Is Your Brochure Building Business or Wasting Money?
Thursday, December 13, 2007A brochure is more than a series of bullet points and a phone number slapped on an 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper and folded in three. Like any marketing tool, if a brochure doesn’t increase your business it’s not worth the paper and ink it’s printed with.
While the most common form of a brochure is a three-fold piece of paper printed on both sides, that is not necessarily the most effective form. A brochure is any printed product that explains in brief your business and why others should do business with you. Brochures can be quirky or straight-laced, colorful or black and white, be mostly text, be mostly pictures, be rectangular or cut in interesting shapes. There are few limits as to what a brochure must look like or contain. The only ‘must’ is that it must increase your business or accomplish whatever goal you want it to achieve.
I encourage clients to think outside the office cubicle and broadly consider different approaches to brochure design--even if it’s only in the brainstorming stage and is later refined to more conservative modes.
An important piece of any brochure--and one that is frequently missing from most brochures--is effective copy that helps your prospect move further along the buying process. Copy should tell your prospect what your product or service is and what they stand to gain by using it. Benefits. Benefits. Benefits. The most important thing to include in your brochure copy (with very few exceptions) is an explanation of how your customers benefit from buying your product or service. Many people like to list lots of features in their brochures. Features are important, without a doubt--but if you customer doesn't understand the benefits of those features, they won't understand the value of what you're offering.
For example, one of my clients created and sells a fantastic time-management software. One of the features of the software is that you can create hierarchical project and task lists. Well, if you don't understand that this feature helps keep you organized and makes it easier and faster to prioritize your to-do list, then it doesn't mean anything to you and doesn't help you decide whether to buy the software.
How much copy should your brochure have?
This question gets debated a lot, with copywriters pushing more copy and designers pushing for less copy and more photos (generally speaking). If your product depends highly on its appearance, such as jewelry, travel packages, or furniture, then it's appropriate to include lots of large photos. But for most services and products that don't depend highly on appearances, it's better to give the copywriter lots of room. While it may make sense to include a photo of a telephone operator or phones on a brochure for a telecom company, it doesn't make sense to dominate the brochure with those when what is really being sold is phone SERVICE--something that can't be seen. Instead, the brochure should focus on delivering the features and benefits of the service.
With these things in mind, here are a few things to think about as you go through the design process :
- How will you use the brochure? As a mailer? A handout? A business presentation? Will it be carried in a vest or coat pocket or displayed on racks or some other presentation form?
- How will your client use the brochure? To compare your service/product to competitors? To present to a boss or colleagues? File it for later use?
- How will it draw your clients' attention while still presenting the image you want to project?
- How much information do you need to include?
- How will photos and illustrations play a role?
- Do you need to stay conservative in your format or can you press the limits of creativity?
- If you need to stay conservative, why and how conservative? If you can go wild, what are the limits?
- What is your budget? What can you spend on printing? What can you spend on design costs? Note: Spending more on design can yield a brochure that can save you printing costs and produce better results, which will give you more bang for your buck.
What your brochure should accomplish:
1. Your brochure should grab your customers' attention. You could accomplish this through its appearance, but it's more effective to do this through the headline by immediately addressing an undeniable need the client has.
2. Your brochure should make the case for using the kind of service you provide. Do you save clients money? Make them money? Prevent lawsuits? Make them more efficient? Increase productivity? Make a list of the statistics and features you can use to build your case.
3. Your brochure should make the case for hiring your company over other companies that provide the same or similar products and services. What is your unique selling position? Are you more affordable? Provide more value? Higher quality?
4. Your brochure should illustrate the process by which you provide your service or product. Does your client come to you or do you go to your clients? What will clients have to do to use your service? What do they have to provide? What do you provide?
5. Your brochure should invite a call or other contact for more information. What incentive do they have to call today? Do you have a special offer, such as a discount price, free information product or premium to give them in return for responding immediately? Will they make or save more money by responding sooner rather than later?
6. Your brochure should explain what the client has to do to get started and state why sooner is better.
7. Your brochure should provide all your company's contact information: company name, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, Web site url, different people's names and extensions/e-mail addresses, any other way a client can contact the company.
Labels: Brochure, Content, Copywriting, Marketing
posted by John E Fike @ 4:50 PM,
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