Print Catalogues versus Digital Catalogues

Digital Catalogues

• By adding website cookies and tracking pixels to your digital catalogues, you can collect a wealth of detailed data from your online readers. This data is fed back to your analytics software for analysis.
• Analytics platforms, like Google Analytics, provide detailed reports helping you to analyse and improve the performance of your digital catalogues. Here are just a few simple examples of the reports you could look at:
• Source/Medium – this report shows the different sources (Google, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.) and mediums (email, paid search, organic search etc.) sending traffic to your digital catalogue, and how they perform. You can identify the traffic channels converting best, helping you optimise your marketing spend. Or discover, a new channel to expand your focus into.
• Top Landing Pages – this report helps you determine which product pages are most visited and best performing. You can analyse these pages to look for common elements that correlate with increased conversion. Using this insight you can then improve lower performing product pages.
• Keyword Reports – if you are using paid search advertising, you can run a keyword report to analyse how each search term performs. Discovering key metrics like how much each click costs, which keywords convert to purchases and your return on investment.
• Top Exit Pages – this report identifies the pages where visitors typically exit your catalogue. Helping you identify problem pages that need attention.
• Devices – with this report you can compare how your online catalogue performs across different electronic devices. You can discover whether customers purchase more via mobile versus desktop, or whether page load times are slower on Apple versus Android devices.
• Behaviour Flow – this report will show you the common pathways a visitor takes through your digital catalogue. You can use this information to optimise the navigation design of your catalogue, helping customers find the products they need faster.
• Demographics – when customers opt in, you can gather detailed information on the demographic data of your digital catalogue consumers. Through this report you can see how different age groups and genders interact with your catalogue.
• You can add URL parameters to your digital catalogue as a simple and powerful way of tracking clicks. A few ways in which you can use these:
• Tracking campaign performance – when running a discount campaign, or testing a new marketing channel, adding campaign parameters will let you identify precisely how these campaigns perform.
• Get detailed insight on individual customers – when sending a catalogue to a valued customer, you can add parameters to identify that organisation or individual. Delivering valuable insight into the products they look at. Or if they share your catalogue with a third party.
• An important consideration for the future, a trend of rising privacy concerns is reducing data collection in the digital space. The introduction of GDPR is a perfect example, where consent is now a requirement for tracking users via website cookies. Visitors now opting out of tracking become invisible, reducing the volume of analytics data you collect and the insight you extract.
• This trend of increasing online data privacy looks set to continue. Google, Safari and Firefox have all announced future plans to block third-party cookies by default in their web browser software. Collecting user data for analytics and invaluable decision making purposes is going to get tougher.

Print Catalogues

While it’s not possible to get the level of detailed data available through online catalogues, you can still track the performance of print catalogues.

• Discount codes and coupons – this age-old process is a great way of tracking sales performance for your print catalogues. Including a unique discount code or coupon in your catalogue is a quick and simple way to link sales back to individual catalogues, campaigns and events.
• Set up unique telephone numbers and email accounts for each catalogue – if the majority of your purchases happen over the phone or via email, this is a simple way to start tracking performance. This method can be deployed to:
• track individual catalogues – measuring overall sales and product performance between different catalogue editions
• track different campaigns – measure the performance of a discount campaign, catalogues distributed at a specific event, or perfomance of your catalogues in different geographic locations
• Directing your print catalogue customers to your ecommerce site to complete their purchase is another simple and commonly used performance tracking method. Once in the digital space, you can track all the valuable data available as standard in digital catalogues. Of course, you'll need to connect the dots between the print and digital space. You can do this with URL tracking parameters, which we talked about earlier. There are two simple ways to do this:
• URL shorteners – services like Bitly or Hootsuite offer a simple way to shorten lengthy URLs, complete with tracking parameters, into short easy to remember URLs. So, when customers use the shortened URL, you pass valuable information like the catalogue edition and campaign types to analytics.
• QR codes – you can create these visual barcodes to print alongside the products in your print catalogue. Customers can easily scan them with their mobile and be directed to a specific URL on your website, complete with the necessary tracking parameters.

Digital Catalogues

• Signing up to receive a digital catalogue is faster, with less friction, as you need less information than with print. This is a major positive for digital with many studies showing shorter sign-up forms deliver higher conversion rates.
• Asking for a name and email address is enough to give customers access to your digital catalogue. If you’re brave, you can even remove the need for a form giving customers instanct access. Of course, what you gain in speed of access and increased catalogue readership, you lose in collecting valuable lead information to follow up on.
• Customers will gain instant access to your digital catalogue upon sign-up. This is a powerful factor to accelerate the purchasing process. Customers can immediately begin browsing the catalogue and making purchases. They're not left waiting for a catalogue to arrive in the post.

Print Catalogues

• Signing up for a print catalogue is a longer process requiring more information. Typically, a customer needs to fill out a minimum of four additional form fields versus digital, as they will need to input their address. Whilst this might mean a lower conversion rate versus digital sign-up, these customers tend to be more committed and therefore more likely to purchase.
• To minimise friction in capturing address information, tools like AddressNow Capture allow auto-completion to speed the sign up process. This also reduces incorrect contact data being included which costs the average UK business 5.9% of its annual revenue. Meaning no more failed deliveries of your catalogue.
• Print catalogues need to be physically posted, creating a time lag between your customer signing up and receiving the catalogue. This slows the sales process, which typically isn’t an issue as long as you minimise the time delay between sign up and catalogue arrival. It becomes a problem when speed is a factor. If a customer needs the product urgently and a competitor offers quicker product visibility through a digital catalogue, you might lose out.
• The physical process of a catalogue arriving in the mail can be a benefit, depending on your audience. Studies from the Data & Marketing Association show millennials are increasingly responding to print catalogues, due to a reducing volume of physical mail and the novelty this brings of receiving something through the post.

Digital Catalogues

• Digital catalogues can feature built-in purchasing, you can complete sales immediately during client visits.
• Digital provides faster catalogue navigation. You can take your customer directly to the product that sparked their interest. Easy when you have features like advanced search and interactive navigation.
• While a digital catalogue can’t be left behind as a physical reminder, they can’t be lost either. If you have a computer or tablet, then your catalogue is always accessible via the internet anytime, anywhere.
• You're always up to date. With digital, you can sell with confidence knowing your catalogue reflects all the latest products, styles and prices.
• It may be helpful to show different prices to different customers. Online catalogues are dynamic, giving sales the power to deliver alternative pricing when pitching a premium client versus a first-time buyer.
• Digital catalogues are perfect for sales presentations. Interactive elements like 360 product views and video ads impress prospective customers. While built-in product reviews are a powerful way to build trust.
• During a pandemic where sales can’t meet consumers face to face, digital catalogues are a perfect accompaniment to virtual client meetings. Sales can use screen sharing technology to guide clients through your online catalogue.

Print Catalogues

• A big benefit for print catalogues is the fact they can be left behind with the customer, acting as a continual reminder to buy.
• Print catalogues are a powerful way to convert customers to sales during client visits. While they don’t benefit from in-catalogue purchasing available in digital catalogues, you can still transition customers to your ecommerce website to complete purchases.
• An accomplished salesperson can use your print catalogue to help customers explore your product portfolio while highlighting best sellers and new additions.
• There are drawbacks to using print catalogues as a sales tool that digital doesn’t suffer from:
• Print catalogues begin to go out of date before the ink dries. Whilst this doesn’t devastate, it can create friction in the sales cycle when old pricing or discontinued products crop up.
• As a physical asset, it’s possible for sales to forget to bring their print catalogue to a client meeting. Leaving them without a valuable sales asset.
• Print catalogues suffer from wear and tear. To provide the best impression you’ll need to take a new crisp catalogue to every client visit.

Digital Catalogues

Publishing online unlocks a range of functionality to accelerate and improve user experience when navigating your catalogue. You want to make it as easy as possible for customers to find the products they are looking for.

• Navigation menus – a well-structured primary navigation, complete with main product categories and subcategories, allows your customer to instantly jump between product sections in a single click.
• Floating menus – much like the primary navigation, these offer your customer the ability to quickly navigate within a specific product category, or to different sectionsof the catalogue. It has the added benefit of always being visible as the customer scrolls.
• Hyperlinks – digital catalogues have the added benefit of hyperlinks. Including these throughout your catalogue allows customers to quickly navigate to other products, pages or categories in a single click. No need to flick through 100s of pages.
• Multiple browser tabs and windows – with a digital catalogue, customers can easily open multiple browser tabs or windows to simultaneously view and compare a range of your products.
• Advanced search – this is one of the most powerful navigation advantages digital delivers above and beyond print. Empower your customers to find your products with the following advanced search functionality:
• Free-text search – the most common form of search, it allows your customers to type keywords to identify a range of products inside your catalogue. They can then click directly through to their desired product.
• Autocomplete – this is a powerful tool withing free-text search which predicts the customers complete search based on what they’ve already typed in. It helps narrow down the customers search, speeding up the process while avoiding misspellings and making the search more accurate.
• Similar products – by categorising your products in search, you can offer customers alternative or complimentary products alongside their search results. This is a great way to generate multiple product purchases through a single search. Like showing the compatible print cartridge alongside a printer.
• Faceted search – this is a great tool for accelerating product discovery. Through faceted search, customers can quickly browse, filter and shop based on their specific choices. Shoes for example – using filters across size, type, colour and price you can quickly return a focussed set of products for the customer to choose from.

Print Catalogues

It’s simply not possible to create a navigation experience that matches the speed and accuracy found in digital catalogues. Even when comparing similar features like for like, customers still have the added effort of flipping through the pages to find what they are looking for.

This can create missed opportunities, where your customers can’t find the product they are looking for. Or, they simply don’t have the additional time it takes to navigate your print catalogue.

However, you can still offer a smooth navigation process by implementing the following:

• Index and table of contents – these two sections are critical to the success of your print catalogue. For many, they offer the only direction for customers in navigating your catalogue. Build for success by considering:
• Clear headings – make sure there is a clear differentiation of product categories through use of different headings and font size.
• Product grouping – decide whether you’re going to list all products in alphabetical order, or group them under category headings.
• Product titles – make sure your product titles are accurate, and consider alternate naming to offer customers the greatest chance of finding and navigating to your product.
• Tab cutting or indexing – this is the physical process of including a small stepped cut out to the right-hand edge of pages in your print catalogue. Including tab cutting for each product category allows customers to flick through sections of your print catalogue more easily.

Digital Catalogues

• Search engines love catalogues – one big benefit of going digital is your catalogue being indexed in leading search engines like Google and Bing. A well optimised digital catalogue offers the opportunity for a global search audience to find your products, drastically increasing your distribution.
• Company and job role targeting through paid social – social media sites, especially LinkedIn, offer you powerful functionality to target your catalogue advertising to specific companies and job roles. This offers you the capability to significantly increase your distribution, only paying when customers click through to your catalogue. And, with lead capture forms built into the ads, it’s also possible to collect vital customer information.
• Digital distribution costs less – in most situations, it costs less to distribute digital catalogues versus print catalogues. For example, the cost of sending your digital catalogue to an existing customer via email is £0.003. While the equivalent cost of sending a print catalogue via post can be upwards of £2.14. That’s before you even factor in the additional cost of each print catalogue you send. Now, not all digital distribution channels are cheap, especially when marketing to a potential audience. Highly targeted paid social and paid search campaigns can cost upwards of £20 a click, costing significatnly more than a targetted postal campaign to expose you print catalogue to a new audience. Do your research to ensure distribution costs fit withing your cost per acquisition model.
• Satisfy customer intent with keyword targeted paid search – Google Ads and Bing Ads give you the power to tap their global search audience. Today, search engines are typically first port of call when researching a product. Hijack this process and put your digital catalogue front and centre with a highly targeted keyword campaign. Create enticing ads that deliver your customer straight to the page and product they are seeking in your digital catalogue.
• Recapture customer interest with push notifications – a digital catalogue gives you the ability to redistribute your catalogue direct to customers through push notifications. A process that differs depending on device:
• Web push notifications – when a customer visits your digital catalogue via a web browser, they can opt in to recieve web push notifications. Once opted in, you can send pop-up alerts direct to their mobile or desktop device anytime their browser is open. Ideal for re-distributing your catalogue for discount campaigns, new products, or new catalogue editions.
• Mobile push notifications – going online means you have the option to convert your digital catalogue into a mobile app. Once downloaded you unlock the ability to send mobile push notifications direct to your customer to bring them back to the catalogue. Letting them know about new products or the release of the latest edition.
• Distribute your online catalogue through multiple marketing channels – once your enter the digital realm, you unlock a wide range of distribution channels. You can distribute your digital catalogue via email, search engines, paid search, remarketing, social media, paid social, affiliate programs, SMS messaging, app stores, directories, messenger apps, trade and industry websites. The list of marketing channels goes on, giving you any number of ways to share and target your catalogue to a wider audience.

Print Catalogues

• Place your catalogue in the right hands – printed catalogues give you greater control over distribution. You know your catalogue is going direct to your targeted audience. Of course, you also have an element of control in the digital realm, but there is greater risk of your digital catalogue appearing on disreputable sites, or being shared in a unflattering format.
• Increase your distribution through multiple channels – while print doesn’t offer the same breadth of distribution channels, you’re not short of options. Expand the distribution of your print catalogue through direct mail, shopping centres and news outlets, inserts in magazines and newspapers, tradeshows, exhibitions and events.
• Distribution costs for print catalogues can be prohibitive – as we’ve already touched on, it typically costs significantly more to distribute print catalogues versus digital catalogues. If budget is a limitation, going digital will often allow your catalogue to be distributed to more people than print for the same cost.
• Leverage digital channels to increase distribution – just because your catalogue is in print, doesn't mean you can't leverage digital channels to increase distribution. If you offer digital sign-up to your print catalogue, you can tap digital marketing channels. Use the power of paid search or social to market your print catalogue to a wider audience. But consider the additional step of sign-up before receiving the catalogue will likely offer lower conversion versus digital, so will be comparatively more expensive.