Print is often the first choicePrinted brochures, catalogues and magazines still exist although the presence of internet and digitalisation was supposed to kill print media. However, they were not replaced by digital media because both have advantages and disadvantages. Nowadays, no one believes that digital media replace print media any more. They will stay an important tool in communications and the media world. Printed papers, magazines, catalogues, brochures and prospects can be more than just information. When it comes to leaving a sustainable impression or show emotions, print still is the first choice.
Internet with many advantages
The internet has many advantages which a print product can not fulfill. Linking to other, supplemental material, direct links to products in an online-shop or the opportunity of integrating videos or animations. There are even more arguments for digital media but print products have their strenghts as well. A combination of both to use advantages of print and digital media would be ideal.
The best of two worlds
There is no such medium combining all advantages of print and digital. However, you can prepare an existing print product for making it readable online. Furthermore, you can add more content such as videos, links or interactive elements and deliver added value to the customer. When a good print product already exists you can get the best out of both worlds easily.
Free of charge but not optimal
Online catalogues can be generated for free on different internet platforms (e.g. ISSUU or Yumpu). These free offers have disadvantages though. The advertising is quite annoying In the B2B sector it is not imaginable but maybe for B2C the advertising might be acceptable. Enhancing the catalogue with links, videos etc. is not or only limited possible. Furthermore you should consider that contents like these will not bring the customer to your website. Publishing on these platforms has even more negative results. By hosting and publishing content on external servers you do not have any search engine ranking.
Do more out of it
There are other ways. Suitable softwares help to generate and prepare online catalogues. These softwares have many advantages. The opportunities of enhancing interactive elements are much wider. One important aspect is that you can implement the online catalogues in your own web presence. Thus, you bring users to your website. Online catalogues can be developed and optimized in a special way to be found by search engines. There are different technologies used for creating online catalogues. You should not use catalogues on „Flash“ basis but use HTML5. This is the only way to get the most out of the two worlds.