Printers need to do more to help catalogers develop smaller books that refer back to a Web site and can be widely distributed, according to Bill LaPierre, SVP business intelligent and brokerage at Infogroup – Direct Media Millard. Not only will this benefit catalogers by helping drive results but, it will also benefit printers as catalog circulation rates increase. LaPierre was one of the speakers at this week’s New England Mail Order Association’s fall conference in Newport, Rhode Island. Speaking on the phone after the event, he reported that the catalogers in attendance at the show were generally upbeat following a good summer for sales. However, with uncertainty about the economy hanging around and a possible postage increase looming, catalogers were looking for ways to be more effective. The answer, according to LaPierre, is for more catalogers to use their books to drive activity on their Web sites, as this is where so many consumers shop these days. “Most catalogers are obsessed with the catalog and aren’t thinking about how it can be used to drive activity on the Web,” says LaPierre. As a result, catalog results are down, which leads many retailers to reduce circulation rates. However, catalogers could boost results by decreasing catalog page counts to produce a cheaper book, mail the book to a wider pool of names and put the focus on driving recipients to the brand’s Web site, explains LaPierre. Cabela’s, for example, has a separate catalog titled Cabelas.com that is one-fourth the size of its traditional catalog. Inside, the product density is significantly higher but the copy is limited to a sku number and price. The strategy, explains LaPierre, is to pique the interest of recipients with pictures of products across a wide variety of categories and drive them online to see a broader assortment for the specific category in which they are interested. “There are only a handful of companies that are doing things with smaller books,” says LaPierre. However, if printers were to help mailers develop smaller pieces that are more effective, you would see circulation rates starts to go back up. This increase could even out or even increase the overall number of pages being printed by catalogers, predicted LaPierre.