If  you believe what you’ve heard and read dozens of times — that surviving in the “new, global economy” depends on being “nimble-quick-innovative-efficient” — I’m pretty sure that needs to extend to marketing efforts as well.

I recently had a rare project: a product brochure for a global industrial manufacturer, slated to be printed. On paper. In ink. I can’t remember the last time that happened.  Most of my clients have all but abandoned print in favor of online or electronic printing. So, anytime they do commit to producing a printed piece, what used to be a common process of writing-design-production-printing is suddenly much scarier and more complex.

That’s left many of my clients struggling to find the right balance.

When producing materials “straight-to-PDF” or “straight-to-Web” they are too lax, allowing errors that could be easily corrected by a competent proofreader slip through because “We can fix it later.”  How sloppy and unnecessary, especially when “fixing it later” falls by the wayside and errors remain indefinitely.

When committing to print, however, they become excruciatingly hesitant and indecisive. In my recent project, I was asked about the “correctness” of a short introductory paragraph at least four times over the course of a couple months (and answered four times: “It’s just fine.”) Extensive, ongoing rounds of review resulted in minor text changes more than three months after the first draft was submitted as well as art/layout changes two months after the first layout. In all, the 2o-page, photo-heavy, text-light brochure re-do took more than 6 months from conception to submission to the printer. Clearly a case of “paralysis by analysis” and hardly a poster-child for “nimble-quick-innovative-efficient.”

So what’s the right balance? Here’s what I’d advise my clients (if they’d ask

• Are you sure you want to print it? Is the cost and shelf life commitment worth it?
• If you decide to publish in print, don’t sacrifice speed for quality. Involve stakeholders and those with veto power in the review process in the early rounds. It saves time and frustration (and cost)  in the long run.
• If you decide to publish electronically, don’t sacrifice quality for speed. Always have someone proofread whatever you publish. Even if you don’t want to hire a professional proofreader, choose someone in your office with a good eye to give materials the once-over.
• If you or someone else finds errors in something you’ve already published online, make it a priority to fix it and republish it. If you find errors in a published piece, keep a “change” file to correct it next time, and consider if the error merits adding an insert or otherwise altering the finished piece to correct it.
• Finally, trust the professionals you hire. If your designer tells you it’s fine to use a particular font or color, trust his/her judgment. Believe your writer over what your 8th grade English teacher told you. If a production person advises for or against something, be equally for or against it.

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I would never read a book if it were possible for me
to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.
~ Woodrow Wilson

Christine Hollinger (aka WordPlay) helps all kinds of people in all kinds of businesses and non-profits explain what they do. You can visit Chris online, on LinkedIn, and on Twitter (as WordPlayatWork).

Tags: Efficiency, online production, print production, proofreading, speed

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