I know print is far from dead, but it has certainly taken a bit of a backseat to online marketing.

At this moment, though, print is still very much alive. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t include print marketing as part of this series on content sharing and repurposing.

For certain products or services, it’s best to reach out to people where they live or work right through their mailbox.

I recall one business that called me and said they were having good success marketing online. But they realized that some of their ideal prospects had no idea to be looking for their services. These were upper-level prospects who probably didn’t have time to be online for their own pleasure much less looking online for a service they didn’t even know existed.

So, they knew they needed to go the print route. There are obvious choices you can use here if you have a lot of information to share. Magalogs, newsletters, bookalogs, slim jims, special reports, sales letters, brochures… they can all can carry great content that you’ve already created.

And that’s the key… great content. We’re so used to only focusing on a sales message that we sometimes forget that compelling content is just as important in print as it is online.

While larger pieces like magalogs and reports can carry lots of custom content, don’t overlook something as simple as a postcard.

Let me give you an example. You sell dark chocolate and you’ve written an article on your blog about the 12 health benefits of dark chocolate.

Each month, you send a postcard to a prospecting list outlining one of the benefits. Somewhere on the postcard, label it “1 of 12”, “2 of 12”, etc. Labeling it like this gets people to be on the lookout for the next in the series if it contains information they find useful or interesting.

Because you want to encourage people to visit you online whether they want to order your chocolate right now or not, you give them a reason to get more of your content on your site. Maybe it’s a video showing how your chocolate is made, or a free, longer guide on the benefits of dark chocolate. There are many possibilities.

The point is, whether you’re using a magalog, a postcard, or something inbetween for your print marketing, you can leverage content that you’ve already created so it’s working extra duty on your behalf.

Other articles in this series:

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Your Starting Point

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Twitter

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Facebook

Content Sharing and Repurposing – LinkedIn

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Google Plus

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Guides & Reports

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Books & eBooks

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Guest Blogging

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Article Banks

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Blog Hubs

Content Sharing and Repurposing – Magazines & Newsletters

This is especially true when it comes to magalogs.

If you’ve never done a magalog before, all the things that have to be considered can drive you crazy. But they’re important issues that have to be discussed, and worth it since a well-done magalog can really boost sales.

Recently, I started thinking about ways to make it easier for the prospect, especially on that first phone call when I’m gathering information and they’re looking for answers to important questions.

My solution is simple and it’s something you may be able to apply to your business. In fact, lots of businesses already do it in some form.

The idea is this: Create a short PDF checklist that you can e-mail to the prospect, and then go over it with them on the phone.

This does a few things.

First, it makes it much easier for the prospect to see what needs to be done or questions that need to be answered.

Second, for my clients who do their own layout work in-house and hire me to consult, it gives their team a great way to ensure their magalog has all the components for success.

Third, it’s a time saver for the prospect who only needs to jot down a few notes vs. writing down everything I say.

This idea isn’t new. But it’s another one of those things we might miss because we’re so busy with other tasks.

As a guide for your own checklist, let me give you a brief rundown of how I structure mine:

1. I try to keep it to three pages at most, and the first page is just a title and brief introduction.

2. I list items that are important for the prospect to know, and try to keep each point to about 3 or 4 sentences.

3. As simple as it sounds, I include a checkbox next to each item so it’s easy for the prospect to know what still needs to be done or discussed later.

4. I don’t go nuts with colors and graphics. It’s likely this will be printed, so I created something that won’t burn through their printer ink. You can see the cover page of my magalog checklist. Avoid things like full-page background colors.

5. I end with a quick note about my free book that expands on some of the points in the checklist, and invite them to join me on Facebook and Google+. Beyond that, I don’t go crazy on a sales pitch. Here’s why…

These PDFs are only given to prospects I’m talking with on the phone. So it’s not a traditional lead-gen piece. The lead has already been generated which is why we’re talking on the phone in the first place.

Plus, by e-mailing the PDF, I can ensure that my e-mails actually get through to the prospect in these days of over-aggressive spam filters.

So let me ask you… do you have products or services that would benefit from a short PDF to offer prospects you’re talking with?

I can’t imagine any scenario where a prospect wouldn’t love something that would help them better understand what you do, understand what they need to do to work with you, answer common questions, or just save them some time in taking notes.

It shows you’re making a sincere effort to be respectful of their time and make their life as easy as possible.

By the way, I would be remiss if I didn’t extend an offer to talk about your direct market layout projects, whether it’s a magalog, book, sales letter or something else. I offer a free “get-to-know-each-other” call where we can talk about your project and determine if we’re a good partnership. Contact me to setup a call.

Looking for a way to tick off readers of your book? Include reference notes with website URLs that are about five lines long.

I’ve done many book layouts for print that had reference notes like this. Obviously I don’t recommend them, but the clients have the final say.

If it’s an online book, the length of the URL doesn’t matter because the reader can click on it. Not so with printed books.

As more and more businesses and individuals (like consultants) see the value of putting together a book as a marketing piece, I want to share a simple idea that solves the “tick off the reader” problem while providing extra value.

By now, most authors are keyed into the idea of leading people from their book to their website. But some authors I run into don’t carry that idea over to their reference notes. And in this case, I’m talking about printed books.

These days, lots of reference notes refer to other websites, thus the need for URLs.

The problem with URLs that point to pages deep inside a website is that they can be long. And in some cases, the URL isn’t easily remembered words. Here’s an example:

http://www.this_site.com/ArticleURL&_udi=B6VSC-40V4CB8-V&_user=10&_coverDate=08%2F01%2F2000&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1207904230

Except for “www.this_site.com”, the rest is part of a legitimate URL. And it’s only about half of it.

Only the most patient will bother to type that in. And if you mistype just one letter, have fun figuring out which one it was.

Oh, and don’t forget the other issue that crops up: links that go dead or are changed.

How maddening would that be for the reader to actually type in a long URL correctly only to get a page error? It’s not their fault… the URL changed after your book was printed. But guess who will get the blame for wasting their time?

I think there’s a better way… two in fact, but one is better than the other.

Most people are familiar with URL shorteners like TinyURL. Those services take a long URL and make them far more manageable. This is used all the time on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Still, websites can change, so a short URL to an out-of-date page is just as useless as the original, long URL.

Instead, consider putting your reference notes on your website. If you still want to include them in the book, fine. But add a note that tells people you’ll save them the time of typing in URLs by linking everything for them on your site.

This does a few things:

1. It makes your reader’s life easier. Far easier to go to one site and click on the links from your book than to type them all in manually.
2. It gives readers another reason to visit your site. From there, maybe you have extra resources or a way to add them to your mailing list.
3. It allows you to update links that go bad.
4. It allows you the chance to add updated information that you discover after your book is printed that might be related to the original reference note.

My focus here has been on printed books, but you could just as easily apply this to your digital book, such as a PDF.

Sure, you could include easy links in your PDF, but you give up some of the same advantages I just mentioned.

If you’re thinking of creating a book for your marketing efforts, let’s talk. Not only can I take care of the layout, I can also help if you’re not sure about what content to include.

Many businesses have toyed with the idea of book to help generate quality leads. But they’re not sure what to include in the book, or whether they have the right content.

If that’s the situation you’re in, I believe I can help, having done my own book for marketing, and working with businesses as they re-purpose content they already have.

Contact me today to schedule a free project consultation. This is a no-obligation chance to talk about your needs and whether we’d be a good fit for future projects.

That’s not to say you should ditch your business cards and carry a trunk-load of books around with you.

But one of the points I always make about magalogs also applies to books: If you’re one of the few in your niche using them, you’re going to stand out and be perceived as the expert in your field.

Speaking at a local event? Have a few copies of your book handy.

Reaching out to a great prospect through the mail? Include a copy of your book.

Want to increase the chances of getting media interviews? Let people know you wrote a book.

Like magalogs, books give you the space (even more-so than magalogs) to deal with the pain points your customers have, and prove you’re the one take care of them. Maybe that leads to the reader hiring you. Or perhaps your book has the total solution.

Either way, you’re standing out from the pack. (And if your niche is filled with people who have their own books, where do you think you might rank when prospects are looking for someone?)

There’s a lot of effort that goes into putting a book together which is why it stands out… not everyone will commit to it. It’s not something to do halfheartedly or simply as a vanity project.

Books were among my first projects as a designer and one of my current projects is a book. In fact, I have another site that focuses on my book layout work: Book Layout Studio.

If you’re considering a book, or trying to figure out how to come up with the content for a book related to your niche, contact me so you can start gathering information on what’s involved. That way, you can make a more accurate decision on whether a book would benefit your specific situation or not.

At the end of the day, after walking the aisles and talking to people, I look at the collection of handouts I received – flyers, brochures, inexpensive trinkets – and find a lot of it lacking, or not much different than everything else I’ve dumped on the hotel bed.

I can partially understand why most material is the way it is. There’s a thought that you have to hit the high points fast before the prospect moves on to something else.

But if you’re at a trade show that is really targeted to what you do and your audience, I think there’s a better opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

So let me tell you why magalogs work in these situations.

1. A magalog stands out because it’s different than about 90-95% of the printed material you get at a show. You can test this for yourself with your own mailbox at home. If you subscribe to magazines, don’t they stand out from the other mail you get when you look in your mail box? They’re larger and thicker. For a trade show, that extra bulk stands out even if the physical height/width is the same as other flyers or sell sheets. Standing out in the pile is half the battle.
2. A magalog lets you tell your story better than you can with other marketing material. Brochures, flyers, and sell sheets have to take a more “bullet-point” approach and hit the highlights because there’s not room for much more once you toss in some photos. Having easy to read bullet-points is great, but you can include that in a magalog. That’s the best of both worlds… easy to read bullet points for those who want it, and a deeper story for those who want more.
3. A magalog continues the brief conversation you probably had with the prospect as they walked past your booth. Because of their nature, trade show conversations are often brief. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a business card to follow-up on after the show. But why not have your magalog do some extra sales work for you as well? By the time you get to that call, your prospect will have a much better feel for you and what you offer. And if the prospect doesn’t want to give you any contact info (that happens a lot), your magalog may have to carry even more of the sales load. Try putting that sort of pressure on your single-sided sell sheet. The other printed material simply throws some facts and figures at people. A magalog tells a story and makes a deeper connection, while still having plenty of room to include those facts and figures.
4. A magalog makes you stand taller than your competitors who aren’t using magalogs. I’ve mentioned this point a lot in the past and I believe it 100%. Magalogs take effort… effort that a lot of your competitors simply won’t do because they feel it’s too hard, too expensive, too… whatever. Perception counts for a lot. If you’re perceived to be the leader in your niche, you may get the call that your competitors won’t. Magalogs give the perception that you’re a successful and confident company. Any company can run off a bunch of homemade brochures and flyers. That’s not the case with a magalog.

Is a magalog perfect for every trade show? Not always. I’ve been to some consumer trade shows in the local mall and my general, gut feeling is that a lot of stars would need to line up before I’d use a magalog in that environment.

But industry or B2B trade shows? That’s a different story. The right trade show will likely have your ideal prospect. That being the case, you don’t want to let those opportunities go to waste. You want to put your best foot forward with those folks.

And let me mention another option for trade shows: Publish a book. (Or a bookalog, a variation of the magalog idea.)

I do book layout for some of my clients who have them professionally printed. But these days, you can do some small-scale self-publishing for an incredibly reasonable cost.

You’d only print the number of books you’d need. So you don’t have to worry about buying a huge number and then being stuck with a lot of extra copies.

Think how that would go over at a trade show when you’re handing out a book while most other vendors are handing out a tri-fold brochure and fridge magnet.

As for book content, you probably already have it. For my book, Increase Sales & Build Deeper Connections: How To Get Prospects To Pay Attention To The Story They Want And Need To Hear Before They Buy, the basis for part of the material was articles I wrote for my blog.

If you have a blog or great case studies, re-purpose that material for a book.

Again, it’s a matter of finding ways to stand out so you’re getting the first crack at prospects, not your competitors.

If you haven’t done so already, take advantage of the free magalog resources I offer. They’ll explain why magalogs can be so efficient as part of your lead-generation and sales process.

And if you have questions, contact me so we can setup a time to talk about where you’re at right now and how we can get you to where you want to be with your marketing material.

For any type of layout project – magalog, sales letter, book, brochure, etc. – your designer likely is using some professional-level design tool like InDesign, QuarkXPress, Photoshop or Illustrator.

When he/she sends you a proof, it’s usually a PDF that’s easily viewed on just about any computer. Sending you the actual source (or native) files from those professional level tools would be pointless if you didn’t have that software yourself. You wouldn’t be able to easily open the files, if at all. And most projects are made up of many source files.

That’s why PDFs are so great… one file to see the completed project. That makes your life easy.

Print shops sometimes want to print your project from source files. Other times they’re just as happy with a press-quality PDF. It depends on the printer and the project. Designers are happy to provide the printer with source files if required. (If they’re not, they’re not doing you any favors. Consider finding another designer.)

But quite a number of designers will do just about anything not to hand over source files to the client. This is a very controversial subject and I don’t make many friends in the design community when I discuss it because I’m very pro-client on this.

Why some designers don’t want to give you source files

Some designers are afraid that if you have the source files, you’ll simply do future projects yourself, or hand over those files to someone who will work cheaper. By having the source files, it may save another designer lots of time creating similar projects. Personally, I don’t want clients to feel they have to work with me. If a client doesn’t see any of the extra value I bring to a project, we’re probably not a good long-term fit anyway. So if it’s just a single project and they’re going to use that as template for years to come without using me, so be it.

Other designers fear that the client will muck up the files and create a mess that either makes the end-result look bad (with the blame being unfairly placed on the designer), or cause the designer extra work to fix the mess. To be honest, that’s a valid point; I’ve seen it happen. My personal method of dealing with that is to be clear what the results may be if the client does alter files. If they insist on tampering with the files and causing me extra headaches, I simply stop working with them. (I value my sanity.)

And then there are designers who are happy to hand over the source files… for a price. That’s not something I do – I give them to the client for free if they want them – but charging extra for source files is very common in the industry. It’s a discussion to have with your designer before the project starts and have that included in your agreement.

How I came to my “You can have the source files” policy and why you should care

Unfortunately, “stuff” happens. Real life experiences opened my eyes to why clients should get their source files.

Let’s say you have a magalog that’s working great for you, but you change your company’s phone number, address or a URL. If you’re still working with the same designer who created the magalog, no problem.

But what happens if the designer went out of business and you can’t get in touch with him? (Freelancers going out of business is an unfortunate reality.)

What happens if you have a falling out with the designer and they refuse to talk to you or do anything to help you? (That happened to a client of mine with his previous designer.)

What happens if you’re unknowingly working with a designer who has a terrible back-up policy? Computers crash, files disappear. Happens all the time. I’d like to say that most freelancers are good about making regular back-ups. Experience tells me that not everyone does. How safe are your files with your designer?

What happens if you want to print more copies of the magalog with a new printer, but your designer is out-of-business (or not speaking to you) and you have nothing but a low-quality PDF proof?

Well, here’s what happens: A quick, inexpensive change turns into a brand new project for a new designer. That costs you, the company, more money and takes extra time.

It didn’t have to come to that if you had the source files to hand over to someone else. Or could hand them back to your original designer if something bad happened on his end.

The argument that should cause you to consider finding a new designer

If a designer ever gives you the old “Well, does a restaurant give you the recipes for meals on their menu?” argument for not handing over source files, kindly remind them they’re not a restaurant. But if that’s how they want to be judged, ask them if you’ll get “free refills” on certain design services or get “Happy Hour” pricing.

It’s a silly argument and any designer that uses it on you should be embarrassed. Consider whether you want a long-term relationship with a designer like that.

Here are some things a designer may not be able to hand over

1. Fonts – Most fonts have copyright restrictions of some kind. It’s usually OK for the actual fonts to be packaged and sent to the printer for printing along with the source files. But sending you, the client, the fonts with the source files can be a legal no-no. Your options are to simply take the source files without the fonts, or get a list of the fonts used by your designer and buy them yourself.

2. Unique creations – For this article, my focus is really on copy layout projects. I am, however, sensitive to designers who create logos or other unique pieces of art. But designers can “flatten” an image so that you can still have the source file, but are prevented from editing the pieces that make up the final result.

A logo is a good example. You may need to give that logo file to another designer for a different project. Having the flattened source file allows that designer the maximum flexibility to add the logo to a letterhead, banner, business card, or some other project that the logo designer doesn’t handle. Most logo designers understand that and will provide you with the appropriate file(s).

3. Plug-ins – Plug-ins are software extensions that designers can add to their design tools to help automate tasks or create some unique design element. It’s likely that the plug-in has copyright restrictions that prevent the designer from handing it over to someone else. That might mean that while you have the source files, you can’t edit some portion of the project, or even open it, because you don’t have the plug-in. That’s another case where you may need to buy the same plug-in assuming you have the same design tool your designer is using.

There may be other valid reasons, but I simply want to make you aware of some common situations where it truly is an issue.

Beyond that, it’s always in your best interest to get source files and store them in a safe place on a company server or back-up DVD.

Boring, I know, but essential.