Everyone loves looking over their shoulder to see what other companies are doing and how it’s working for them. To that end, Multichannel Merchant recently conducted a survey of catalogers, comparing 2011 marketing plans with what they did in 2010.
When asked about plans for 2011 prospecting, respondents only planned to increase their use of three media, and they all surprised me.
Print advertising led the pack, jumping from 37% of companies surveyed using it in 2010, vs. 47% in 2011 – a leap of 27%.
Following close behind was pay-per-click advertising, up 23%, from 26% in 2010 to 32% in 2011.
The only other media to show an increase was social media ads, which were reported to have gone from 44% in 2010 to 50% in 2011. I question whether 50% of catalog respondents were planning to run ads on social media or whether they simply meant they were using social media for their business.
By contrast, other prospecting media – including catalogs, email, postcards/direct mail, TV, and radio – were all projected to fall this year.
Even though plans for catalog prospecting dropped significantly, from 70% in 2010 to 53% in 2011, catalog co-ops were projecting quite a leap this year. Fully 51% of respondents replied that they were planning to use co-ops more heavily in 2011.
For more details, you can download the report at the Multichannel Merchant website.
