Throw Them Away

Throw Them Away

How many times have people passed you a brochure or a business card and then apologised that it is the ‘old one’ and ‘it’s a little out of date, but you will understand what we do, sort of’. In the days of digital printing, this approach to marketing material is completely crazy.

With copy shops and printing companies offering low-cost, high-quality full-colour digital printing, you have no excuse for not having up to date marketing material. You no longer need to print thousands of copies that sit around for years, you can have 10s or 100s that you use, reorder or even use, modify and update.

One of the beauties of the internet is you can update your website as often as you need to, printing seems to have been forgotten about, and people use out of date material and add the phrase ‘see our website for details.’

By planning your printed material and your use of it, you can keep it as up to date as your website; you just need to understand your usage pattern.

Another tactic is to have printed materials that cover your values and principles of your business that do not contain too much that changes. You can then refer people to the web for details of your changing products and services, but by promoting yourself in solid form using printed material, you leave real world footprints in their minds, not just digital ones.

It is all part of having a marketing plan. It is not just the ‘what are you going to do to gain more sales’, it is about understanding the best way to use the money you have to fund those costs of making the sale.

The days of using out of date material were over with the birth of digital printing in the mid-1990’s! 20 years later people are still stuck in the mind-set of trying to use old brochures just because they have them.

You need to analyse your printed material. Do an audit and work out what you need, how many you use and then work out the best way to keep them relevant and fresh.

Your printed material can become a virtual website, if you plan it correctly.



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