Marketing Content for Brochures

by My Web Writers

Oftentimes, companies take great pride in christening their emergence in the business world with printed brochures. Unfortunately, unless the premise and objective of the brochure is clearly identified, the brochure turns into an informational treaty instead of a persuasive marketing tool. For that reason, great care should be placed in well-thought out, and well-designed content that addresses each of the following aspects of the brochure.

Objective and Role
A brochure is not a stand-alone piece in a company’s marketing strategy. Take the time to know

• how the brochure fits into the sales process (are you introducing your company or selling a product?),
• the desired outcome of the brochure (will it establish credibility or make people aware of your website?),
• and what action you want the reader to take (do you want the reader to request more information or take advantage of a promotion?).

Answering these questions establishes the framework necessary for effective marketing content.

A major concern which paralyzes anyone marketing a service or project in a brochure is whether or not to add prices. The creator of marketing content can easily put that debate to rest by simply defining the brochure’s objective. If you are generating interest in your company then don’t include prices. If the brochure comes into play near the close of a sale, include prices. Having established the objective and role of the brochure, all questions concerning marketing content should be easily resolved.

Know and Hook the Audience
Equally important to identifying the brochure’s objective is the need to define and understand your audience. What concerns your target audience? What is your relationship with the audience? A successful brochure contains effective hooks.  Just like a fisherman studies the appetite of the fish he hopes to reel in in order to choose the right hook, those creating marketing content for brochures must understand the appetites of the target audience, identify the hooks that appeal to those appetites and incorporate them into the brochure. Don’t put all of your hooks at the beginning of the brochure, spread your hooks throughout the brochure’s content so as to not lose the interest of your reader. What creates a hook?

• a free report,
• a discount,
• a pre-order option,
• an articulation of the target audiences concerns, etc.

Nature of the Content
Content isn’t just about vocabulary. It’s about voice, credibility, and atmosphere. Address the reader in an authoritative yet engaging voice. The tone of the brochure needs to inspire confidence in your reader’s mind as to your expertise and approachability. Address your target audience directly so that they feel as if you are engaging in a one-on-one conversation with them. Add atmosphere and warmth to your brochure content by painting a scenario in which the reader can imagine himself or herself reaping the benefits of using the products or services affiliated with that brochure. Avoid any potential monotony and substantiate your credibility by adding customer testimonials or third-party verification to the brochure’s content.

Simple Yet Intriguing Content
Resist the urge to sacrifice the persuasive nature of your brochure with too much information. With so many great features associated with your innovative product or top-notch service, it is easy to fill the brochure with paragraphs that talk all about you and forget the audience. This is not to say that a thorough discussion of your product or service’s features or technology can’t be included. Highlight these aspects in easy-to-read graphs, charts, diagrams, bulleted lists, or photographs. Write captions for these more visual components of your brochure because they carry a lot of value. In fact, captions rank as some of the most read and remembered text because of the simultaneous transmission of meaning through both language and image.

Make the Brochure a Keeper
The most effective brochures are those that the reader finds value in holding on to. How does one encourage the reader to keep the brochure even after having gone through it in its entirety?

• Add how-to’s, tips, recipes, or useful information.
• Include a calendar highlighting important dates.
• Put sweepstakes or promotional event information on it.
• Provide all of your contact information with maps and directions if appropriate.
• Print discount coupons in the brochure.

Call to Action
A brochure loses the potential of fantastic marketing content if it doesn’t end with a call to action. After having gone to such herculean efforts to engage your target audience at every level, don’t forget to invite them to act. Leaving a call to act out of the marketing content would be akin to spending countless hours making and displaying the perfect cake only to never let anyone taste it. Without the invitation to act, you risk having done nothing more than present your target audience with a creative, well-designed, and well-written brochure that ultimately misses the mark of generating a lead or a sale.

Effective marketing content for brochures doesn’t come together by happenstance. It entails a very deliberate and researched process. Remember the adage that if it isn’t worth doing right it isn’t worth doing at all. Businesses who want to succeed want and must create a winning brochure. If the effort required into creating effective content for winning brochures stretches your resources too thin, then outsource your content writing to content providers like My Web Writers.

~Marni