The Digital Content Marketing Strategy for Product Catalogue Development

A product catalog is one of the most important parts of a digital content marketing strategy for every business. Whether you’re running a local roofing business or a real estate agency, you need a catalog to showcase your products or services. It’s a great tool to highlight your brand story and convert potential customers into loyal ones.

However, in today’s increasingly tech-savvy world, a traditional print version won’t make the cut. Instead, you need a digital product catalog to reinforce your brand’s online presence and reputation. It can go a long way to give you an edge over your competitors and position your brand as an industry leader. Also, it’s going to be a crucial part of your digital content marketing strategy.

Creating a digital catalog isn’t rocket science, you just have to use the right tools and make sure it’s visually appealing. In this blog, we’ll outline a concrete framework for building a digital catalog from scratch. But let’s first delve deeper into the benefits of giving your product gallery a digital makeover.

Why Do You Need A Digital Catalog?

If you can’t remember the last time you laid your hands on a printed company brochure/catalog, you’re not alone. This is because many modern businesses have switched to digital or online versions. While digital catalogs lack the tangibility of their traditional counterparts, they offer a wide range of benefits.

Convenience

To begin with, your target consumers can access your digital catalog anywhere, anytime--as long as they’ve got internet access. Apart from the obvious convenience, this type of content is also easier to share. If a reader likes your products, they can quickly share the catalog with their networks. This, in turn, will increase brand awareness and help you reach new audience segments.

For instance, home improvement companies can develop visually stunning catalogs that showcase their previous projects. This kind of digital content can be easily shared with potential customers so they can explore various options and have a better appreciation for your company’s work.

Link and Media Addition

Digital catalogs enable you to embed links to specific product pages, meaning if a consumer likes a particular product in the catalog, they just have to click the corresponding link to start an order. This could go a long way to optimize your sales process and skyrocket conversions.

Apart from links, you can include different forms of media, including audio and video. This could come in handy for highlighting key product features and the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Additionally, readers can view various product customizations to determine whether it’s the right fit for their needs.

Monitoring

Online catalogs are also easier to monitor and can give you an insight into audience engagement. For instance, Ingage provides useful analytics to help you identify the product pages that are garnering maximum traction. You get an idea of what’s working and what isn’t. And, you can use this data to improve your product showcase.

‍

‍

Additionally, creating a digital catalog eliminates various expenses, such as the cost of printing, transporting and distributing multiple physical copies. Even updating or adding new information to an online collection is straightforward, fast and efficient. It sounds like a win-win situation for your business, customers and the environment, doesn’t it?

Wondering how to start designing your online product catalog to boost your digital content marketing strategy?

Steps to Create a Digital Catalog

Building a digital catalog isn’t just about adding high-quality product images and descriptions to a slide deck. Just like implementing a digital content marketing strategy, you need an actionable plan to create an impressive product presentation. From identifying your target audience to monitoring reader engagement, it involves a few steps.

1. Define Your Goals

Do you want to use your catalog to directly sell your products? Or do you just want to showcase company information and build awareness? Perhaps, you’d like to generate more qualified leads? It’s essential to have a clear idea of your end goals before you start building the product showcase.

At this stage, you should define your key performance indicators (KPIs) as well. KPIs are measurable metrics or targets that help you determine the catalog is helping you achieve your goals.

For example, manufacturers of construction materials can identify featured product lines. Different types of building materials can be highlighted in various catalogs depending on the audience.  Or, they can push premium products for better sales opportunities.

2. Know Your Audience

The next step is to delve deeper into your target consumers’ needs and preferences. Your product catalog's appearance and tone would vary depending on whether you’re targeting C-suite executives or stay-at-home parents.

Use feedback forms, online surveys, website analytics and social media polls to identify key demographic parameters, such as:

• Age group
• Profession
• Academic background
• Socio-economic status

3. Find the Right Tools

You need a feature-rich software solution to design your product catalog. The most obvious choice is to use design software, such as Adobe InDesign. However, these applications restrict your ability to share and update the content on-the-go. That’s why it is wiser to use a cloud-based content creation platform.

Apart from getting access to professional-looking pre-built templates, Ingage lets you import any existing catalog. It’s easy-to-use and lets you add various media elements to make it interactive and engaging. You can share the catalog with your team members and potential customers across any device. Plus, it delivers insightful analytics to help you assess reader behavior and preferences.

‍

‍

4. Leverage Multimedia

If you want to harness the full potential of your online catalog, make sure you add plenty of relevant multimedia. Let’s say you’re selling homes. Instead of listing each home with 20-plus images,  opt for a detailed video walkthrough of the space. It’ll help create a stronger connection to the buyer and persuade them to make an offer.

5. Don’t Forget to Proofread

Once you’ve finished designing the product pages and adding relevant descriptions, it’s crucial to proofread the content. The last thing you want is to turn potential customers away because of typos and inconsistent language. Carefully read every product description and headline aloud to eliminate incorrect grammar and spellings. Keep an eye on how the content is flowing and whether your tone is consistent throughout the catalog.

Get Started Today

An online catalog has become indispensable to successfully executing a digital content marketing strategy and building your business. It can be instrumental in reinforcing brand reputation and improving conversions. However, you should have a deep understanding of your target audience and end goals before you start creating a digital catalog. It’s just as crucial to make your product showcase visually attractive by incorporating images, graphics, animations, and videos.

Can’t wait to start attracting new customers with an interactive digital catalog? Contact us today to get things going.