Perhaps you have more products than your customers know about. With so much information, your company needs to be as informative as a salesman and as accessible as a website. How can you? With a product catalog!

Many small businesses send out catalogs annually, and the year’s beginning is the perfect time to do it. Sharing products with a targeted audience is a great way to inform your customers and get more business.

Who Profits from a Catalog

Do you have specialized products to sell? Catalogs will reach customers thousands of miles away—people who may not be able to get to your place of business, but still want what you have to offer.

You can also profit from a catalog if there is a time of the year that interest in your product peaks. Landscapers, for instance, may want to start putting together a catalog about two months before the spring season. That way the catalogs can be on customer’s desks when they start to plan their outdoor projects.

Putting Things Together

Catalogs can take many shapes and sizes. They can be from 4 pages to more than 400 pages. The best catalogs are organized, visually appealing, and both informative and concise. A catalog can contain whatever content applies to your industry.

With rare exceptions, today’s successful catalogs serve targeted audiences with specialized products geared to particular needs and tastes. Personalized equipment, stylish children’s clothing, handmade crafts—these are examples of products that do well in this medium. Ask our design team how to best strategize and organize your company catalog.

Producing a Catalog

A catalog does not have to be an expensive production. For pictures, you might be able to take your own with a digital camera. This would allow you to experiment indefinitely, at no cost, until you get the lighting and pictures just right. Or maybe ask a high school or college student in your area to create illustrations. While you’re creating the art, write short, simple descriptions of everything you photograph.

Once you have the raw content, let our design team help you choose a layout and look that works well for your company brand. We can suggest a format that makes sense with your products and budget. Once the design is approved, we can print your catalog for you with a variety of stocks and bindery options to choose from.

Distributing Your Catalog

Now that your work of art is ready to be shared, who do you share it with? Start by displaying your catalog in a prominent place for your in-shop visitors. Hand them out or ship them along with your completed jobs.

Finally, create a mailing list to mail them out. Start with your own customer list, people who’ve bought your products or signed your guest book. They are interested in what you have to sell even if they can’t always make it to your store. Or you can rent mailing lists of like-minded prospects.

If you can send out a catalog, we suggest you do. Let us guide you through this process and unleash the power of the catalog for your company!