Now, I'm sure that immediately some people are going to question whether or not catalogs are truly a marketing device. They're a great form of marketing if you want them to be. I know many companies who don't see them as such, and so fail to gain the level of marketing they could've gotten with them, but I guess that's a topic for another discussion.



Going back to the subject at hand, catalogs are a very interesting fusion of both images and words. You're going to have to carry on a balancing act between the two if you want to have the best results, because too much of one or the other will end up hurting the overall image of your catalog.

First I'll discuss what each one does for your catalog.

The images are more than just a picture of the products, thought they certainly act as such. A person needs to be entertained when looking through your catalog if you want them to go all the way through it. Catalog printing is no different than a magazine in this sense. You have to give people something interesting if you want to hold their attention.

The images do just that. They vary up the pages, give people something new and unique to look at on every page. The bigger and more unique the images are the more people will have interest in what they see.

The writing tells them what they're looking at. But once again, your writing needs to do more than just that if you want to keep a person interested. Make your writing both interesting and good at connecting to your customers. You're giving them a reason why they should buy the product. This is how you convince them that this is a good thing to own for them in particular.

Now we get to the combination of the two. You need to both inform and entertain at the same time, which means a nice combination of images to keep them visually interested and descriptions that helps bring these things closer to them. They'll be intrigued by the picture, and the words will explain why they should turn that interest into a purchase.

Pick up any magazine and you'll notice the very same thing. They always have a nice dose of both images and words to keep a person turning until the last page. There's no reason to make your catalog anything less.

If you want to be sure that someone will read through your catalog from beginning to end, be sure you give them something worth reading. The best way to do that is by ensuring you have the best balance possible to your catalogs.