Chances are if you’re reading this post that you’re considering creating a brochure for your business but you’re unsure of how to do it the right way in order to make sure you get the kind of response you want. After all, when you add up the costs of getting any piece of marketing collateral developed, it can cost you money. You want to make sure you’re getting a strong return on your investment.
As such, this week we’ll cover a few things every brochure should have so that you can make sure your brochure is as response-friendly as possible.
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. In order to be effective, your brochure should grab the reader’s attention, spark interest enough to want to read further and raise the reader’s desire for you product or service. Most importantly it needs to inspire them to want to take a desired action –whether that’s calling, mailing, setting an appointment or making a purchase.
While it might offend your sensibilities a bit – your customers are less concerned with you and your products as much as they care about what they can do for them. For example, if your headline is ‘matching people and strategy,’ you might as well book a first class ticket for that offer to take a ride on the trash bin express. “Train your team how to land big sales” – well now that’s a totally different animal.
If the idea is to get a response, you need to give people a reason to respond. Is it a time-sensitive special offer that will expire if they don’t act now? Do they save a significant amount of money if they use this, specific offer? Will you be increasing prices and this is the last chance to get them at your current rates? Create motivators for your customers to take action and watch your response rates skyrocket.
One of the biggest mistakes people make in direct sales is getting distracted and making it more difficult than it needs to be to respond to something. Offer a simple field if it’s an online brochure. Have simple mailers with prepaid postage if it’s direct mail. Offer a specific telephone number and/or place they can go to get exactly what they’re looking for.
You might be proud of your office, but trust us – no one else really cares. Use images that speak to the thoughts and desires of your customers. Use images of things that you think your customer could be doing WITH your product or service. Stay away from yourself and focus in on your customers.
Don’t be afraid to embrace white space in the design so that it breaks up your text and makes it easier to read and scan. People don’t read blocks of content anymore, so be sure to make your brochure scan able and visually appealing.
