Direct Mail 6

How do I write a brochure?

Use the brochure as an expansion of your sales letter. The brochure should give further details about your product or service, but it should still sell, not tell. The cover of the brochure should highlight the key benefit of your product or service, and the text and headlines inside the brochure should build on that benefit and add one or two additional reasons to buy or call you immediately. Finally, the brochure or a separate response card should ask for the order or the phone call and, if possible, give the recipient an incentive to do what you have asked immediately. That incentive might be a discount for ordering before a certain date, a free gift for calling within the next 5 days, or something similar. Be sure the brochure includes your business name, address, and phone number in several places. You also need to make sure people who see the brochure for the first time can immediately tell what the brochure is all about and what you want them to do. Studies have shown that you have between 3 and 7 seconds to capture a prospect's attention with your mailing piece. If the prospect can't figure out what you are selling or why it should interest him or her, your brochure will wind up in the garbage. One good way to test the clarity of your brochure is to have someone who knows nothing about your business read it and tell you what he or she thinks the brochure says. If the person can immediately tell you what you are offering and why it's a good idea to buy what you are selling, then your brochure probably will accomplish your goals. If there are questions about what you are selling or about the information in the brochure, you probably have not conveyed your sales message as well as you could have. In that case, consider rewriting the brochure or have a professional help you write it.

Do I need pictures in my brochure?

Photographs or drawings can be useful in your brochure if they help get your sales message across. If the pictures are just there to satisfy your ego or sense of pride, they probably don't belong. You may be thrilled about the new building you are moving into; your customers probably don't care, however. Thus, including a picture of your new building is likely to be a waste of space and money, since it costs extra to put a photo in a brochure.

What kind of information should go in a brochure?

You will want to make sure your brochure includes all the main features of your product or service and that it expresses those features as benefits. For instance, instead of saying your database software stores customer data, you'd talk about how the software saves time by automatically printing customer addresses on shipping labels or improves cash flow by making it easy to spot overdue accounts. In addition to features, you would want to include facts, statistics, and perhaps testimonials that would help the reader make a decision to call or place an order. If you are using the brochure to make a special offer, the nature of your offer and how the recipient can take advantage of it, as well as a cut-off date for the offer, should be very clear.

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