So I sat down to my desk for the first time after a few days vacation and started reading my email. I took a big sip of my morning coffee and was horrified at the taste. I had grabbed the cup I left on my desk from before I left. The cups were identical thermal mugs so I had no warning that what I was about to drink was more than a few days old. This got me thinking about reprints. Yep, everything in my world leads back to marketing. There is reprinting a brochure because you underestimated the demand; and then there is reprinting a brochure years later with a few updates because you don’t want to pay for a redesign. The former is a good problem to have, but the later is like serving your customers week-old coffee… it is going to leave a bad taste in their mouth. They might not spit it out immediately, but they will recognize that something isn’t quite right about it.
All too often I have clients tell me not to include the most up-to-date information in their brochures because “it might change later”. And by later they mean in a few years… Should you really have the same brochure for that long? If your brochure is your front-of-the-line attack, shouldn’t it be as up-to-date as possible? If the high cost of printing is holding you back, then take a second look.. You can get 500 brochures printed for $150.
Chances are your business has changes in the last few years. Changes your current and potential customers should know about. Your current customers are vital to your business and it’s success. If you are swapping out content in an old brochure they will not take a second glance, because it doesn’t look like anything new. Consider running out of brochures a great time to get them re-designed, and share your new products, services and success with your customers.
