At Lenser’s Client Summit last month, I heard several long time catalog marketers declare that the days of using a catalog to prospect for new customers were gone. Declining response rates and increased postage costs have severely limited the number of prospect catalogs mailed today.

Eventually, though, catalogers need to find a ways to attract new customers.  The example below shows what happens to a $20MM business that reduces the number of new customers it brings in by half…as you can see, it’s a downward spiral.

In the long-run, to grow sales you must add more new customers than you have in previous years.

If prospecting with a printed catalog is no longer effective, catalog companies that want to grow must learn new ways to attract new customers. The best opportunities: SEO and paid search. SEO by itself, when done properly, can replace the new customer attrition most catalogers face. For paid search, the big opportunity lies in creating landing pages and micro-sites. Look for more on both of these in subsequent blogs.