Here are a few do's and don'ts I learned when creating catalogs and flyers that helped increase the profits of my ad campaigns.

 

1.) The cost of the catalog.  This is BY FAR #1 in my book because the only reason you're sending the catalog out is to make money, and if the cost is too high, you won't make any.  I really believe when you first start off with a list you should keep the catalog small, 4-8 pages max (size 8X11).  Reason being, if a customer trashes your catalog without even looking at it, it will be trashed if it's four pages or forty pages.  The only difference is a four page catalog with postage will cost you only 0.60 each while a forty pager will cost you over $4.00 each to print and send.  If you're going to get the same response, why spend more money on the catalog?  Then if you really want to send a bigger catalog, send them out only to people who respond to the smaller catalog first. 

 

There were a couple competitors of ours in the fashion jewelry business who were sending out 48-80 page catalogs.  This was ridiculously stupid for them.  I've received big catalogs like this before for audio equipment, cameras, electronics, etc., catalogs for items where the average sale price was $500 or more.  But to pay $6 to print and send out a catalog containing $30-$50 rings is ridiculous!  Since an average order is maybe $50, you'd need one out of every six people who received the catalog to buy something just to break even (factoring in cost of goods, the catalog, postage, etc.).  That's a 17% response rate!  You'll almost never get this and are guaranteed to lose money.  Needless to say, these competitors switched to smaller half sized catalogs with no more than 16 pages within six months, after losing 10's of thousands of dollars with those big catalogs.      

 

Note:  Once again this depends on what you’re selling.  Also, if you are using a smaller catalog which shows a few featured products this catalog MUST be directing people to a website with a full line of products.

 

2.)  Put the company name/web address and mailing address/phone in the footer of alternate pages.  At the bottom of every page the customer should see who you are, how to contact you, etc.

 

3.)  If you plan on doing a lot of advertising, have a nice company logo created.  You want people to recognize your company name and remember it.

 

4.)  Using people (models) in your catalog if applicable gives your company more credibility.  Look through other catalogs and 80% of them have people in them somewhere, at the very least they have a person on the cover or once somewhere in the catalog.  Readers are used to seeing models in the major company catalogs.  You have a better chance of being considered a major company if you have models in your catalogs too.

 

Getting models for your ads is a lot easier than you may thing.  We got ours from One Model Place.  The going rate is $100 an hour but this is negotiable.  Also in an hour you can take several photos for many ads.

 

5.)  If you don't know how you want your catalog/flyer to look, go through other catalogs and study their layouts.  Look at them closely and decide what you like and don't like about the them.  Then when you design your catalog/flyer, or have a designer make it, incorporate all the likes and dislikes you've found.