 Marketing
Best Practices
Brochures
That Stay on the Desk!
Eight Tricks to Creating a
More Effective Brochure
By Dale W. Hutchings
Published: October 2007
Need a brochure for your
business? Something that will help increase your bottom
line, but you don’t know where to begin? With Halloween
being this month, here are eight suggested tricks to
help you create more effective brochures for your
business. The treat for you will be a sweeter bottom
line by having a brochure that produces for you greater
responses.
Trick #1 Know The Brochure’s Purpose. The primary
goal of your brochure should be for the reader to take
some kind of action. Therefore, the brochure should be
designed so that people are motivated to do something -
e.g., call for an appointment, order a particular
product or service, contact your company for more
information, etc. There are numerous ways to get people
to make that phone call or place that order. Read on for
some answers.
Trick#2 Benefits! Benefits! Benefits! Throughout
the brochure, don’t spend a lot of time telling readers
about the features of your product or service. Instead,
concentrate on benefits. What are the most important
things it will do for them? What is the most important
problem your product or service can resolve for them? If
your product or service has many benefits for consumers,
narrow them down to no more than a handful. Don’t burden
the reader with too much copy. Just hit the major
benefits.
Trick#3 Be Short, Concise & To The Point. Between
what comes to us everyday in our mailboxes, over the
Internet, on TV, radio, in newspapers and magazines, we
are bombarded with unsolicited information. As a result,
people will not take the time to read lengthy marketing
messages. Therefore, the brochure should be written in
simple, easy-to-read language that quickly gets to the
point. In a nutshell: copy that provides the reader with
an educational, benefit-oriented message.
Trick #4 Use Interesting, Eye-Catching Images.
People today are more visually-oriented than at any time
in history. Therefore, throughout the brochure make use
of interesting, eye-appealing pictures or line art
whenever you can to help break up the copy, as well as
give the brochure an attractive, “balanced” appearance.
Furthermore, show action whenever possible. (e.g. Don’t
show merely a headshot of an individual, show that
person in action – discussing an issue at a job site,
having a meeting with clients in a conference room,
talking to a group of people at a seminar, etc.)
Trick #5 Give Them Reason(s) To Act Now. As I
mentioned earlier, the brochure should be written in
such a way that it encourages a reader to take immediate
action. If you don’t give him or her at least one good
reason to take action now, whatever interest an
individual might have had in your product or service
will diminish quickly and disappear. Some of the common
offers to get potential customers motivated to buy a
product are special discounts valid only before a
certain date, or offers of a free gift for purchases
made before a specific date, or rebates for a purchase
by a specific date. Other incentives include informing
potential customers the products being offered are of
limited quantity or customers should buy now because
prices will be increasing.
Trick #6 Make It Easy To Act (Reply). Be sure
your business’s name, physical address, phone number and
e-mail are prominent in the brochure. If you have a
website, include that address, too. If possible, think
about getting a toll-free 800 number, especially if you
are looking for business beyond your immediate area.
Another option is to have a business reply card, which
can be inserted into your brochure, that potential
customers can quickly fill out and mail back to you. Do
whatever it takes to make the job of responding as easy
as possible.
Trick #7 Design Brochures So They Are Easy To Use.
Often businesses think they will create more attention
for their business if they produce over-sized brochures.
In reality, what happens is that these oversized
brochures cause more problems than they do produce
results. Try to limit your brochures to a size that will
fit easily in a brochure rack or a number ten business
envelope for mailing. Such a size will also cut down
greatly on your mailing costs. You’ll also find a rack
size brochure much more likely to be picked up at a
trade show than brochures with a larger format. Unless
you have a bag readily available for the big brochures,
oversized brochures quickly become a nuisance to carry
around at industry trade shows and conferences.
Trick #8 Make Brochures Look Professional. If you
know next to nothing about writing or designing, then
spend the money to hire a professional copywriter and/or
a graphic artist to help you with this project. Whatever
the investment, it will be well worth it. Personally, I
recommend that you hire a team: both a good writer as
well as good artist. The result will be a high quality,
eye-appealing collateral piece you’ll be proud of and
one that will attract greater attention with potential
customers.
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Dale W. Hutchings, APR,
whose services include extensive consulting and
copywriting for clients has more than 30 years of Public
Relations, Marketing and Advertising experience.
Specializing in “out of the box” marketing, Dale has had
his own practice since 2001. He can be reached at
hutch7@verizon.net |
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Article Published October
2007, Bay Area Business Magazine
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