GIL CARLSON'S CATALOG MARKETING SECRETS BLOG

Boost your catalog sales with a catalog critique! Gil Carlson has helped hundreds of catalog companies discover new ways to boost their catalog profits, what can he do for your catalog? Find out today…

gilcarlson — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:25:26 +0000

Gil Carlson has helped hundreds of catalog companies discover new ways to boost their catalog profits, what can he do for your catalog?

My Friend,

I’ve spent 37 years discovering what works and helping companies get great results. Ready to find out what I can do for your catalog?

I’m prepared to create a critique of your catalog based on all the marketing secrets I’ve discovered.

I will give you a critique based on my years of experience, to find ways to maximize your response, to give you a catalog that sells!

Over the years I found that many ad, direct mail packages and catalogs were cold and mechanical.

I worked with many of them to bring out their personality and the personality of those behind them. And adding all the necessary touches, that while many of these touches were small, they brought in great results!

By creating catalogs that reached out to the reader, communicated with them on the right level, and hit the right hot buttons, I was able to guide them towards greater profitability!

That’s what I’m here for and I guarantee to help make your catalogs into powerful sales-getters! Go ahead, find out how you can have a more profitable catalog by going to:

http://www.free-catalog-marketing-tips.com/CritiqueOfYourCatalog.html

Gil Carlson

14 POWERFUL FREE CATALOG MARKETING IDEAS and CATALOG MARKETING SECRETS to increase your CATALOG RESULTS!

gilcarlson — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:01:16 +0000

Use these supermarket marketing ideas for your catalog marketing

Dear Friend for Catalog Results,

No, I haven’t really lost my mind! Please read on…

Do you realize how much time and money has been put into supermarket marketing? Do you realize how much they’ve learned about shoppers from it? Plenty. So today let’s see if we can take advantage of all that to make our catalogs more responsive.

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #1:

MAKE SURE THEY WALK A LOT IN YOUR CATALOG:

A Department of Agriculture study concluded that it is how far shoppers walk, and not the time spent shopping that determines how much money will be spent.

Now how does this relate to your catalog? Could it be that more emphasis is needed to keep those potential buyers moving through your catalog and looking at products on every page? And how can we do this?

Start with grabbers (little handwritten notes, boxes with information, even something like a sign) that will get their attention and refer them to items on other pages that will go with or enhance what they are currently looking at.

You can also include a message in the copy block explaining where they will find what they need to compliment the item that now has their attention.

For items displayed on the cover, be sure to explain where they will find it. And make your table of contents more interesting, exciting and easy to follow with a small illustration of what type of products will be found inside.

Are there any more ways to speed that prospect through our catalog? There probably are if we think about it a little longer. But in general, making our copy, design and graphics as exciting, fun and entertaining as possible will payoff big! There’s nothing like boredom to stop them dead in their tracks.

And to make sure your catalog copy is as exciting and powerful as possible, please check out my Mail Order Millionaire Copywriting Secrets Report at:

http://www.free-catalog-marketing-tips.com/Mailordermillionaire2.html

create a catalog with the taste and feel of a supermarket produce display

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #2:

IMMEDIATELY START

THEM OFF WITH

PRODUCTS THEY CAN

GET INTO AND ALMOST TOUCH AND SMELL

Did you realize that most supermarkets steer shoppers immediately into the produce section? That’s because in this section customers can feel and smell the food, unlike the meat section where items are hermetically sealed in plastic or the snack section where the products are locked up in bags. The smell of fresh fruits and vegetables gets a shopper’s mouth watering, and of course, the best customer is a hungry one. This also gives the effect of a bounty of freshness — as if you were entering a true open-air market.

Now let’s focus back on your catalog. What products do you offer that will get your customer’s mouths watering? Items that they can almost touch, smell and taste? Items that will make them hungry for the rest of your offerings?

Since we can’t use scratch and sniff in our catalogs (besides what would software or furniture smell like?) how can we still emulate this idea? If you are offering gourmet foods, you could use descriptive, flowery catalog copy that describes the tastes.

Here’s a great catalog marketing idea: Since we are easily influenced by others, showing someone tasting your products (only if you are selling edibles, please). Seeing someone bite into a big juicy apple may be just as good as actually handling and smelling the product. The fragrance of cosmetics could also be described in flowery terms and even showing someone smelling something, or being effected by a girl wearing the perfume!

So let’s take our most appetizing and exciting catalog products, no matter what they are, and display them prominently and as enticing as possible, and as close to the beginning of the catalog as you can. This should get your prospects excited and their mouths watering for the rest of your products. Go ahead, display them right, describe them emotionally and show someone using them. This is a great formula for catalog results.

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #3:

PLAY UP THE MOST

PROFITABLE ITEMS

If your supermarket manager is on the ball, as you enter the produce section, the first items you will see are the apples. That’s because they are the most popular item in the produce section, almost twice as popular as oranges and bananas.

Do you do the same thing with your catalog? Placing the most popular items in the front of your catalog and maybe even on the cover?

Another idea is tell your customers which items are most popular. A box listing your top ten products will make these items seem more interesting and may call attention to an item they missed. Actually, this is another way to call attention to items on other pages as we were covering in item #1.

It just occurred to me that… You want a catalog that sells. so show people buying your products! This may seem odd, but have you ever noticed that products in a store seem more appealing when others are interested in them?

Actually, if I had a store, I would hire a couple of people just to go around and look interested in the merchandise, start playing with and make loud comments like “This is really Great!”, “I can rally use this!”

How can you picture people interested in your products and using them? I’ll bet you can come up with some great, imaginative ideas!

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #4:

THE “RIGHT” PAGE LAYOUT

Store brands carry a higher profit margin than name brands, so these are placed to the right of the name brands. Simply because most people are right-handed and it will be easier to grab the store brand. Plus we tend to read from the left to the right.

How can this secret give you a catalog that sells? While your customers aren’t actually picking up your products, you will find that products on the right half of a page and right-hand pages get more attention. Maybe placing the most profitable items to right?

This idea can also help you increase the response of your ads by proper placement. An ad on a right page will always out pull one on the left.

Sell them by the bunch in your catalog

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #5:

SELL THEM A BUNCH

How can you convince a shopper that doesn’t need an item to not only buy one, but to buy several?

You are walking down the supermarket aisle, you’re in front of the sugar. You don’t need any sugar today, but the sign says Domino’s five pound bag is on sale for $1.29. You’re still not convinced. Then you notice that there’s a limit of four bags per customer. So you start thinking that this must really be a good deal if there’s a limit! Off you go with four bags of sugar in your cart, sugar that you really didn’t need to buy today.

Does it work? Will it work in your catalog? Consider taking several items you have on sale and placing limits on them and see what happens.

A study in Psychology and Marketing found that people are more likely to buy an item that has a limit, just as kids want candy when they are told they can’t have it. And for some odd reason, shoppers are also more likely to buy an item when it is marked “limit four” than “limit two.”

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #6:

WANT TO SELL MORE ITEMS

IN QUANTITIES?

GIVE THEM A

REASON TO BUY THEM

To grow brand sales, you can increase the range of situations it is used in instead of other products. Increasing the number of situations your product is used in can have dramatic effects on sales. An example of category expansion would be “Pepsi in the AM” — A few years ago, Pepsi pushed to have people drink cola in the morning instead of coffee. Arm & Hammer sales have skyrocketed since 1969 when they changed the marketing focus of baking soda. Instead of being a baking product, it was marketed as a multi-use household necessity.

There are certain items in catalogs that your customers may be able to use more than one of. Often when I’m writing catalog copy, I try to increase multiple sales by putting in a discount price for buying more than one. You may not see this often, but it does work.

Now take it a step farther, stur their imagination, tell them why they may need more than one. Give them additional times to use or new ways to use it. Tell them how they can use this item instead of something else they may be using. Our catalog buyers are like sheep, you have to lead them, tell them why they need more then one, tell them to go ahead and buy more while they can save big bucks!

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #7:

MORE QUANTITY SELLING IDEAS

A customer might normally buy 2 or 3 cans of soup without giving it any thought. In effect they “anchor” on the number 2 or 3 when they decide how many to buy. If you could increase that number through marketing, purchase amounts would rise as well.

Four studies across 89 supermarkets and 259 adults showed promotions that introduced high external anchors had a strong effect on the number of goods purchased. Multi-Unit Pricing (3 for $3, rather than $1 a can), Purchase Limits (limit 4/person), and Suggestive Selling (buy 10 so you won’t run out) all three increased how many of a product a person bought from 30% to 105%.

Just like everything else in your catalog, we must concentrate on the little things, little things that will have big effects. Word everything to make the most of each offer. Don’t forget, the main purpose of your catalog is to sell, not just display items!

products at eye level sell better

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #8:

EYE LEVEL

Because the best viewing angle is 15 degrees below the horizontal, the choicest elevation on any aisle has been measured at 51 to 53 inches off the floor. Studies have shown that toothbrushes, if placed at eye level, will increase in sales by 8 percent.

And where would eye level be in your catalog? I would assume along or slightly below the center. So, if all this is accurate and can be translated into catalogs, our most profitable items should placed along a horizontal strip going across the center of each page, but more to the right side of each page or on right pages.

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #9:

POSITIONING

BIG ITEMS

Experts in shelf management have determined that juice is best located in a special horizontal bin at the bottom of refrigeration cases.

Is this just because it is easier to remove these big containers by lifting them up instead of pulling them towards you? Or do consumers like to see big bulky items along the bottom? I don’t have the answer to this one, but I prefer to see larger items along the bottom of catalog pages, it just seems to be more natural and better balanced.

Sell more by positioning to compete

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #10:

POSITIONING

TO COMPETE

A study of 460 adults showed that comparing your product to products within the category you want to enter can increase usage of a product. If your product is similar to what’s in the category, showing differences makes the ad more believable. If your product is different, emphasizing similarities will make the ad more believable.

When two products are similar, ads emphasizing differences rather than similarities generated higher belief ratings (72% positive versus 64%). When two products are relatively dissimilar, ads emphasizing similarities rather than differences generated higher belief ratings and importance weights 74% versus 67%).

As an example, if Clorox is looking for consumers to replace powdered cleaner with their bleach, Clorox should emphasize similarities (disinfecting power, convenience) rather difference (clean smell, bleaching power).

Consider the products in your catalog that you feel are just as good or better than those being advertised nationally, or are very popular in a competitor’s catalog. Go ahead and mention those competing products in your copy to grab some of their business, but do it the right way.

When you compare your product with other products, it evokes certain attributes and traits. The key is you want your product to be seen as different, but not wildly so. If your product is seen as too similar to what you are looking to replace, the consumer will see no need to switch. If the product is seen as too dissimilar, it will not be viewed as a viable alternative. Have you ever tried using copy and ads that compared your products or catalog to your competition, or do you just wait for everyone to realize that your products are better than those that are selling so well?

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #11:

POSITIONING TO

INCREASE TRAFFIC

Probably the most well-known supermarket layout theory is put milk at one end and bread at the other in order to force the shopper to trek the length of the place.

Interesting, but would it work in your catalog? Maybe placing your two best sellers at both ends of your catalog? But it’s not like a market, they can take a shortcut and go right to the back of your catalog. The best bet is to make each page of your catalog so exciting, interesting and fun that they will gladly get involved in each page without even realizing it. And of course little teasers getting them to go to another page work well.

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #12:

POSITIONING

TO CONFUSE

Turns out you will sell more soup if it’s shelved out of alphabetical order: How much? When soup is alphabetized, sales drop exactly 6 percent.

You may have different thoughts on this, but I’ve found that in catalogs, the easier you make it to find a product and order it, the more you will sell. Although you could always throw in little items that are completely out of order, if done properly, just to spice things up a little. I’ve helped a number of catalogers increase sales by arranging products in the right order so that everything went together well. Of course I always try to play up the pages they can go to and find products that will go with or enhance the one they are interested in.

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #13:

POSITIONING TO PUT EACH

PRODUCT IN ITS BEST LIGHT

Shelf placement can dramatically effect how one product can enhance or take away from another. While Tang might be negatively compared with canned fruit juices (lower juice content), it compares favorably when placed next to powdered sugar drinks like Kool-Aid (more nutritious).

This may give you something to think about. Just how well do all products on each of your catalog pages go together?

Powerful Catalog Marketing Idea #14:

PRODUCTS THAT SPICE UP

YOUR CATALOG PAGES

The supermarket is designed to make you feel omnipotent by astounding you with options. But it’s mostly show. Dazzled by a plethora of international cheeses, most customers retreat to the familiar – American, Swiss, mozzarella.

Could it be that we stick too closely to our square inch analysis? Sure, get rid of those dogs if they aren’t pulling their weight. But what if we added a few products, never expecting them to make money, but using their presence to boost the image or sales mood of the catalog, in turn increasing overall sales?

Maybe a market won’t sell a lot of the expensive gourmet cheeses, but does including them make the market a more exciting place to be? (By the way, I located a rather expensive cheese that’s imported from Sweden. It’s made with vodka and peppercorns. Worth trying, if you can find it.)

While the addition of certain slow-moving items may boost the overall image of your catalog, I believe that many shoppers, especially catalog shoppers are looking for something different and exotic, and these slow-movers may eventually turn into best-sellers!

Neiman-Marcus became famous for their holiday catalogs with the extremely extravagant items. Is there something that you could add, not expecting to really sell any and then capitalize on the publicity? A few years back, Sharper Image was offering a fiberglass climbing mountain for something like $15,000. They got a lot of publicity from it. They didn’t expect to sell many, but just wanted to do something interesting and make the catalog more exciting.

What crazy item or items could you add to your catalog that would get you a million dollars worth of free publicity?

PARDON ME? Remember back in 2001, when President Clinton was leaving office and he issued (or sold) all those presidential pardons? The news coverage never ended. So, deciding to make a political statement, I started issuing presidential pardons for the common man.

The folks who couldn’t afford the million bucks for a pardon, like Marc Rich could order one from me for only $6.95! These were personalized with their name and were beautifully printed on parchment. With the actual official pardon wording, a beautiful shot of the White House, a fake President Clinton signature, but a realistic presidential seal, they looked more authentic than the more expensive ones my competitor, Mr. Clinton was offering.

Everyone loved them! A lot of politicians, judges and military officers were buying them. Someone in a federal prison ordered one. Not sure if it got him out. I was having fun, selling them through a website and on eBay. Then it snowballed. It hit the wire services. FOX TV sent a limo out for me and put me on FOX News & FOX & Friends. (I just kept holding up a pardon for the camera and giving out my website URL every couple of minutes.)

Radio stations picked it up and a bunch of radio interviews kept me busy, Neal Bortz played it up on his talk radio program and put a link from his website to mine, which gave me more orders than anything else.

The moral of this story is do something crazy and you’ll get a million dollars worth of publicity (or maybe they’ll just lock you up!)

Want to see these pardons? CLICK HERE!

Here’s another idea: It wouldn’t hurt to throw in an expensive item in each of your product categories, not only to make your catalog look more interesting, but to make your regular products look cheaper! That’s right, when you first see an item, you may think it’s expensive, but what if you then see one that’s priced three or four times higher? You go back to the original item and grab it quick thinking it’s now a real bargain!

Your friend for powerful catalog marketing secrets,

Gil Carlson

P.S. I hope I’ve given you a few things to think about. Carefully studying these ideas just may allow you to go beyond some of my conclusions and come up with some great catalog marketing ideas tailored to your specific catalog products.

Here are several links that will take you to the land of powerful catalog marketing ideas…

Catalog Copywriting Secrets

Catalog Facts & Figures

How to get a Critique of Your Catalog

64 Fantastic Ways to Increase Your Catalog Response

Powerful Catalog Marketing Secrets that Gives You a Catalog That Sells…

gilcarlson — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 02:46:39 +0000

Gil Carlson thinking of more catalog ideas

My Friend,

I have so many catalog marketing tips, free catalog marketing tips, to share with you. That’s right, FREE!

Better bookmark this website. Not only is it stuffed full of powerful catalog marketing tips, but I’m going to be adding to catalog marketing ideas all the time. Bookmark it, you’ll want to keep coming back here, I know your competitors will be!

Oh, did I tell you all this stuff is FREE? Sure, I have my Catalog Facts & Figures report to sell, and I critique catalogs for a hefty fee, plus I write catalog copy that sells and design catalogs, but you are going to have to dig deep to find out how to order this stuff.

You don’t have to buy anything if you don’t want to, I’m giving away all these priceless catalog marketing ideas to you today. OK, I might not make a lot of money off this website, but I’ll sure make some friends!

I’ve spent the last 32 years creating very profitable direct mail and catalog companies and working as a consultant to numerous small and large catalogers. And I’ve discovered some amazing catalog marketing secrets! Catalog marketing secrets I’m going to share with you today…

A catalog design that sells:

I hope I don’t make any enemies here (I do manage to offend people now and then) but I’ve observed that most folks who design catalogs have no idea of what it takes to make money off of the catalog and some designers might even be horrified to realize that the catalog is supposed to make a profit.

Here’s an example: The CEO of a large catalog company, and also an old friend, called to discuss improving certain aspects of their catalog. One suggestion was to place their most profitable item on their catalog cover.

I was told they couldn’t because these were large items and his catalog designer said she would quit if he tried to put something large on the cover! Later he did take my advice and stuck with it most of his covers. Guess it worked for him.

Before that, he turned down my suggestion of a “letter from the president” on the inside front cover. He said no one ever reads those. My reply was that “if they are boring they won’t get read and if created right they can be a very effective selling tool, a part of creating powerful catalogs.

He finally gave in and I wrote and designed several letters for him. Letters that took them on a tour of the catalog and had them ready to buy before they even got into the catalog.

He was amazed to discover that customers were responding to the letters and referring to some of the things mentioned in them. These letters have been a part of his catalog ever since. (Examples of some of these letters I’ve created for different catalogers can be found on my Catalog Copywriting Examples page.

There was one of my suggestions I wished my friend had tested with his catalog: Since his average order was very high, I suggested that each request for a catalog should be sent out immediately. Even if it meant sending it out in an envelope via First Class Mail or in a Priority Mail Pak, instead of adding the name to his list and mailing the next scheduled catalog to them.

In my special report, “CATALOG FACTS & FIGURES” it shows how this can double the response from a catalog request. But also give them the special treatment, include a personalized letter and a special offer or discount coupon. This can really increase your catalog results as well as boost the value and life of that new customer!

Sure, a catalog is supposed to look good, but it’s also supposed to make money, lots of money!

Just remember one thing… a design does not sell! An arrangement of your products may look good a certain way and a lot of white space may have a certain appeal, but it doesn’t sell. Sometimes it may even hurt sales. Now, as you are starting to think I’m crazy, consider this…

Your catalog’s only job is to get orders! Lots of orders! While many of your potential catalog customers may be impressed with your slick catalog design, design doesn’t sell!

Here’s how to use your catalog design to sell:

Use a design element to call attention to your products photos. I’ve seen too many catalog designs that distract from the products and the selling message. Some borders going around the page look good and can be artistic. Make them work for their keep… extend some of your products photos over these borders to give your photos a 3D effect.

I love to see product photos popping off the page! Get those products right up there in their face! Use dropshadows under those photos for a 3D effect. Even have some some of the photos extend off the page at angle so that a corner is chopped off by the page edge.

I’ve included some examples of catalogs I’ve designed using these techniques on the Catalog Design Secrets page.

I’ve seen some horrible catalog pages where some kind of scene is placed in the background. This isn’t going to sell anything. It will just confuse that potential buyer, distract from your product and make your copy hard to read!

What I like to see are catalog pages that are in black and white except for the product photos which are in full color and popping of the page!

Well, maybe that’s not practical, but hopefully you get what I mean. If you want to throw a lot of color in there, go ahead. Just remember, you are selling products, not the design. Use the design to highlight the products. If the first thing that grabs your attention is the design, you are selling designs not products. Re-work it until that product photo reaches out and grabs… grabs attention and grabs the cash!

I’ve seen numerous catalogs that use a great design, but too often it’s used make up for a lack of selling in their catalog. And what I’m trying to get across is that you need to make sure your catalog has plenty of sell-ability. (Yes, I like to make up words too!)

What sells?

An old friend of mine has a catalog stuffed full of his organizational, scheduling products. He puts together his own catalog, and he prides himself on being able to squeeze in more stuff on each page (cover too) than any other cataloger. Since he cringes when I mention his catalog name, I won’t do it. But he claims his “busy” catalog makes a hell of a lot more money than those “pretty” catalogs do!

I’m not recommending you do that to your catalog, but there’s something about his catalog, a certain feel of activity, movement, excitement.

It may also have been because he was putting together his own catalog. His excitement and feelings about his own products were carried over into his catalogs. This excitement, when carried over into the catalog will have you creating powerful catalogs. If your catalog doesn’t have this excitement, it won’t sell. You want a catalog that sells!

It’s difficult for a salesperson to make it if they don’t believe in their products and don’t have this inner excitement, this powerful emotion!

Many of the successful catalogers I’ve met have had a sales background. Such as Bill Dinn of Dinn Bros. Trophy Company. He had a sales background and knew how to make every part of his catalog sell.

Too often a cataloger feels that their catalog is completed and ready to go to press, but there are so many little selling features that can be added which will greatly increase their catalog results!

Catalogers I’ve worked with will probably remember me always saying that it’s “those little, often overlooked, things that make a big difference in the catalog results.” Some of these little things can be as simple as slipping into the description of one product in the catalog, a reference to another product that will go with this one.

Little sayings throughout the pages that will motivate to buy or set a certain mood. Showing the product in use. This is important! Do you know how many additional sales can be made in a store by demonstrating a product, bringing it to life and showing how fun or easy-to-use it is? A good example of this can be found in the Antique Hardware & Home catalogs I helped with. Go to the Catalog Design Secrets page and take a look.

Just translate these catalog marketing ideas to your catalog pages. Show products in use. Describe additional uses for the products. Use powerful copy that is exciting, helpful, friendly, and sells! And this is just the beginning!

When I critique a catalog I make sure that many of these additions that fit in with that particular catalog and proven to work in that field, are included. OK, don’t beg, CLICK HERE so you can find out more about my Critique of Your Catalog.

Your friend for catalog results,

Gil Carlson