56% of marketers believe personalized communications outperform traditional mass-market delivery. And there is plenty of opportunity, for catalog marketers to develop more personalized print catalog campaigns as a strategy to further engage buyers and improve revenue.

And with today’s print technologies catalogers can implement a full range of personalization strategies to their print catalog program from simple versioning techniques to sophisticated, OCR-driven systems that Match Up! highly personalized catalog content to an individual buyer.

Getting Over the Data Hurdle

But many publishers and marketers are still non-participants in the personalization arena.  According to CMO Council Executive Director Donovan Neale-May:

1. “…marketers are still missing the mark on how to leverage and utilize data, and because of this they are unable to realize the full potential of personalization tools, services and solutions.”
2. The main reason on both the publisher and advertiser sides is a lack of database development.
3. In fact Neale-May group’s study, “The Power of Personalization,” indicates that 47% of CMOs rate their company’s data as deficient.

But that doesn’t have to be your case. In fact catalog marketers have plenty of data available and have been in the forefront in managing them.

First: Look at what you already know

All type of personalization helps, and catalogers can begin by using simply basic and easily sourced data and then start collecting information to build a more sophisticated database. In other words, start by keeping the personalization simple and develop a plan to work upward.

1. Look at your buyer database.
   Every catalog publisher will likely have a database with buyers’ names, genders, and complete addresses. This simple information can help you develop personalized strategies, use versioning strategies based on location or gender and even call out their names on the cover, inserts, or within catalog pages.
2. Analyze your customers purchase behavior. 
   Most catalogers have been building their database. Analyze your customers’ purchase behavior; try to segment your buyers by type of products bought, frequency or total purchase amount.
3. Don’t try to personalize everything.
   You can pick and choose what makes sense to your catalog marketing strategy.  For example, analyze for which type of buyers would personalized targeting be relavant, as well as for which products would you want to increase sales or at which time of the year.  Ask yourself: What do I want to accomplish? What will it give me in return?

Transcontinental Database Services can help you mine, analyze and manage your subscriber data, enabling you to discover hidden customer intelligence that will generate higher performance on your print catalog programs.