AMiable Solution #403: Selling More by Telling Less in Brochures

What’s the quickest way to lose a prospect? Overwhelm him/her with information. See this week’s blog for tips on creating brochure copy that works.

When you’re paying for list rentals, printing, mail processing, and postage, it’s easy to get into the mindset of “maximize the real estate of a printed piece with more information.” The problem with that approach? Your marketing piece loses its focus and its audience.

Brochures, in particular, make great marketing tools. A two-sided brochure is large enough to provide enough compelling information to spur action but also small enough to not feel overwhelming or time-consuming to peruse. They can quickly introduce potential buyers to a new product or service, and they can easily be mailed or shared digitally.

But brochures are also prone to the cram-too-much-into-them mindset.

To be most effective, brochures need to have focus. They need to have:

· One topic. Catalogs are for showcasing the range and scope of your products or services, but brochures are for highlighting just one aspect of your offerings. Pick one product or one product line to sell in your brochure. The narrower your subject, the more focused and specific—and therefore more effective—your brochure will be.

· One tangible advantage. Just because you’re featuring one product in a brochure doesn’t mean you have to include every detail possible about that product in it. And, not all details about your product should be given equal emphasis. In fact, the more you highlight and emphasize, the more diluted your message becomes. Identify the one thing that will most likely persuade your decision-makers to buy, the one fact that differentiates your product from your competitors, and write all of your copy around it.

· One takeaway—what is the one thing you want readers to remember after reading your brochure? Is it the uniqueness of your product or service? Is it the long-standing position of your company in the industry? Is it how their lives will be easier with your product or service? Think about what your prospects care about or need the most.

If you’re having trouble identifying one primary benefit or narrowing down one primary reason for buyers to buy, don’t worry! That’s what testing is all about. Create multiple versions of your brochure and see which one recipients respond to best. With any luck, you’ll have winners all around.