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The 50 Best Tips of 2008

Our annual compilation of the year’s best tactics and tips in the catalog/multichannel business

November 2008
Tired of reading about what a tough year it’s been for so many businesses across the board? Frustrated with your own results? Scared about the economy? Whether or not you’re struggling as much as others, here’s a little tonic: our annual best-of feature, in which we’ve pulled what we believe to be the 50 best and most implementable tips of the year from Catalog Success magazine as well as our weekly e-newsletter, Tactics & Tips.
There’s nothing fancy here. Each paragraph is taken from a particular story that’s referenced, so you can turn or click back to reread the full story or act on it right now without further adieu. They’re categorized and listed by number, but No. 50 is just as worthwhile as No. 1. None of these tips have become outdated in the weeks or months since we first ran them. So I urge you to read through all of them, and hopefully, you’ll come up with some new winning formulas.
— Paul Miller, Editor-in-Chief

CATALOG/MULTICHANNEL MARKETING

1. Execute ‘mail/holdout’ tests.
One group receives the catalog, one does not. After 12 weeks, tabulate sales results from the mail, phone and online channels. By subtracting the holdout group from the mailed group, you can identify the “incremental” difference.
Kevin Hillstrom, MineThatData
“A CEO’s Guide To Catalog Circulation ’08,”
Jan. 9, Catalog Success: Tactics & Tips

2. Attention to analytics.
Listen to customers closely. Watch your key coding and analytics carefully. And while you may love the look and feel of a certain item, if you’ve tested it and the numbers don’t pan out, move on.
Greg Berglund, Mrs. Fields Gifts
“Back in the Dough,”
January, Catalog Success

3. Beyond your core audience.
Focus harder on selling to your marginal audience, not just your core. Make it easier for fence-sitters to buy from you. You’ll get higher response rates, higher growth and higher profits using a Simplified Audience Pyramid consisting of super core (wild enthusiasts), core (moderate enthusiasts), maybe (interested
but lazy) and forget-its (not at all interested).
Susan McIntyre, McIntyre Direct
Catalog Doctor column, “Vitamin Maybe: A prescription for stronger response rates,”
March, Catalog Success

4. Keep channel choice wide open.
 

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FROM THE BOOKSTORE

<P>“Blanchard is demanding. He won’t allow you to flip through this book, nod your head, and leave. If you’re in, you’re going to have to invest to get your rewards.” <BR><STRONG>--Chris Brogan</STRONG>, president of Human Business Works <BR><BR>“Social media isn’t inexpensive; it’s different expensive. The human effort required to do it right is significant, and not knowing precisely how social media helps your business and how to gauge that progress is a dereliction of duty. In <EM>Social Media ROI</EM>, Blanchard provides the missing playbook for sensible, sustainable, profitable social communication. It’s about time.” <BR><STRONG>--Jay Baer</STRONG>, coauthor of <EM>The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social <BR></EM><BR>“<EM>Social Media ROI</EM> gets down to the heart of the matter: How will social communications positively impact my organizational goals? Olivier takes us through a journey starting from the start, creating a strategy to achieve objectives, and in turn, the means to measure return on investment. If you want to get serious about online communications, you can’t go wrong with <EM>Social Media ROI</EM>.” <BR><STRONG>--Geoff Livingston</STRONG>, author of <EM>Welcome to the Fifth Estate</EM> and <EM>Now Is Gone</EM> <BR><BR>“Olivier explains the intricacies of building a social media-influenced company for every layman to understand. It is important to understand reach, attention, and influence for social media ROI. This is the book to help with that understanding.” <BR><STRONG>--Kyle Lacy</STRONG>, principal at MindFrame (yourmindframe.com) and author of <EM>Branding Yourself <BR></EM><BR>“Ladies and gentlemen, the social media code has officially been cracked. In <EM>Social Media ROI</EM>, Blanchard reveals how companies can apply the massive power of social media to achieve equally massive results. Incredibly practical, yet supremely enjoyable, this book offers a clear roadmap to growing your revenue in the dizzying world of tweets and retweets, likes and shares, connections and comments.” <BR><STRONG>--Sally Hogshead</STRONG>, author of <EM>Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation</EM> <BR><BR>“If you know Olivier, you know he goes beyond the bullshit. He ‘gets it.’ This book will put you in the mindset to successfully plan and achieve real business objectives with social media. It’s a hard fact that good business decisions depend on real results. Olivier avoids the fluff with clear-cut ideas that will help you produce results.” <BR><STRONG>--Brandon Prebynski</STRONG>, social media strategist <BR><BR><STRONG>Use Social and Viral Technologies to Supercharge Your Customer Service! <BR></STRONG><BR>Use this book to bring true business discipline to your social media program and align with your organization’s goals. Top branding and marketing expert Olivier Blanchard brings together new best practices for strategy, planning, execution, measurement, analysis, and optimization. You will learn how to define the financial and nonfinancial business impacts you are aiming for--and achieve them. <EM>Social Media ROI</EM> delivers practical solutions for everything from structuring programs to attracting followers, defining metrics to managing crises. Whether you are in a startup or a global enterprise, this book will help you gain more value from every dime you invest in social media. </P> Social Media ROI

“Blanchard is demanding. He won’t allow you to flip through this book, nod your head, and leave. If you’re in, you’re going to have to invest to get your rewards.”
--Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works

“Social media isn’t inexpensive; it’s different expensive. The human effort required to do


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