When it comes to catalog or booklet printing, there are some guidelines you can follow to make your catalog or booklet work hard for you. It just takes a little work from you upfront to make sure your catalog will sell for you.
Catalog copywriters have a tough job; they have to explain detailed products with short descriptions. Catalog writing is almost a form of art, trying to weave details about products into short, snappy prose that is also persuasive. Here are some do’s and don’ts to help you create a great catalog.
Do’s
Do write an attention-getting headline.
No matter how much room you have, even if only for a few words, you need to make the headline catchy and snappy. Use words that get people’s attention and will make them want your product.
Do include a letter from the president.
Generally the inside front cover or inside back cover is reserved for messages from the president of the company. This letter should tell the customer all about the company’s commitment to its customers, the quality of the products and stress that the customer’s satisfaction is guaranteed.
This letter, along with a photo of the president and a signature, adds a friendly touch that makes the customer feel like she has a relationship with the company. Seeing a person’s face reminds people that they are dealing with another person’s company, not a big, bad faceless corporation.
Do give facts.
Your product descriptions should be as complete as possible. Don’t add your own opinion to the descriptions – just give the facts. You can add testimonials on or near the order form, but leave the product descriptions all fact, all the time. The copy should include colors, materials, exact measurements – only things the customer needs to make an educated decision. This isn’t to say you can’t use persuasive words or fancy product details, but leave the “I” statements for the testimonials.
Don’ts
Don’t give all your products equal billing
All of your products should have their dedicated layout space, but give your bestselling products center stage. Use a half page or whole page close to the front of the booklet or catalog for your bestselling items and give your not-so-popular items an eighth or a fourth of a page near the back.
Don’t use a headline to describe the product
The headline should be used as a catchy way to pull people into the page, not just as another place to describe the item.
Don’t hide your phone number
Put your phone number on every page so customers don’t have to search for it. This makes it convenient for the customer and you can catch those people who might change their minds while searching the catalog for your phone number.
Don’t forget your discounts
If you have an item on sale in your store, consider matching it in your catalog. Some catalog marketers actually do the opposite to boost catalog sales and make an item on sale through the catalog only. Whatever your discount, make sure it’s prominently displayed on the cover of your catalog or booklet.
Don’t clutter your pages
If you put too many products on a page, your design will look cluttered and the page won’t be appealing to look at. If people turn the page because they don’t want to take the time to look through all the graphics and text, you can lose major sales.
Don’t forget a call to action
Make sure you tell the customer to fill out that order form and mail it in right away or to call you to get a special discount.
When it comes to marketing, marketers aren’t perfect. Gasp! There, I said it. It’s out there. The biggest marketing blunder we make is to assume. Of course, assuming isn’t reserved only to the marketing field. I learned from a young age from my dad that to “assume” meant to make an “ass” out of “u” and “me.” Of course, at the time my dad was bestowing this knowledge on me, I was too busy giggling because he said “ass” to understand what it meant. But, as an adult I see it’s quite true.
Marketing Assumptions
Okay, back to marketing assumptions. Why are they so bad? Because if we assume that consumers are visiting our Web site, are getting the info they need out of our brochures and that they are actually reading our postcards, we get lazy. We get satisfied with what we’ve done instead of pushing for more. We rest on our laurels that if something has worked before, it’ll most surely work again.
It’s easy to forget that most of our prospects don’t know the brand we’re trying to promote. Unless we work for McDonald’s, people around the world haven’t heard of us. When we forget this, it’s easy to gloss over basics about our companies and about our brands that we should be communicating to the world.
When we make this assumption, the only “ass” is us.
Sample Blunders
Here are some blatant examples that marketers often make:
• Assuming people will scroll through your email to the bottom to see the important message placed “below the fold”
• Assuming you can make a big sale without setting the stage for a sale
• Assuming people will figure out where to go from your homepage
• Assuming customers will figure “it” out on their own … whatever “it” is
How to Avoid This Mistake
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Appeal to their needs and wants, not yours. Here are some tips to avoid assuming:
Give them benefits first, features later. People are generally looking for a solution when they are shopping. People buy mattresses because theirs gets old and hurts their neck or their back. Give them your benefit of “a good night’s sleep with no back pain in the morning.” Don’t give them “89 springs that are designed by NASA scientists.” Who cares? At this point, people only care about what your product can do for them.
Give them the meat and potatoes first. Get rid of the fluff, or the salad, if you will, in all of your marketing materials. Put the good stuff first. The benefits, the offer and the info the customer needs to take advantage of your offer. Get rid of the introductory warm-up and dive right in to why people should buy from you. Don’t waste their time.
Give your message to your audience in the way they want it. Teens love text messaging. If you market to teens, text message them. Text messaging to senior citizens on the other hand, won’t work quite as well. For that audience, you’ll need to advertise in newspapers or on television. If you don’t reach your audience in their preferred medium, you might never reach them at all.
Most people understand product placement. Brand names of cereal boxes and cans of soda on TV shows don’t get shown at just the right angle on accident. Companies pay to be included in the shot.
There’s been much debate about whether that is going too far. What advertising tactics are downright deceiving, bottom-of-the-barrel-type tactics? Most people would like to watch TV without having to watch commercials. But how many people would be willing to watch TV with tons of product placement to make up for the lack of commercials?
Probably quite a few. But let’s take it a step farther. How would you feel if advertisers paid writers to write their products right in the script? (Some seem like they already do.) Would that be acceptable? How far can advertising go before it’s too far?
Did we bring this on ourselves?
Advertisers do what works. They don’t do what doesn’t work for very long. Okay, so what’s my point? My point is that advertisers are responding to the way we as consumers respond. If product placement didn’t work, do you think advertising agencies would still use it? No, of course not.
Is advertising manipulation good or bad?
Cam Beck has blogged on ChaosScenario.com that sometimes advertising manipulation is good – if consumers are being urged to do something positive, like brushing their teeth twice a day. I’m not so sure I agree. Can’t people be informed without being manipulated? Whether I read a news article about the brushing my teeth or see a commercial about it, I’m still getting the message. But obviously advertising adds another message – one of persuasion. That’s the whole point of advertising, right?
Magazine content as advertising
The online and TV spheres aren’t the only ones affected by product placement and other advertising masquerading as content. Many local magazines have “Special Advertising Sections” in which they partner with area businesses to write about various industries, using the local businesses as sources. But at least these sections say at the top of the pages that they are advertising sections.
Many companies that advertise in magazines have tried making their ads look like actual magazine feature stories, and many have succeeded. I’ve even been snookered into starting to read an ad that I thought was a feature story. The layout of the ad matched the magazine’s editorial layout, so how was I to know? Until I noticed the little-bitty writing at the top of the page saying it was an ad, I had no idea. As soon as I realized it, I stopped reading.
So did the advertiser get me? I did read a paragraph or two before stopping. For many advertisers, that’s probably a victory. But, the joke is on them. I would have told you the topic of the advertising article if I could remember it!
So, is content advertising wrong or is this just good advertising? I know I don’t like it, but maybe that’s because I was snookered into it!
Every company knows that branding is an important part of promoting their products or services. Yet, not all realize how important. In today’s motto of more is better, companies seem to be turning to megabranding to solve their revenue problems. When sales are down, most companies begin scrambling to introduce yet another item or line of products. At first, this strategy might work, at least for a little while. Eventually, though, sales will drop again and, once again, out comes another product; hence, the term megabranding – developing new lines of products each with its own brand.
The problem is that megabranding creates a vicious cycle, one that cannot be stopped. What many companies are facing today is lower sales with no hope of returning to the original high. That is, unless they return to the simple brand message that gave them so much success in the first place.
Effective branding should follow the rule of KISS – keep it simple, silly. Branding is a process that can take years to develop through waves of marketing strategies. Within these waves is a single message. For instance, the Nike Swoosh logo today is still an inspiration for the amazing abilities of the human body in sports. Nike began with shoes only, and now, in spite of clothing and sports equipment, shoes are still the product for which the company is known. So, instead of generating new dairy products every time sales drop, try promoting the item for which you are known, ice cream. Develop a marketing campaign to put your message at the forefront using several different marketing tools, such as the following:
Flyers – The bonus of flyers is that they can be used as both direct mail and posters. Craft the headline to promote your message and make sure that the font size is readable from a distance.
Brochures – Take these to events or hand them out in the office. Brochures have a lot of room for information. Be sure to simplify with subheaders, short sentences, and information that supports your brand.
Postcards – These are an excellent direct mail piece because the message is out in the open for consumers to see when shuffling through their mail.
Media Ads – Develop ads for the internet, television, newspapers, and possibly even billboards. Enlist the creativity of graphic designers for developing a different twist on each advertisement.
Don’t forget about other valuable branding tools such as business cards, presentation folders, and giveaways such as calendars, magnets, or keychains. Anything that consumers can use in their everyday life that will promote your brand is a plus.
Next time you are searching for a way to bring sales up again, avoid the temptation to introduce a new product line. Instead, get consumers excited again about your company. Remind them of why you’re the best. So, roll up your sleeves, pull out the archives, and re-discover the lost art of simple branding.
If you’re like most beginning entrepreneurs, your bank account probably isn’t overflowing with cash. In the beginning stages of your business, you need to save on expenses and make whatever money you have last longer to give your business a fighting chance.
Small business marketing is not an easy thing to do on a limited budget, but take note: it might not be easy, but it’s not impossible either. And you need to market your business if you want to build your customer base. Here are a few frugal ideas to lighten your start-up expenses so that you have enough money to go around – into your marketing budget as well as your own bank account.
1. Cut back on your personal expenses.
You don’t need to go Dumpster diving for your new office chair, but you should check out big box retailers for deals instead of going to office furniture stores. Ikea is also a great resource for cheap furniture (www.ikea.com). You can get a semi-comfortable desk chair for as little as $25 through Ikea. You could also just use a folding chair (with a cushion) and a card table as your desk until you start making lots of money.
You can also find free coupons online for everything from groceries to office supplies. Even if you can only save a few cents at a time, those cents add up and equal money in your pocket.
2. Look for nontraditional financing options.
Your only option for getting some start-up money isn’t a loan from a bank. You can also look for free money – grants and prizes from business plan competitions and other business-related competitions can be a great boon to your bottom line. Check out small business centers in your area for any kind of grant programs and Google “small business grants” to find some national competitions.
3. Frugal marketing ideas.
The cheapest and most effective way to market your new business is through word-of-mouth marketing. Look for chances to wow your small pool of customers and ask them to spread the word if they were satisfied with their service or product. You can also ask friends and family to spread the word – people love to recommend something they believe in.
You can also get free press by going through the media. You can either market a news-worthy story that will get you interviewed and on-air for free, or you can volunteer to write articles for local publications. By writing free articles for newspapers and local magazines, you get a byline (a credit line) and usually a short bio line, in which you can mention your company. Free publicity, coming right up!
Another great frugal marketing idea is to partner with another business (start-up or established) that provides a product or service that complements yours. You can swap mailing lists or split the costs of advertising by advertising your products together. For instance, you could take out a newspaper ad that shows consumers how much better your product works when paired with your partner’s product (and vice versa, of course). You get to reach a wide demographic for half the price or you can get a bigger ad for half the cost.
There are many ways you can cut back on small business marketing and other costs associated with a start-up. Just remember, any kind of savings you do counts; you don’t have to save hundreds of dollars at a time for something to be worth saving on. Every penny counts!
