The biggest digital leaflet mistake (and how to fix it)

Business in the front AND in the back:

In terms of driving sales, it matters whether a manufacturer’s products are displayed on the front page or buried in the middle of the leaflet.

And that’s why product manufacturers pay retailers different rates for having their products placed at certain pages in the printed leaflets.

This partly finances the massive cost of printing and distributing printed leaflets for retailers.

The two most expensive pages to advertise products on? The first and last.

Let me tell you why:

It’s all about how shoppers are exposed to the printed leaflet.

What do they see first?

When taking the printed leaflet out of their mailbox and holding it in their hand, there’s a 50/50 chance of seeing either the first or the last page. Same thing when it’s lying on the sofa table or in the dentist’s waiting room.

Either the first or last page is facing up.

Those are the most viewed pages and, therefore, the most expensive to advertise products on.

And, for that reason, it’s naturally where some of the best deals are placed.

Digital is different

‍But few retailers realize that, in the online version of the leaflet, the exposure to shoppers is different. And without taking action this could seriously jeopardize the sales generated by the great offers on the last page in the digital leaflet.

I’ll explain:  

1. In a digital leaflet, 99% of the time, the shopper will see the first page first.

Which means that there is simply not a 50/50 chance of seeing either the first or last page as for print. When clicking a link to a digital leaflet, it directs to the first page.

2. For many of our customers, we at iPaper see that the average percentage of the leaflet viewed is often between 50 and 70%.  

This means that on average, the shopper doesn’t reach the last page.

Basically, potential sales of the products on the last page are stifled by not exposing the shopper to the last page, which displays some of your best deals.

It’s a huge missed opportunity.

So, you probably should put more effort into making the last page of the printed leaflet seen in the digital version.

Before your competitors do.

Put the last page in a position to win

1. Move the page forward

A quick fix could be to simply move the last page to be earlier in the PDF. For example, moving the last page to be the 2^nd page, 3^rd page or in the middle of the digital leaflet.

2. Move individual products or sections forward

If you don’t want to move the entire page, you could – with some graphical tinkering – swap sections or specific products from the last page to earlier in the leaflet.

3. Create internal links

If it’s not ideal to edit the PDF in any way, you could add an internal link CTA button or banner on one of the first few pages, which directs the reader to the last page.  

4. Use Display in Flipbooks to show the last page in a banner

With iPaper's product Display, you could re-create the last page as an interactive banner activated by a CTA on one of the first pages of the digital leaflet.

5. Create digital-first leaflets

If you create digital leaflets that are not based on a PDF, like with iPaper’s Horizon, you have full freedom to move the important offers to one of the first pages.

The bottom line…

… is that you probably can improve your bottom line by making the last page more visible to shoppers in the digital leaflet.

Be aware of the difference between how shoppers are exposed to the digital leaflet compared to print.  

Be aware that, if you’re not actively doing something, the last page in the digital leaflet will not get the traction it deserves.

And you're missing out on a golden opportunity to get your most valuable offers exposed.

Where the offers sit is one decision out of many, of course. The wider set, covering how the catalog itself should be built and designed, is in digital catalog design: 10 things that make a catalog sell.

Need to get the full overview?

Explore our Digital catalogs: the ultimate guide