Far from outdated, the catalog is a highly cost-effective marketing tool.
As proof, 63% of consumers prefer print to online catalogs when making their choice. But to make your printed marketing even more attractive, consider the magalogue!
Halfway between a catalog and a magazine, the magalogue offers your customers a unique and original user experience.
What is a magalogue?
The magalogue will of course present your products and highlight their features (price, color, size, etc.), but in a more polished and, above all, more comprehensive presentation.
Far from a basic catalog, the magalogue is enriched with how-to guides, features, usage tips…
In short, editorial content that gives meaning to your product pages.
This print format is much more interactive than a simple catalog. Thanks to the magalogue, consumers can literally dive into the heart of your brand's universe.
What are the advantages of a magalogue?
Despite the explosion of digital content, print communication still plays an important role in every sales strategy.
Product catalogs, promotional brochures, flyers…
Each of these formats plays a crucial role in promoting a brand, and a magalogue offers many advantages for both the consumer and your brand.
It's an asset for your brand image
By creating a magalogue, you'll project a more modern, more dynamic image of your company.
This printed piece is a true ambassador for your brand. With it you can share informative content and convey your expertise.
It's a powerful marketing tool because it helps you build stronger relationships with customers and prospects, increasing your visibility while differentiating you from competitors.
The magalogue lets you reach new customers
With an attractive layout and relevant content, the magalogue is a very effective print medium for attracting new customers.
Many companies have gone all-digital, forgetting a portion of consumers who are not comfortable buying online or browsing the internet.
Even if the purchase is made on your website, a certain segment of your clientele still needs to get information first through a printed medium.
It's a cost-effective format
Published in pocket format, a magalogue has the advantage of being easy to carry and consult, and it is also an economical medium.
This saves you on paper usage, printing expenses and postage costs, especially if you organize a direct marketing campaign.
The magalogue is an omnichannel medium
By integrating advanced technologies like QR codes, augmented reality or NFC chips on your product pages, the magalogue lets you create bridges between your different media: to your e-commerce site and to your social networks.
It's an excellent way to convert your audience into leads and your leads into customers, so it has a natural place in the customer journey.
It adds value to your products
Often used in the furniture or textile sectors, this hybrid format borrows catalogue conventions while offering a fresh showcase for your full product range.
Today's consumer no longer wants to be satisfied with a simple product description; they want to know how to use it, how it will solve their problem, and what sets it apart from the competition.
How to create a relevant magalogue?
Here are some tips to create an effective magalogue that will encourage consumers to take action!
Define your business objectives
The first thing to do is, of course, to clearly define your marketing objectives in order to produce an effective piece.
- Are you looking to acquire new customers?
- Do you want to encourage consumers to buy online or in-store?
- Is it to retain your customers?...
Identify your target audience
To know which strategy to adopt, it's essential to define your targets. There's a simple trick for this: target your print readers based on customer data!
Go through your customer files to study their profiles. Then list bestsellers, top-rated products, items added to wishlists…
Thanks to all the information already collected about your customers from your e-commerce site, you'll be able to determine which products or which collection to feature.
Follow trends
While creating your magalogue, keep trends in mind to arrange your layout wisely and highlight the most popular products.
Bring together everyone who can guide you on upcoming trends: product designers, marketing specialists, trend directors…
You can also simply ask your loyal customers what they would like to find in their magalogue.
Either through satisfaction surveys or polls on social media.
All this research will also help you identify which products should be featured in specific content.
Create relevant content
You have selected the most popular products on your online store; now it’s time to create quality content to add strong value to them.
Today, buyers are short on time and primarily look for solutions.
The goal is to inspire, to make your readers dream, but also to provide them with valuable advice.
Like home decor magazines, your magalogue should be full of practical information through articles, tutorials, and tip sheets.
Refine the design
To attract customers and make them want to browse your magalogue, you must pay particular attention to its design and especially the cover.
The magalogue cover is the first point of contact with the customer and should therefore reflect your company’s image, which should also be present throughout the inner pages.
- Stay true to your visual identity and your brand guidelines by keeping the same colors, typefaces and design of the logo present on your e-commerce site.
- Use only high-quality, high-resolution images.
- Polish the presentation of your marketing content with compelling headlines and space out your text for better readability.
- Favor minimalism and play with white space to showcase your products. A clean, understated look will be much more pleasant to read than pages crowded with ad boxes.
Tell a story
A good magalogue should allow the customer to envision themselves with the product. Put your products in context and tell a story around them.
Use the conventions of storytelling in your descriptive content. Your audience should be able to imagine your product in their own context when they have it in hand.
Find the right balance between print and digital
Your magalogue is an important communication tool in your marketing strategy, but it should complement your e-commerce site rather than replace it.
The challenge will be finding the right balance between printed content and the online experience.
Strategically, the paper medium should lead the reader to visit your website or mobile app.
To do this, consider sprinkling information or giving your readers the option to complete the information by directing them to your site.
Create synergy between magalogue and e-commerce
Offer a unique experience to your audience by integrating scannable links.
For example, by hovering their smartphone over a photo, the user is immediately taken to a demonstration video or a gallery of similar products.
Most modern consumers are connected and are big fans of interaction.
Adding a visual search function to your magalogue also positions you as a pioneer, which is excellent for your reputation and your brand image.
Connect your magalogue
Finally, as part of a print-to-web approach, connect your magalogue to all your distribution channels: website, social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…), but also to your Google My Business listing (especially if you do local commerce), your e-commerce platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.).
Our advice
You now have the basics to create a magalogue.
But before that, there's one essential point not to be overlooked: writing strong editorial content.
It's essential to work with excellent professional web copywriterscontributors to turn your magalogue into a profitable, high-performing advertising tool.
