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Would Your Brochure Bomb in the Boardroom?
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Brochures can be a very effective sales and
marketing tool. Learn how to make full use of your brochures.
by
Mike Sansone
Contributing Author
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Make Sure Your Brochure Is Doing Its Job And Doing It Right.
Your brochures
should be an active and productive part of your company's success. Can you
identify the goals and roles of the literature you re putting in your
prospects hands? More importantly, are you putting that literature into
their hands -- or is it collecting dust on a counter?
(article continued below ...)
Get Your Brochures In The Customers Hands.
Too often, brochures end up
being unused. Maybe their color is fading on the counter-top display. Or
collecting dust in a rep's storage area. Could be they are just colorful
decorations to impress the boss. If this is your brochure, you've wasted
your money.
Brochures should support your sales and marketing efforts. A good
brochure can almost place the product or service in the palm of your
prospects hands with vivid, concrete details.
Hand your brochures out to everyone that comes in your retail store,
leave them behind on every sales call, and get them in front of potential
investors.
Provide Information and Provoke Action by Pushing Benefits.
In today's
world, consumers have information available in many forms of media. It's
important communicate the essentials of your business get them the
information they need to make a decision to do business with your company.
In short, every brochure should do each of the following:
Explain the business, Show the benefits, Persuade with a call to action.
Tell the reader what your product/service/company is about (EXPLAIN),
Sell the reader on how they benefit (SHOW). Help the reader participate with
your company by taking the next step. (PERSUADE). Whether your brochure is a
sales brochure, an informational brochure or a corporate brochure, by using
the ESP formula above, you can be confident your brochure is doing the job.
Know The Goal of Your Brochure . Almost every brochure falls into one of
three categories: Selling a product or service (sales brochure), teach
something new (informational brochure) or brand awareness (corporate
brochure). While some brochures may have more than one role, almost every
brochure should touch one at least one of these otherwise you ve either
wasted your money or maybe you need to use a different piece of literature.
The information that goes into the brochure should always communicate
your unique sales position (USP) and direct the reader on how to do business
with you. Even if the brochure is strictly brand awareness, include an offer
or direct the customer onto the next step of doing business with your
company.
If you have a product that would take a technical manual to communicate
all the benefits and features, consider including more graphics such as
charts, photos and testimonials. Make sure that each graphic represents a
benefit the reader can identify with.
Know your Audience.
It may be wise to create multiple brochures if your
company targets different clientele. For instance, a self-storage company
may want to create one brochure for homeowners, another for small
businesses, and yet another for boat and RV owners. Some of the benefits
will be similar so much of the content can be the same. The main differences
will be in the headlines and subheads. Brochures can also be used to inform
readers of technical specifications, corporate strategy or upcoming events.
Make sure you know the audience for your brochure.
Headlines Keep Them Reading , In today's fast-paced, sales literature
heavy world, we are all prone to scan. You probably do it. I know I do it.
You can count on your prospects doing it. The headline on the front of your
brochure must compel the reader to open the brochure. Once they have it
open, the subheads and graphics catch their eye before the text.
Your subheads should either be explaining your USP or asking questions
that get the reader in the habit of saying yes . If you find your subheads
are too long, use an ellipsis this will keep them reading.
Another technique that keeps them reading is to put copy in a text box or
table. Use testimonials, a checklist of benefits or your USP to ensure that
your message gets across.
Remember, the result of your brochure should be the reader knowing how to
contact you and why they are doing so. Always include contact information
and your offer multiple times within the brochure.
About the Author:
Mike Sansone is a Freelance Copywriter in Des Moines, Iowa, but is often
called to work from coast-to-coast and border-to-border. To contact him or
see more of his work, you can visit his website at
www.copywritingsolutions.com.
May 2005
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