Interesting idea I've heard about

[BrandonSternfield]

I've never seen this done though.

Mini cd's with pdf.s (with appropiate installer), images, and all sorts of informative articles. Along with contact info. Or flash.

Now, there are sites out there that will make the mini cd, toss a label on it, and mail it out for you. Of course, this is only for a very good list that you have, not just your average mailing list.

What is everyone's opinions on this?

[drewnick]

With the web, do we still need CDs?

[judyo]

I have some and although they're certainly cool, I'm not sure that prospects are all that interested in them. A mortgage broker paid half for them and they're done extremely well with a great label on them with my information and a little cardboard holder. I think I was more excited about them than anyone else.

[BrandonSternfield]

Well my idea was also these can be used for new Realtors my company tries to co-broke with, also for seminars/shows to hand out.

I used to work with computer sales (selling huge network systems) and those were our bread and butter in trade shows.

[Michael Paul Eau Claire]

I've thought about using those, but I think my clients are not techie enough to actually put the cd into a computer...they seem to respond well to postcards. And I like that postcards are about 30 cents each including postage. If I knew the recipient was a techie, I might try it.

[BrandonSternfield]

The clients I work with are very fax and email prone. So I sort of assume most of them could handle a cd =/

But yeah.. this topic on the internet either doesn't come up.. or like this thread, doesn't get much attention.

I guess if I do try it then I it will either bring in lots of leads, or nothing.

[Saodavi]

Seems pretty high on the gimmicky + gee-whiz factor. It also sounds expensive and time consuming to produce. And like Drew said, why not just use the web? It's cross-platform, reaches more people and has a longer shelf-life.

That's not to say I haven't thought of it. The coolest ones are the mini-discs but those don't play in the slot-load CD drives and they probably won't work will in vertically mounted drives (desktops flipped on their sides as towers).

If I had a $1,000,000 listing I'd put them in the house as a give-away. Other than that, my general rule on promotional items is "I don't send it out if I wouldn't want to get it/use it."

While it might have worked well with your niche techie crowd at tradeshows, Joe Sixpack probably won't be interested ... unless of course you load it full of pr0n. :-)

[Sam Dodd]

Now that is an idea. We could have the Home owners...Nevermind

[RESteve]

The problem I have with CD's is that traditional "hand out" advertisement is quick and at a glance if you will. Compared to looking at a business card, or a standard size postcard, inserting a CD and loading the installer, opening the PDF, sitting down to read the info...all that takes too much time IMO.

Plus, never mind the fact that you'll have a certain amount of clients you hand out this information too that will be unsuccessful at loading the CD's into their computer.

There is too much creativity in this method for me, and no accountability; at least not something I've seen that it has proven to give desired results. I could be wrong.

[Saodavi]

They make these business-card sized CD's that are pretty cool. You'll probably get better results with them just because they are small and cute and a novelty. But they cost a lot more than regular CD's ... maybe .50 or more.

Either way, you'll have to make them look nice. Maybe get inkjet printable ones or lightscribe compatible discs. Just don't use the 5.25" Office Depot disc that you scribbled on with a big fat sharpie.