When you think of a catalog as a direct marketing tool, you may immediately think back to yesteryear, when a display of products in minuscule images was dropped at your grandparents’ doorstep. However, in this digital age, you may want to rethink underestimating the catalog, as millennials are more excited to receive catalogs than our grandparents’ generation ever was.
No longer an outdated direct marketing practice, catalog printing has the ability to impact sales and increase interest in your brand through directly reaching your target customer in their home. On top of this, catalog printing is a creative project that your company can complete as often as monthly to yearly.
Our tip to avoid feeling overwhelmed with the task of getting started on the perfect catalog for your brand is to focus on storytelling.
Catalogs are no longer an endless litany of products with tiny descriptions lined up in columns and rows for your customers to laboriously pick through. Today, a useful catalog is one that will improve your customers’ experience with your brand as a whole.
Before beginning your catalog printing journey, we ask that you find the answers to these questions first.
A catalog that increases sales and carries the most memorable impact with your customer is one that strategizes the brand messaging to their desires and invites them farther into your world by telling a story that will make them want to be a part of it.
In this age of all things digital, it’s easy to lose quality in the noise of oversaturation and endless scrolling. We live in an age where ‘views’ and ‘likes’ dominate the digital landscape, but genuinely reaching and establishing a long-term relationship with the target customer is harder to accomplish for many brands.
It has become nearly impossible to create a space that helps a brand harness trust and encourage brand loyal relationships with their ideal customer purely through digital, which is why catalog printing is the way to escape the danger of getting lost in the sea of sameness.
Here are some tips for designing a catalog that will knock your customers’ socks off and get them excited to interact with your brand for the long run.
When your customer first receives your catalog, they won’t necessarily prioritize reading all the details of your story unless the images first attract them. Thus, photos are essential to a successful catalog project. So, make your photos the focus!
It may take too much time to read your copy in-depth for a customer on the go, but the same customer can quickly leaf through and judge their interest by focusing on your photos. Your images need to stand alone in communicating your brand story, so the value your brand offers, and your products’ high quality is not lost when your customer is pressed for time.
With a large assortment of photos, it lets the customer know they have a variety of options. On top of this, customers often won’t take action on purchasing your product unless you show it from all angles, so make sure not to hold back when it comes to showing your product.
Sending a catalog directly to your customer already gives your brand the advantage of escaping digital’s oversaturation by reaching them in their homes, so communicate just how much you see and hear them by using your messaging to define how your brand and product serves to improve their lives.
Instead of using the copy to describe what exactly a product is, use the space and this opportunity to show your customer how well matched your brand is to their needs and illustrate what your product can do to appeal to their wants and needs.
When your customer sorts through their mail, it’s a critical moment because they could easily miss your catalog after you’ve put so much work into it and accidentally chuck it in the bin unless the outer physical details of its presentation stand out. Providing your customer with a catalog created using high-quality materials will catch their attention and ensure that they pay extra attention to it and hesitate to throw it aside.
There are many ways to accomplish this, starting with choosing the perfect paper stock that accentuates ink coverage and allows images to stand out and pop in a way that aligns. This may be the key to attracting your customer’s attention right off the bat.
On top of this, confirming your catalog has a certain weight to it, so your customer doesn’t mistake the pages for spam is game-changing. You aim to make every page count for your customer, so if your catalog doesn’t have many pages, then giving a certain thickness and adding weight could be the difference between getting tossed aside to being read and noticed.
Lastly, picking a matte, gloss, or satin coating to cover your catalog with quality communicates luxury and attention to detail as another element of resistance to being mistaken for another brand’s catalog or worse, junk mail.
Are you looking to make a spike in sales, or do you want to spread awareness for your brand? What are your goals in printing this catalog?
Communicate that to your customer. If it’s sales you’re looking for, then show them all your available inventory with details, descriptions, and discounts, that they can’t get anywhere else. If it’s brand awareness and establishing rapport with your customer that you prioritize with this catalog, then include a look-book to show who your brand is and what you stand for, so your ideal customer can join you for the ride.
A memorable catalog includes ways for the customer to get involved in your brand’s world and reinforce your customer relationship’s strength by doing so.
Creating an immersive interior for your catalog is simple as long as you consistently speak to your customer using attractive colors, inviting font, and images that stay true to your brand. Another vital aspect is how you use the white space within your catalog to avoid overwhelming your customer.
Your catalog needs to have many touchpoints for your customer to reach you, including a ‘contact us’ page, an order form, and a link to find your website, so they know what to do if they want to hear more from your brand after they’ve closed their catalog.
You’ll see, with catalog printing in your toolbox of direct mail marketing; your company will achieve the results most competitors using solely digital platforms can only wish to attain.
If you listen to our tips and take this opportunity to use catalog printing to escape the clutter of competition for ‘views’ and ‘likes,’ your brand will be able to reach your customer directly and improve their customer experience.
Contact us and get your free quote today. We can’t wait to hear from you!