Do You Still Print Brochures?

Recently, at a meeting with a prospective client, she asked me, “Does anybody really have brochures printed anymore?”

I had to think about that for a minute because in all our years in business, we’ve never had brochures. Sure, I have business cards, and at one point I thought about putting together a full-featured printed presentation, but never went forward with it and here’s why:

1. It’s expensive. We tossed around the idea of putting together a traditional folder presentation. The kind you can lay out on a table and have 3 sheets on one side, 3 sheets on the other with a business card tucked in the front.

Add in tri-fold brochures and business cards, and while they look great, we were looking at a pretty hefty price tag. We came to the conclusion that no, we don’t need it in order to present our company effectively.

What About Expos and Shows?

The very first local expo we did was in October of 2009. The biggest thing I learned is that having printed materials for attendees was a total waste of money for us. Our time was much better spent lead-gathering than handing out flyers.

Many companies have a lot of printed materials at shows. How many brochures or flyers in your bag of stuff wind up in the back seat of your car? (Yea, us, too.)

2. I’ve never actually had anyone ask us for a brochure. At events, people ask for my business card, or better yet, I have a fish bowl where they can drop their business cards for a giveaway, usually a complimentary web audit or one-year subscription to Entrepreneur Magazine. Again, lead-gathering should be the priority.

3. I’d rather give them something they can really use. At the suggestion of one of our clients, George Fernandez from Road Trip Savings, we are going to be using flash drives instead of printed materials. Thank you, George!

Save Money and Save Trees

We can have the same documents, (and maybe even a video or two), on a branded USB flash drive, for a lot less money than a printed presentation. When we meet with a prospective client, we are usually in a place where internet access isn’t an issue, so we can do all our presenting from the web. We can then leave the client with a USB flash drive for their use later.

At events, the goal still should be lead-gathering as follow-up is key.

I love the idea of saving money, saving trees and offering something people can actually use. The money we’ll save can be better spent elsewhere.

In recent months, we’ve moved away from a lot of printing as there are more web-based companies offering greener alternatives for services we need. We’ll be doing our reviews in upcoming days, so keep an eye out.

How about you? Does this resonate with your business? What ideas can you think of that can make you a greener company?