Cram as much content into the brochure, after all you paid for the printing and the ink - you've got to get the most out your investment.

Remember that even if you have the most gripping content out there, if you brochure's layout isn't inviting, interesting and non threatening, no one will read what you have to say. Business owners are most likely to fall into this trap when developing ads or marketing collateral it's this one. Your parents and your grade school teachers were right - sometimes less is more.

Write what you think the important features about your products and services are.

Oh no, please avoid this like the plague! What you want to focus on is the value as it relates to your clients and customers. Keep in mind who is buying from you; your client are, you're not buying from yourself. If you want to know what your clients think, feel and want - ask them! If you'd like some guidance on how to ask you clients, call me, I'll be happy to instruct you how (I'll probably ask you a few questions as well). Everyone is tuned into the same radio station (WIIFM, what's in it for me), so everything you include in your brochure should benefit the client from her/his perspective. Does that make sense to you?

Print your brochure to inform people

If you're in business to sell information, skip this step, but if you're like most small businesses, you'll want to read this. I'll ask business owners, "Why are you having this brochure designed? What is it going to do for you?", they respond, "We want to keep our customers informed". Hey, that's great, keeping people informed is good, but it won't bring in any sales, and most businesses wouldn't be investing hard-earned money on something that won't help the company grow. This is why it's so important that you as a businessperson take a moment and clearly identify why the brochure is being designed and then setting up some objectives you hope to achieve with it.

Recently a physician contacted me about having us design a brochure for her. She didn't have an answer to why she was considering having the brochure designed, and didn't have any clear objectives for it. In the end she designed the brochure herself and didn't really get anything out of it.

If you want to get the most out of your brochure investment, you have to start with a plan.

Leave it up to the prospect in what the want to do next

Wow, I started laughing when I wrote this one; this is another outstanding way to make sure your brochure finds its way into the circular file. Of course you don't want that to happen, so what you want to do is to articulate a clear and defined action step that you want the prospect to take after the brochure. You want to lead your prospects by the hand through your sales process. If you don't have a sales process, call me, we'll talk about getting you one, they are critical.

Here's a trick, find a niece, nephew, son or daughter and ask him/her after reading the brochure, "Do you know what the brochure is asking you to do next?" If she/he doesn't know what the action step is, you need to go back and make it clearer. The next time you read the paper or see a commercial on television, take a moment and identify the action step, you will almost ALWAYS see one in there, that's because they are leading you down the path to buying from them. You want your brochure to do the same thing. Now there effective and ineffective action steps, so you want to make sure that the designer who is creating your brochure understands marketing and can develop the right action step to get your prospects to act.

Do it yourself to save money

Well this is a tough one; of course not everyone can afford having professional marketing materials, right? Well, if you want professional results and you're serious about growing your business you might want to consider it. Business owners by the thousands design their own collateral materials - you can do this too. You'll want to ask yourself,

How effective am I going to be at designing something that achieves the level of professionalism I want?

Am I going to lose out on sales because my marketing collateral looks mediocre? How much is that costing me?

In terms of dollars and cents, what results can I realistically expect if I design this myself? What kind of results could I expect if I had someone design this for me?

Just remember that your marketing materials are a reflection of your company, your character and your level of professionalism and quality. Based on who you elect to design your brochure, you have the choice to look professional, intelligent or amateurish and no so savvy. Keep in mind that people, whether choosing a date or choosing who they do business with, make up there minds within the first 10 minutes, so you want to make sure you look like the clear and undeniable choice for your prospect to do business with, and well-designed brochure from a business savvy designer can help you do this.

About Jeremy:

I help small businesses build more confidence and credibility into their business brand. Through marketing and design initiatives; I help you feel better about your company. Making you feel good about your business gives you more confidence and less anxiety when you are networking, promoting or selling your business. If your business needs the reliability and talent of an in-house marketing and design department but doesn