I get hundreds of emails with hundreds of people sending me “stuff,” but when a very accomplished doctor sends me something … my interest is certainly piqued.

The New York Times article, "For $2 a Star, an Online Retailer gets 5-Star Product Reviews," was intriguing enough to make the doctor - a relative not particularly interested in e-retailing - send it straight to me.

Continue reading "Buying product kudos will undermine shopper confidence"

As a business owner, the move into a catalog channel can open doors … or open a hole in your marketing budget. Good planning and sound catalog marketing practices can maximize your chance of success in the catalog market.

As a marketer with decades of working with catalogers, and helping to market catalogs, I have observed both opportunities and challenges with print catalogs. There is more competition in the retail arena due to the explosion of multiple channels – radio, television, internet . There is also more opportunity. The challenges of making a print catalog one part of a cohesive multi-channel marketing effort are creatively energizing.

Print catalogs are not dead; they have just found a new place in the total marketing plan, for niche, mid-sized and large businesses.

Here are ten catalog marketing tips to help businesses get the best out of every catalog dollar.

10. Keep it focused

Make sure your catalog is focused on the products you really want to sell through that channel. While background is nice, and branding is important, make sure the message in your catalog marketing is focused on the product.

Continue reading "Top 10 Ways to make catalog marketing work"

A friend of mine shared a post on leaving effective voice mail messages from TheLadders.com CEO Marc Cenedella's blog "Stones." My colleague read the post and thought of us immediately - he knows that our marketing specialists spend the entire day on the phone. Almost everyone at Catalogs.com wears a headset to keep their hands free while "power calling" their way through the day.

Continue reading "Phone voice message tips: getting that call back"

I have been so focused on digital catalogs for the iPad and the desktop that I was surprised by the new 2011 catalog from Dennis Kirk. It's a CD.

Dennis Kirk hires us for lead generation. Shoppers on Catalogs.com do request Dennis Kirk's big, 1" thick catalog - I know because people in the office get Dennis Kirk's big paper catalog. But when we generate names to build Dennis Kirk's opt-in list, the company can market to those potential customers in any number of ways.

That's why getting Dennis Kirk's CD in the mail made me look twice. The CD was unexpected, different in a good way, and felt "new."

The CD accomplishes exactly what we tell online retailers to implement. Provide shoppers with many options to access your products. Guide them to your website. Print a catalog - or series of mini-catalogs. Send an email newsletter. Build a digital catalog that is optimized for every device: iPads and smartphones.

Remember that each of your marketing tools should promote your brand consistently. All your marketing efforts should offer the shopper other ways to browse and purchase your merchandise. From your website, feature your digital catalog. From your print materials, show your website address. From your CD, offer easy links to your website.

The CD from Dennis Kirk does this seamlessly. It is simple to click from the Dennis Kirk CD to their website. But if I didn't have an internet connection, I could still shop ... like on long plane trip.

And the CD is easy for me to pass on to a friend, much more convenient than the huge catalog.

And don't worry that one of these will "steal" business from your other marketing efforts. In the end, it's all about your product, no matter where people land and how they prefer to shop.

It's about giving all kinds of customers what they want. This is the oldest rule in selling, right?

I am surfacing from under a pile of resumes.

I'm not complaining, because I appreciate how fortunate Catalogs.com is to be in hiring mode. We are actually trying to fill three positions. Lots of business owners are still feeling the crunch of the still-sluggish economy.

Running a full-out effort to find candidates can dominate my already over-scheduled day. I really like the challenge of finding the right person for the position, and there is no shortage of people looking for work.

I'm glad to have a surplus of resumes to review, but still ... I'm shaking my head. And not because of the amount of work that it takes to review resumes, screen applicants, interview and negotiate.

Is it me? There seems to be more in the latest piles of resumes that confuses me than enlightens me about these job seekers.

If I can't scan and comprehend a resume in less than a minute, I usually move on. But I was so surprised by these candidates' marketing gaffs that I had to stop ... Who are you targeting, dear job seeker?

I actually let some resumes divert my attention from the task of screening just for some intellectual relief.

Take these resume marketing mistakes, for example, all of which sent me to Google to do a little research:

ZAR - the "zar" is used in South Africa ... and I'm hiring in Florida ...

Master's in Museology - the "diachronic study of museums" which I didn't know existed and which sounds interesting, but not applicable

Six Sigma Green Belt - if you are not familiar with this - like I was not - visit this site ... sounds intimidating

emr/ehr - general note: using acronyms will lose eyeballs. And "emr" (emergency medical records?) and "ehr" (electronic health records?) don't apply at all to our business

Pet photos - printing a portrait of yourself with your cat on your resume isn't a good idea

Coffee stains - I appreciate a clean resume as much as I don't want to know what anyone had for breakfast

My advice to anyone submitting a resume: make certain that it is reader-friendly. Don't use jargon, irrelevant degrees without explanation and foreign currencies.

My advice to anyone reading resumes: if the job seeker doesn't make the effort to tailor their resume so that it is relevant to your company and appropriate to the job opening, move on. Quickly.

It might seem brutal, but when you see the size of the resume pile you will amass, every screening tool will keep you sane.

While everyone is trying to think of the next social-savvy venue to engage readers, or to stay more than just one step ahead of the tech curve, the most brilliant marketing move may be to leverage the power of nostalgia.

Nostalgia is a way of associating images from the past with feelings of well-being. Nostalgia is good. It makes people feel happy, even in a workplace setting.

Have you ever taken a tangent down "memory lane" with a co-worker, with reminisces of bicycle messengers, telecopiers and correction tape in your typewriter? (I'm showing my age on this one ...)

Combine my love of catalog shopping and my workday of catalog marketing, and imagine the volume of mail that I receive. Here's a visual: I travel with a rubbermaid bin.

If something stands out in my bin, it's got to be good!

Today I received an excellent specimen of attention-getting, feel-good, nostalgia marketing:

Remember these?

It looks like an interoffice envelope, but it's not.

This magazine mailer is a standard envelope, printed on two sides to look exactly like a string-tied interoffice envelope. It's photorealistic perfection.

Inside the envelope is an industry catalog promoting IT services. Brilliant … it feels personal, immediate ... important.

This is not a new idea, but when executed well, it's not particularly complex or expensive, and it's extremely effective. The next time your creative team is trying to think of something new, try thinking of something old. The power of nostalgia is strong.

Whether you've been to a press run one time or one hundred times, you can't miss feeling a combination of excitement and trepidation. This is the point at which a creative project is ready to "hit the road" ... when edits aren't simple and still (relatively) inexpensive.

I'm sure that many of my colleagues in marketing and creative professions share my point-of-no-return emotion. Like me, they can always change or improve concepts by tweaking one word, changing punctuation or shifting a color palette.

Sometimes middle-of-the-night inspiration has me re-thinking entire strategies and adjusting the messaging of an entire marketing piece.

So how do I get big projects out the door?

Here are my five tips to help you let go and get your marketing project on press successfully:

1. Outline a strategy

Brainstorm your project at the front end, not after it's a growing file on the designer's computer. Make certain that every angle is considered and every person involved in the project is included. If this is a sales piece, include sales staff. Talk with the printer for direction on what is possible. Consider all ideas that will save you money and make your project the most effective.

2. Establish a budget

Do the basic math: how many pieces you need, how much will it cost (copy, creative, project management, printing, fulfillment, etc.), what your target response rate is and the dollar value of each response. Make sure that you have a firm handle on your anticipated ROI - don't let yourself be surprised by timeline snafus and budget overruns that eat into the fiscal effectiveness of your project.

3. Set firm deadlines

Let your team members know the deadline, and the interim deadlines for all components: budget development, copy, photography, mailing list compilation. Build in time for unavoidable delays (scheduling issues, equipment failures) at the front end of your project. Circle your PRESS DATE in red. Make yourself adhere to your schedule.

4. Assign clear responsibilities

Establish a point person for each phase of project. This may be one person, or a series of people across departments. It might only be you. Be clear about who does what. Write names on the project timeline, right next to dates. Make certain that everyone has a copy of deadlines and responsibilities.

5. Retain your creative vision

Set high standards for everyone. Change any part of your project that isn't what you want it to be -- before you go to press. Negotiate at every stage. Make certain that revisions, additional components and extra effort don't blow your budget. But get what you want. When I go to a press run, I might change the color three times, but the final product is perfectly aligned with my expectations.

How do you move your projects efficiently from concept to printing press?

If you slept late yesterday, ate cinnabons, lounged with the dog or watched football with a bag of chips, you weren’t as productive as we were.

Even though it was hard to ask our team to abandon their weekend activities, we spent a productive Sunday with social media consultant Krista Neher.

Krista runs Boot Camp Digital, and she put us through a six hour workout – pointing out where we are a little slack with our social media, where we are being lazy, and also where we are in pretty good shape. A serious “physical assessment” of social media muscle tone is important for business owners conscious of their sales numbers and brand awareness, and we undertook the workout ready to make some changes.

It was difficult to let our egos and pride of ownership go, but the encouragement of a good consultant, like Krista, helps you commit to being brutally honest about what is working and what is faltering, if not failing altogether. It really is like a session with a physical trainer.

I took some notes that I will check back on as we work on our social media physique:

Be consistent

We need to tweak (not Tweet!) the consistency of our messaging. For example, we have multiple Twitter accounts, and it was easy to see – through an outsider’s eyes – where we lost sight, at times, of our target audience from one account to another. Visualize the persona of your reader and speak to her directly and confidently.

Make a list of all your social media accounts - in addition to our Twitters, we are on Facebook, Linkedin and have multiple blogs – and analyze each one, honestly.

Set clear expectations

Many businesses, like Catalogs.com, are guilty of jumping too quickly into something new and exciting. For example, we ran a contest during the holidays and were surprised at the number of emails we captured over a frantic 5-day period.

Krista pointed out that we failed to set measurable goals, and to clearly delineate how we would determine the success of the contest. Although we captured 1800 email addresses, we didn’t test them to determine conversion rates, if any, compared to our general email database, we have no idea how effective this type of contest is in garnering valuable new email clients.

State your rules of engagement

This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to overlook when you have multiple social outlets that are always being updated. For example, on the Catalogs.com Facebook page, we encourage our fans to “Find great deals.” On the Catalogs.com home page, the great deals are not front and center. Like Krista pointed out, this is a major disconnect. But not one that’s not fixable.

These social media “rules” stand out in my notes from yesterday:

o Don’t spam
o Don’t oversell
o Build relationships
o Provide value
o Be human
o Focus on business outcomes
o Remember to say “thank you”

My take away from our Sunday at the office? Get down regularly and do some social media sit-ups.

Next week, I'll be considering whether email marketing is having a harder time cutting through all the noise.

I am sitting on a panel of email experts presenting "Changes, Innovations and New Strategies for Email List Growth."

I have been busy pulling together the material that I will be contributing: contests, newsletter sign ups and social media activities. We've come a long way in 14 years of growing our email list. It's much, much harder to reach people's email boxes just because of the sheer volume of competition. Add spam filters and the need for professional list management, and email marketing today calls for new strategies and flexibility.

I am intrigued by a side conversation on email marketing we've had in the office.

Someone abruptly declared "email is dead." (I'm not naming names.)

Someone else shared an email they had just received from a retail store: "Don't look for our newsletters in your inbox any more. We're going social, to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter in a two-way conversation. Join us!"

While the EEC panel will focus on evaluating email strategies to figure out what's working and what's bombing, I'm hearing a little buzz that things are really changing.

What is an email really worth to an email marketing company, if it's not worth anything to its owner? Most of the people I've canvassed confess that they have at least one email address created just to receive their "junk" emails - newsletters, contests, sweepstakes, lists.

What do you think?

Come and say hello at the session "Changes, Innovations and New Strategies for Email List Growth" during EEC11 in Miami, Florida!

I love lists that promise the “Top 10,” “Not-to-be-missed,” or “Year’s Best.” If a reviewer recommends a resource that brings something new to my attention, I am thrilled.

It’s especially valuable when a reviewer couples their list with insight that is particular to their industry and expertise.

I am intrigued with Brian Patrick Flynn’s list of “Eight Great Decorating Catalogs.” Like Flynn, I am a big fan of decorating catalogs. I too find that many catalogs are as attractive and inspiring as home magazines. That’s not a stretch for me, I’m an undying catalog lover. I have a pile of home decorating catalogs that I keep, along with Architectural Digest and House Beautiful.

I like Flynn’s suggestion that the key to successfully designing with catalogs is to spread your home decorating budget around different stores. Just like most people wouldn’t purchase an entire room – furniture, pillows, knickknacks and books - off the floor of a furniture store, it’s not good practice to buy everything from one page in a catalog.

A few of Flynn’s "great" catalogs are already on my list. Two are also on Catalogs.com, so I am especially proud that these catalogs made the “8 Great” list. The Company Store is my go-to solution for bedding, and was my first choice when giving my kid’s rooms new looks. I look at Lamps Plus often, too, because I think that the perfect lamp really “lights up” a room in more ways than one.

What could be more fun than amassing a long list of decorating resources? In addition to the great catalogs on Flynn’s post on HGTV’s blog, take a look at all the home décor catalogs at Catalogs.com.

What would you put on a list of great decorating catalogs?

I haven't had this much fun in years. We wanted to do something really creative and fun, with a sense of humor, to promote the Catalogs.com for iPad app.

Especially at this time of year, when gift givers were thoughtful enough to fill wishes for iPads. And iPad owners are having fun finding great apps for their new toys.

A video was the obvious answer. Something that we could put on YouTube and spread around the net. Being budget conscious, we decided to be good sports and take on the leading roles. The script would be minimal, and we could write it in-house. We have plenty of friends who helped us set up scenarios for a few silly skits.

We laughed a lot, and got the video done with much less pain than I expected. What a great marketing tool -- this is the way for small businesses to go. I learned a lot, and discovered that doing video also has a lot to do with intuition ... from "Take 15" to the editing room and deciding when to cue the background music, the entire process was fascinating. We really got it. It was a great follow-up to the months and months of long days and nights brainstorming Catalogs.com for iPad, developing the app and planning our marketing efforts.

And we really didn't do too badly in our acting debut, either!

Watch the video below and see if you can identify the actors:

Another thing that we all learned is that it is good not to always take everything too seriously.

"Easily incited to laughter" is a great core competency.

Visit Catalogs.com for iPad now and download your free app. Be careful, it's addictive.

It’s easy to get so engrossed with a project that you work with blinders on. During Research & Development, “R” is often undertaken exclusively at the start of a project, then “D” takes over with an all-consuming life of its own.

I approach work with a marketer’s perspective – it’s in my nature. So even while Catalogs.com for iPad is moving forward at an exciting pace -- with great placement in the iTunes store, new retailers every day joining the program and a major marketing tool ready to go to the printer – I keep the “R” radar alert.

I am digesting stats about iPad sales and tablet projections. This is just the beginning of a new way people use computers: I can’t believe the numbers. Since iPads were introduced in April, 7.5 million have shipped. Two-thirds of Fortune 100 companies are deploying iPads for business use. (“Apple’s iPad sales secret? It’s all business,” MobileBeat, Oct 18.)

I am glad that Catalogs.com is in the “tablet” space already. A year from now, it will be more difficult to stand out. It’s exciting to be on the front of the wave.

The marketing piece that is ready to go to the printer is a major color production. There are multiple components: a brochure, really clever self-mailer and other collateral. It’s like nothing we’ve ever produced before. I have been busy working on it nonstop.

Why are we printing a marketing tool? Multichannel marketing does not mean strictly “online.” It’s important to invest in traditional concepts that will have a tremendous bang for the investment.

The marketing piece illustrates why it’s important not to lose sight of the “R” in any project – I have been fine-tuning our marketing message as the project moves forward. I've been through more than one "version" tweaking to get the messaging just right.

Research shouldn’t stop because a project is in production. The essence of an entrepreneurial spirit is staying nimble enough to react and adjust. When our marketing piece hits the press with my “approved” stamp on it, it will be quite different from where I started a month ago, because the "R" never stopped.

First, I have to be honest, it's not really "my" iPad. It's the family iPad. Although we do have a difficult time wresting it out of my husband's hands. For him, iPad is all business, and the workday never stops. The iPad in our house has become synonymous with Catalogs.com. It is an exciting and consuming work-in-progress.

So this list of cool things to do with an iPad is part "if I could grab that iPad" and part reality.

Here are my top ten cool things to do with an iPad, including some apps that I love:

10. Socialize

I don't have long periods of time to check in on my online social life - Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - so if I can grab the iPad to log in quickly, that's a big plus. It's easy just to go to the web version, but I've been having fun trying some of the social apps. Friendly is an entertaining way to browse Facebook. It lets me view my newsfeed, manage events and look at photos on the full screen. Because it is all touch-driven it took a bit of getting used to, so I didn't lose my status updates. The social apps are a good example how quickly apps in general update.

9. Surf

The iPad is perfectly between my phone and my laptop. It's easy to carry, simple to hold, and I don't need a magnifying glass to surf the web. After using the iPad, I really hesitate before packing up my laptop, unless I need it for the office or a business meeting. A laptop is heavy ... especially in comparison to the iPad.

8. Explore

I almost need an app to get around the iPad. There are so many cool apps to look through that I would never have enough time in the day to use them all. I am download-happy, if an app is free and it looks interesting, I get it and try it. Some I keep and some I don't. Paid apps take a bit more considering, so I like reading the reviews that people have given new apps. I can see myself developing an "app budget."

7. Homework

If my kids need input on researching homework it's easy for them to bring the iPad into the kitchen or where ever I am. We've found apps for chemistry formulas and math problems. We are having fun with a grammar app that is a big help with punctuation. Word Study has an easy-to-use table of contents and bookmarks where we last were to save our place when we close. I think that if you need a "tutor" there's an app for it!

6. Read news

Scanning headlines is really easy with the iPad, and I especially like the New York Times app. NPR has an excellent app as well. If I have five or ten minutes while I'm waiting or between meetings, I can get caught up with the day's news, and touch to read the full length story if I want. Apps on the iPad load quickly which is exactly the pace I need - the iPad can keep up with me!

5. Organize photos

I love the quality of my family photos on the iPad. I have been uploading them, working on organizing them and adding descriptions and making them easy to show off. Keeping my photos on the iPad is a great way to share them with friends when I'm on the go, and it's fun to flip through them like you would a real photo album without having to carry one around. I keep my photos on my laptop, but the iPad is so much easier to grab and go.

4. Watch

I don't have a lot of TV or movie watching time in my busy schedule, but this app that streams movies from my Netflix account is cool. The picture is beautiful and the screen is easy to watch. The iPad really makes movies portable, which is way beyond what they were on my laptop. If I have kids with me when I am waiting for one of the others at a practice or game, a movie on the iPad is a lifesaver.

3. Fish

The animation of this app is really cool, with what the developer calls "living" environments. Choose your bait, flick your wrist and catch a trophy fish if you're a pro. My kids love this too.

2. Cook

I LOVE Epicurious for the iPad. This app is beautifully designed. The page layouts are easy to look at, and the recipe search is wonderful. It's fun to browse even if I'm not looking for something specific, so it's kind of like reading a cooking magazine. The gorgeous photos are inspiring. The app generates a shopping list, too, which is useful.

1. Shop

Indulge me, readers. I'm dreaming of great successes here, but why not? I do all my shopping online (of course, I'm the ultimate CATALOG LOVER!). And I love our very own Catalogs.com for iPad app, and I would LOVE it even, if we hadn't thought of it! So I had to make it number 1 ... catalog lovers will surely be on my side with this one ...

I am used to going straight to store websites, but it's great to have an app that makes online catalogs more "touchable." Now I don't have to go upstairs to my office, I can just take the iPad to bed with me. The iPad could be my new partner.

I'm a catalog lover, a catalog shopper and a catalog saver. That's why I'm in the business that I'm in, of course. I usually schlep a white Rubbermaid tub fill of new catalogs (and a few other things) from home to the office and back again. The idea that I could find 30, 50, 100 or more catalogs on my iPad, all in one app, is amazing. Catalogs.com for iPad is my shopping solution because I like the page-flipping experience and the variety of merchandise.

My daughter has been working on the classic "invention," assigned by her engineering teacher: build a better mousetrap. However brilliant I think her invention is (and it is ... she is talented), I don't think we're going out for a patent. Someday, someone will get there however, with feedback, comments and criticism. That is how creative minds work: they are open to new data and suggestion.

Feedback, comments, stars, likes (thumbs up or down) … even though it is inevitable that opening yourself up to input almost ensures that some will be negative, it’s important to hear what your users, fans, competitors and critics have to say.

Is it a bad thing to look forward to bad comments? In business, I am so used to assessing feedback from a wide range of sources that I find myself searching for negative feedback.

I've come to a conclusion: this is a good thing, not a bad thing. Negative comments are actionable – they challenge a business to assess, learn and listen. Criticism inspires creative thinkers to get the kinks out.

For example, we are thrilled with the Catalogs.com for iPad’s four and five star ratings, the complimentary reviews, and the #1 rank in free apps in the Lifestyle category, but one or two (okay, maybe more) critical comments have us brainstorming ways to make our product the best shopping experience for the customer and the best marketing experience for our retailers.

Good entrepreneurs embrace criticism and are never afraid to move from one great idea to the next – greater – idea.

What forums have you found best for capturing constructive feedback?

This is such an exciting time to launch a new business or product. Fourteen years ago, when we first started Catalogs.com, there was no Twitter, no YouTube, no blogs.

What an amazing comparison I am doing as the whirlwind of tweets and online reviews and rankings for the Catalogs.com for iPad app keep popping up on my laptop. And my iPad.

Friendster, the granddaddy of social media, started in 2002 and morphed into MySpace, which peaked in 2006 and was almost passe in 2009. Facebook began facilitating networking, reunions and brand marketing in 2004. YouTube was created in February 2005. Twitter started chirping in 2006. The term "weblog" was coined in 1997, one year after Catalogs.com became a company. Back then, none of these fascinating media tools were around to help us spread the news of our new venture, Catalogs.com.

How much different it would have been starting a company - especially an internet company - today. Monday (today) has been an "all-hands-on-keypad" day, with our Catalogs.com for iPad app news and reviews spread and shared more quickly than I can hit "refresh."

Continue reading "Catalogs.com for iPad is Flying Around the Social Web"