I wonder how many hours are wasted talking about brochures and marketing literature?
“Shall we have this font for the front cover?”
“Is the logo too big?”
“Who will write the copy?”
“Do we need to cover all the practice areas?”
And there is the cost of production and mailing it to clients.
How much of what you produce in hard-copy form do your clients read?
Go on, admit it, you have no idea.
Most brochures tend to be given to new clients. There is a strong argument to say that this is wrong. Wrong in the sense that the client who has instructed you in one area is not immediately going to be in the market for something else. If they were, it would be a sad state of affairs if they had to read about it in a brochure and couldn’t ask you about it.
If you are committed to your web presence then that should guide, inform and dictate how your clients interact.
Saying that your clients aren’t on line is going to look stupid if you don’t ask. And how many of your elderly clients really want to read a densely-packed, 10 point size brochure? Please…!
If you must have material then surely the starting point is to ask your clients what they would like to read. How about doing some mock ups and assembling a focus group? It might just mean the difference between success and failure.
But isn’t this all a bit last minute? Shouldn’t you as well be asking them about the website content, their use of the internet and if video or MP3 files might not work just as well? You could just as easily have a viewable document on line (check out this site which I like YuDu)
And then there is the game-changer of all game-changers: the iPad2. This or something like this is where firms should be plotting a course. I have mentioned it before but why don’t you have an iPad in your reception to showcase your material? And what about an App? Here is one I like from Valorem Law (http://valoremlaw.com/).
If you haven’t got the ROi firmly nailed down for the printed brochure then what have you got to lose?
Oh and lastly what about using QR codes on your business cards or even on some of the next stock of printed matter? Check this article out.
Out with the Old, in with the New.
~ JS ~