For over 150 years, businesses have relied on printed media to get their marketing message out and reach their marketing goals. Even after the advent of electronic media, including computers, the dependence on and usage of print media marketing material stayed tremendous. However, the emergence and growth of digital media has changed the landscape.
Next to business cards and advertising fliers, some of the most used printed marketing pieces are brochures and catalogues. This is especially true for businesses that sell physical products, both retail and wholesale. Brochures and catalogues are distributed usually in three different ways: at point of sale, via off-site sales people and indirectly via mail and third party publication inserts. Most of the time, these pieces need to be of a high quality (especially catalogues) to be effective. The production and distribution costs for this have skyrocketed, so much so that many companies either started to charge a fee for their catalog or discontinued them altogether.
Many companies turned to publishing digital brochures and digital catalogs to reduce their marketing costs, at least initially. The ability to do this was made possible by the huge presence and usage of the World Wide Web. Now it was possible to not only digitally produce the brochures and catalogues, but also to digitally distribute them via the web. Of course, having a “hard copy” of these pieces was still necessary. This still could be done digitally, via putting the piece on a computer CD/DVD and recently, miniature flash drives.
However, businesses soon discovered that there are many other significant advantages besides saving on costs. Today’s internet world has created a huge demand and even dependence on multimedia to get information. This applies also to actual and potential customers. People want and expect to see videos, hear audio and play with interactive graphics. This can only be accomplished only via electronic brochures and digital catalogues, whether via the web or on a stored memory device.
People today also expect things to be current and very fresh, not static. They are always looking for something new or different. While it is unfeasible to satisfy the readers demand for this via print media, electronic media accomplishes this very well. Digital brochures and catalogues can be revised and updated on a very frequent basis. This allows companies to make note of periodic sales and special events, take advantage of a marketing opportunity or even respond to a marketing threat.
Some of the biggest advantages are available by using online brochures and catalogues. With recent web applications, companies can now track who and where their potential and actual customers are. It is possible to ascertain which exact items in a catalog are being looked at and which aren’t. This allows companies to identify and take advantage of trends and adjust inventories and even pricing. A huge benefit is the ability for the reader to get online live assistance and to make purchases simply by pointing and clicking.
While the continued use of printed brochures and catalogues will be necessary for certain companies, today’s digital information age requires all companies to utilize digital marketing pieces.
Martin Alan enjoys writing on subjects such as literature, publishing technology from the digital magazine, publishing software and sharing sites to self publishing. He also enjoys keeping up-to-date with the latest developments and innovations in technology and online marketing.
For more information on online publishing click here: http://www.yudu.com
Author: Martin Alan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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