Flipbook Use Cases: How Teams Use Interactive Documents
A flipbook is a PDF that doesn't feel like a PDF. Same content. Different experience. People actually read them.
That's the short version. Here's the longer one.
We've watched thousands of companies use flipbooks for everything from $500K proposals to employee handbooks to jewelry catalogs. Some patterns emerged. Certain use cases just work better as flipbooks. Others are fine as regular PDFs.
This guide covers the nine most common ways teams use flipbooks, what makes each one work, and whether it makes sense for what you're trying to do.
Why Does the Format Matter?
Before we get into specific use cases, a quick reality check.
The average B2B email open rate hovers around 39%, but that's just email opens, not document engagement. When it comes to actually reading attached documents, the numbers drop dramatically. Many recipients download PDFs and never open them.
Flipbooks change this equation. Links open in-browser with no download friction. And because they're trackable, you finally know who actually engaged.
Why? A few reasons:
- They open in the browser. No downloading.
- They feel interactive. Page-turning beats scrolling.
- They load faster than you'd expect.
- They don't get flagged by corporate email filters as often.
But the real reason might be simpler. People are curious. A flipbook link feels different from "see attached." It gets clicks.
Now let's look at who's using them and for what.
Sales Proposals
This is the big one. Probably 40% of Flipbooker usage.
Sales teams send proposals all day. Most of those proposals disappear into email voids. Did they read it? No idea. Did they share it internally? Who knows. Are they comparing you to competitors? Silence.
A flipbook changes the equation.
What you gain:
- Know exactly when they opened it
- See which pages they spent time on
- Watch them flip back to pricing (good sign)
- Catch when they forward it to their CFO
- Time your follow-up call perfectly
According to Loopio's RFP statistics, the average proposal win rate is around 45%. Companies with formal sales enablement programs see 49% higher win rates on forecasted deals compared to those without. The difference often comes down to timing and insight. Research shows you're 21 times more likely to qualify a lead when you respond within 30 minutes versus waiting longer. Knowing exactly when prospects open your proposal gives you that edge.
What makes a good proposal flipbook:
- Keep it under 15 pages. Seriously.
- Put pricing on its own page (you'll want to track it separately)
- Include a "next steps" page at the end
- Add your contact info on every page, not just the last one
- Skip the 3-page company history section. Nobody reads it.
See our full guide on sales proposals for templates and tracking setup.
Product Catalogs
Printed catalogs cost $3-8 each to produce and mail. Update a price? Reprint everything.
Digital catalogs solve that problem. But PDF catalogs are clunky. Scrolling through 200 pages on a phone? Not happening.
Flipbook catalogs work because they feel like the real thing. Page turns, zoom functionality, clickable links. A 200-page catalog becomes browsable instead of overwhelming.
Who uses them:
- Wholesale distributors
- Furniture manufacturers
- Jewelry brands
- Industrial suppliers
- Trade show exhibitors
What makes them different from regular flipbooks:
- They're longer (50-300 pages)
- They need search functionality
- Products need clickable links to ordering pages
- Seasonal updates are frequent
The analytics angle matters here too. Which products get the most views? Which pages do buyers linger on? Which categories get skipped entirely? That's product intelligence you can act on.
One furniture wholesaler discovered their best-selling category was buried on page 147. Moved it to page 3. Sales for that category jumped significantly the next quarter. This kind of insight matters more as 80% of B2B customers use mobile devices at work, making browsable, mobile-friendly catalogs essential.
Full guide to digital catalogs
Case Studies
Case studies might be the most underutilized sales asset out there.
Here's what usually happens: Marketing creates a beautiful case study. Sales emails it out. Customer opens it, skims the headline, saves it for later. "Later" never comes.
Flipbook case studies solve part of this problem. They're more likely to get read in the moment. But more importantly, you can see what happens.
The tracking advantage:
When a prospect opens your case study and spends 3 minutes on page 4 (the results page), you know something. When they skip the methodology section entirely, you know something else. When they go back to the beginning and forward it to someone, you definitely know something.
Best practices for case study flipbooks:
- Lead with results, not background
- Keep them to 4-6 pages max
- Include one strong quote per page
- Make the numbers big and scannable
- Add a "similar customers" section at the end
The companies that do this best create a library of case studies by industry. When a prospect from healthcare opens the manufacturing case study, they see a prompt: "Looking for healthcare examples? Here are three." Smart routing, better engagement.
Ebooks and Guides
Content marketing lives and dies on gated content. Offer something valuable. Get an email address. Nurture the lead.
According to Content Marketing Institute research, 74% of B2B marketers say generating leads is a top goal achieved through content marketing. Ebooks remain one of the most popular lead magnets.
But here's the problem: you don't know if they read it.
Someone downloads your ebook, gives you their email, and then... nothing. They might have read every word. They might have opened it once and closed it. Most likely, they never opened it at all. It's sitting in their Downloads folder with 200 other PDFs.
Flipbook ebooks change this.
What you can track:
- Did they actually read it? Yes or no.
- How far did they get?
- Which sections grabbed attention?
- Did they share it with anyone?
This matters for lead scoring. A prospect who downloaded your ebook and read 80% of it is a warmer lead than one who downloaded and bounced. Now you can actually tell the difference.
Gating strategies that work:
Some companies gate the whole ebook. Some gate at page 3 (let them get hooked first). Some don't gate at all but capture leads who want the "print-friendly" PDF version.
There's no single right answer. But flipbooks give you options that PDFs don't.
Complete ebook guide | Lead generation features
Newsletters and Magazines
Email newsletters have their place. But some content wants more room to breathe.
Member newsletters, industry magazines, quarterly updates, alumni publications. These have a different vibe. They're meant to be browsed, not just read. Flipbooks fit that vibe.
Who's doing this well:
- Membership associations
- Luxury brands
- University alumni offices
- Nonprofit organizations
- Industry trade groups
What makes newsletter flipbooks work:
- Multiple short articles instead of one long piece
- Strong visual design (photos, graphics, pull quotes)
- Table of contents with page links
- Archive of past issues
- Sharing capabilities for individual articles
One trade association switched from email newsletters to monthly flipbook magazines. Open rate went from 22% to 58%. Average time spent went from 2 minutes to 11 minutes. Members started forwarding issues to non-members. Membership inquiries increased.
The flip side: flipbook newsletters take more effort to produce. This isn't a "write it and send it" format. Budget for design time.
Training Materials
"Did everyone complete the training?"
If you work in HR, compliance, or L&D, you've asked this question. A lot. Usually with a sigh.
The traditional workflow: Email a PDF. Hope people read it. Ask managers to confirm completion. Get vague responses. Document it anyway. Pray nothing goes wrong.
Flipbook training materials don't solve everything. But they solve the "did they read it" problem definitively.
What you can track:
- Who opened it (name attached)
- When they opened it
- How long they spent
- Which pages they viewed
- Whether they finished
For compliance training, this is gold. You have documented proof that Employee X completed the training on Date Y and spent Z minutes on it. If something goes wrong later, you have records.
What makes training flipbooks effective:
- Shorter is better. 10-15 pages max per module.
- One concept per page
- Include knowledge checks (quizzes, questions)
- Break long training into multiple flipbooks
- Send automatic reminders to non-completers
The problem is real. According to ATD's 2025 State of the Industry Report, organizations invest an average of 2.9% of revenue into formal employee learning, yet research shows that 34% of employees skim content or tune out during training, and 15% just click through without engaging at all. One manufacturing company reduced their compliance training completion time from 6 weeks to 8 days. Not because the training was shorter. Because people actually did it when they got nudged.
Training materials guide | HR and training solutions
Annual Reports
Annual reports are weird. They're important. Required, in some cases. And almost nobody reads them.
Shareholders get a 60-page PDF. They flip to the financial summary. Maybe skim the CEO letter. Close it. File it somewhere.
Flipbook annual reports change the dynamic slightly. They're still long. Still mostly ignored. But the people who do engage with them engage more deeply.
What's different:
- Interactive charts and graphs
- Video messages from executives (embedded)
- Clickable links to detailed financial data
- Table of contents that actually works
- Mobile-friendly viewing (important for board members on the go)
Who it matters for:
Public companies have requirements. The annual report has to exist. The format is somewhat flexible. A well-designed flipbook version can satisfy requirements while actually being usable.
Private companies and nonprofits have more freedom. Some have dropped the traditional annual report entirely in favor of interactive flipbook versions that tell a more compelling story.
Brochures
The classic brochure. Three-fold, six-panel, everywhere you look.
Digital brochures have been around for a while. But most are just PDFs of print brochures. Awkward to read on screens. Fixed size. No interaction.
Flipbook brochures preserve the browsing experience while adding digital benefits.
Use cases:
- Trade show follow-ups (scan badge, send brochure)
- Real estate property brochures
- Service business overviews
- Event sponsorship packages
- Tourism and destination guides
What works:
- Keep the visual design strong (brochures are about looks)
- Include clickable contact information
- Add links to booking pages, quote forms, etc.
- Make phone numbers tap-to-call on mobile
- Track which version performs better (A/B test designs)
One real estate brokerage sends property brochures as flipbooks. They know exactly which buyers are most interested based on who viewed the brochure multiple times and which pages they focused on. The listing agent uses that intel for follow-up calls. "I noticed you spent some time looking at the kitchen photos. Do you have questions about the recent renovation?"
Event Programs
Event programs have a shelf life. Before the event, during the event, then trash.
Digital event programs extend that life. Attendees can access them on phones during the event. They can reference them afterward. And organizers can see engagement data.
Types of events:
- Conferences and trade shows
- Corporate meetings
- Weddings and galas
- Sports events
- Theater and concerts
What digital event programs offer:
- Schedule updates in real-time
- Speaker bios with links
- Sponsor visibility with tracking
- Maps and venue information
- Session ratings and feedback
The sponsor angle matters. If you sell sponsorships, you can now tell sponsors exactly how many people viewed their ad or clicked their link. That's data you couldn't provide before.
Choosing the Right Use Case
Not everything should be a flipbook. Here's a quick decision framework.
Flipbooks work best when:
- You need to track engagement
- Visual design matters
- The content is meant to be browsed, not just read
- You want to gate content for lead capture
- You're updating content regularly
PDF might be fine when:
- The document needs to be printed
- Legal or compliance requires specific formats
- Readers need to annotate or fill in forms
- File size constraints are extreme
- The audience expects PDFs (legal contracts, for example)
Neither might work when:
- The content is too long (800+ pages)
- The audience has no internet access
- You need offline viewing with no app
Most business documents fall into the flipbook-friendly category. The question isn't usually "should this be a flipbook?" It's "which format gives us better insight into how people engage with it?"
Getting Started
Pick one document type. Something you send regularly. Something important enough that you care whether people read it.
Convert it to a flipbook. Send it. Watch what happens.
That's the experiment. Run it once. If it works, expand. If it doesn't, try a different document type.
Most companies start with proposals or case studies. Those have the clearest ROI story. But every organization is different. Start where it makes sense for you.