Catalogs are effective marketing tools that can set you apart from competitors and help you increase your sales, brand awareness, responses, and so much more. But when it comes to getting inspired to create the perfect catalog marketing campaign, you’ll need some great catalog marketing examples to get you thinking creatively.

We’ve discussed the different types of catalogs and shared some catalog marketing ideas in our blogs “7 Steps to a Successful Catalog Marketing Strategy” and “6 Catalog Marketing Ideas Beyond Product Catalogs.” Now let’s take a look at some catalog marketing examples so you can get a better idea of different ways you can take advantage of catalog marketing plus when you should use them.

Promotional Catalog Marketing Examples

Share Your Products

Product catalogs are the most common type of catalog, so you may not need much inspiration other than design tips to maximize your marketing results. However, there are some really effective ways to deliver your product catalog to the people who matter most.

For example, if the goal is to get people to visit your store, you can mail out your catalog to those who live a certain driving distance away from your store’s location. Or if the goal is to have people visit your website to place an order, send your catalog to those who have similar interests as your current customers and include a QR code for them to easily access your website.

Offer Your Services Effectively

Catalogs have a longer shelf life than any other printed material, which means when you create a catalog featuring the services you offer, your audience will hold on to your catalog and keep your brand top of mind when it comes time for them to need one of the services you offer.

Create a mailing list of potential customers who live close by to your business and mail them one of your service listing catalogs.

Promote Your Big Sale

If your company has a sale at different times of the year or is planning a big sale for a company milestone, a catalog promoting your sale is a marketing strategy your company needs!

Include your promotional catalog in a direct mail marketing campaign so that you can inform customers and prospects of your huge sale. They’ll be able to flip through your catalog to get an idea of what they can take advantage of, and you can guarantee you’ll get an increase in sales.

Advertise Your Business

Real estate, food and beverage, construction, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and every industry in between can benefit from a catalog that features everything that makes its brand special.

Think of a catalog like this as your website in a summarized, physical form. Include your company’s story, what it offers, reasons why your business is better than the rest, case studies, and more.

Informational Catalog Marketing Examples

Invite Your Audience to Your Event

Create a stunning catalog that informs your customers and potential ones of fundraisers, seminars, tradeshows, conferences, or other events your company may host or attend.

By taking advantage of this catalog marketing example yourself, you can ensure that the number of people who attend your event to support your organization or to learn more about your company will be increased tremendously.

Share Your Nonprofit’s Mission

So many nonprofits benefit from an annual report catalog that shares with their audience their activities and achievements over the year. And if your nonprofit has information to share with people who are interested in your organization’s mission, then you can benefit from an annual report catalog as well!

The goal is to bring supporters closer to your nonprofit and to gain new supporters, so consider mailing a catalog sharing your organization’s mission to your supporters and potential ones.

Strengthen Your Brand from The Inside Out

Larger companies and even smaller ones can benefit from a catalog that is created specifically for its employees.

For example, if you own a franchise, you could create a catalog with your franchise brand guidelines to give to new franchisees. Or creating a training manual catalog can help strengthen the training process of your new employees. You could even create an annual company catalog that lists out the year’s goals to keep your team pumped and on top of reaching those goals.

Portfolio Catalog Marketing Examples

Create a Recipe Catalog

If you’re in the food industry, consider putting together a recipe catalog that you can sell, you can even sell the ingredients to go along with each recipe so your customers can bring your wonderful dishes into their own kitchen.

Not in the food industry but think a cookbook sounds like a good idea? Mail out a recipe catalog as a gift to customers filled with your company’s favorite recipes or ask your customers to submit their favorite recipes to be featured in your cookbook. You can then feature a service or product you offer with each recipe.

Share What’s in Style This Year

In the beauty or fashion industry? Send out a catalog full of hairstyles that are in style or styles that are in season in a direct mail marketing campaign. You can choose a mailing list you already have or create one with consumers who are most likely interested in what you have to offer.

You can even share what was in style last year. For example, if you own a creative ad agency, put together a portfolio catalog of all your creations you’re most proud of over the year to share with prospects.

Show Off Your Designs Professionally

Photography portfolio catalogs, fashion portfolio catalogs, jewelry catalogs, and more. No matter what you create, a portfolio catalog showcasing all your designs is a must for any creative.

You can then create a mailing list of potential clients to send your portfolio catalog to. Don’t forget to keep some on hand to give to potential clients as you meet them.

Topic Focused Catalog Marketing Examples

Share a Specific Line of Products

Sometimes focusing on a certain portion of what your company offers is the perfect way to reach a target audience.

For example, if you own an outdoor/sports store, try a catalog featuring only your camping essentials and then create a mailing list of people who are interested in camping.

Feature a Specific Service

Just like sharing a specific line of products, you can create a catalog that features a specific service you offer or a specific division of your business and reach a more targeted audience who is interested.

These are just a handful of catalog marketing examples you can try for yourself and don’t be afraid to get creative and build off one of the above examples. Or go with a completely “unique to your business” idea. No matter which direction your catalog marketing takes, when you’re ready, we are here to help you create and deliver your prefect catalog project.