Is Print Advertising Dead? Long Live the Brochure Website in 2021
What is a brochure website?
As its name suggests, a brochure website is a digital version of a brochure. It helps you to showcase your products and services to your existing and potential customers online.
The days of producing shiny, glossy, printed brochures are in the past. They have been taken over by affordable web design packages that can do the job just as well – if not better. Quickly outdated information and spotting a spelling mistake in the 10,000 printed brochures have been left behind too!
A brochure website is a great way to introduce and promote your business or personal site to the world and start to build a brand and develop trust with your customer base. It’s an ideal starter website for people with a start-up budget and limited time and resources.
Why a brochure website?
Brochure sites typify affordable web design. They are often pitched at new and fledging businesses as an ideal way to market their goods and services. They are relatively low cost, without the large upfront investments of a more complex site.
These types of web design packages allow clients to have a smaller site, usually up to about 5 pages, that can be up and running quickly.
An added advantage is the emergence of ‘build your own’ website builders and ‘drag and drop’ software that gives users complete control of their site content.
These types of solutions don’t need any complex website building skills or coding knowledge, so are much more user friendly. They tend to incorporate easy to use content management systems (CMS) to allow quick editing or adding content.
Short-term payment options help to make them an affordable and viable option for small businesses too.
How to make the most of your brochure website
A smaller website doesn’t have to be any less effective in delivering information about you and your business. They enable you to present simple and informative messages that focus on promoting your brand and helping your customers.
Take the time to think exactly why you need a website and what you want it to achieve.
Sell more?
Then present high quality images, features and benefits sales text and customer testimonials. Guide people through the awareness – evaluation – purchase sales cycle.
More visitors to a physical business?
Highlight your unique products, your customer service and add a Google map to help people find you on foot and by car.
Increase your awareness locally
Use a blog page to get involved with your community. Share news, attend local events, offer taster sessions and set up a Google My Business page.
Always maintain a customer focus:
Never lose sight of the fact that your ultimate aim is to reach out to others. Write content for your customer not for yourself.
Talk about the benefits:
How it solves problems, provides solutions and delivers benefits.
Make yourself a reliable, knowledgeable, skilled and trustworthy source for people who want to use your services or purchase your products. Be prepared to be the best.
The 5 page website
Time to be pro-active and utilise the 5 pages in the best way you can. Customers want to visit a website that not only looks good but is easy to navigate. Make it user friendly.
This 5 page template should enable you to cover everything you need your customers to know.
Home Page:
This is the page that most people will land on when they first visit. It’ll get the most traffic. Try and make sure to quickly grab the attention of a visitor and let them know exactly what your site is about. How is it going to help them? What solutions are you providing? It’s also good practice to have your contact details in the header of your site so it’s easily accessible on every page.
About Us:
What you do but more importantly why you do it! People want to build trust and confidence in you. Let your personality and passion shine out and start to build a rapport with your audience.
Products / Services Page:
Showcase your products and services. Highlight your unique selling points, exclusive products and commitment to customer service. If you do something no-one else does, then let people know about it.
Blog Page:
Share news, local events, business updates, special offers, etc. Blog posts can be shared on social media pages too.
Contact Us:
You could have the best website in the world but if no-one can get in touch with you then it’s not much good. Try and offer as many different ways of contact as you can. Not everyone will have access to all forms of communication and different people prefer to interact in different ways. Include your physical address, phone number, email, and contact form as well as links to your social media profiles.
Do what’s right for you
This is not a set-in stone template. For example, some sites work better with a blog page and some without. A blog page can be really helpful for sharing information and special offers about your business as well as community news, projects and charity initiatives.
But, for a Landscape Gardening firm for example it would be a good idea to use a page show some before and after shots of recent jobs that showcase your skills. Each business will be different.
Try to include Calls to Action (often called CTAs) on your site too. These can encourage your visitors to contact you, enquire more about a product, download a free PDF or sign up to a newsletter. They are powerful tools for helping engagement with your site content and encouraging long term relationship building.
You can find out more about how to decide which CTA is right for your business and how to write an effective one here.
It’s not all about the website
Never think that a website will do 100% of the marketing. That rarely works for any business, let alone a smaller business.
Instead use your website as part of an ongoing and organised marketing strategy that works both online and offline. Don’t be afraid to try different things and see what works best. If it works, great, but if it doesn’t then don’t despair, just try something else.
Final thoughts
A brochure site is a flexible tool to have in your marketing strategy. It can work perfectly for businesses as a ‘set and forget’ online shop front that promotes their goods and services 24/7.
For others it offers the ability to edit pages and also utilise blog posts that allow businesses to share news, updates and offers with their customers.
A brochure site is an affordable and accessible choice that is flexible enough to grow with the needs and demands of a growing business.
Try not to make any spelling mistakes, but if you do at least you can change them without throwing 10,000 printed marketing brochures in the bin!
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