Since all of my design work is for print, I know it’s not. But that doesn’t mean print is as strong as it once was. Or that it’s the best option for certain sales and marketing goals.

But after two project consultations in the last couple of weeks, it certainly became even clearer to me why print still matters.

In these two calls, I was talking with businesses that primarily market online. In one case, the business was an online service with no physical product to sell.

Here’s what both discovered: Many of their ideal customers don’t know to be looking for them online. Both companies had valuable services, but their audience is not the type who sit around at the computer, magically coming up with the right search terms for services they don’t know exist.

So how do you reach those people? Well, you need to get a little more direct. You can’t keep waiting around, hoping your ideal customers stumble across you.

It was at that point that these two businesses contacted me. They knew that despite whatever success they were having marketing online, they were still missing valuable customers by not reaching out to them directly through print, whether it’s a magalog, a sales letter, or something else.

The print piece would certainly drive readers to their websites. But they felt the first step of engagement needed to occur directly through the mail.

Even if these two companies could reach their target audience through e-mail, it’s getting a bit trickier to cut through the clutter. And in one case, it was unlikely the key person they really needed to reach at each company was the one checking e-mail anyway.

I want to be clear: I’m not saying print is for everyone, for every project, for every niche. It’s not.

I am saying that print, in my experience at this time, is not as dead as some people make it out to be. And I am saying it’s still a vital piece of the sales and lead-generation process in many situations.

Let me give you three more examples.

1. In the business-to-business world, print is still a huge part of the initial lead-generation and sales process. In some companies, the approval process can take months and go through various layers of approval. While you should always use your print piece to drive people online, by and large the companies in the B2B sector expect to see something in print.

2. Speakers and consultants can be in a similar situation to the two companies I mentioned earlier. They may be easily found online… if people know to search for them. But often that’s not the case. Unless there’s an immediate and specific need, people probably aren’t sitting around in their free time searching for speakers and consultants. To start the conversation, get a strong print piece into their hands.

3. Some people, especially in the older generation, tend to be more trusting of print material. We see that a lot in the health industry. Traditional print marketing is what they grew up with. Not that scams don’t exist in print marketing, but there can be a perception that if you have the budget to actually mail something to someone, you’re more legitimate and more worthy of attention. Again, we know that’s not always true. But the perception is there.

So, for those reasons and others, I think print still matters… it still has a place… and when you’ve got a great list, great copy, great design, and the appropriate format, it still delivers.

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.

All of these tasks – and more – are time consuming. But the successful consultants have processes in place to automate as many tasks as possible. Lead generation is one such task.

Even the most in-demand consultants are constantly marketing themselves. Ideally, clients come to them already predisposed to make a long-term commitment. But often the consultant is going to have to get materials into prospects’ hands that will help make the case for making that commitment.

It’s a multi-step marketing process that plays out over months and even years. The question becomes… How best to convince a prospect that you’re “the one”?

The secret that other industries know that you may not

Recently, one of my clients (a health firm) completed a magalog after spending over a year working on it. Before I go any further with this story, let me assure you that “over a year” is an extreme exception and nowhere close to being the rule. But getting it right trumped getting it done fast. Copy rewrites, getting opinions from marketing experts outside the company, and even changes in company personnel created a process that took longer than expected.

So why all the effort?

Because they knew, if done properly, the magalog was going to provide a big payoff not only in immediate sales, but also with long-term relationships that would lead to more sales.

In other words, all the time and money that went into the magalog was going to give them a much higher return that would make it all worthwhile.

As I mentioned in my expanded magalog primer article, health and financial services/products generate a lot of skepticism. It’s not that people aren’t willing to buy if there’s value… they will! But they take their time to research and find out if the product or service is really beneficial for them.

Successfully meet the customer’s need in these industries and you’re likely to have a customer for a long time.

That’s why a maglaog (or slim jim, or issuelog, or bookalog) is so well-suited to these prospects.

The company has the space to build their case and provide the information that their customers or prospects demand. And in that process, the company also positions itself as an expert in its field.

Being viewed by prospects as an expert among your competition

Now, other industries are beginning to see the value in that benefit. One such industry is consulting.

For all the value and experience they offer, consultants are often viewed as a bit of a luxury. It’s not that clients wouldn’t love to hire one to help increase sales, it’s just not always given the priority it should, especially when times are tough. (Of course, that’s one of the most important times to hire a consultant.)

Then there’s the matter of finding the right consultant. Any one can throw up a basic sales letter website in a day and claim to be an “expert”. Try a Google search on “business consultant” or similar phrase. Not exactly an easy process for the person responsible for finding the best fit yet having no idea where to turn.

That’s where magalogs come in.

The fact that they’re used so widely in other industries should tell you something: When done properly, they generate qualified leads and increase sales.

If you’re a consultant, you know it can take some time to turn a prospect into a client. Part of that process is finding ways to communicate with the prospect on a regular basis. It can’t be a constant hard sell. That drives prospects away.

How to make your magalog work for you

Think about how you filter the marketing material you receive in the mail. If it looks like blatant advertising, it generally gets a lower priority. But something that stands out from the norm attracts attention.

A magazine-styled magalog with cover copy addressing your prospects core needs is going to get far more than a passing glance.

Here’s just a quick list of things you could include in your magalog:

• Advice that the prospect can put into action right now to increase sales.
• Little-known marketing techniques that can give the prospect an edge over his competition.
• Branding success stories and what your prospect can learn from them.
• Advice on hiring the right people and keeping them motivated.
• Tips to save time that actually work.
• Success stories from clients that your prospect can relate to.
• Q&A section addressing common questions about the value of consulting.

Each article helps to establish you as an expert in consulting while at the same time providing immediate benefits to the prospect. When the prospect feels you’re truly interested in helping them before they’re a client, you begin to break down the barriers that make them hesitant to hire you.

And when they do decide it’s time to write the check, who are they going to call? Chances are it’s not the consultant who believes “prospect value” is including a free recipe in their generic, template-based newsletter.

Chances are, you already have a lot of content via articles you’ve written or speeches you’ve given. Now, it’s simply a matter of taking that content and putting it into a format that few, if any, of your competitors are investing in.

A magazine-styled magalog spotlights you as an expert and adds to the perception that you’re one of the top people in your field in a way that a traditional sales letter, newsletter, postcard, or special report doesn’t. Those are all good marketing vehicles, but are they helping you stand out from other consultants who are doing the same thing?

Unlike some industries that mail their magalogs to a large mailing list, you can save money by only printing a small number of magalogs to send to your “A+” prospects and current clients. (We never want to forget providing extra value for existing clients who are an excellent source for referrals.) For prospects that may not be too serious on your radar, e-mail a PDF version if you choose.

Turning a cold-call into a warm-call… or having prospects call you

When you send useful information, clients respond in a positive way and are much more willing to want to know more. You’ve presented a positive image that helps you stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Better than you cold-calling, imagine your prospects calling you to discuss some of the ideas you presented in your magalog.

Even if you’re the one making the call, your magalog in their hands turns a cold-call into a warm-call and gives you a great starting point for a conversation.

Successful consultants know what they’re worth and charge appropriately. But to convince a prospect to write that check, you have to prove your value and find ways to separate yourself from your competitors. (Just like your prospects have to do with their customers.)

Because of their complexity and cost, magalogs aren’t done on a whim. But that’s one reason they increase your professional perception. It shows you’ve reached a certain level and should be taken seriously as an expert in your field.

As you consider ways to market yourself more effectively and show yourself as an expert among your peers, it might be wise to consider what the health and financial industries have already discovered: Magalogs work!