Half of the year is almost over, and it is that time again to think of giveaways and freebies for your customers, subscribers and visitors. Instead of giving them a tshirt, keychain or pens (again), why don’t you prepare a short guidebook or booklet that offers tips? This is the advice of Jonathan Kranz in his brief article in the newest edition of Direct Magazine.

According to Kranz, a “reader-friendly 14-to-24-page booklets offering advice and recommendations — can turn the freebie into another channel for your company’s integrated marketing effort.”

For this to work and you to come up with a booklet that will be appreciated by your customers, you need to:

• Come up with ideas of what to write. One great content would be to list down your recent customer success stories — if you are a search engine specialist, think of clients who saw significant improvement in their traffic after using your services. List why these clients became a success.
• Use the power of numbers. For some reason, people respond to numbers — e.g. “10 Secrets to Success;” “30 Tips to Improving Your Web Site Traffic”
• Make your content look interesting. Don’t write an essay. Break your ideas into digestible pieces, with customer testimonials thrown in between.
• Conclude with a strong call to action. Ever notice that those white papers companies often publish are merely a less subtle form of advertisement? Well, this booklet has the same goal — to provide information to customers while at the same time reminding them of what you can do to help them.