After two decades of email and social media marketing, the catalog has made a comeback. Many retail brands and leisure service providers have returned to investing in direct mail catalog marketing campaigns, and their efforts are paying off.
Do Catalogs Still Work?
The main question about direct mail catalog marketing is whether it’s worth the time, money, and effort invested. The answer is YES! Customers enjoy getting something they can page through in this fully digital era. Web wish lists and online promotions get lost among an endless surge of emails and social media notifications, and a perfect item carelessly bookmarked can easily vanish into cyberspace. A catalog product can be circled, and a page can be earmarked or torn out for a tangible future reminder. Catalogs give customers the opportunity to explore your offerings when it’s convenient for them.
Despite the consumer experience going digital, consumers (even Millennials!) are interested in catalogs when done right.
A study by the Harvard Business Review provided evidence that “catalogs can increase sales and consumer engagements through enhanced product vividness and the ease of product imagination… Vividness is highly influential in consumer behavior. It can increase consumer involvement and joy in the purchasing process, ultimately influencing preferences and sales.”
How Catalogs Make an Impact
Grab attention by creating a high-quality printed product. Everyone loves getting mail! Visual learners can get a first-hand look at new products, patterns, colors, and themes with print catalogs.
To be effective, companies need to offer readers creative presentation of products and eye-catching imagery.
“For e-commerce retailers, especially those in hedonic categories who do not have or do not want physical stores, well-designed catalog campaigns allow them to make the product presentation more vivid, tactile, and memorable. The potential results are increased customer involvement, loyalty, and sales, all without the geographic constraints and the expenses associated with stores.” – Harvard Business Review
Why Should I Work With A Catalog Expert?
That’s an easy one! Artisan is a one-stop-shop for catalog production. We’ve been working with brands like Sundance and Patagonia, producing over 45,000 direct mail catalog pages for our clients each year. We provide an organized, accurate, and confident framework to any campaign, whether you’re new or a seasoned veteran to the catalog production process.
And there’s so much more than catalog production to offer. Artisan Colour was built on perfect color. Because our expert printers do all of our calibration and color matching work in-house, your prints are guaranteed to look the same, whether it’s one run or one hundred. Not using an expert color house like Artisan can cost more than our services in returns due to misrepresented color.
We can also do large and small format printing. So, if you’re in need of more collateral, we can help! Your branding will be exact, no matter the medium.
How Do I Tell If My Catalog Marketing Campaign is Working?
To see the impact of direct mail catalog marketing, the return on investment (ROI) is probably the most sought-after statistic. Think about how often you delete a sale email from a retailer before even reading it. Now think about how long you’d typically keep a magazine or catalog that catches your interest. Maybe a week? That certainly builds up a lot of high-quality brand impressions! And the person you mailed your catalog to might not be the only person to take a look. Catalogs will also never end up in a spam folder.
To track impressions, it’s wise to use a unique promo code, URL, or phone number. Target past users differently than new users, and collect data using a CRM for the best results.
Contact Us About Your Catalog Project Today
We provide pre-media services, image manipulation, and retouching so that your direct marketing catalog looks its best on the web or in print. Artisan has also developed technology to assist in the catalog marketing and production workflow process. Contact us for more information!
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