Step Up Sales with a Catalog Printed by PrintPlace.com

PrintPlace.com is an online printing company that offers the whole array of printed materials from business cards and stationery, to posters and menus. One somewhat out-of-the-ordinary product they can do is a catalog.

Many retailers traditionally marketed with catalogs, and some businesses sold exclusively through catalogs. Now that everyone markets online, new companies often do most, if not all, of their business on their websites. If you are one of those doing only online business, consider getting back in the over land market.

One hesitates to use the virtual world vs. real world comparison because all those Internet sales are very real and bring in real money, but it is a different marketing space and does not necessarily encompass your entire potential customer base.

Depending on what you market, of course, one venue may be much more appropriate than the other. If you sell only mp3s or e-books, then, with the exception of gift cards, there isn’t much reason for you to have a brick-and-mortar outlet or to waste paper printing a catalog since your audience is already tapped in to the virtual world; however, if you are selling physical products, such as clothing or decorative objects, then a paper catalog may be beneficial.

A printed catalog from Print Place will be particularly effective if groups of people will select or purchase items together. Team uniforms are a good example of this. If you have a group of people who all need to have input on a design, then it is much easier if they have a paper copy they can mark up and pass around, or each has a copy as opposed to needing each person to get online and look up the products for themselves.

The price of catalogs is very reasonable too. As an example, PrintPlace will do a minimum order of 250, with eight pages (the covers plus 4 pages) 8.5 x 5.5 inches on gloss text (100#) for $290, which is $1.16 each. If you are in a competitive market, that is easily less than the price of one click on a Google Adwords placement. People often hang on to catalogs when they see something that interests them, so your ad stays in their possession, unlike an online ad which is gone in a click, maybe not to be found again.

Shipping on that size order is only about $10 to just about anywhere in the Continental US, shipping out of Print Place’s facility in Arlington, Texas, by UPS Ground. The job turnaround time is only seven days, so you’ll have them in hand shortly after ordering.

Print Place provides templates for the catalog layout for both InDesign and Publisher so you can do your design layout knowing that it will print as you plan it to. The sizes of pages available range up to 12×18, and you can have 96 pages in a catalog, so there is a lot of versatility. It won’t hurt to look into it; you may find a very viable alternative in going “old school.”