Testing e-mail prospecting lists is in many ways the same as testing postal lists, says Don Buck, president of Milwaukee-based consultancy Buck Marketing. But e-mail testing has its own distinct challenges as well. Here, Buck offers a few suggestions to making your tests more effective.
* The first thing to do is decide what to test. Just because something is measurable doesn
The latest Mokrynski Catalog Industry Update indicates that well over 80% of mailers had met or exceeded their holiday 2004 numbers, says Steve Tamke, senior vice president for Hackensack, NJ-based list services firm MokrynskiDirect. Indeed, with the exception of a brief soft period during September, 2004 produced encouraging results.
That said, during the past several years most mailers had reduced their prospecting efforts, instead increasing contacts to house file names. As a result, fewer
Direct marketers put a huge amount of time and money into examining, testing, analyzing, and fine-tuning their marketing on a campaign-by-campaign basis. The results of a single campaign are judged by response rates, average spend amounts, and often, the ROI generated by that campaign.
But less attention has been given to the long-term behavior of customers, says Don Austin, Ph.D., director of client strategy at Greenwich, CT-based list services firm Direct Media. In general, the amount of the first transaction predicts the amount of subsequent transactions. But Austin a variety of other variables can be used to segment customers into low long-term value and high long-term value groups.
When the 109th Congress convened in Washington on Jan. 4, catalogers received some encouraging news. Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) wasted no time in reintroducing the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (H.R. 22), which calls for postal reform.
Postal reform will not go down in the history books as one of the accomplishments of the 108th Congress. But mailers and marketers are hopeful that the
After six years of selling to both consumers and businesses, Portland, ME-based Planet Dog is putting its consumer catalog in hibernation for a year.
When sales dip and protecting profits becomes critical, many catalogers respond by cutting back on mailings, as has been the case during the past few
According to the New Jersey Department of Labor, Garfield, NJ-based merchandise marketer Popular Club Plan is laying off about 75 employees.
Most multichannel merchants typically have no shortage of good data, says Scott Cone, vice president of Professional Services at Lanham, MD-based Merkle Direct Marketing. But they often fall short when trying to identify and effectively use the information.
Freeport, ME-based apparel and outdoor gear cataloger L.L. Bean named Ed Howell chief retail officer and member of the office of president. Howell was