Top Four Reasons You Need A Brochure Even If You Have A Website

You’ve got your website up and running. Perhaps you’ve even been in business for five years. Or ten. Or twenty. Maybe you’re a small business, catering to the locals. Maybe you’re a large corporation that reaches across the country. Regardless of your company size or how long it’s been around, a website isn’t always sufficient to grow and maintain your business. Websites are essential nowadays, certainly, but you can’t hang your hat on your home page.
The brochure may be as old as print marketing itself, but she’s one tough, enduring broad. Here’s just a few reasons why they’ve lasted so long and why you still need to use them today.
Immediacy. Sales people still love the brochure because it gives them something tangible to hand potential clients. Whether they’re on sales runs or at conventions or giving presentations, the brochure is a sales tool that can be looked at immediately. Business cards with website addresses are important too, but there is a time lapse between the receipt of that card and the visit to the website. It’s a natural action to open something right away that’s just been handed to you, like a brochure. In this way, the response to brochures is actually faster than the response to a business card.
Great follow up tool. If you didn’t have a brochure as a leave-behind when you were at your last meeting, convention or presentation, have no fear. Assuming you picked up some business cards, pop a brochure in the mail with your follow up note to your potential clients. If they haven’t looked at your website yet, the brochure will give them enough of a preview to get them online and typing your address in their browser.
Great cold mailing tool. Opening an envelope that contains an eye-catching, well-written brochure is like a friendly handshake. Sure, maybe the reader has never seen your company before, but if you’ve done your market research and have targeted the right people, your brochure is a perfect introduction.
Brochures leave a lasting impression. Print and electronic marketing work together; eye-popping print materials have the potential to hang around someone’s workspace for a long time. You can click away from websites leaving them in the ether, but you can stick a pin in a brochure and put it above your computer. That means your potential client may be staring at your company unconsciously for quite some time. So just when they need a service like yours, who do you think they’ll think of first?
So don’t think this elderly print marketing tool is too old to be powerful. Brochures have been around a long time because they work. And rather than fall by the wayside as the Internet takes over, brochures have transformed into a very important support piece for your company’s website. So keep the shredder at bay; let this old gal get out there and get you traffic!