Catalog Printing Know-How
Catalog printing can add another dimension to your business during these tough economic times. Or, catalogs can comprise your entire business if you choose to cut physical costs like a storefront and employees. If you have a store that you want to add mail order services to, or if you are just starting a catalog business, follow these tips to create catalogs that will have your mailbox or inbox full of responses.
The Basics of Booklet Printing
One of the many reasons businesses reach for booklet printing is because so much information can be crammed into a small package at a low cost. Training manuals, mini-catalogs, educational information – all of these are candidates for booklet printing.
How Printed Catalogs Complement Your Online Marketing Efforts
Many companies are taking advantage of the fact that catalog printing can reinforce and boost online sales while reducing other costs across the company. Catalog printing puts your products and services in front of your customers while the internet provides ease of access for ordering and further research. This one-two punch of catalog printing while also making your catalog available online has been generating increased online sales for companies who use both catalog formats.
But there are some important pitfalls to avoid. Both catalogs have to be tightly integrated across a number of levels. How can you avoid these potential catalog catastrophes? Read on for an overview of some areas where your online and printed catalogs must be closely connected.
Product information
The information you provide in your printed catalogs must be identical to the information you provide online. That is not to say the words have to be exactly the same, but there should be no contradictions. This is an especially easy mistake to make with technical specifications. When catalog printing, take extra special care to maintain this equivalence across your printed and digital catalogs.
Product pricing
When including prices in printing catalogs, you must be careful as your customers may also check your online catalog. If there is a price discrepancy, then this can cause confusion for your customers. One way to avoid this issue while catalog printing is to put a “call us for pricing” note instead of an actual price. This can be especially effective if some of your products and services are subject to volatile pricing.
Branding
Finally, your branding efforts must be similar across your physical and digital catalogs. Branding includes logos, color schemes, font types, and page layout, to name a few. Branding across both physical and digital catalogs works to reinforce your brand and reassure your customer that they are working with the same company.
How to Integrate Print Marketing with Online Marketing
It’s no secret that many marketing venues are online that were once exclusively offline. Everything from television to brochures are online now. But does that mean that print marketing is dead? Hardly. It might not be as big as it once was because people now have multiple outlets, but that just means print marketing has to share the spotlight with its online counterparts.
People typically do their initial research about products online by checking out forums, review sites and the product manufacturer’s Web site. Some people do all their research online, but many still request brochures, catalogs and other printed materials from the manufacturer. People like to be able to relax on the couch without a hot laptop on their lap and just look through a catalog. The glare from looking at a computer screen all day is not appealing.
All of this means that you must integrate your print marketing strategy with your online marketing strategy.
Here are a few ideas on how to do that:
Use your print marketing to direct people to your online marketing. If you use postcards to draw people’s attention to your product and then direct them to your Web site for more information, you’ve just drawn people in with the information that would have been on a brochure for the price of a postcard. Since Web site hosting is cheap, you can put as much info on your site as you want and not have to worry about paying for an extra four pages of content like you would a brochure.
You can also cut back on catalog printing costs. Send out a 40-page catalog with your best products instead of your usual 56-page catalog and direct people to your Web site for more catalog selections. You save money on printing and people can still see all of your products on your Web site. You can focus your catalog on your best moneymakers and feature the not-so-popular items on your Web site only.
Create an e-newsletter. Include info that your customers crave, like how to save money on products in your industry and info on the best products on the market. If you already have a print newsletter, include a link in the newsletter for consumers to sign up on your Web site to receive the e-newsletter. You can build your email database this way and also keep in touch with consumers in the way that they prefer. Older consumers prefer to get their news in print while younger consumers would rather get their news online.
Include an interactive copy of your brochure or catalog online. Make it searchable so people can browse to exactly what they want online. Many people will note what they want from your print catalog and then get on your Web site to make their purchases. Make it easy for them by including a search box for the online catalog and making it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.
Marketing Through Information
I’ve always been involved with various short story magazines. Who knows how many monthly newsletters I get, or other information on how they’re doing. Knowing how well they’re issues sell or what they’re planning to do next is such a simple thing. I know they aren’t spending much money printing all of those newsletters and business brochures given how small most of these companies are.
I’m not sure how many times I’ve looked at a magazine only to forget it a few weeks later. I might’ve even enjoyed the issue, but if I take in too many things at once, remembering isn’t always the easiest thing. But one thing I know: when I get those newsletters, I know exactly what magazine I’m dealing with. If I’m close to a place, I like to know how they’re doing and if I’m looking at so many different companies it isn’t easy to remember who they all are. Given the affordable nature of it, it just doesn’t seem to make much sense for a company not to take advantage of keeping their customers up to date. I’m always going to remember the magazine that took the time to write up a nice looking newsletter than the one who doesn’t seem to care either way about the business I bring them. I can only hope more companies come to realize how much this works. It would be nice to feel a little more appreciated.
Entry by Philip Roberts
