Marketers can use print catalogs with QR codes to get useful analytics.

Matthew Parker, printing consultant, has made some interesting predictions for 2012. We’ve mentioned one already in an earlier post. His second prediction is that we will hearing more about ROI for print. This is a big idea. As Matthew says, “Now that print will drive prospects to other channels, its success can be properly measured.”

If there is one thing that gets marketers out of their chairs, it is data. They must be able to measure each facet of a marketing campaign. As we have all heard a thousand times, if it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed.

No question that has been a past weakness of print. How many people saw that printed piece? How many took action? What happened after that? There were not enough answers. Any marketer doing his or her job will eliminate tools that cannot be accurately measured.

QR codes change everything. Now you have objective information. Now you can assess value.

Every QR code in a brochure or catalog produced by Catalog-on-Demand is unique. When a reader scans that code, Catalog-on-Demand instantly “knows” which publication and which product correspond to that code. Everything possible is recorded for every scan. The date, time, publication ID, product ID, IP address, browser, redirect URL, and more are instantly logged in the Catalog-on-Demand analytics database. Both simple and advanced analyses are available.

We are interested in working with partners who would like to couple this data with other analytics.

Give Catalog-on-Demand a try and start collecting measurable results of your own. You’ll find that the campaign variations are unlimited. Create targeted brochures and catalogs for events, conferences, seasons, and specific customers. You will learn more about your customers that was ever before possible. Contact us anytime with questions or comments.

Increased web traffic is the main reason to integrate print and digital. Custom print catalogs are ideal for this role.

A recent survey by Charterhouse shows that “the majority (70%) of marketers are using print to drive interest to their digital content.  The most common objective, stated by 61% of respondents, is to increase traffic to their website.”

This is consistent with what Catalog-on-Demand customers are saying. PDF catalogs are a way to drive more site visits, especially with QR codes.

Matthew Parker, a printing consultant who writes for PrintWeek, predicts that in “2012 print will be truly interactive”. Print will not stand on its own — it will be used in “conjunction with other channels”. Matthew goes on to say that “QR codes will become commonplace”.

There is no simpler and more cost-effective way than Catalog-on-Demand to position your own e-business in line with these trends. You can use product data and images from any source to automatically create your print catalogs. This includes your shopping cart or e-commerce system. Contact us anytime with questions or comments.

Print catalogs with QR codes help support big mobile purchases

We can all see that consumers are shopping more on their phones. What is equally interesting is that mobile buyers are making bigger purchases too.

GigaOM reports that “on average, the most expensive thing Americans have purchased on a smartphone or tablet cost $274″. the study was commissioned by Motricity and conducted by Wakefield Research.

The same article notes that “mobile advertising company JiWire surveyed 2,000 of its mobile users and found that 68 percent were willing to spend up to $250 on a mobile purchase, while 18 percent would make purchases of more than $500″. It stands to reason that B2B purchases will be even larger.

This trend dovetails with the emerging role of custom print catalogs with QR codes. E-businesses will get the best ROI on custom print catalogs when using them for big ticket items. It is a high-impact way of engaging buyers to a degree that is otherwise impossible.

Try using Catalog-on-Demand to create custom print catalogs for your e-business. See how they help sales to your key customers. Contact us anytime with questions or comments.

More QR codes in magazine ads suggests that print catalogs will soon follow

The QR code research keeps coming in, and the story gets stronger all the time. Here is a report from Nellymoser about the use of QR codes in the top 100 magazines. This is what they say about 2011: “the number of magazine action codes grew a dramatic 617%, from just 88 in January to 631 in December.”

Clearly, advertisers believe that QR codes in print have an important role in mobile marketing. It is not a big reach to see that print catalogs will also become an important vehicle for QR codes.

Nellymoser sees a similar trend in retail. They examined 700 retail stores in the Boston area during the 2011 holiday season. They found that 1 in 14 stores are displaying QR codes. They do not offer any historical data, but we can all agree that this is a new phenomenon.

They observed that ”the nature of the stores using it and the emphasis on lasting engagement with customers indicates that it is a leading indicator of future QR code growth.”

Catalog-on-Demand offers e-businesses a simple way to create custom print catalogs with QR codes. Get in front of the trend and try it out soon. Please contact us anytime with questions or comments.

Print catalogs from your phone - Download PDFs

Print catalogs from your phone - Select products

Print catalogs from your phone - Personalize

We’ve already blogged about how print catalogs with QR codes drive mobile users to your site. Now how about using your mobile device to make those print catalogs?

Let’s say you just got off the phone with a prospect. You’re not at your desk. You need to follow-up and close the deal. What could make more impact than a custom print catalog?

The catalog would include the products that you talked about, plus a few others that you selected. It is branded with your logo and your colors. It would include one or two of your ads. Most importantly, it contains QR codes to drive them back to the product pages on your site.

When the PDF is ready, you will receive an email with a link. You can also get the link from your mobile browser. It is up to you whether to email the link to the customer, or print and send it.

If you are working with a print service provider (PSP), soon you will be able to log in to Catalog-on-Demand directly from your printer’s site. You’ll be able to specify the print and binding options, and where to send it. Ask your printer to contact us for simple integration details. There is no charge for them to do this.

If you are already a Catalog-on-Demand customer, try it out. It takes only a few minutes.

1. Using the desktop version of Catalog-on-Demand, go to “My Configurations” and check one or more as Mobile.
2. Using any smart phone or tablet, go to www.catalog-on-demand.com/mobile. Sign in.
3. The navigation bar at the top of the screen tells you where you are in the process. Begin by tapping one of your configurations.
4. Enter the catalog title and your contact information (it will use your entries from the desktop version as defaults). Tap Next.
5. Navigate the tree to select which products to include. Tap the + symbol to select. When finished, tap Next.
6. Review the list of products. De-select by tapping the red X. Tap Publish.
7. Enter a Job ID. This is for your purposes only. It is not published. Tap Publish.
8. After a minute or two, you will see the job appear in the History.
9. Download when it is finished. Or download the PDF from your email notification.

Automatically reduce page count with smart sorting and auto-width features

Getting the page count as low as possible is important for catalogs that contain lots of products. The main reason, of course, is that it helps bring down printing costs. It is also more convenient for the reader.

Fortunately Catalog-on-Demand has two useful features to help achieve this critical objective: (a) Product Sort Options; and (b) Product Page Width.

Product Sort Options — If you set this to Optimized for best fit within category, then Catalog-on-Demand will automatically rearrange the products for you. Don’t worry, it will not move products out of their category. For example, it will not put a safety product in with office supplies. However, it will move product placement within a category, much the same as a human graphic designer would do. If for any reason you don’t want this smart sorting feature, it is easily disabled.

Product Page Width — If you set this to Auto-width, then Catalog-on-Demand will automatically choose the best layout arrangement for each product. For example, see the image that is shown with this article. You can see that the first product is given full page width. This is because each SKU has multiple attributes. It is best displayed in a layout that goes the width of the page. The second and third products are simpler. Each of them easily fit in a half-page format. We usually recommend that new users start by trying out Auto-width. At any time you can change this setting to Half page width or Full page width. The settings will apply to all products within the catalog or brochure.

Related Posts

• Make Complex Products Look Good in Print Catalogs with Full Page Width
• Not Just for Scanning — QR Codes in Print Catalogs are Clickable Too

High growth rate in familiarity with QR and other mobile codes

InfoTrends has come out with an interesting study about how mobile technology makes print interactive.

They estimate that more than 180 million Americans are familiar with mobile codes. Use of mobile codes by marketers has nearly tripled in the past year. They point out that “offline platforms can be used as a springboard for online engagement with the use of mobile technology”.

We encourage you to try using Catalog-on-Demand to make custom print catalogs with QR codes. See for yourself how interactive print catalogs and brochures drive mobile traffic to your site. Please feel free to contact us anytime with questions or comments.

Related Posts

• Want to Engage Busy Mobile Customers? Try Custom Print Catalogs With QR Codes
• Not Just for Scanning — QR Codes in Print Catalogs are Clickable Too
• Use QR Codes in Custom Print Catalogs to Improve ROI

Print catalogs & brochures are in the top 5 fastest growing applications by print volume

For a concise look at big changes happening in the printing industry, read this fascinating commentary by Barb Pellow. She pulls out her crystal ball and looks at the top trends for 2012.

She points out that it is “all about digital color”, with a growth rate of more than 5% for the next several years.

Brochures and catalogs are #3 and #5 in her list of the top 10 fastest-growing applications that lead the migration to digital printing.

Software-as-a-service is central. “Print service providers of all sizes will turn to Software-as-a-Service solutions to minimize capital expenses, lower the complexity of their IT infrastructures, and deal with rapidly-changing end-customer needs.”

If you are a print service provider looking for a simple, yet powerful way to offer new and high-margin services to a broad customer base, start working with Catalog-on-Demand. Contact us today to see how it can be closely integrated with your existing solutions.

Related Posts

• Print Service Providers — Become Part of Deloitte Top 10 Trends for 2012 via Print Catalogs in the Cloud
• Print Catalog Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): The Radical Complement to eCommerce

The background image gallery streamlines making a PDF for every product page.

We’ve made it even easier to make a PDF flyer for every product on your e-commerce site. Not that there was much involved before. Once you upload your data, it takes only minutes to enter your configuration settings.

But one stumbling block for some customers has been the need to make a nice-looking background graphic for the PDF. Now even that obstacle has been removed. We offer a set of six images that you can use as the background to your PDF flyers. Each image has multiple shades, and can be easily colorized. Just choose the color that goes best with your e-commerce site.

Most businesses will eventually want to make their own custom background image. That functionality is still available. However, these images offer six professional-quality alternatives to help get you started this minute.

Give it a try! Flyer Edition is free, which gives you the ability to make a PDF for every product page, up to 1000 sku family groups (products).

Magento grouped products make cool print catalogs

If you’ve been working with Magento a while, you know about the “grouped product” feature. It lets you put several products on one product page. This is particularly useful for sets of related products.

What you probably did not know is that this feature also makes for interesting print catalogs. If you really want to grab your customer’s attention, try giving them a custom catalog that includes one or more grouped products. The layout is especially nice if each of the simple products within the grouped product has its own product image. And it is better still if you have an image at the group level too.

Once you have your grouped products set up in Magento, no additional configuration work is required in Catalog-on-Demand. The layout is completely automatic. If Catalog-on-Demand detects that there are images at the “simple product” level, it automatically displays the images in a vertical arrangement. If you have lots of simple products, they will be nicely stacked up on the page. And don’t worry if only some of your simple products have an image. Catalog-on-Demand will handle that just fine. Give it a try! Let us know if you have any problems or questions.