If I Only Had a List to Start My Catalog Business!
4. If you’re going to invest in catalog marketing, develop a fully cooked plan that includes a mail plan by year, by drop and by list — with cash flow estimates, P&Ls and the aforementioned LTV estimates. A plan by drop and by list includes many lists, including your housefile and rented lists.
5. Expect to invest in acquiring new customers for a number of years. Assume that you need to fund your catalog for three years minimum until you have reached critical mass. I define critical mass as enough customers to generate enough sales per catalog to cover your prospecting efforts. Said another way, that’s your break-even point.
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 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.
