How to create a product catalog easily and quickly?
12 tips and steps to create a catalog
Because deadlines are tight, requirements are numerous, and the work can be tedious, creating your product catalog may seem difficult. That’s why, in this article, we provide you with advice on how to create a professional and perfectly executed catalog, and above all, how to do it more easily and quickly!
Tips, advice, steps, automation software, etc. … Discover in this article many elements that will help you improve the quality of your catalog, limit the risk of errors, reduce back-and-forth exchanges and proofreading rounds, and cut the time spent on creation by 30 to 50% (yes, it’s possible!).
Who is this for? Whether you are an internal or external graphic designer, a layout artist, a freelancer, an agency, a service provider, etc., these tips may prove useful in making product catalog creation easier.
Reading time: 5 minutes.
Would you prefer personalized advice and a live demonstration? Request a demo for Interactiv’ Publisher and discover the steps to create a product catalog in InDesign with the EasyCatalog plug-in.
💡In summary, here are the 12 steps to follow to create your product catalog:
- Know where you’re going: clearly define the objective, deadlines, and the internal and external stakeholders involved.
- Create a detailed reverse schedule, step by step, with the various contributors involved in the catalog creation.
- Meet with your printer before starting production to understand their constraints and deadlines.
- Determine the architecture/structure of the catalog with a comprehensive flatplan.
- Determine the format and orientation of your catalog.
- Define and respect the company’s brand guidelines.
- Create the specific pages and involve the relevant stakeholders: front cover, editorial, back cover, etc.
- Create the product pages of the catalog.
- Try automatic layout in InDesign.
- Don’t forget the final proofreading and last corrections..
- Proceed with final approval and distribute your catalog across all your media: print, interactive PDF, website, social media, etc.
- Anticipate personalization requests: white-label catalogs, product category brochures, etc.
1. Know where you’re going for the successful creation of your product catalog
First and foremost, as with any project or execution, you need to know where you’re going. The guidelines must be clear, and you must keep in mind the key elements for proper project management.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of things to know before getting started:
- Deadlines: what are the delivery deadlines for the documents to be produced? Do certain intermediate steps need to be validated before a specific date? When does the catalog need to be printed?
- Stakeholders: who is involved in this project? Which departments/people will need to approve the catalog elements?
- Objectives: what is the purpose of the catalog? Through which channels will it be distributed?
- Printing and partners: will you need an external provider for one or more parts of the catalog? If so, when? When will they be available? Do you need a photographer, a communication agency, a printer, etc.?
- Target audience: who is the catalog intended for?
2. Create a backward schedule with the various stakeholders involved in the catalog
Now that you know your deadlines, the delivery dates of elements created by your service providers, etc., you need to build a detailed backward schedule to have an overall view of each major stage.
This will allow you to manage deadlines for each step effectively and deliver the requested elements on time. However, note that this schedule must also take into account the time constraints and availability of other stakeholders/partners.
💡 Our tip: Since this backward schedule involves several parties, we recommend including intermediate validation milestones, as well as safety margins to anticipate unforeseen events.
3. Meet with a printer to agree on deadlines and constraints
It is essential to keep your printer’s constraints in mind. For example, you need to know their availability, the different production stages carried out with them, and the technical parameters required for printing (bleeds, margins, colors, ink coverage, etc.).
Therefore, knowing all potential constraints will help you reduce production times by avoiding back-and-forth exchanges between printer and designer, anticipate proofing and final approval (print proof) times, and ensure the file is delivered within the required timeframe.
4. Determine the architecture/structure of the catalog
You now need to build the catalog flatplan to determine the different sections it will contain (for example: cover, editorial, introduction pages, table of contents, end index, chapters with different product ranges, closing note, contact page and details, back cover, etc.).
You should think not only about the specific pages of the catalog, but also about how the products will be grouped, and thus structure the main sections of the catalog.
💡Our tip: Several product groupings are possible: by seasonality, promotions vs. non-promotions, and release date. We recommend prioritizing grouping by category/range, which is the easiest and clearest to implement.
5. Determine the format and orientation of the product catalog pages
Although portrait format is the most common, you can also consider a landscape format, which is less common but bolder and more original.
This is also the time to decide on the catalog’s dimensions. The decision may vary depending on the allocated budget, the criteria set for you, the catalog printer, etc.
Also think about the objective and use:
- Does your catalog feature beautiful images that you want to highlight?
- Do your customers take notes on their catalog?
- Is your catalog meant to be browsed quickly?
- Does it contain a lot of technical information?
In summary, choose a portrait format if you prioritize reading comfort, especially for dense and technical content, and a landscape format if you want to emphasize your images with a “slideshow” effect.
6. Respect the company’s brand guidelines
It goes without saying that the catalog must convey the company’s image, and to do so, it must use the colors, standards, logos, etc., and comply with the company’s entire brand guidelines.
You therefore need to have all documents related to the brand guidelines at your disposal, as well as all official elements such as logos, company color codes, etc.
A review of these elements is recommended during step 10, as your catalogs are official company materials and you must ensure their graphic consistency and proper application of the established brand guidelines.
7. Create the specific pages or determine who will be responsible for these catalog pages
The creation of specific pages (front cover, back cover, table of contents, editorial, etc.) can be done before or after the creation of the product pages. As with any graphic project, there will be several versions and revisions.
You should therefore decide who will handle these specific pages.
💡 Tip: It is also possible to outsource one or more parts of your catalog. Interactiv’ Technologies can handle the partial or complete production of your document, for example.
8. Create the product pages of the catalog: the most tedious step but one that can be simplified
To properly create your catalog’s product pages, you need clean product data. For this, make sure the product data you use is the latest version. A quick email to the person(s) or department(s) responsible for product data can be useful to ensure that the data you have is correct and up to date.
Product data can be found in the previous catalog, the website, a PIM, internal data management software, one or more Excel files, etc.
Structuring your product data source and Excel files is truly essential so that you can navigate them more easily. The more structured your file is, the more it will help you during catalog creation. For example, in your file, you should know the order in which each product will appear in the catalog, all the information to include for each product, the range each product belongs to, etc.
💡Tip: To make creating these pages easier and save time on layout, adopt automation via EasyCatalog (see tip no. 9).
9. Link product data to InDesign: automated creation of product catalog pages
Entering all product data into the catalog is a tedious step (copy-pasting can lead to errors, proofreading is long, there are many back-and-forth exchanges with those managing the data, many manual actions, etc.). That’s why there is the Interactiv’ Publisher solution, which, thanks to the InDesign plug-in “EasyCatalog,” automates layout and product page generation.
How does it work? InDesign creates a link with your product data from your Excel file, PIM, database, etc., and automatically populates product templates (i.e., product layouts). Thus, in just a few clicks, hundreds of product pages are generated through this automated layout.
Why opt for automatic layout?
There are multiple benefits:
- reduced number of errors;
- considerable time savings (30 to 50% time savings);
- easier updates (at any time you can choose whether or not to update the changes made in your Excel files/database directly in your InDesign document, such as price updates);
- graphic consistency across all your media…
10. Proofreading and updates of the product catalog
Whether you created your catalog using EasyCatalog’s automatic layout or not, you will probably need to make adjustments and updates.
Note: with EasyCatalog, thanks to the link between the data source and InDesign, you can choose to apply data changes to your catalog quickly if desired.
You should also think about creating the index and table of contents during this phase.
Finally, as with any task, proofreading is required (and may be faster when automation has been used).
💡Tip: Proofreading is a tedious but mandatory step to ensure that the final format meets your expectations and requirements. We recommend carrying it out in several distinct passes: one dedicated to data (prices, references, descriptions), another to graphic consistency (alignments, styles, spacing), and a final one focused on navigation (table of contents, index, cross-references). Changing the medium (PDF, printed version) or having the catalog reviewed by an external eye can also make it easier to spot remaining errors.
11. Validation and distribution
Your catalog is now finished. All that remains is to have it approved through a final validation (although changes and validation phases throughout the catalog development process should have been carried out to ensure you were always moving in the right direction).
Once approved, you will then need to distribute it. You can print and distribute it in paper format or digitally.
It may be wise to convert it into an advanced interactive flipbook catalog: this will allow you to insert images and videos, add an interactive table of contents, include a data collection form, a product list, and a shopping cart so that prospects can place orders directly from your interactive catalog. You will also be able to access viewing statistics and naturally index all pages of your catalog on search engines.
Try the Interactiv’ Doc interactive flipbook catalog solution for this purpose. Our clients observe a 35% increase in time spent reading their catalog thanks to the interactive format.
12. Personalizing your catalog
Because of the professional and “tailor-made” image it conveys, personalizing a catalog can be highly relevant for various reasons.
For example, a salesperson may want to include the logo of the brand they are approaching; a franchise may wish to modify the contact details shown; resellers and partners may want to receive a catalog containing only the pages of the products/ranges they sell; points of sale could choose, case by case, the pages containing the products their customers are interested in, etc.
Thanks to personalization, our clients observe better adoption of the material, which reduces paper waste with each new edition and losses linked to overprinting (up to 22% paper savings according to clients who personalize their catalog).
💡 Tip: For greater efficiency, we recommend defining clear personalization rules in advance (modifiable elements, optional pages, fixed content). This helps maintain brand consistency and avoid multiplying versions that are difficult to maintain over time.
Conclusion
By following these tips and keeping in mind the major steps required to complete yourcatalog project, you can gain in productivity, quality, and relevance—enabling you to approach catalog creation with greater peace of mind! Questions? Feel free to contact us at +33 970 248 990.
Would you like to entrust the creation of your catalog to a service provider? At Interactiv’ Technologies, we can handle part or all of your catalog. Thanks to the EasyCatalog plug-in, the catalog service is high-quality, fast, and cost-effective.