Content is King

The Boss will most likely want to know what it is and what benefits the product or services will deliver to his business and how much it is going to cost. This brief summary is sometimes referred to as the “Elevator Pitch.”

The Manager needs to know more detail about its key specifications, strengths, caveats, impact and function (a cynic may say, that he needs to know enough so not to make a fool of himself in a meeting). In practice he will need to evaluate and possibly sell the idea to colleagues. Ultimately he will plan its introduction. He or She is less likely to be concerned about the intricate details.

How it was

In the dark days before the Internet, this was not easy to achieve, budgets typically dictated one printed brochure trying to achieve everything and possibly omitting details that may change during its long life.

Post Internet—everything changes, or did it?

The Internet opened up new possibilities to present information. You can build an interactive on-line brochure which allows information to be presented in levels to suit different needs and audiences.

This approach is well harnessed on the better e-commerce platforms such as Screwfix.

• At the top “Boss” level, there’s a product picture, what it is and the price
• If you click on it, you get the main product attributes, the “Manager” level
• If you want more information, you can click for the full specification.

There are also further images to look at, with some products there may be a video, and possibly the ability to download instruction and installation manuals.

This approach is widely used by E-Commerce websites such as this. It is just as useful for brochure type websites many of which still bear a close resemblance to their printed forbears with a heavy on text “dump” of information.