Attention Internet Marketers, Start up Your Catalog Engines Like This…
Whereas the overwhelming majority of Catalog Success magazine readers are, first and foremost, print catalog marketers, our e-newsletter and Web site reach myriad marketers, from brick-and-mortar retailers to wholesalers to pure-play Web merchants. I devote this week’s column to the pure plays looking to launch a catalog channel.
Oftentimes, non-catalog companies hesitate to break into the business because they lack the expertise or the internal time and resources to get the job done. But there are some fairly quick and easy ways Internet marketers can break into the catalog business.
For starters, follow the 40/40/20 rule. Put your efforts into choosing the right merchandise and offer (40 percent) to match up with the right mailing list (40 percent). After you’ve done that, the creative (the last 20 percent) is just a means to an end — a way to communicate your message (offer and merchandise) to your audience (list).
Here’s another hint: All of the resources you’ll need to start your catalog can be found. There’s plenty of vendors looking right now to help you build your catalog business, and you can easily tap into their expertise. You can even outsource the whole thing if you want.
That said, follow these five steps:
1. Insert a catalog into your outgoing product shipments. This one’s a can’t-miss venture. I’ve never seen a bounceback catalog not work. The psychology is simple: When people have just purchased from you, they’re likely to order again. So to properly set up a bounceback catalog, look at your seasonal order forecasts and print enough catalogs to insert into each shipment.
2. Generate catalog requests. Add a catalog sign-up page to your Web site and start collecting catalog requests. Add the catalog requests to your print run for the bounceback you just created and send them a catalog. If the response is satisfactory, send them a second catalog the next time you print up a catalog.
- Companies:
- Gilbert Direct Marketing
- People:
- Jim Gilbert
Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.
