Are you putting the finishing touches on your fall/holiday circulation plans? Even if your marketing budget is tight, you may be able to wring out a few extra sales without incurring extra catalog costs, says Scarsdale, NY-based marketing consultant Michael Grant.
“Many clients have come to me and explained that they have a limited budget for mailings but need more productivity,” Grant says. “But you want to be certain that you’re mailing your best buyers the most, the bottom of your file only a few spaced-out contacts and the middle of your file a medium amount of contacts.” It is in this middle portion of the file that most of the poor circulation decisions get made–and where the majority of opportunities exist.
Grant recommends analyzing each mailed segment down to the contribution level and comparing profitable house file and prospect circulation with budgeted goals for the current season. In a number of instances for food and gift mailers, Grant says, he was able to reduce circulation to the house and requestor file by 20%-25% while increasing contribution by 10%-15%. Much of this was accomplished through the basic blocking and tackling of analysis.
Note: Michael I. Grant will moderate “Database Marketing: From the Top,” a session at the Multichannel Marketing Day event to be held June 27 at New York’s Millennium Broadway Hotel. Presented by MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT and “Direct,” and sponsored by Experian, the half-day event features participants from The Company Store, Lillian Vernon Corp., Petals, Vivre, OgilvyOne Worldwide, and more. For more information, visit https://multichannelmerchant.com/seminar/.