This is a guest post by Sachin.

Online marketing and marketing through printing is very different. A look at the reasons why your website cannot be a replication of the company brochure online.

There are those who spend a lot of money creating their website based on their previous marketing materials that were built by printing suppliers, often make the same mistakes. Too many times we see companies that will create their company website as a recreating on their company or product brochure, for example.

This is a very bad way to go about demonstrating your company information online. There are too many reasons why this does not work, and those who do this are those who often claim their website was a waste of marketing money. Those who claim this are normally very right. They have not built their website for the right medium, and the way that users use that medium. Printing specialists specialise in design for printed marketing materials, and this is very different from the way we market through the Internet. Here is a look at the top 5 reasons why you cannot just replicate your company brochure online.


Brochures are for people and websites need to consider search engines.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the business of getting your website recognised by the big search engines, namely Google. Writing so that Google is clear on what you are, and what you do for business will take some special tweaking of the way everything is written. A good example is the simplified and direct text we often read when looking at online materials.


Website viewing and reading habits.

When we are reading something on print, we take our time. Our eyes are used to reading type on paper. You can read a book for hours without getting tired. Text on the web is actually moving. It is an electronic display on a device. This means the text will create stresses on the eyes of the users. Without realising, all online users will start scanning pages instantly, in a haste to get the information they want immediately. They will not follow your text as easily as if it was on your brochure. You need to be punchy and straight to the point.


Calls to action.

Online marketing is based on the now. Your readers have many thousands, if not millions of brochures only a click away from yours. When they hold your brochure in their hand you already have a captivated audience. They are reading your brochure already, after all. Your website needs to keep their attention, and keep them interested. That means giving them reasons to stay.


Brochures are like books.

What does that mean? In terms of web-based marketing, we can consider any printed material to be read like a book. That means they are read sequentially. We rarely use an index, unless we are using an encyclopaedia, for example. Online viewing is all about linking and jumping from link to link. Viewers feel they are swimming in a sea of information and options, and they want the option to go directly where they want. They are not really enjoying the experience as compared with when they sit down to read. The action of doing is very different.


Visiting your site is like visiting your premises.

Taking that impressive and tasty information without wasting time, and getting straight to the point of your sale is absolutely crucial. A brochure is about getting people Interested. A brochure is to entice them into your store. Your website is the store, and you want them to make a purchase. You don’t have sales people to convert your customers online, and that is why your text needs to do that job. Remember, they can leave your store in an instant.


Social has increased this trend.

Social media marketing was not the intention of the makers of Facebook, and neither was Facebook marketing. The original intention was to share information rapidly among many people all the time. It has changed everything, and it has greatly changed the face of website design. This is just another, and yet very important reason why your brochure and online representation must be very different.

So yes, if your website is more like an online version of your brochure, you had it built by the wrong people. It takes some experience to know how to handle the online customer. Print design is specifically for print purposes. Web design is for Internet purposes. They are two very different areas of design and marketing.