’ll place in their print books. By coupling those with an online component, they’ll give customers another reason to visit

Editor’s Note: This is the third of a three-part series on becoming more adept and adapting to the multichannel world. Parts one and two appeared in our February and June issues. Smart multichannel merchants let customers decide how to order. You can visit a J.Crew store and order a pair of jeans via its in-store Web kiosk while talking to a service rep on the phone. What generated the order? In this case, it was a mailed catalog. Which channel gets the credit? That gets a bit complicated. Our first installment of this multichannel mastery article series detailed the key issues you should focus

Audio: A Chat With September’s Profile, Scott Drayer, director of marketing, Paul Fredrick MenStyle

PATIENT: Doc, I’m a longtime catalog marketing pro running a multichannel business. But between the down economy and the expanding Web, I’m depressed and confused about how to get my business back on track. With all of today’s changes, are there any prescriptions you can give me? CATALOG DOCTOR: You’re suffering from a recent affliction called Lost-Boom Syndrome, or LBS. It’s been sweeping multichannel businesses since this economic malaise set in, creating anxiety and despair. LBS exhibits multiple symptoms, requiring a multiple therapy approach. Let’s look at each symptom and its therapy. Symptom 1: Sloppy Marketing The most recent economic boom allowed

Matchbacks are a way of life for catalogers today. This process of having your order file “matched back” against your recent mail tapes to give credit to the proper source or key code on a list-by-list, segment-by-segment basis has become fairly routine. They’re the only way to tell where customers are coming from and which source key codes should be given credit for the sale. Without matchbacks, it’s not uncommon to trace only 30 percent to 40 percent of your orders to a specific key code. But the matchback process is hardly a perfect science. There are issues with date ranges, the logic

Copywriting is often treated like “copy on the go.” That is, it’s treated more like picking up fast food than relaxing over a well-balanced meal. But when you drag copy to a Web site from the original catalog, or use it almost verbatim in an e-mail, there’s bound to be something missing — including lost sales. Consider writing to “fit” the media. The very aspects that make each different selling channel so vital provide clues for writing more powerful copy. The Similarities Regardless of the media, the name of the game is selling. Keep your voice consistent for all media, and remember the

In 88 years in business, Hodges Badge Co. has never had an unprofitable year. But in this rocky year, a potentially negative bottom line was too real a possibility for it to rest on its laurels. Like so many catalog/multichannel merchants, Hodges sought to defray costs to ensure that its 89th year would also be profitable. So Rick Hodges, president of this family-owned, Portsmouth, R.I.-based B-to-B cataloger of ribbons, rosettes, medals, presentation silver, sashes and buttons, targeted his biggest cost center — postage rates — as the focal point for potential savings. His goal was to cut costs without reducing the circulation of

The old Banana Republic catalogs from the 1980s used to feature several vignettes about the adventures of co-founders Mel and Patricia Ziegler, where they talked about how they found this neat, safari-esque stuff on recent journeys. These were classics. They’re bound for some yet-to-be-founded catalog Hall of Fame. Personally, I looked forward to getting those catalogs and always spent at least an hour with each. Around that same time, PaperDirect also was mailing catalogs. They had vignettes in them, too, but they were from PaperDirect product users — people who were employing the products you were looking at in the catalog. If your vignette