Managing social media accounts for your company can be challenging, and creating high quality, relevant and helpful content to post regularly is time-consuming. Luckily, as a Promotional Product distributor, you can leverage the marketing materials of your suppliers to curate content that supports your brand, your company’s capabilities, and your company culture.

Posting regularly on social media can help you: 

• Stay engaged and connected with your current customers
• Find new prospects
• Increase your online presence and recognition factor
• Improve SEO
• Educate people on the products and services you offer
• And much more.

Suppliers invest a lot of time and money into creating marketing materials that can include professional photography and high-end graphic design – assets that can be expensive for your company to do in house, or even to outsource.

In this blog post we explore ways in which you can use ZOOMcatalog to find content to post to your networks, whether they are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or a plethora of other less-known social sites.

 

Why Catalogs?

While we will save expounding on the value of the catalog for another post, we will keep it brief here, and say that a catalog allows a viewer to really experience and scan a product line in a way they cannot on a website. Catalogs tell a story, can be supported with lifestyle images, and truly convey a brand’s core value. To prove this point, flip through the Numo, Stormtech and Gemline catalogs. This is the same experience you can give your social media audience by leveraging the hard work suppliers already put into their catalogs.

 

Posting Catalogs on Social Media

You can find almost all Promotional Product supplier catalogs on www.zoomcatalog.com – making it easy to see what’s new, what’s relevant to what you and your customers need, and to search for specific products. Every supplier catalog on ZOOMcatalog has a unique URL, allowing you to quickly and easily grab a catalog to share on social media. 

 

To Customize or Not?

On ZOOMcatalog, you can re-brand many of the supplier catalogs and flyers as your own. This is a great opportunity to lead with YOUR brand. While posts that include branded supplier catalogs can be very effective, for brand consistency, you may want to consider using ZOOMcustom to add your logo and contact information to supplier catalogs and flyers before posting. For the extra ambitious, you can even design and replace the entire catalog cover.

 

Staying Up-To-Date and Scheduling Posts

Since suppliers are constantly creating new catalogs and flyers, it can be helpful to know what’s new. You can opt in to receive a “New Catalogs and Flyers” email from us every Thursday to stay up-to-date. You can even use this email to pick some of your favorite catalogs and flyers and schedule posts for the week ahead.

• Click here to preview the weekly email
• Click here to subscribe to the weekly email
• Click here for a great article on how to schedule posts

 

Types of Catalog Posts

• Full Line: Almost every supplier launches a catalog that you can browse to see their full line of products. As mentioned, browsing a line of products in a catalog is undoubtedly easier than on a website. There is a beginning and end, products are grouped into categories, and similar products are listed together, providing an easy and efficient way to compare and contrast product offerings. Posting full line catalogs can really give your social media audience a solid understanding of how diverse Promotional Products can be

Example: Full Line Catalog – New for 2019 from PCNA

• Seasonal: Throughout the year, most suppliers create smaller breakout catalogs that can really boost sales during the holidays. Some popular seasonal categories include holiday/gift, fall/winter, spring/summer, back to school, and new products catalogs. When posting a seasonal catalog, you can include a link to the cover, which allows visitors to browse beginning to end, to call out a specific product by following  a link to that exact product in the catalog, or by allowing visitors to browse the rest of the catalog.

Example: Holiday Catalog Cover: Holiday Catalog from Maple Ridge Farms

Example: Specific Product in Catalog: Holiday Catalog from Maple Ridge Farms

• Categorical: Another popular type of breakout catalog is categorical catalogs. This means a supplier creates smaller catalogs derived from their full line, focusing on categories such as drinkware, office supplies, apparel, technology, and more. You can use categorical catalogs to feature the range of products you can offer within a specific category.

Example: Drinkware Catalog: Deep Etch from Glass America

Example: Apparel Catalog: New Arrivals from SanMar

Example: Writing Instruments Catalog: Full Line Catalog from Goldstar

• Vertical Market: Target niche markets such as real estate, construction, restaurants, and schools with vertical market catalogs. These types of catalogs feature products that are a great fit for a specific industry.

Example: Restaurants – Full Line Catalog by Chef Works

Example: Schools – School and Team from S&S Activewear

Example: Technology Startups: Full Line Catalog from Hirsch Gift

• Brand Name: Strengthen your brand by aligning yourself with other, well known brands. Many suppliers have catalogs available which feature only products from a certain brand. Posting these catalogs as an exclusive distributor of the products can make an impact on your visitors.

Example: Nike by SanMar

Example: Carhartt by SanMar

 

Posting Catalog Pages on Social Media

Another great way to use ZOOMcatalog to find content to post, is by using the ZOOMcatalog search engine to find specific pages. Posting just a single page from a supplier catalog can be used to highlight or feature a product. Suppliers are increasingly adding visually stunning graphics to their catalogs, and therefore catalog pages can really look like a professional social media image.

 

Types of Catalog Page Posts

• Full Page: Often times an entire catalog page is designed so well that it can be posted as is. Simply search ZOOMcatalog for products you may be interested in posting about to see what is available. Scroll through the results and click on any you find interesting to enlarge them. At the bottom of the screen you will find options to download the page image so you can then use it in your social media posts.

 

Find catalog pages to post on www.zoomcatalog.com:

Example: Full page post – Double Wall Tumblers from Glass America

Example: Fill page post – Waterfall Jacket from STORMTECH

• Section of a Page: Did you know you can cut any section of a page out of a ZOOMcatalog? This makes it easy to grab an image off a page to post on social media. You can use these snips to post.

Snip pages from a catalog:

 

Example: Snip post – Tumbler from Gemline

Posting Flyers on Social Media: 

Suppliers are constantly uploading new and exciting flyers to ZOOMcatalog for distributors to browse and share. You can leverage this content to create social media posts. Supplier flyers often feature products that are on sale, seasonal collections, price point items, vertical market promotions, and more. Even better, use ZOOMcatalog to add your logo, text, and other images to these pre-designed flyers before sharing within your network.

 

Types of Flyer Posts

• Link: Whether you decide to customize a flyer or not, you can share it to your social media accounts directly from ZOOMcatalog, or by grabbing the flyer URL. Use the flyers to inform your customers about what’s new, what’s on sale, what’s trending, etc.

Customize flyers with your information

Example: Customized Flyer Post – Stainless Steel Pints from Glass America

Example: Customized Flyer Post – Breast Cancer Awareness by Bag Makers

• Image: You can also download any supplier flyers (customized or not) to post to social media, or download a few to create a slideshow for your customers to browse.

 

Designing Your Own Catalogs, Flyers, and Images

Above, we have outlined how to use suppliers’ pre-designed marketing materials on social media. You can also use ZOOMstudio to build your own content with supplier products, customizable product details, lifestyle images, and more. A blog post will be coming soon on this topic.

If you would like a full demo or advice from our team, please feel free to reach out to hello@zoomcatalog.com.