Does your brochure really work?
Currently, brochures rank among the most common types of print marketing and
having your own can offer a certain level of comfort and security.
Right or wrong, it let’s you feel that you've taken care of a large part of your marketing
responsibilities.
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Brochure marketing as a communication medium is portable, tangible, and allows
prospects to read about your service wherever they are and whenever they feel
like it.
Custom brochures are a great way to give your customers a lot of information
because they don
’t have the time and size limitations of other marketing materials.
Brochure marketing is also a great way to keep in contact with current
customers, building loyalty and reinforcing credibility.
A professionally designed and well-written brochure can be a valuable tool, but
there are some misconceptions about its focus and true marketing value.
First of all, brochures are not designed primarily to sell, although they can,
and therein lies the challenge for you.
Second, no matter how attractive they are, brochures are rarely read thoroughly.
Often they are skimmed or read in conjunction with other material to get an
overall picture of a company, but rarely are they read from beginning to end.
In short, a brochure is not meant to be the cornerstone of your company’s marketing effort, nor should it be. But as an adjunct to a marketing plan it
can be a very powerful tool.
Here’s the question: If you have a brochure now, does it do its job?
Or, if you’re planning to create one how do you make sure it works?
Here are a few tips that help to answer both questions.
1. Define the objective. What do you want your brochure to do?
Keep it simple. Limit the brochure to a single purpose, perhaps one service that
you really want to promote.
Don’t try to say too much. Make one point and make it well.
Remember, few people will read your information from start to finish so
highlight the major points and make them really stand out for the skimmers.
2. Get the reader to look inside. If the front of the brochure fails, the deal’s as dead as your Thanksgiving turkey.
It’s important to craft a strong, compelling benefit or raise the level of
curiosity in the reader to open up the brochure to the inside panel.
3. Be conscious of design. Studies show that readers look at pictures first, then headlines, charts and
graphs, captions, and finally body text. Keep this in mind when establishing
the basic design of your brochures.
Make sure that the reader is able to pick up the majority of the content at a
glance by looking at pictures and skimming the headlines and captions.
Don’t hide vital selling points within the body text. Make sure to include the
essence of your objectives in the headlines and captions.
4. Describe your service. Tell what you do and what you offer. Don’t use industry jargon, though. It means nothing to your prospects and they get
lost in all the technical talk.
5. Make it a keeper. All too often, the valuable documents your send out to prospects get put aside
for future reference or are otherwise squirreled away and forgotten. But
putting helpful information in your brochure will encourage the reader to keep
it rather than file it away.
For example, you’re in the clothing business, right? Why not include a few wardrobe-buying tips
based on a person
’s skin tones.
Most people don’t have any clue what colors they look best in and would appreciate all the help
they can get. This would be a keeper for sure.
6. One-on-one works best. Do you want to engage your reading audience on another level?
You should and, if you do, they’ll think you’re talking just to them. Using the pronouns “you” and “your” makes it sound like you’re talking right to the individual… and by being personal you have a much better chance of winning them over.
7. Add some atmosphere. Don’t let your brochure sound aloof. Let your reader share your feelings, not at a
technical level, but at a personal,
“feelings” level.
If you’re in the pick up and delivery business and are trying to rescue a mother of
three from the daily rat race, throw in a few references to the noise in the
back seat, the rude and honking drivers and the lack of adequate parking when
she
’s trying to drop off her cleaning. She’ll get the picture right away!
8. Start selling your service. Sometimes it’s best to shut up. Too much detail can cause your prospects to yawn. They’ll drop your piece like a hot brick and turn on the TV.
So give them a lot of benefits. Tell them exactly how your service will put more
hours on their clock and improve their quality of life to boot!
9. Talk about your reader’s needs. Rather than giving a long and boring history of your cleaning business (like so
many cleaners tend to do), focus instead on what the company can do for the
prospect. Less about you and more about them and their needs will score points.
Sorry, as a matter of fact, they really don’t care about you.
10. Ask for action. Regardless of how you organize your brochure, there's only one way to end it.
Ask for action. If you want your reader to respond include a phone number,
reply card, or some form of response mechanism.
In fact, to increase your brochure’s selling power you should include your offer and a response mechanism on every
page.
There. 10 points… by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s a start. There’s nothing worse than having a weapon in one’s arsenal that doesn’t fire. A brochure that gets no attention and attracts no sales is just as bad. your brochure work?
