RIP Brochure. Long live the blog

It doesn’t seem that long ago when people were still talking about brochures. Remember those tri-fold pamphlets created by expensive copywriters and graphic designers? Before we went to press, we inspected the copy and images as if it were a newborn baby. They were like oversized business cards we all handed out, as if to say, “Look at us! We’re official! Here’s our brochure.” Now the very word, “brochure” seems dated.

I’d like to hazard a guess that in today’s digital age, brochures have finally been put to rest. I’ve had my hand in far too many brochures to count and I say, “Good riddance.” The energy we once put in brochures now deserves to go whole-heartedly towards a blog. No longer does a business need to rely on dry corporate sounding information and bullet points. A blog speaks in a human voice and has the potential to showcase the people, passion and knowledge base of your business.

That said, It’s hard for businesses to abandon the corporate speak of a brochure and embrace “blogginess.” Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Develop a voice for your blog. What do you want it to say about you or your company? What’s the tone?
2. Think of yourself as a thought leader. Nobody knows your business better than you. So share your expertise, show you know your stuff.
3. Develop a blog editorial calendar. Plan out blog posts and have a plan to actually populate your blog. Don’t abandon it. Think of your blog as you would any communications channel. You wouldn’t leave your phone unattended, would you? Same with your blog. Nurture it and populate it regularly.
4. Your blog is not a magnus opus. Think of it as a platform to share simple good thinking. A columnist for The New York Times once gave me some great writing advice. He said of his column, “You really only need one good idea.” Same is true for a blog. Take one good idea and expand on that.
5. We live in a google-able world and there’s no better way to increase your SEO than to have a blog. A static website gets buried in the deep abyss of Google search. Take a mini cram course on SEO and blog tagging. This will convince you to take to your keyboard and pound out a blog on a regular basis.

Last but not least, take that budget you had for brochure printing and production and put it into your blog.