What is a Product Catalog and why is it needed?
A product catalog is a type of marketing collateral that lists key product details that help buyers make a purchasing decision. These details include product features, descriptions, dimensions, price, weight, availability, color, customer reviews and more.
The best example of a product catalog is the Amazon marketplace, where you can find a wealth of information with a single click. Think about a book you are trying to buy - Amazon lists all the information you need. It includes the title, author name, publisher name, number of pages, a short summary of the book, price, dimensions, offers/discounts, reviews and more.
These documents are quite common in both B2B and B2C.
"A product catalog is a type of marketing collateral that lists key product details that help buyers make a purchase decision."
Who Needs Product Catalogs?
Product catalogs are useful for a variety of business users and groups, such as sales representatives, inside sales, buyers, store associates, field marketers and managers. Here's how each group uses it:
- Sales representatives and inside sales teams use a product catalog to convey important information about a product or service to their customers. They can refer to this catalog when communicating with their prospects and customers about the benefits of using their product.
- Buyers and decision makers need it as reference material when making purchasing decisions. It helps them compare different products/services from various vendors and decide on the most suitable option for their business.
- Store and warehouse managers, shift managers and operators use it to learn about the details of inventory in their warehouses.
- Field marketers can use it to demo their products and solutions to customers. This helps them dive deep into the products they offer and deliver value to their customers while the second group experiences the product.
External parties such as agents, partners, resellers and value-added resellers use it to get information about a product and service and share it with end users.
9 reasons why you need product catalogs
Before we go further, let's understand why we need product catalogs.
- To Collect Information
Information about products, such as technical data and specifications, is impossible to memorize. Documenting them in a usable format helps the user to have detailed information about a product. Publishing information in product information packs on websites allows customers to learn about a product without the intervention of a sales representative.
- Reduce Business Cycles
Imagine having to endlessly share information with customers over emails, with no positive results. Instead, sharing information in digital catalogs can help move the deal from one stage to the next. Presenting information to customers efficiently reduces bottlenecks in the business cycle.
- Help Sales Reps Make Sales
Sales representatives have one core responsibility: to make sales. Gathering product data from different sources within the business to distribute to customers is not a job for which they are paid. That's why digital catalogs help them effortlessly share information with their customers and make sales. It saves them valuable time as all the information they need is at their fingertips.
- Improve Conversion Rate
Product catalogs help businesses as salespeople increase conversion rates and customers/prospects can have contextual conversations instead of spending time on problem discovery and resolution. When customers have all the data they need, they can seek confirmation, make decisions and purchase products more efficiently.
- Improve Branding
Product information documents are useful places to promote a company's brand. Using different colors, images, cartoons, logo, font family and a call to action can make your brand stand out from the crowd. Some businesses record their history and journey to create a connection with their target audience without being physically present. This allows users to easily remember a brand after browsing product catalogs.
- Seamless Information Flow
It helps an organized flow of information between internal and external stakeholders, from source to final destination. Product marketing teams responsible for catalogs can publish information in content management systems (CMSs) for end users (sales teams and customer success teams) to use. No need to worry about legacy information in emails, CRMs, storage repositories, desktops and libraries.
- Generate Offline Sales
Nowadays, buyers research products online and buy them offline in shopping malls, stores, events, etc. In such cases, it is important to help customers with information on their cell phones and iPads to speed up the buying process. Websites, landing pages and microsites enable customers to search for the necessary information to make their decision.
- Improves User Experience
When customers find product information in a PDF or on a web page with images, links, reviews, pricing information, it improves their user experience. This brings them one step closer to making a purchase, especially when all information is consistent across different product categories. Instead of offering generic information, product marketers should anticipate the needs of buyers and create catalogs accordingly.
- Reduces Training Effort
When information about products and solutions is in a digital form, it reduces the need to train and onboard salespeople, partners, retailers and other users. It also shrinks the learning curve as users do not need manual intervention.
Components of a Product Catalog
What are the components of a product catalog? What should they have to help different stakeholders achieve their goals? A business cannot have multiple documents for various stakeholders unless they have different use cases.
To save you the hassle, we have analyzed documents from different industries and created a large list of must-haves. They are not specific to any company/industry, so choose the ones that are most relevant for your company:
Product Details (in alphabetical order)
1. Call to Action - What do you expect the target audience to do after seeing your flyer? Download it / email it / call you / share it on social media? Include this information to get users to contact you.
2. Certifications - List the certifications earned by the product, such as ISO 9001, ISO 27001, etc.
3. Components - Mention the key components, e.g. copper, steel, alloy. This element depends on your industry.
4. Customer credentials - Include the credentials of the approving customers.
5. Description - Briefly describe it so users can quickly scan it for reference.
6. Dimensions - Specify the length, height, width, weight and volume of the product.
7. Discounts - Are there any early booking/seasonal discounts for your product?
8. Features - Include the most important features of the product.
9. Warranty/Warranty - State any warranty or guarantee clauses that apply to the product.
10. Ideal conditions of use - Specify the best conditions and criteria for using the product. e.g. temperature, environment, etc.
11. Name of the product - What is the name of the product? If you have a brand name for it, be sure to include it.
12. Pictures - Pictures say more than words! It is the most critical component of a catalog.
13. Price - Specify the price of the product and the applicable currency/geography.
14. Returns - Under what conditions will the company accept the return of the product?
15. Safety precautions - If your product requires safety precautions before use, include them to inform and educate users.
16. Size - Name the size of the product.
17. Terms and Conditions - Specify the most typical terms and conditions of using the product.
18. Version - Name the version/release/series of the product. e.g. Windows 2016.
19. Year of launch - What year was the product released?
Product Catalog Management
Product catalogs are detailed documents that need to be organized and managed for greater benefit. Here are the different aspects of product catalog management:
- Storage/Organization
A business has various needs for publishing and storing product catalogs - teams, geographies, campaigns, marketing themes, business units, industries, genres, etc.
Depending on the unique needs of a business, content management systems can publish and store product documentation for its users to access and use. These digital documents must be searchable - which means CMSs need to add tags and descriptions to them.
- Timely Update
All products change - some are subtle changes, while the rest are completely overhauled. For example, a hardware product such as a laptop or a cell phone may undergo several upgrades in a year. In such cases, it is vital that product information is constantly updated. Especially in the case of sales teams, as they are in touch with customers.
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Product catalogs should be easily retrievable by the users who need them most. For example, an event marketer should be able to open a product datasheet on their iPad while manning a booth or talking to prospects on the sidelines. Content management systems help event marketers deliver the right marketing materials to the right prospect at the right time.
- Deployment to Users
Product brochures should be distributable to enhance the user experience and help buyers compare products and make instant decisions. One way to grab buyers' attention is to create personalized microsites with multiple product brochures, each containing vital information. This way, buyers can scroll through the different brochures and choose the one(s) that suits them.
- Performance Monitoring/Analysis
Users should be able to gain insights from the use of product factsheets. This information includes the number of views, downloads, reposts and time spent on each document. CMSs are powered by analytics features that help product managers, marketers and sales reps efficiently analyze product performance, increase sales and deliver a personalized user experience.
For example, in an email campaign, sales reps need to know which product catalog provides the most value to recipients. This helps sales reps to meaningfully engage with customers on sales calls and meticulously cater to their needs.
Product Catalogs - What You Still Need to Know
Buyers need to make decisions fast and businesses need to make the journey smooth. Product catalogs should have content that provides them with all the necessary information. Therefore, marketers need to know what makes their products a must-have for buyers and include this information.
Nur Oğuz