One often-overlooked development in our industry in the past few years is the online digital page flipping format. It all began in 2002 with 'page curl and flip' Flash conversion from a pdf, an array of companies now provide these online services, some using freeware as the basic background architecture. Tempted to dismiss it all as a gimmick? Take a closer look first and you might be surprised to find that it could offer you an additional way to interact with your customers and a valuable additional route to market.
As print and distribution costs increase, the digital page flip catalogue is particularly relevant to 'marginal' prospects: it could be the ideal way of presenting your product range via enewsletter links to those who might not normally visit your site. It's worth bearing in mind research that suggests prospective customers spend almost twice as long viewing an online page-flipping catalogue as a corresponding website.
The traditional page format still offers the ideal way to showcase content - even online - as 'turning the page' is a familiar, engaging and a satisfying action: something many websites find hard to emulate and which many potential customers, particularly older ones, prefer. It also enables you to showcase your products very efficiently in a structured way: using all the tried and tested offline sales techniques (such as pagination, hotspots and calls to action) as well as online devices (such as adding video content to enrich the format and incorporating affiliate links from adverts to gain additional revenue).
Recent John Lewis catalogue with embedded video from Ceros
The question of which provider to choose can be mind boggling - an initial Google search for page flip software comes up with well over 30 companies - all offering what appears at first glance to be a similar service. I personally would question whether they'll all be around in three years' time, so my preference would be to go for an established outfit. Be aware that functionality on 'free' pdf-to-flash conversions can be limited and the provider's aim is to upgrade you to a paid subscription. Some companies sell software; others provide sophisticated content management solutions that are exclusively online; some do not charge to convert your pdf but do charge per hosted publication. More typically providers charge a monthly or annual licence fee. Which solution is right for you all depends on how many publications you'll need to host and what additional services you might like to include.
12 Questions you need to ask yourself:
- How many publications will I host per year?
- Will I need to add content (video, social network links, RSS feeds etc)?
- Do I need to link the products to my existing ecommerce solution?
- Do I need analysis (who visits what page, when and what they enlarge)?
- Can I customise the pasteboard with my own branding?
- What customer support is offered and is this UK phone based?
- Does the provider offer ongoing solutions?
- Who do my competitors use?
- Does the provider support smartphone/pad development?
- Which functions are offered as standard and which are charged as 'add-ons'?
- Can they provide A/B testing?
- Does it easily incorporate Google analytics?