Make a classy catalog to boost brand awareness, engage new customers, and sell more products
There are so many ways to give away promotional products as brand awareness tools. You can host a trade show, hand them out in stores or in the mall, put stickers on product boxes, or have your company give away branded USB drives. But if you don’t want to spend your marketing budget on short-term giveaways that may have limited value and will not help you grow your business in the long run, what other options do you have? Well, the answer could be to create an outstanding, limited edition promotional catalog of high-end products to distribute to a specific market demographic.
Why a product catalog can help you boost brand awareness
Your catalog needn’t always be a comprehensive — and expensive — directory of all your products in a single volume. You can produce a slimmed-down catalog of just a few select products to promote to a specific niche of potential consumers. It could have a seasonal theme, say, or speak to young affluents, retired couples, enthusiasts, or families. A printed catalog of targeted promotional products can help you boost brand awareness for a few reasons:
- It offers a physical representation of your brand, and people are more likely to keep promotional materials on their desks, in their cars, on their coffee tables, or even clip them on their refrigerators than they are to keep any other type of marketing material.
- It becomes a go-to resource for people who are shopping for a gift for a loved one, colleague, or friend and are looking for ideas in a particular niche.
- You can place a printed catalog of products in locations where the people you are targeting are likely to find it and self-select to pick it up.
- You can produce several smaller catalogs at little cost, each promoting your brand to a different niche. Using response codes and coupons this allows you to track consumer actions and collect data about the people who receive your catalogs and analyze which market sectors and products sell better.
- When people receive a printed catalog in the mail, they are more likely to browse through it compared to clicking a link to view an online catalog, which gives your brand much more exposure than almost all other alternatives.
You can also use your limited-edition printed catalog as an opportunity to promote other marketing initiatives within the same niche. For example, if you are targeting business clients, you can list out events or conferences that are happening in the near future, or for a more general market, you can list out social media contests that you’re running. Whatever your industry, niche, product, or service, providing printed catalogs to potential customers is one of the best ways to stay top of mind and keep generating interest in your brand.
How to create a promotional product catalog
So, let’s talk about the different ways you can create a high-end catalog of targeted promotional products. We recommend using our offset printing services rather than an automated digital printer because we can help you to fully customize your catalog based on your brand’s personality. And our superior range of paper stocks, textures, and coatings, including specialized effects such as foil stamping, UV spot coating, and soft touch lamination, can really give your catalog an exceptional look and feel.
But it’s an excellent idea to publish a “sister catalog” online as well. This will allow you to upload a broader range of products — as many products as you’d like — and you can use, for example, QR codes or discount codes to encourage potential customers to visit your online catalog or complete their transactions in your e-commerce store checkout.
Integrating your offline and online catalogs also gives you the opportunity to capture customers’ emails and sign them up to your informative or promotional newsletter to keep your brand present to them and upsell related products down the line.
If you already have an online catalog, you can streamline developing your physical, hold-in-the-hand catalog by repurposing your online photography, product descriptions, technical specifications, and more and with just a few tweaks, transfer them into your design for print.
5 vital elements to include in your promotional catalog
You can be as creative as you wish with your catalog. Several smart companies we’ve worked with have chosen to produce a catalog which has much more the look and feel of a magazine or brand narrative, with the presence of the products themselves playing a more subtle, but powerfully persuasive role. Others go for a splash-and-cash direct sales approach. More still, opt for something in-between. But there are five elements that it’s vital to include in any catalog.
- Product descriptions: this is where you can get creative and really show off your brand’s personality. These descriptions will give customers a better idea of what products are like and how they can be used.
- Customer reviews: including reviews of your products can help build trust with customers and give them a better idea of what to expect. You can generate reviews easily these days through the most reputable online reviews sites, through your direct customer feedback forms, and via your social media.
- Product photos: you’ll want to make sure that your catalog has high-quality photos of your products. These may be static studio shots designed to show your products as clearly as possible, or contextualized images showing people using the products.
- Contact and payment details: it might surprise you how often people forget this. Aside from making the purchasing process as smooth as possible for the customer, publishing your email, physical address, phone numbers, and website — with a map showing your premises if you have them — helps establish credibility and trust which makes your brand “stick” in consumers’ minds.
- And remember, you shouldn’t include every product you offer. Show off your best-selling products, give customers a sneak peek at upcoming lines, or focus on a specific niche.
How offset printing helps you create a high-end look for your catalog
Offset printing allows for a wide range of creative options. The process works by transferring ink from a plate onto a rubber cylinder and then to a sheet of paper, creating an “offset” printed image. Depending on the type of paper and coatings you choose, you can get a range of results, from glossy to matte, vivid or soft. When designing a catalog for offset printing, you’ll want to consider the materials you’re using. Choosing the right paper will affect the look and feel of the final product.
Use glossy paper if you want a lustrous look that reproduces photographs with vibrancy and makes your images really pop. If you want a softer, more subtle look, you can try a matte option. For the cover of your catalog, consider soft touch lamination — a relatively new technique which gives your cover a luxurious, textured, almost velvety finish.
In order to make sure that your catalog has a professional look and feel, you will want to make sure that it has a clean layout and plenty of white space. White space is often overlooked, but it is incredibly important. It makes your catalog look clean and organized and renders it easier to navigate.
Show off your best-selling products
If you want to create a catalog with the most unique promotional products, you’ll want to focus on showing off your best-selling products. Why? Because when customers come to your catalog, you want them to see products that are obviously worth their investment and represent high perceived value. The best way to do this is by finding out which products are selling the most. This will help you identify which products are worth investing in for the future, and you can use that information to create your catalog. If you use a CRM or sales software, you can use that as a guideline for your research. If you don’t use any of those tools, you can ask your sales team for the most popular products.
Give customers something to engage with right away
If you want to create a catalog that customers will want to flip through and engage with, you’ll want to include something interactive right away. So, consider including non-product focused content, too. Maybe an article about the company philosophy, puzzles and quizzes, staff interviews, or any other material which may engage the reader at an emotional level with your brand story. The goal of these items is to engage customers and make them more likely to flip through the rest of your catalog. These items help customers feel more connected with your brand and make them more likely to keep the catalog and return to it with a sense of familiarity and trust. If you have a large enough budget, you can even create an augmented reality (AR) catalog. This will allow customers to use their smartphones to view products in 3D and see how they will look in real life.
A few more recommendations for your catalog
There are many ways to make a product catalog stand out and engage the customer. Every detail of content and design can make a difference, so leave nothing to chance. Here are a few more ideas to help and inspire you when thinking about the design of your catalog:
- Organize your catalog by product type and brand using a “cascade” formula to make it easy to navigate.
- Use premium paper and special coatings like soft touch lamination along with added effects like embossing and foil stamping to really give you catalog a luxury feel.
- Include an invitation for customers to leave feedback and rate products and make it easy for them to move through to purchase products, ask questions, and get in touch.
Wrapping up
The printed promotional product catalog is an easy way to boost brand awareness, connect with customers on a more personal level, and make it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for. This is a great opportunity to show off your brand’s unique personality, make customers more likely to purchase from you, and position yourself as a market leader.
Let’s talk!
It’s never too soon to get in touch with us as — aside from our high-quality offset printing services — we have over 25 years of success in the industry under our belts and a wealth of information and wisdom we can share with you even at the design stage. So, when you’re ready to make a start on your next promotional product catalog, contact us for a chat via the telephone, email, Skype, or our simple online contact form. We can’t wait to hear from you.