by Curtis Schlough
Your company’s brochures and printed marketing pieces play a crucial role in gaining new customers, maintaining current ones and ultimately growing your business.  Your printed materials speak for your company when you’re not there. What are your current pieces saying right now? Are they conveying a professional image? Are they sending a clear message that a potential client can identify with? Are they prompting a call to action; motivating a person to inquire for more information?
Why do we need brochures?
If done right, your brochure is one of the most important documents for your company.
For example, you wouldn’t go meet a perspective client without a business card because your business card holds your most personal information that introduces you as a person. Your brochure, on the other hand, introduces your entire company. It is important that your brochures are effective in conveying your company’s best image. What kind of introduction are your brochures making right now? Many times a brochure is the first thing a potential customer comes in contact with before ever calling your company, visiting your store or meeting with a sales representative. It is extremely important that your brochure is making a great impression for your company.
Here are four key points on building effective brochures that say the right things. Take a look and see how your company’s current pieces compare.
1. Attention
The most important thing for a brochure to be effective is getting the attention of a prospective client. Color and creative graphics do this the best. Do not make the front of your brochure wordy. In fact, keep it to one or two main headlines. The headline should be brief and effective such as, “Do you have too much month at the end of the money?” This headline is simple and will strike home with someone who has a hard time budgeting their finances. Remember, at this point you are just trying to get their attention. If you overwhelm them right away with tons of text they will not want to bother picking up your brochure much less reading it.
2. Interest
While getting a prospect’s attention may be the most important thing, keeping their interest is the hardest. This is where most brochures fail, thus losing the prospect. People tend to read marketing material in a “What’s in it for me?” mentality. In other words, you need to quickly show that you understand the reader’s problem. Once the reader can say, “Hey, they are talking about me,” you have peaked their interest in your product or service. Then show them ways that your company can better their situation. Keep your text light and easy to read. Too much text can clutter your piece. Always remember this rule of thumb, if your brochure is too hard to read it won’t be.
3. Demand
An appetizer is a small taste of something to make you crave the main meal. Your brochure should be treated the same way. Give the prospect just enough information so they crave more. Leave some things unanswered so they have to call and find out more information. Touch lightly on the main topics--do no let the brochure tell everything. A mistake people often make is designing their brochure to be a sales representative. A brochure is not a sales representative. A brochure should simply get people excited enough to want to inquire for more information. It should wet a prospect’s appetite, not fill them completely.
4. Action
If your brochure has done its part up to this point you should have legitimate prospects wanting to learn more about your company. You must now tell them clearly how they can go about taking that next step. Also, do your best to provide a variety of options they can take advantage of. For example, provide a phone number and a Web site address. Or print a form for them to fill out and send in for more information. Bottom line, make it as easy as possible for them to take that next step such as a toll free number, a prepaid business reply form, or directions to a form they can fill out on your Web site. All of these can help expedite turning prospects into customers. Lastly, you only need to print your company’s contact information once. Why? Because it is more professional and prospects don’t need to be blasted by your phone number all over the piece or printed in a large font. After all, a brochure is just one piece of paper, not a billboard that people are passing at 60 m.p.h. If they are interested they will find your number.
About the Author
Curtis Schlough is the owner of Budget Brochures ( www.budgetbrochures.com ), a Web site providing professional brochure designs and high-quality, full-color printing at affordable prices. |
