Investing in Printed Material

Should your company invest in a new printed brochure? Yes, but only with assurances that impressive financial returns will result from that investment. The steps taken to back up these assurances constitute common sense, maturity and …an acknowledgement of one’s limitations.

Brochure creation begins with a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. How much new business would you like your brochure to generate? Write it down. Muddled expectations breed frustration and failure.

Next …choose a graphic designer and a writer, but remember … software does not a talent make. In other words do not design and write the brochure yourself. Your time is too valuable and only you will be impressed with the results. Do not delegate the job to your assistant, a student, or the print shop that designs wedding invitations. The writer and designer must possess nothing less than God-given talent, formal training, years of experience and a portfolio to back it all up, unless you do not believe your company is worth the investment. These superbly talented men and women are worth their higher rates. They add value to your company’s image, products and services, which only serves to attract the calibre of clients who appreciate and respect your prices. The profit in hiring bargain-basement talent is illusive and short term at best.

Step three … Develop a support strategy for your brochure. The finest brochure on the continent will under perform or even fail if no clear-cut strategy, as to its deployment and follow-up exists. If your company’s track-record for creating strategies and sticking to them is solid your success is assured. But, be honest. If tendencies toward distraction, backsliding, loss of focus, disenchantment or even laziness have short circuited past marketing strategies its important to deal with that reality before investing time or money in a brochure. That, leads to our final step.

Step four … If the latter tendencies are part of your company’s history, but the potential for increased business is significant, contract a consultant’s help. The investment will virtually guarantee the success of your brochure campaign. Good consultants can locate and coordinate all the necessary talent and production skills. They can create the support strategy for you, then keep your people focused by mentoring and convening regular debriefings throughout the deployment of the strategy.

Properly planned and executed, brochures are a powerful force for business sustainability and growth. Not only will your company generate new and increased business, but you and your staff will have acquired and honed new marketing skill-sets – valuable equity for the next brochure project.