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When we hear the word brochure, the first thing that’ll pop into most people’s minds is an image of a holiday brochure. However, brochures are much more than this.

A key marketing tool for many businesses, especially smaller and medium-sized businesses, a well-designed and thought out brochure can:

– Introduce your company to potential new customers

– Increase and expand your visibility

– Present your product or service to those that aren’t online

– Cut out the noise of online to arrive directly in front of customers 

A marketing method that’s been around for years, there are still millions of brochures printed annually in the UK, showing you just how effective they can still be. Below, we take a look at why and when you should use them, and how you can measure their effectiveness.

Gabriel Ash brochure on wooden desk

Why use brochures?

While many businesses are rushing to spend all their cash online, it’s important to remember that physical media isn’t dead, and brochures can still be a hugely effective marketing tool.

Firstly, they’re extremely budget-friendly, which makes them ideal for smaller businesses or start-ups where cash is tight.

Further to this, brochures for marketing can:

– Provide focused and consistent branding, due to the fact the brochure provides a longer duration of exposure to your brand. When it comes to leaflet style brochures, they stay in a household for an average of 38 days, while 23% of direct mailers are shared around a household, reaching far more people than a digital ad.

– Effectively reach your target audience. While this can be done online, there’s the worry that the person you’re targeting may miss your ad in the noise that surrounds it. A leaflet left to be picked up, or directly posted through their door, ensuring their eyes look over it at least once.

– Be descriptive. Online ads have a very limited character count, which can often be cut off by a ‘read more’ call to action. Brochures provide a much broader word count due to the number of pages available to you, allowing you to detail your product or service much more effectively.

– Be distributed via multiple channels when compared to a digital advert, which requires a customer to go online, or be present on a particular platform.

hands flicking through brochure at office desk

When to use brochures

As you can see, there are a wide number of advantages to using brochures for your business. 

Alongside these pros, there are also a wide number of ways you can use and distribute your brochures. Unlike digital adverts that sit purely in the online sphere, when it comes to physical brochures, you can:

– Place them within a packaged order to further inform customers of your offering to encourage them to shop again.

– Directly deliver them through letterboxes – just think about the number of takeaways that get service through this method.

– Place them in shopping centres or local shops to be picked up by customers passing by, helping to reach people you may not have otherwise reached.

– Present them at tradeshows, once again providing potential customers the chance to pick up a brochure and gain exposure to your businesses.

– Display them on kiosks or bulletin boards.

– If you have a physical store or office, you can keep them on display in your reception area.

– Hand them out at open days or even flyer on the street in a similar way many bars, clubs and restaurants do.

– Place them within magazines and newspapers to be delivered with these other products.

hands looking through a brochure at a desk

How to track brochures

One of the biggest advantages of using online digital marketing is the fact it can be tracked. With the right installations and the use of pixels, the analytics tools available to you online are invaluable, helping you to track how well a campaign did alongside assisting with future re-targeting.

While you may worry that this isn’t something you can do with physical media, there are ways that you can track the success of your brochures. 

Ways you can do this include;

– Coupons and Vouchers: within your brochure, you can include a discount, which features a unique code to encourage potential customers to use your product or service, which can be used to track where the order came from.

– QR Codes: these are a great way to combine both your physical and digital marketing methods. Most people own a smartphone now, and a QR code can direct customers to a specific page on your website, which can then be measured via the way they accessed the page to see how well the QR code performed. 

– Mail order forms: not everyone orders online, and mail order forms provide a way for customers to buy your product or service that’ll help you to track their journey.

– Ask customers: finally, just ask your customers. A drop-down box on your website form can ask customers where they heard of the company. This will give you a better idea of how effective your print advertising has been.

As you can see, print media still plays a huge part in the marketing mix today, but, as you can also see, it works hand in hand with digital, showing just how important a blended marketing strategy is. 

Here at Relative, we specialise in all areas of marketing, meaning we can help deliver a killer marketing strategy that covers both print and digital to ensure your product or service reaches its intended audience. To find out more about how we can help you, please get in touch today. 

Robert Barlow profile picture

About the author

Robert started off in admin, working for a marketing agency based in Manchester, before deciding he wanted to go to university and gain his HND followed by a BA Hons Degree in Business Finance with Marketing. Since then Rob has worked his way up through the ranks and now holds the position of The Oracle at the office! But unfortunately, unlike the character out of The Matrix, he doesn’t have all the answers for the team (but that doesn’t stop the questions)! Rob never says no to a hot drink (tea or coffee) to help keep his mind stimulated. He spends his time working on the business development of the company, liaising with clients and managing the work flow. And most importantly spends a lot of time working on the personal development of the team… answering questions!

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