Keep Catalogs at the Center of Your Prospecting Strategy
Today’s marketer live s in a multichannel world. But for many businesses, a print catalog is still the single largest driver of online business. And to make your catalog continue to perform, you must have the right contact strategy and know how to maximize results by each channel.
Let’s look at the facts. Approximately 50% of all orders are coming through—but not necessarily from—the Internet. While the Internet has become the preferred way to place an order, consumers still prefer to shop from a print catalog. Online catalogs don’t work. Print catalogs do. Matchbacks, although not perfect, are another way to measure the power of the print catalog. Typically, the catalog is given credit for 80% of online and miscellaneous orders/sales. About 20% of the business is truly incremental, thanks to the web.
In a recent survey from, 65% of the firms surveyed are considering increasing catalog circulation. In fact, 76% want to increase the amount of prospecting they do. It isn’t surprising: Print catalogs helps build not only sales but interest in your brand, thus creating an excellent way to grow your email database.
Lifetime Value (LTV) is another consideration. Do you know the LTV of a new buyer generated from the Internet through search versus a rented buyer file or cooperative database? The LTV of a web buyer is often not as great as that of a catalog buyer. That’s because web-only buyers are looking for a specific item and they found it. Mailing these buyers catalogs because they are in an RFM (recency, frequency and monetary value) cell will not likely stimulate them to make a repeat purchase. The channel of origin does make a difference. Do your homework. Understand the basics.
Of course thanks to rising paper and postage costs, some companies want to wish catalogs away. A consumer food company recently told me that they want to phase out their print catalog within five years and generate 100% of their business on the web.
But this isn’t the way you should be thinking Embrace the catalog. The consumer says it’s here to stay. Develop a multichannel strategy centered on your catalog. Measure the cost to acquire a new buyer, including the
LTV, from the catalog vs. the web using the same yardstick. Don’t have different rules for different channels. Understand the repeat business from one-time only web buyers to determine your mail vs. no mail strategy.
The greatest threat to traditional print catalog marketing is not the Internet. It’s the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Every time the USPS has increased rates in the past, catalogers have mailed fewer books. Marginal circulation has been eliminated. It is a downward spiral. It is a pretty simply formula, i.e., increase the cost and reduce expense by mailing less and revenue remains about the same (or decreases).
The USPS postage summer sale the past two years has certainly proven that reducing rates will cause direct marketers to mail more. The USPS should make the postage sale permanent and bring it within reach of small and medium size mailers. I’m for decreasing postage rates and increasing the volume of mail making the USPS more (not less) efficient or so it would seem. We have the best postal system in the free world. Fill the mailbox (and the inbox) of those customers and prospects most likely to purchase and repurchase.
Stephen R. Lett ([email protected]) is president of Lett Direct Inc.
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