It doesn’t have to be expensive!
A catalogue doesn’t have to be a costly exercise in printed, high gloss, large scale product books – think of all the companies that now use e-catalogues as their primary promotional vehicle. However, if you do decide to print a small run of hardcopy catalogues, you should produce them to the highest specification you can afford.
When printing catalogues, don’t feel you’re restricted to a 24 page, A4 sized format either. You could have an A3, folded to A4 format, or have a smaller A5 size catalogue with just a few pages. Ideally your e-catalogue/printed catalogue should be professionally designed by a Graphic Designer. Depending on the amount of product you want to feature, your designer will then be able to offer their recommendations for striking a balance between cost efficiency and effectiveness with regards to number of pages and printing specs.
When choosing a Graphic Designer, ask candidates to show you a folio that includes examples of catalogues they have designed before. Catalogue design is an art in itself and you’ll achieve the best result by using a designer who knows the in’s and out’s of selling products in this format (see below for tips you can use when briefing your designer and things to look out for in the layouts they send back for your approval).
4 Important Layout Tips (keep these in mind when briefing your Designer)
- Put best sellers on the front cover together with at least one new item.
- Always feature the hottest, ‘seasonal’ products on the front and back covers, or on the inside cover pages. It promotes urgency by showing the buyer that these products are only available right now.
- In an e-catalogue you should give customers the option of ordering off the screen, so include a ‘Buy Now’ link under each item, which when clicked takes the customer to an online shopping cart facility. Even when you have this option, you should still include a response device towards the end of the catalogue, including check boxes, spaces to fill in name, delivery address etc. This could look like a regular ‘detach and fill in’ order form. While most people won’t use this form of ordering, (with many instead preferring today’s online format for its efficiency and speed), it adds to the feeling of your e-catalogue being a ‘real’ catalogue, not just a collection of glorified product web pages. By providing this option, it also means that should someone receive a hardcopy of your catalogue, or choose to print it out, they can still order via ‘snail mail’ if they prefer.
- Don’t be overly neat and symmetrical. Studies show that the neater the layout, the more uninteresting it looks. For instance, designing a catalogue with four products per page, where each takes a quarter of the page, results in a very symmetrical, neat and boring layout. Instead, have one of the products taking up half the page and the other products sharing the other half of the page. Your reader’s eye is more attracted to differences, or things that appear out of the ordinary. If all pages are identical in layout, you are less likely to attract your reader’s eye.