You may be asking yourself if there is any longer a place for glossy brochures in todays ‘Internet world’.

It’s a valid question, after all why invest in the multi-page design and print of brochures when emails and downloadable PDFs can be so much cheaper to produce and quicker to update?

These methods of marketing your products and/or services your customers may be cheaper but are they as effective at;

1. Generating sales.
2. Creating the right impression of your brand.

After all, there is something about getting a nice well designed brochure through the post that speaks “high quality company” to us all.

Other factors to consider include: Will your prospects actually print out the PDF even if you make one available via your website, I know I would not waste my ink on a multi-page brochure and B2Blog make some interesting points on this subject.

I do like to read things offline sometimes – you know when I manage to prize myself away from my pc ….. but even if I did print out an online PDF it quite simply doesn’t feel as nice as reading a proper printed brochure – especially as most people will print it in ‘draft’ to save ink, including myself.

If you’re in the business of selling products, a draft print of your product brochure isn’t exactly going to send your prospects in a frenzy drooling over your blurry product images.

I also can’t see a visitor to their home picking up the ‘brochure’ they may spot on the coffee table, and getting excited over the blurry product images and loose sheets of paper.

Regardless of whether paper based brochures may or may not do more for our business than printable PDF downloads….there is another factor for us to consider in all of this; the environment.

Should we be selling out the planet to further line our own pockets? At least with an online PDF you don’t actually ‘have to’ use paper up by printing it out, and it doesn’t generate vehicle pollution as does not need to be driven to it’s recipient.

If you do feel that a paper based brochure, or indeed other paper based printing, is right for your brand and for your marketing needs, you can always reduce the environmental impact of your actions by selecting environmentally aware printing firms:

Mobius Green Print
Aldgate Press
Eco Print
Greenhouse Print

This is just a tiny selection of environmentally aware printing companies, there really is alot of choice out there.

So what is working for your company, paper based marketing or the ideal of a paperless office? If you do use a lot of paper, are there ways you can reduce this?