Blog homeTour operators used to be brochure driven. Companies used to spend a great deal of money designing and printing fancy brochures.
Along came the web.
Now you don’t need brochures. Not only that - but the skills to produce a good, commercially successful, website are not the same skills as those that are required to produce a well optimised brochure. Yes there is some overlap but its not a like for like change.
So if you are a brochure specialist….. what can you do?
One thing NOT to do is put your brochure online. Please don’t (yes this is a rant)
You know what I mean….. those page flipping things that you sometimes see around the place. I don’t enjoy the experience at all.
- Slow on old machines
- Difficult to print
- Not accessible
Of course, I can’t show you examples I don’t like - that wouldn’t be fair….. so here are some examples that contain interesting information….
- Travolution February 08 edition - lovely. Best article is page 42.
- MajorPlayers salary survey - if you ever wanted to know what all the UK / London salary levels for perm / contract staff (digital) then this document reveals all. Actually very interesting reading.
An alternative to a flipping page would be SlideShare.net. Upload a powerpoint presentation and create an audio track - then embed it around the place on your website or 3rd party websites. Much more useful.
If you absolutely have to have a flipping brochure on your website….. don’t pay a commercial company to do it for you - buy a Flash component such as Flipping Book or FlashPageFlip and ask a web designer to use that. This will be much better value.
Anyone found flipping pages to be useful?
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Hey Alex - couldn’t agree more. There are some terrible examples out there and some of the worst are those that ask you to actually download extra software just so that you can see their brochure. I think that in general it should be simpler to get things on a web page but if you absolutely have to get something online then one of the best solutions to come out recently is http://www.scribd.com/ - fast, easy plus your brochure potentially goes to a lot more people than just those on your site (btw - if I was Google I would by buying this company asap - but I am not so…
).
A beautiful alternative for those nasty flipping brochure-things in my experience is http://www.issuu.com
You can’t use it on your on site though, but maybe in the future?
I must look at the “page-flipper” software that you mention. We are regularly asked for a “brochue” even though all our content, (reviews, prices, video, podcast, blog, etc) is all easily accessible online. Perhaps being able to point them at an online brochure might answer there “need”.
Hi Colin,
I really had kind of hoped that this post would put people off online brochures…. never mind!
There are some things you could do to your website to solve the problem you mention. If you would like me to give your site a free review - please ask via the “Clinic” on www.smallfishbigocean.com
I know what you mean about “putting people off bruchures”. To be honest it frustrates the hell out of me when someone calls and says “I’m just on your website and wonder if you could send me your brochure?”.
What!! Everythings on the damn website!! Thats’ what its’ for. Perhaps its’ just hard to get people out of old habits.
Thanks for your kind invitation for a free site review. The only thing is I build them myself and I’m not sure I’m man enough to take the criticism. LOL.
Colin