By: Brad Kartel
Submitted: 2011-02-17 00:11:03 | Word Count: 712
When you look at catalogs today, they are not mere listings of products. Even cheap catalogs now exhibit more engaging and “social” elements that make them easier and more entertaining to read. If you have not yet shifted your full color catalogs to this more social bent, chances are good that you are not succeeding as much with your prints as you thought. So before you start trying out more social features in your catalog printing, let me teach you why these so called “social” catalogs work well today.
Why do social catalogs work? – A more social catalog is basically a more engaging catalog for most readers. These types of color catalogs are not aloof or “full of themselves” so to speak. These kinds of catalogs relate to the real concerns of people and address the real issues that readers want to know about the listed products. That is why there is always a high chance of people buying form catalogs if they are designed to be much more social than those typical catalog listings.
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How to make your cheap catalogs more social? – To make color catalogs more social, there are a few design features that you must integrate properly in the catalog printing. Here are a few pointers that you will want to know.
1. Using the right layout – First, you will want to use the right layout. Social catalogs must understand how people really look at the page and where to draw the eyes. While common catalogs will just list down products by alphabet or category in a column or grid format, a social catalog will first present the more popular and interesting products first, before listing down the rest.
With this kind of layout, the reader can get to the information that they want easily in the color catalogs, making the interaction smoother. This helps illicit a more positive social response from readers in almost all cases.
2. Composing with the right language style – Next, you will also want to compose the right language style. As with many social interactions, there are certain language styles or colloquialisms that are more agreeable for certain target demographics. By using the right styles, your color catalogs can engage more with those readers and tell them effectively what they need to know. This can come a long way in convincing readers to buy from the catalogs, so you should really pay attention to the language.
3. Adding the right kind of image – Images, like the language will also play a role in the social element of your color catalogs. People react differently to certain visual cues and certain demographics will react more to certain visual styles than others. So it is important to give your readers the precise kind of images that they like to see in your catalogs to engage them better.
If they like seeing cute animals for example, then you might want to throw them in along with your product images. The same can be used for beautiful models, beautiful landscapes etc.
With the right kind of image, it should be easy to engage those readers and have them read the whole catalog. Just make sure that all your images are tasteful and of course integrated well with the theme of the whole color catalog.
4. Looking and sounding more trustworthy – Finally, a key element in a social environment is trust. Your color catalogs must also gain that from readers if you want them to succeed “socially” with them. To do this, you must always display all the important credentials that you or your company has in your color catalogs.
Beyond that, you should also place in contact details so that people can easily confirm from you directly what they read in your color catalogs. Finally, it is good to add in guarantees about your products and services so that people know you are confident about what you are saying.
Great! Now you know how to create social catalogs of your own. What are you waiting for? Print those social color catalogs now! You have all the tips you need to get it made. Good Luck!
Author Resource:-
Brad Kartel is a marketing executive whose passion is helping business owners build their campaign through creating color catalogs.
