The digital world is growing. As a promotional products supplier, you’ve probably watched as the industry has shifted its focus to creating better digital experiences for distributors and end-buyers.
The last decade has brought with it a wave of new marketing tactics that go beyond the printed pages of a promotional catalog. Email, social media, and content marketing are the new mediums that distributors and their customers are working within every day, and providing a catalog that can play in all those areas is essential to finding success in today’s promotional products game.
You’ve made your way to this guide because you’re a supplier who wants to get their feet wet in the digital waters. As a team of digital creators who love to empower suppliers like you, we’ve decided to break down everything you need to know about delivering a new, elevated catalog experience.
This is your Complete Guide to Going Digital in the Promotional Products Industry.
Why should I go digital with my promotional product catalog?
The choice isn’t an easy one for many businesses, especially if you’ve been printing your catalog for a while now. What you probably haven’t considered are the trade-offs you’re making by focusing on paper catalogs alone. That’s why it’s important to understand how digital can benefit your business.
Align with end-buyers.
You’re stepping further away from end-buyers who drive demand if the only option you provide is a printed catalog. Not only are millennial buyers conducting a majority of their purchases online but so are your distributors. As the demographic of distributors and end-buyers continue to shift over the next decade, paperless communication will only become more common.
By creating a digital catalog, you inject yourself into the conversation of young buyers and can continue to meet them where they are rather than asking them to come to you.
Distribution beyond the mailbox.
Mailing catalogs is expensive and the reach is limited. Those who go digital can share their catalogs via social media, email, blogs, websites, and more.
We like to call this CODE—Create Once Distribute Everywhere. Rather than having to create double the amount of assets, you use your one catalog for all your marketing across multiple platforms.
Empower distributors.
Like we just mentioned, a digital catalog can be repurposed for other marketing efforts as well as to leverage dynamic content. Distributors and end-buyers expect more from a catalog experience than print can give them. By offering dynamic content, your distributors can tailor the catalog experience to each end-user.
Similarly, digital catalogs can constantly be updated with new products based on inventory or season. Rather than waiting for your next bi-annual catalog to print for the spring/summer, your distributors can keep fresh new products in front of end-buyers hungry for creative solutions to their promotional needs.
Keep it simple.
Searching products on a website can feel overwhelming when you have 4 different tabs and 3 browsers open. You have little control over where the user goes and what they’re considering. A digital catalog simplifies the user experience by purposefully progressing someone through your products. You get the curated catalog experience with the distribution flexibility and analytics of a website.
How do I design my promotional product catalog for digital?
This isn’t your grandmother’s catalog. It’s important to understand what works and what doesn’t so you can get the full benefit of going digital.
Drop the stock photography and start showing lifestyle.
This is 2020, and everyone is tired of seeing standard product shots–buyers are looking for something more. Lifestyle and environmental photography give the buyer a better look at the product in action, allowing them to see for themselves what it might look like in front of them.
Suppliers who are finding success are executing more of a “look book” that thrives on the feeling of a retail experience rather than that of a catalog experience—think about shopping at Gucci vs reading the catalog, quite different, right?
Cut the words.
We can’t reiterate it enough— keep it simple. This means reducing the amount of text on each product and leveraging bigger and more clear typefaces. Nobody wants to read an entire novel in a catalog. Make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for by reducing the amount of text per page.
Also, consider creating a style guide that will limit your design team to 3 typefaces/fonts for Headlines, subheads, and body copy.
Keep your designs clean.
Keep your catalog pages simple and uncluttered – whether it be product images, descriptions or pricing, make sure that the information is easy to read and digest.
It is important to remember that distributors want to share your catalog with their customers. This means carefully considering how your pricing is communicated, avoiding industry-specific terms such as EQP, and keeping your brand elements to a minimum. By doing so, distributors will be more inclined to customize and share your catalog as their own
Be mobile-friendly.
You’re doing something horribly wrong if you’re going digital and not creating everything for desktop and mobile. In case you didn’t know, 52.2% of all website traffic in the world was from mobile devices—which means you’re missing out if you’re not mobile-friendly.
Don’t make the mistake of only executing on one front, make sure that your entire digital experience is strong across all devices and platforms.
Use “Breakout catalogs”.
This term might be new to you, but it’s definitely worth trying. Breakout shoppable catalog highlight a collection of specific products that one of your target audiences might find valuable. Instead of showcasing all of your products, you deliver on a particular grouping of products that are related to a season, subject, or application.
These are the main elements for crafting an effective and engaging digital catalog, which we cover more at length in our article about the best practices for 2020, for those who are looking to dig their hands deeper into digital design.
