Catalog Marketing Tips – Create a Catalog that Sells!

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My Friend,

After 37 years of creating profitable direct mail and catalogs, I’ve discovered some amazing catalog marketing secrets! Secrets I’m going to share with you today…

Create a catalog design that sells:

As strange as it may seem, many catalog designers have no idea of what it takes to create a profitable catalog! Some catalog designers might even be horrified to realize that the catalog they consider to be their artistic expression is supposed to make a profit!

Here’s an example: The CEO of a large catalog company called me to discuss improving their catalog. My suggestion was to start placing their most profitable items, on their catalog cover.

That was when I was told they couldn’t do it because his catalog designer said she would quit if he tried to put something large on the cover! Later he did take my advice and stuck with it from then on, on most of his covers. Guess it worked for him.

Before that, he turned down my suggestion of a “letter from the president” on the inside front cover. He said no one ever reads those. I replied that “if they are boring they won’t get read. When created properly they will be a very effective selling tool, just one step out of many in my tool-bag for creating powerful catalogs.”

Finally giving in, he had me I write and layout several letters for his catalog. These letters took his prospective customers on a tour of the catalog and had them ready to buy before they even got into the catalog.

He was amazed to discover that customers were responding to the letters and referring to some of the things mentioned in them. These “letters from the president” have been a part of his catalog ever since.

There was one of my suggestions I sure wish this friend of mine had tested. Since his average order was very high, I suggested that each request for a catalog should be sent out immediately. Even if it meant sending it out in an envelope via First Class Mail or in a Priority Mail Pak, instead of adding the name to his list and mailing the next scheduled catalog to them.

In my recently published special report, “Catalog Facts & Figures”, it shows how this can more than double the response from a new customer who requests a catalog. Be sure to also give these catalog requesters the special treatment which includes a personalized letter and a special offer or discount coupon. This can really increase your catalog results as well as boost the value and lifetime value of that new customer!

Sure, a catalog is supposed to look good, but it’s also
supposed to make money, lots of money!

Just remember one thing, a design, in itself, does not sell! An arrangement of your products may look good a certain way and a lot of white space may have a certain appeal, but it doesn’t sell. Sometimes it may even hurt sales. Now, as you are starting to think I’m crazy, consider this…

Your catalog’s only job is to get orders! Lots of orders! While many of your potential catalog customers may be impressed with your slick catalog design, design really doesn’t sell!

Here’s how to use your catalog design to sell:

Use a design element to call attention to your products photos. I’ve seen too many catalog designs that distract from the products and the selling message. Some borders going around the page look good and can be artistic. Make them work for their keep… extend some of your products photos over these borders to give your photos a 3D effect.

I love to see product photos popping off the page! Get those products right up there in their face! Use drop shadows under those photos for a 3D effect. Even have some of the photos extend off the page at angle so that a corner is chopped off by the page edge. You’ll understand what I mean when you see some examples of catalogs I’ve designed using these techniques.

I’ve seen some horrible catalog pages where some kind of scene is placed in the background. This isn’t going to sell anything. It will just confuse that potential buyer, distract from your product and make your copy hard to read! I’ve seen some catalog pages that are in black and white except for the product photos which are in full color and popping of the page!

If you want to throw a lot of color in there, go ahead. Just remember, you are selling products, not the design. Use the design to highlight the products. If the first thing that grabs your attention is the design, you are selling designs not products. Re-work it until that product photo reaches out and grabs, grabs attention and grabs the cash!

I’ve seen numerous catalogs that use a great design, but too often a great design is used make up for a lack of selling power. And what I’m trying to get across is that you need to make sure your catalog has plenty of sell-ability. (Yes, I like to make up words too!)

What sells?

An old friend of mine has a catalog stuffed full of his organizational, scheduling products. He puts together his own catalog, and he prides himself on being able to squeeze in more stuff on each page (cover too) than any other cataloger. Since he cringes when I mention his catalog name, I won’t do it. But he claims his "busy" catalog makes a hell of a lot more money than those “pretty” catalogs do!

I’m not recommending you do that to your catalog, but there’s something about his catalog, a certain feel of activity, movement, excitement.

It may also have been because he was putting together his own catalog. His excitement and feelings about his own products were carried over into his catalogs. This excitement, when carried over into the catalog will have you creating powerful catalogs. If your catalog doesn’t have this excitement, it won’t sell. Make sure you have a catalog that sells!

It’s difficult for a salesperson to make it if they don’t believe in their products and don’t have this inner excitement, this is a very powerful emotion! Many of the successful catalogers I’ve met have had a sales background.

Too often a cataloger feels that their catalog is finally finished… ready-to-go-to-press, but there are so many little selling features that can be added which will greatly increase their catalog results!

Numerous catalogers, over the years, have taken advantage of my “Catalog Critique” offer to make sure their catalog was all that it could be. And not just the small catalogers who didn’t have the expensive catalog designers available to them, but a lot of big-name catalogers with tons of designers, but no who could turn that catalog into a powerful selling tool!

Catalogers I’ve worked with will probably remember me always saying that it’s "those little, often overlooked, things that make a big difference in catalog results." Some of these little things can be as simple as slipping into the descriptions of their products a reference to a product, on another page, that will go with it.

Here’s an interesting idea…

Add little sayings throughout those catalog pages that will motivate to buy and set a certain mood. I’ve had a lot of success using these handwritten notes in blue ink. A good example of this can be found in the Antique Hardware & Home catalogs I helped create. Click here for an example on my website.

Showing your products in use can be a very powerful sales boost! Do you realize how many additional sales can be made in a store by demonstrating a product, bringing it to life and showing how fun or easy-to-use it is?

Just translate these catalog marketing ideas to your catalog pages. Show products in use. Describe additional uses for the products. Use powerful copy that is exciting, helpful, friendly, and sells! And this is just the beginning!