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Creating Marketing Brochures It's a
lost art—and one you need to learn. |
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Designing
Your Promotion Materials ·
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Business With Direct-Mail Postcards Also see these topics: MasterCard BusinessCard® for Small Businesses
Keep business expenses separate from personal expenses. |
Continuing our review of
promotional techniques, this month we take a look at one of the more
misunderstood and misapplied techniques: the marketing brochure.
Too often, one of the first
things small businesses spend precious time and money on is a brochure or
flier, which they expect will be read and understood and will inspire the
reader to call and hire them or buy their product. And that's where the waste
usually begins-but not where it ends.
The first set of questions
of brochure use is, of course, what is its purpose? and
what should it look like? The second is how will it be used?,
whom will it be given to?, and how and when will it be delivered? Let's examine
each set separately.
Brochure
Design
Most small businesses use a brochure to list the products or services they
provide and their credentials for providing them. The most important element on
the cover is usually the company name. There may be graphics, but they're
usually some form of clip art, which only serves as a break in the copy.
Once a reader gets into the
meat of the brochure, there's usually too much copy in long paragraphs,
requiring a substantial time investment without any value to be gained. In
other words, there are lots of words but no incentive to read them.
Don't think only novices
are ignorant of these issues. A client of mine, a new business providing a
certified training program required by the state, recently hired a professional
graphic designer to create a brochure that would probably be the only contact
the prospect would have with customers prior to registration. This professional
designer made basic mistakes in the areas above.
After being referred to
another designer, the business owner ended up with a dynamic sales brochure in
which her company name wasn't even displayed on the front. Instead, the cover
consisted of a photograph of a quizzical chef and the question, "What Does
It Take To Get Food Safety Certification In
Pennsylvania?" Inside was the answer: her company name and the tag line
"A practical food safety program."
Which
brings us to the most important element of any sales piece: the primary issue
or problem that the receiver is facing. The only way to get someone to read a sales piece is
to start with something the person already identifies with. In this case, it's
the problem: The law requires certification. So the solution is simple and
straightforward.
The fact is, nobody cares about a company name until they're already
interested in the product or service. And nobody is interested in a product or
service until they have a sense that they have a want or need to be filled.
As far as the copy inside
the brochure is concerned, usually less is more. And the shorter the paragraph,
the more likely it will be read. Limited bullets, good use of color, lots of
white space—all these elements enhance your message by making the copy easy to
read. A few strong, brief points are far more effective than dozens of weak
ones or strong ones hampered by excess verbiage.
Distribution
and Usage
In most cases, businesses send a single brochure. A few send a second one or
give one to the prospect on a sales call or at a networking event. And only a tiny percentage incorporate their brochures into an entire
program of contact management, sales and sales support.
Unsolicited brochures are
rarely read. Even solicited ones, at best, end up lost in a file drawer to be
forgotten. And many of the requests a business receives for information,
especially those that result from a solicitation, are merely attempts at a
polite brush-off.
To understand why this is,
you first have to understand that there are only three types of customers or
clients:
1. Those (as so vividly described by
James M. Cecil, father of nurture marketing) with a spear already in their
chests or who see the spear just before it's going to hit them
2. Those who see the spear at a
distance heading for them but determine that the danger isn't as imminent as
the urgent matters they're currently addressing
3. Those who never see the spear
coming at all
Obviously, the best target
for a brochure is the first group. They're what's
known in sales vernacular as the low-hanging fruit. But the best way to get
literature to them is usually not by a mass mailing or other means of
unsolicited distribution. For every two or three active wounded, you'd have to
send out thousands of brochures, which will most likely be thrown away.
The best way to get
information to a Group 1 prospect is to have it available at places and times
when they're vividly aware of the spear. For example, one pet-sitting service
assumed it would get responses from a flier attached to doors. Far better to
place the brochure at veterinary offices, grooming shops and pet
boutiques—places where pet owners are likely to ask for referrals. There is
little to do in a vet's waiting area but read whatever materials happen to be
available. Wouldn't the best time to consider a pet-sitter be a time when your
pet is already on your mind?
For Groups 2 and 3, the
best method is to use a brochure as part of an overall customer
relationship-building program, as I described in the article, You Make the
Call.
Brochures can be valuable
tools, but only when created well and used properly. Until or unless you have a
particular need for that piece of collateral material—and you have a
well-organized program for its proper use—save your money and use other
techniques.
Laura Clampitt Douglas, CEO of MAX International Converters Inc.
and president of Small Business Marketing Analysis, has been providing valuable
advice to small and homebased businesses for more
than 15 years. She is co-author of the bestselling book Getting Business to Come to You (Tarcher-Putnam)
and gives speeches and seminars on marketing at conferences nationwide.
The
opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, not of
Entrepreneur.com. All answers are intended to be general in nature, without
regard to specific geographical areas or circumstances, and should only be
relied upon after consulting an appropriate expert, such as an attorney or
accountant.