Stop Printing Product Guides and Go Digital

by Leigh Hamer | Last Updated: Sep 19, 2022

We’re talking about those thick tomes, cataloging every single product your company produces. The product guide that took months to design, edit, print, and ship. Only then have it be immediately considered outdated as prices change, new accessories get launched, and listed sales contacts change. How defeating. Stop printing them. Save a tree. Save the printing cost. Save your sanity. Seriously, stop printing product guides. Instead, create a digital product guide. A digital product guide will allow your team to showcase the same product information in a user-friendly format. A typical printed product guide page shows a product image with a brief description, a specification chart, and compatible accessories. In a digital format, the product can come to life.

A carousel of product images replaces a static, single image. Or an interactive image that highlights the product’s key features.
Customers can watch a video demo of the product in action.
Customers can click on compatible accessories to learn more.
Pricing and online purchase options can be included.

A familiar problem product marketers experience with a printed product guide is updating customers when there are changes. As a result, the printed guide is not trusted as loyal customers, and sales teams know information changes. A digital product guide can be a trusted source of truth. Sales teams know where to find the most accurate information. Notations can be made in the digital version letting users know when updates were made last. Customers have confidence, and it reinforces their hard-earned loyalty. A Retail Dive survey found that 44 percent of consumers said they would abandon a brand because they couldn’t find specific information, and 23 percent said they would ditch a brand for receiving conflicting information. Digital allows your team to iterate. Instead of having accurate information available to your customers once a year, you’d have precise product details every day of the year. Digitizing your product guide becomes a touchpoint in your digital product experience. Seventy percent of consumers’ purchases take place outside of retail stores, according to IDC. This means your customers are considering researching products, and buying products online. The question is are they considering your products or your competitors’ products? A digital product guide is a valuable part of the customer journey. Prospective customers can explore a digital product guide to find what fits their needs. Returning customers will access a digital product guide to find accessories or additional products now that you’ve earned their business. Perks of going digital:

Interactive content. Customers can subscribe to product information emails.
Multimedia content. Products can come to life with videos of customer testimonials or live demonstrations.
Measurable engagement. You can’t count views of a print piece, let alone how long users spend on different sections. With digital, you gain insights into how your customers engage with your content and what content they aren’t using.

It's time to stop printing product guides and take an audience-first approach when devising product communications by going digital. But first, choose a digital experience tech partner to ensure you have the tools to create a compelling and scalable digital product guide that stands out among the competition.

Stop Printing Product Guides and Go Digital

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