Touching lcdBig Data isn’t just for big retailers anymore! Thermostats, Dingley’s proprietary data analytics software, gives catalogers who have digital catalogs access to valuable insights that can inform business strategy.

Rob Nowak, Director of New Technology at The Dingley Press, explains how easy it is to get started using Thermostats — and how to put what you learn from it to good use.

Many uses for user data
Companies of all sizes have access to data, and there’s no reason not to use it to tweak your marketing strategies. The Washington Post reports that more data than ever is available to SMBs, and recommends that they use small segments of data to zero in on specific research such as performance metrics by season or market segment.

Direct marketers can use data such as the metrics from their digital catalogs to

  • forecast which customers are most likely to purchase certain products based on past behavior and when they are most likely to make a purchase,
  • plan for the obsolescence of certain products and decide which products will replace them, and
  • plan new products based on customer needs and pain points.

What can Thermostats tell you?
Nowak says that valuable analytics are available through Thermostats, Dingley’s proprietary analytics tool, and are free to customers for whom Dingley creates digital catalog versions. But many customers may have forgotten that this tool is available to them.

“Many of our customers produce digital catalogs because it’s inexpensive and gives customers another way to view their products — and because their competitors are doing it. But they don’t feel that it’s a heavy revenue-generator,” says Nowak.

Nowak notes that catalogers are very intuitive when it comes to analytics for their websites: They know how many people are coming to their site and from what region of the country, what type of browsers they’re using and what devices, how often they visit, and how much time they spend on which page.

Thermostats offers the same sort of information about your catalog data — and Dingley can set it up to export to your Google Analytics account so you have everything in one place.

For example, Thermostats can tell you how long users are spending on each catalog page, which can tell you something about the demand for the type of products on those pages. It also provides regional information about users right down to the city level.

Promoting your digital catalog makes it work for you
Nowak has another piece of advice for catalogers who want to make the most of their digital catalogs.

“Most catalogers could do a better job of promoting their digital catalogs,” he says. “Don’t just put it on your website and forget about it. If you’re doing email blasts or Facebook updates anyway, link to the catalog — users will get it and can view the digital edition from wherever they are, and can order right away!”

You already have a data mine at your fingertips: Thermostats from The Dingley Press. To get your credentials for your Thermostats account or integrate with Google Analytics, contact your Dingley representative.

You can also read more about how to use Thermostats in this blog post by Rob Nowak.

Do you have something you’d like to try in your next catalog mailing? Contact your Dingley Press representative to explore your options, and how we can use new technology, data, and postal promotions to make your catalogs work harder (and smarter) for you.