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Extend the Life of Your Catalog

As I mentioned previously, I'm a big believer and having a printed catalog I think it's really important to have one um but I know firsthand that they cost a pretty penny and that they take a lot of time to develop even if you outsource that you still have to be actively involved in the editing process and providing the information that goes into that catalogues. So again, you know, extend the life of that catalog by if you print the catalog I mentioned earlier, you know, you can printed every twelve months to eighteen months that's kind of the life span that you can get it if you go past eighteen months, you're probably gonna have too many pieces to include insert at that point, you just you have too much new to add so you digital should always be current. So somebody was asking about these insert sheets earlier, we talked a little bit about your pricing in terms if you're unsure on how to do those and insert, she is simply just a piece of paper like I printed my net kinko's or fedex ...

kinko's, whatever it's called now, but because my page was the catalogs a vast ice sheet I could put for I'm sorry, but to just front back on one and they cut it down and then that's it beautifully inside my catalog and so you know for pricings in term pricing, in terms of your sales terms, this is a really good option if those change or if you're uncomfortable printing, you're those details inside your catalog, eso let's talk about new releases and that's come up both from the online audience as well as our in studio audience inserts are are your your friend for this too? You would just use the same type of template the's, whether it's, the bigger size or the smaller size you would use the same layout tow ad you new products in and use the same headers, the same footers, whatever it might be, and you just printed out on regular paper. You could use a little bit of a nicer stock if you want, it won't be the same quality for the most part that you know your actual printed catalog is on, but that's okay, so just you you want to make sure, though the flow of it feels good that it matches that it's cohesive, so if you use, like in cara's example, you know, use that footer across the bottom. Any uncertainty is just use that same template and drop your drop your products in, drop your skews in, and then add those in so ideally, you only want one insert for each new release you have two sides of a page and depending on how big your catalog is, you might have any in half by eleven sheet for that we're a smaller size sheet so just, you know, for each new release stick that in there and again when you're starting out, you're probably only going to have one or two releases a year working your way up to that more three to four releases so it most there'd probably be three or four inserts and you really don't want to go beyond that you want at that point, start thinking about redesigning and redeveloping in captivity so for these inserts story also need to include its own like terms and conditions like treated like it's a mini catalog or are okay treat it as if it's just actually paves that goes in your catalog because really the terms and conditions and all of that are already going to be in there hopefully unless it's its own insert but no, it is the same rules apply right? You're your minimum orders aren't changing minimum quantities aren't really changing unless it's a new product category in which case you could put that in your product descriptions tio so for like for doing digital catalogue and updating it would we upload on issue like just one sheet of new or we have to like uh plug it into our digital, you know, file and then upload it. I see a lot of nodding heads in the game, you know, that's a really great question. No, I would repackage it as a full new catalog for your digital version. So, you know again, we talked about creating templates and setting up these systems so that you can easily drop product in just you can create your new page, you can create a new page in in design and then just packages. So in a way, when you create that pdf that it does create one full front to back catalog, but it just has a new page excited. Does that make sense? Yes. Ok. And just in that case, with issue, you would just want to override your previous one or else upload as a new file and pulled down your old one. Okay, I usually only recommend that people keep one you know the most only the most current up because you don't want to confuse people. S o we mentioned this when we're talking about catalogs with care about dating your catalogs across two years is a great way. Tio thank you. Dating your catalogs across two years is a great way to really lengthen the life of your catalog, especially care about up a really good point about the buying seasons for your types of products for her case in the stationery world people are really releasing these things in may because that's the big show for that industry however, if you are in general gift or you know laura, you were talking about the jewelry show what time of years that spring it's the same his fashion so it would be like spring would be you'd be doing the following fall and fall you're doing the following spring okay, so in that case I think you could still just get away with one every twelve to eighteen months but just plan around that so you know, it's didn't have just having insert for one of those okay? Yeah yeah so when if you did it before the spring time, whether you're going to the shore not again remember we want to build this out that you're releasing these things at the same time people are interested in buying you do before your spring showtime on then before fault you could just add your inserts who thinks? Yeah um and the new york give show that's typically end of january early february or august, so if you know you'd want to try to coordinate with that, okay, we mentioned this briefly already, but you want to use these excess catalogs or really when you're deciding how many catalogs to purchase, you want to think about all that print uses, right? So it's your sales tool and you're going to use it when you're doing outreach to your retailers for direct sales outreach, but you also want to think about it from a marketing standpoint, so you're going to include them in your orders. You're going tio, if you have leftovers, you're going to want to do a catalog campaign where you send them out with, you know, a note or something, but think about all of that, like it's, such a hard thing to estimate how many catalogs you you need to print, but I will say nowadays there are so many different options for printing these, and you can get smaller quantities now where is they feel like when I was starting this in two thousand eight, it was like two hundred fifty was the minimum I could do, so it was really intimidating to make that jump, because that was pretty pricey. So anyhow, when you're trying to decide how many catalogs think of the the long game tio of, like, ok, if I don't use all of these for the different intended method, what am I going to do with them? Because I don't want to check on the nurse cycling, then so again, you think of creative ways you can use them mainly through marketing channels before his move into the splurge or skin section where we talk about budget and where you can really spend your money. Were there any questions from anyone in the studio or the online audience about extending life? And we kind of touched on it when we're talking with care, and then also afterwards, you have another question today? No it's fine, so because we're not including all the terms and conditions and all that nitty gritty stuff with these inserts when we do ah, marketing campaign, when we do a release and we're like mailing them out tio potential retailers or currently teller a customer's, we're assuming they still have our catalog, right? Which what if they do it away? What if they can't find it? It would just be this little let me clarify that's a really great point, so when you add these inserts, you're going to send that if you do this marketing campaign with any remaining catalogs, you're going to add the inserts and send the whole so you don't want to assume that they still have your old catalog. You always want to send them the most current package, and whether that's just a fresh catalog that's off the press or whether that's, a catalog it's been in use a while, but it has the inserts in it you'd send the whole thing is a complete so that's typical to plan for sending catalogs the the same person maybe like twice or three times and budget for that? Um, it depends on how big your list is and we're going to talk about building your mailing lists during our marketing to retailers course, because I do talk about prioritizing your legs sting kind of determining who are your higher priority fires and so, um, I think you want to factor in some buffer you want to take a note consideration, ok, if you're going to show how many you know, you want to bring one hundred fifty or so to show if you excuse me for one hundred fifty's writer on the right number, but so then like, what other buffer do you want? Like, you know, if you're expecting a certain volume of orders, ok? And you know what I mean, like you're going to have to ask me, but then it really just blows down numbers to sometimes you're looking at ok? Well, if I'd bump this two, five hundred, the price differentials, not that not that bad and then I'm going to have these extras I mean, you do have to factor in the cost of shipping these out he was a mailing thing, but I wouldn't plan for okay, I'm going to email or I'm sorry I'm going to mail this retailer this catalog four times a year I wouldn't necessarily recommend that is more of don't let these go to waste if you have catalogs and dated twenty fifteen like even now get them out you know I know it's twenty sixteen already but send him out and instead of pitching them in the trash line so um let's see here catherine holloway says for holiday would you include that just as an insert or in the original printing of the catalog? You know even if the catalog must extend past holiday season um some people do this a couple of different ways they either have a separate catalog dedicated to holiday I think it or they in include the holiday in their catalog I like to keep things as compact as possible so I like including in my catalog but I think it really also depends on whether or not you're ready to include it during the appropriate buying season if you're not if you don't think it will be ready in time, then do it as a separate catalog or you know kind of kind of taking the consideration tio with the buying cycle is for holiday did she say what kind of products she offers? Um no she did not. For example, in the greeting card world, the holidays stuff is always sold at the stationery show in may that's where people usually offered for the first time and buyers dubai later in the season, too, but for the most part, they're placing orders even before may for holiday, and they'll just place orders that ship later in the year. And so you know, if you're not going to be ready with that holiday product part of that show, you wouldn't put in your catalog because you still need to create that catalog for the show. Does that make sense? So in that case you'd probably make it a stand alone piece or you use an insert. Add that to it later, and smurfy had a follow up question to that. If you do put all the seasonal stuff on one catalog, do you put the dates when the stock will be available and they're, um, second question. So, um, if you're not, if it's not an inventory straight away, if it won't be shipping to certain timeframe, then that's where you'd want to say, you know, detail what the product is include the descriptions but then say, available for shipping on x date on dh. That should be clear enough.