We’ve all gotten one in the mail at least once – a glossy, colorful lookbook, its pages brimming with photos of exciting new products from our favorite brands. Not as hefty as a catalog, but more familiar and fun than browsing through endless pages of Amazon search results. Lookbooks are great for leaning back on the couch and checking out those new interior décor items, or the latest line of bold-colored skiing jackets. Perhaps you’ve even thought about how your business might employ lookbooks into its next marketing campaign. There are a few things to consider.
Some businesses won’t benefit from a lookbook, but if your business centers on retail, especially products like home goods, toys or clothing, chances are a lookbook could be an exciting marketing tool for your business to employ in 2021. Customers will be delighted to receive a visually appealing, colorful lookbook full of anticipated new products right in the comfort of their own home, where they can revert back to the old comforting habit of turning down the corner of the page to mark those snazzy new red high-heels, or that smart, gleaming new set of kitchen knives.
If this sounds like ideal behavior for your targeted customers, then lookbooks are the right move for your business. Here’s how to get started.
First, the most important component of a lookbook is the photography. After all, it’s a lookbook, isn’t it? While a bit of ad copy can accompany the product photos, it’s the photos themselves that should be showcased. This means hiring a professional photographer with a quality camera and solid photography skills to take photos that showcase the beauty of your exciting new products. It’s well worth the investment, and subpar photography can ruin an otherwise well-designed lookbook. Your products deserve the best presentation you can find. Remember to showcase exciting new products that your customers haven’t seen yet. Don’t waste resources advertising items that most customers have already purchased or seen on your website multiple times.
When designing your lookbook, remember that the design choices extend beyond the photographs contained within. Pay special attention to the production of the lookbook itself. Remember that you’ll need to use a thicker paper for your cover than the pages within the cover to ensure that your lookbook is durable and ready for customers to thumb through it. For example, lookbook covers should be printed on 80# or 100# cover weight paper to give the lookbook a sturdy, solid cover, with lighter text weight paper used for the pages inside. A great option is 100# text in matter or gloss finish. Matte finish is great for a subtle, elegant appearance, while a gloss finish will offer a professional feel and make color photos “pop” for viewers.
For binding, there are a few options available. For smaller lookbooks with only a handful of pages of product photos, a simple saddle stitch binding will suffice. For larger, more developed lookbooks with high page counts, using perfect bound binding methods to create a “spine” will provide for a more durable and professional finished product.
Use lookbooks to excite customers and encourage them to seek out purchasing options for new products. Don’t forget to allow space for your brand’s logos and details for when and how customers can purchase these new products. Finally, count on quality-minded commercial printers like U.S. Press to print and mail your business’s lookbooks, allowing your business to count on experienced and effective print marketing professionals to guide your lookbook marketing campaign.
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