The Return of the Printed Catalog

With such automation tools, magazine-style catalogs can contain photo spreads that create the desired impression upon readers with related scenes that tell a story. As an important image media, catalogs provide consumers with a feeling of relevance that communicates care and attention to their needs. The print medium can also help build trust and relationships with prospects of brick-and-mortar businesses that create value. It sharply distinguishes them from online-only storefronts that lack such trust, building tools as "real" suppliers. Catalogs make it easier for consumers to direct their buying decisions toward a seller they can trust. Not surprisingly, research has found that catalog customers not only spend more online, but they're also the best customers in physical stores.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, about 90 million Americans purchase goods and services from catalogs. Almost 60 percent of these shoppers are women. The American Catalog Mailers Association says that catalog recipients spend $850 per year on catalog purchases. With automated catalog processing tools, marketers can reduce the cost of producing catalogs and reallocate the savings to brand and relationship building through catalogs in order to stimulate sales.

Furthermore, aspects of the online shopping experience can be incorporated into print catalogs. For example, snippets of customers’ online reviews can be added to catalogs, thus embracing one of the top drivers for online sales into the printed media. However, the online experience just cannot match the feeling that a catalog provides, in particular when it's mailed to a well-defined target audience. In addition, the success of catalog distribution can be measured directly, which cannot be said of many other digital marketing tools. A catalog that's mailed to an address can be directly related to an order from the same location. Adding catalogs into your marketing mix provides not only for an effective tool to measure success, but it may just provide for the edge over competitors to grab the attention of otherwise overloaded prospects.