Attention Internet Marketers, Start up Your Catalog Engines Like This…

By Jim Gilbert

Voila, you’re now in the catalog business. Chances are, you’re making a small profit on your bounceback catalog and your catalog request mailings.

3. Mail your catalog to customers who’ve purchased from you in the past six months, or if you’re more brave, mail the past 12 months of buyers. Sort out your buyers by three-month increments, and again by one-time buyers and multibuyers (those who’ve ordered more than once). Analyze the results. Each segment should be profitable.

4. Next, add some list rentals to the picture. You do this once you find lists that have the right affinity to your customers. And the truth is, the cost to add more catalogs to your print run is inexpensive compared to the setup of your initial run. Assume your housefile will absorb the costs of producing the catalog. In other words, the housefile and bouncebacks have to cover the initial creative development expenses. Then calculate what your break-even point per catalog mailed would be if it didn’t have to cover the creative — only the incremental costs of printing the additional list-rental catalogs.

Once you do the break-even math, you’ll know exactly what response rate you’ll need to break even on an incremental basis. If you’re not sure how to calculate your breakeven, e-mail me and I’ll shoot you an Excel template.

5. Congrats. You’ve just entered the catalog business in four steps. Here’s the fifth step, the icing. Add the catalog channels into your marketing mix and you’ll likely see an increase in your customer lifetime value.

Multichannel shoppers have been proven to spend more money and purchase more often! Good luck!

Speak to you next week,

Jim Gilbert is president of Gilbert Direct Marketing, a full-service catalog and direct marketing agency. You can reach him at jimdirect@aol.com or 561-302-1719.

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Jim Gilbert

Jim Gilbert Author's page Jim Gilbert has been creating direct marketing programs that drive superior ROI for almost 30 years. Fluent in consumer or B-to-B, creative, operations, and analytics, he marries the strategic and tactical sides of direct and social media marketing in a seamless fashion that gets results. He's CEO of a multidiscipline direct marketing agency, Gilbert Direct Marketing, Inc., which focuses on direct mail, catalogs, DRTV, telemarketing, print, alternative direct marketing media and social media marketing. Jim has been involved in start-ups, expansions and turnarounds, and is an expert in helping multichannel marketers get to the "next level." He's a former adjunct professor, teaching direct marketing at Miami International University, and is President of the Board of Directors of the Florida Direct Marketing Association. Jim loves to talk direct marketing, and has done many lectures on direct and social media marketing.