There are several different ways to reach out and touch prospects and customers. If you offer a variety of different products, you most likely have a printed catalog. You many also offer a catalog flipper on your website. But how do you let your customers and prospects know that your new catalog is available?
You could send postcards that are inexpensive, but unless you have a reliable, accurate database, that could be a waste of money. An old fashioned letter via snail mail is another option. Slim catalogs are an inexpensive way to get more information to a customer or prospect versus just a letter, but we’re back to the reliable, accurate database again.
Some marketers would deploy an email marketing campaign. It’s significantly cheaper than print. You can leverage your customer database with an email database you can purchase. It has been my experience that purchasing email databases is unreliable. How many different email addresses do you have and use? People change email addresses all of the time. In addition, not everyone likes or reads marketing or new catalog announcement emails, especially if they are getting bombarded by spam emails on a regular basis.
Pay-per-click, SEM/SEO and banner advertising are still viable options, but you need to be careful. PPC can be great, but you can blow a ton of cash from your budget faster than you can say “Google Adwords”. SEO/SEM works very well if your website is optimized. The key is getting into the heads of your customers and prospects. How are they searching for and finding your company on the internet? If you know and understand that, you can build a very effective SEO/SEM strategy.
And what about using social media to get the word out? Whether your company caters to B2B or B2C, social media is an excellent channel to tell the world about your new catalog.
Which channel is right for your business?
I have done a significant amount of work in the industrial supply market which was primarily B2B although we expanded more into the B2C space when we opened a store on Amazon. Over the years, we have seen a migration to digital technology, but print isn’t dead by any means. Email marketing has become an effective, inexpensive option. Social media which was born in the B2C market is migrating to B2B.
One thing I have learned over my 20+ years of marketing is that you need to use multiple channels to touch the right prospects and customers. Everyone has different preferences. Some like to order online through a website, social media or an app, others use printed catalogs and 800-numbers, and others still use fax or email. I recommend doing analysis on your customer and prospect ordering methods. Give the customer the option to review and order your products however they want to. With all of the digital browsing and ordering tools like smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops, and the speed in which new product information is delivered, you need to be ready to receive orders whatever what way your customers want to order. Do B2B companies, for example, have to have a mobile version of your website? Ask your customers. If that’s their preferred method of searching and ordering products, then you had better build it. If customers prefer that method, your competitors may have already figured that out.
As a firm believer in synchronized marketing, if you have a new catalog that you want to present to the marketplace, you need to use every marketing channel you can afford and more importantly, the ones which your customers and prospects prefer, and get the word out in one concise, synchronized branding message.
gregpalmer7 