The best way to engage an audience is by telling them a story. Nothing encourages an audience more than when they’re inspired. You may have the best product or service on the market, but if you fail to draw your audience in, you will never be able to inspire them to take action.
This is exactly why catalogues have always been such a hit; they’re visual and captivate the reader. Traditionally, readers loved flicking through glossy pages to take a look at everything a brand has to offer.
Today, while trends have changed, and there’s a greater focus on sustainability, their importance hasn’t. While their form has changed and e-catalogues have replaced print catalogues, they’re still as relevant as ever.
All kinds of businesses have them, whether they’re B2B businesses selling industrial machinery or B2C companies selling high-end clothes. In fact, new services have popped up due to e-catalogues too. Catalogues 247 offers a wide variety of them, with catalogues for bad credit that sell numerous consumer products on credit just being one of them.
From audience engagement to customer retention, there is a wide range of reasons why brands opt for catalogues. Here’s why they are making a comeback in the marketing strategies of companies.
Huge impact on purchase decisions
Catalogues have a significant impact on purchase decisions as compared to TV ads and websites. Receiving one in direct mail or email, is a more active marketing tactic, as compared to other forms of online marketing, such as social media ads.
Additionally, receipt of catalogues also encourages your audience to take action; they can skim through it, share it with a friend or family member, or even decide to buy something. In fact, many people purchase an item after seeing it in a catalogue. This high rate demonstrates the effectiveness of catalogue marketing to start a buyer’s journey and influence purchase decisions.
It would be best if you built a story around every product you’re featuring in your product catalogue. Additional content gives your customers the chance to connect with your brand and gives you the perfect opportunity to reinforce your brand identity to generate sales.
If you’re wondering what extra content you can add, then you can include stories about the product’s creation and what it was inspired by. You can also showcase your team by including employee products.
Helping form a deeper connection with customers
While the quality of products has improved and eCommerce is more accessible than ever, competition is extremely fierce. Businesses today are not only competing at a local level, but they’re struggling to set themselves apart globally, too.
This competition is exactly why brands utilize marketing tactics to set themselves apart. Catalogues are an excellent way for brands to form deep connections with their target audience and engage their prospects and customers. Customers like going through them again and again and many people prefer getting them from a brand they’ve shopped from before.
You can make the most of catalogue marketing by offering promotions for a limited time. By creating a sense of urgency, you can encourage your customers to act within a specific time frame. In fact, limiting catalogues to peak periods increases their efficiency by 10 to 50 percent, making this strategy quite effective,
Generating customer data for personalized experiences
Brands have large amounts of customer data available to them, making targeting much easier than it was before. This is largely due to eCommerce as marketers can analyze customer data based on their purchase decisions and behavior.
Targeting a specific niche yields a better return on your marketing tactics since you’ll have access to higher quality leads. Additionally, your overall costs will go down too because the catalogues, whether e-catalogues or print catalogues, will be delivered to customers who would be interested in your products.
Additionally, there are also plenty of catalogue management software available that help you keep track of the different points in the catalogue your customers are showing interest in.
For instance, if customers are interested in a specific product, you’ll know through thermal performance data. Then, based on this data, you can determine which products are popular with which customers, thereby creating personalized experiences.
Easy and convenient to use
Catalogues are an excellent opportunity for customers to sit down and enjoy your offerings through captivating images and compelling content. It also gives them a great opportunity to browse and discover new products they might be interested in buying.
Since they are portable, your customers can go through them at their own pace, whenever they want without being distracted. Additionally, since catalogues contain limited products based on a particular collection, customers don’t waste time focusing on products they’re not interested in.
To maximize their effectiveness, you shouldn’t send catalogues to your customers too frequently. They should be reserved for special times, ideally seasonally or quarterly, to retain excitement and interest.
Offer the chance for a multi-channel approach
Catalogues are usually used to launch new products or an entirely new collection. They’re intended to build awareness and excite the target audience to purchase your products through other channels. To ensure they’re generating results, you should use an integrated marketing approach to push customers to your eCommerce website to maximize purchases.
It would be best if you reinforce your brand identity by using the same visuals and tone through all your media channels, including print, online, and social media. Additionally, customers should be able to order through various options, such as phone numbers and website links.
Conclusion
Catalogues are powerful marketing tools that help you build a deep relationship with your customers. What would make them most effective is to ensure they’re part of a broader, coherent marketing strategy that showcases your brand’s strength and reinforces its identity.
What other reasons make catalogues so powerful? Let us know in the comments below!
