In the last three years we’ve seen a number of companies abandon their catalogues and go over to on-line sales only, before coming back to the catalogue.

Some have tried the abolition of the catalogue in one big move with a big announcement, while others have experimented, delaying the distribution of the catalogue while pushing on line sales, just to see what happened.

None of the experiments that I have seen and for which I have been able to monitor the results, have been at all successful.

And yet there is a way forward that does work in terms of saving catalogue costs.  Here’s how it goes.

First you need a good list of all the people who have bought from you in the past three or four years, plus those who have made serious enquiries.   (The exact way you select companies will depend on your business – but in essence this is a list of serious possible clients for your next catalogue).   We’ll call this the “Verified list”.  If you haven’t got it, start work on it now – or bring in a company who can do it for you.

Second you need as good a list as you can get of everyone else who might buy your product because they are the right sort of person.  Such a list might be short (if you sell concrete mixers) or big (if you sell glasses to the over 50s).  If the list is huge, you’ll never complete it, but don’t worry about that – you just need some of it.  We’ll call this the “Unverified list”.

When you bring out a new catalogue you send it to your Verified List.   You can also write to your Verified List by email every week or so with new items of information about your industry.  Don’t make each one a sales piece – just give people information that you think might be helpful.  (I’d suggest that this note is an example of this approach – hopefully helpful to anyone contemplating their direct promotions, without forcing a sales notice down the reader’s throat).  It makes people think about you – it is in fact the cheapest way to build a brand ever invented.

Next you have to try to get people from the Unverified List (non-buyers) onto the Verified List.  You can do this in several ways.

One is by sending out very low price offers – so that you can send them your catalogue back with the goods.   Another is by offering a report free of charge which you can email to them (so you can collect their email address).

Don’t try and get straight sales from these people at normal prices – or at least don’t try and do it very often.  Mostly try and get them to respond (even if it is just to a free gift) so you can move them onto the Verified List.

The point is that the only people getting the catalogue through the post are those on the verified list – generally a much smaller and controllable list.   You contact the rest, but you do it in a way that entices them to get back to you, so you can collect their data and add them to your list.

For many firms this reduces the catalogue distribution by about 80% without reducing sales at all.  In fact for most firms sales go up over time because they are constantly moving new people from the unverified list to the verified list.

If you would like to talk about this approach to Verified and Unverified lists, do call 01536 399 000.   You can follow us on Twitter @HHMailings