Electronic or physical print?

About three weeks ago I asked, via LinkedIn, the following question:

Do you prefer to read your books or magazines electronically or to have a physically printed item?

Now this is a bit of a controversial question, as I obviously work in the print industry but the results were staggering and have helped me take a big sigh of relief when looking at the future of print. I was amazed at the number of responses I received and the strong feeling from everyone regarding their reading habits and to find that 75% of respondents still prefer to read their books in hard copy is music to my ears. I do, however, feel that over the next couple of years these statistics will change dramatically and is definitely a question to ask again next year.

Now the reason why I asked this question was because late last year my mobile phone company offered me a sparkly new smart phone on renewal of my contract (I love it) and being an avid reader my whole life I quickly found a great free Ebook app. I typically have two books on the go at any one time but if you’d asked me this question 12 months ago I would have emphatically said no, I will not give up my hard copy books for an electronic version. This changed, however, after downloading a couple of free open source books (I had made a promise to myself to read more of the classics) and I found myself reading predominantly Ebooks, so much so a couple of months ago I invested in a 7” tablet EReader. Now, whenever I have five minutes to myself I find myself reading, in the doctors surgery or waiting for appointments no more lugging books around for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love reading magazines and newspapers in hard copy, getting them through the door, the smell of the print (I know, I know, I am a print geek after all) and then flicking through the pages until I find an article I am interested in - there is no way a phone, PC or tablet is going to be able to replicate that, so as you can tell I am currently in the both category but this may change J

I thought you might like to read the best of the responses to the question.

Carlos Gutierrez

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/carlos-gutierrez/b/826/2b9

Personally I prefer to have them physically printed but I do believe that the electronic world is catching on very fast in the sense that devices such as the kindle and a number of ebook readers have come onto the market. This makes storage of books etc a lot easier that carrying around bulky books, another thing that these manufacturers have realised especially with the kindle is that the screen doesn't resemble that of a computer making a more viable alternative to books as after sitting at a screen 8-10 hours a day the last thing I want to do is come back to a screen to read a book.

Kathryn Thomas-Daniels

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/kathryn-thomas-daniels/27/602/82a

I prefer a printed copy, also there is something about an old book, it may be the mystery or the romance? but it tells a tale, the smell, the turned corners, the coffee stains on the back cover! to pass a book on is a good gift to share.

Lee Clouse

http://www.linkedin.com/in/lclouse

I love the Kindle for reading books--I actually think I read faster on it. Magazines look great on an iPad. Newspapers, for no reason whatsoever, I like the print version. Seems arbitrary, I know. It's very interesting to see that most every answer here prefers print. That is definitely contrary to what we are being led to believe

The Effective Use of Leaflets to Market your Company

Leaflets are type of open letter which can be circulated in a number of ways and they are a great cost effective way to get your message across to your future clients.

I have put together a 10 point check list of what you need to think about before you even start putting your ideas onto paper.

1. What are you selling and to who? Who is your target market in this instance, you will need to narrow this down so your company's message is clear.

2. How do you intend on getting your information to these people. By hand, post, through the door or left at various venues etc.

3. Who is going to be reading your leaflet - you need to design it with this in mind. There is no point in writing your text at graduate level if it is going to be read by average Joe Public.

4. Decide on your paper stock, if your target audience is upmarket you need to be thinking about using a high quality, heavy gloss or silk paper/card, if downmarket then a lightweight, cost effective paper will do.

5. When deciding on what is going to be in your leaflet always give a thought to what is the end benefit to your customer.

6. When designing your leaflet always use AIDA

• A - Attention - you need to grab the attention of the person reading it.
• I - Interest - once you have their attention you need to sustain that by keeping them interested.
• D - Desire - now you have their interest you need to get them to desire your product. Use customer testimonials, case studies etc.
• A - Action - always have a call to action, such as a specific offer, discount or maybe a voucher.

7. Reflect your brand identity throughout your leaflet, making sure that your brand is clearly recognised. Potential customers typically need to have seen your customer's message 6 times before they will buy from you.

8. Do not be afraid to leave white space - too much information and your may lose your message, it will also make it difficult to read and is therefore much more likely to end up in your potential clients recycle bin.

9. Don't use jargon.

10. Remember to leave room for your contact information, telephone, email and web address.

With the increase in digital print it is much more cost effective these days to target your leaflets to specific markets. There is no point in producing one leaflet in their 1000's if only a quarter of them are going to be of interest to who you are handing them out to.

Always keep your target market in mind at all times and design your leaflet to that specific market.