Being involved in a wide variety of graphic design projects I often weigh up the best way forward in terms of promotion effectiveness compared with cost effectiveness.

In terms of promotion effectiveness the difference between a brochure and a folder with inserts really depends on the type of services or products you sell and your audience. But with cost effectiveness the difference is not straight forward. Surprisingly a brochure can cost far less to print when compared to an equivalent folder with inserts.

The trick is to work out how regularly the literature needs to change, be updated or added to. In many cases just one or two pages of a brochure may change over a period resulting in the whole brochure being re-printed. So although a brochure may be cheaper initially, when re-printed the cost could be greater than an initial investment of a folder with inserts as only the affected inserts need re-printing.

Alternatively several smaller brochures or leaflets can be more cost effective than one large brochure.

Another benefit of a folder system is that inserts or smaller brochures can be used separately when required as well as together, adding further flexability and cost benefit.

For a free cost comparison please get in touch.

In this day and age the possibilities for new media and its mix with traditional medium as promotion are endless, but however good your methods are at initially attracting the target audience the follow up is crucial.

Yes, I agree that instant new media methods such as email, pdf attachments etc can work well but more often than not printed literature cannot be ignored.

A well planned, designed, written and produced piece of literature is worth it’s wait in gold, especially when used to back up initial response.

I guess it comes down to good targeting and knowing your audience. It’s true to say that most sales processes still (and will for a long time to come) demand a postable response. Whoever your target audience is though, the confidence given by printed literature is hard to beat.