Putting a physical flyer online costs money
Leaflet reach is increasingly shifting to online.
The Netherlands is increasingly searching for a brochure online. This number has doubled in the last 5 years. As everyone knows, different laws apply online than offline. So just publishing your print version online is a missed opportunity.
Now is the time to give the digital folder more attention. Check out what other retailers did below.
The number of readers of a digital leaflet will continue to increase over the next 5 years.
Leaflet-reading Netherlands currently indicates that in 5 years, 3x as many readers will choose to read only the digital leaflet to find deals.
(Source: Q&A Research 2019)
How do you know an online directory grid is paying off?
Formatting a leaflet costs time and money. It is easy to place the leaflet, formatted for physical distribution, online as well. However, evidence accumulates that this costs the retailer money. Surely there are several reasons to deploy an online leaflet grid:
- The digital leaflet is a separate tool in the marketing mix
- The digital folder will become more important in the future
- The online reading experience is totally different from offline
- The ROI of webshop conversions alone can be very high
Getting Started? Start with the steps below.
1. What are the achievements now?
To do an effect measurement, it is important to know what the current result of the digital leaflet is. Measure in a representative number of weeks how much traffic and turnover the shop generates through the digital leaflet. The number of weeks depends on your reach and leaflet frequency. Do not make any changes in the layout, but do place links in the flyer to measure the traffic and conversion in and to the web shop.
2. Create an online folder grid
The reading experience of a digital brochure is much more fleeting than a physical version. Therefore, it is important to be able to see at a glance what offers are on a page. In a digital leaflet, it is possible to find more information about a product by linking to the web shop or by showing a product pop-up. Choose clear CTA buttons and place only a title and a from/for price.
In the first period, measure what percentage of your readers read the digital flyer on a mobile device. Adjust the format for mobile readers to avoid white spaces at the top and bottom of the digital flyer.
3. A/B testing
Start showing both the physical brochure version and the online optimized version at the same time. This way there is a clean comparison in the performance of both versions. The contents of the folders are the same and therefore do not cause a difference in performance.
4. Evaluate
During the evaluation, it is important to calculate the increase of additional traffic and the increase of additional conversion in the web shop. That way, a monetary value of the additionally generated online sales is calculated. With this, the business case for creating a special grid for the digital folder can be made.