Reference Cards

If your marcom team is thinking of creating a brochure, stop and think about its purpose and context.

• Where are you going to make it available to prospective customers?
• Do you expect or want them to read it as soon as they pick it up?
• Do you expect or want them to take it home or to work with them?
• Do you want customers to hand them out to their colleagues/friends?
• Do you want customers to keep them on hand for reference?

Depending on the answers to these questions, you might consider information or reference cards instead of a brochure. If you distribute durable cards the size of a standard business card (3.5" x 2"), customers are more likely to:

• Take it home or to work.
• Hand them out to their colleagues and friends.
• Keep them in their purses or wallets for reference.

Sometimes a brochure is the way to go, but it depends.