Put Your Brochure To The Test: Does It REALLY Encourage
Prospects to Respond?
Does your brochure truly attract potential customers? Or does it
attract prospects, but they either throw it away or never take
action on the information the piece contains? Worse yet, is it
an out-of-date and unconvincing brochure that sends more
prospects away than it attracts? How do you know?
First, remember that your brochure serves as an introduction to
your prospect. Typically most brochures are NOT a final sales
tool.
Instead, it's important to realize that most prospects feel
hesitant to make an outright purchase based on written material
alone. So asking them to read your brochure is the first small
step you ask them to take. That's why your brochure must give
enough information to convince your prospects they're ready to
take the next step.
The next step usually means asking them to call or e-mail you or
stop by your business to learn more. In other words, your
brochure should help to create a sense of trust between you and
your buyer so they contact you and give you the opportunity to
finalize the sales process.
How do you know if your brochure is succeeding? Ask yourself, or
better yet, ask several honest acquaintances, customers,
prospects or a marketing expert to test your brochure with the
following questions:
1. Does your brochure lend a sense of credibility thanks to its
professional design, copy and production? If your brochure looks
like you printed it off of a bad printer or if you lack design,
layout or copywriting skills, and your brochure doesn't look
professional, people will lack confidence in your products and
services...and they're unlikely to take that next critical step
of contacting you. 2. Does your brochure answer all of your
prospect's questions? If not, what's lacking? If your brochure
testers still have questions about your products or services,
that's not the end of the world as long as they feel ready to
call and get the answers. If they feel too much information is
lacking and they wouldn't call, you need to include more
information in your brochure. 3. Are the benefits of your
products/services clearly stated and supported with
testimonials? Every bit of your copy should make your prospect
feel like you're talking directly to them. First, explain your
product in terms of the problems they are facing. Next, give
them the answer or benefits your product or service provides to
handle their problem. There is no product or service I can think
of that does not solve a problem for a prospect, so make every
bit of your copy focus on the problems and benefits you offer
from your prospect's point of view. 4. Does your cover headline
clearly sell your product/service and catch the reader's
attention? The simplest and most effective way to grab your
prospect's attention is to ask a question that identifies a
problem or to mention an exciting benefit of what you offer. The
goal of your headline is to get the prospect to continue reading
your brochure, so use lots of headlines throughout your brochure
to make sure every prospect sees something in your brochure that
gets them to start reading. 5. Do you tell prospects enough
about your company to begin building a relationship? Since
you're building trust between your company and your prospect,
you need to tell them something about yourself that convinces
them you're the expert, are a trustworthy company, and that
you've truly got the answers to their problem. 6. Is it easy to
find contact information in your brochure? On each page of your
brochure, make sure to provide your phone number, e-mail, web
site, and location info in a prominent, easy-to-find place. If
your brochure testers have to search for this information, move
it to a place where they see it immediately. Imagine a prospect
who is ready to call, but can't quickly figure out how to call
you, so they put down the brochure in frustration, and never
return to make that call. That's a lost sale, and it happens
when companies don't make their contact information obvious. 7.
Does your brochure contain a strong call to action? Prospects
like to know you want their business, so tell them what they
need to do next. That means clearly asking them to call, e-mail
you, stop by, or request more information by visiting your
website, etc. 8. Have you given the reader a reason to keep the
brochure even if they're not interested in your service right
now? If you think prospects may not immediately need what you're
selling, make sure you give them a reason to keep your brochure.
For instance, check printing companies stay in front of their
audiences by putting a recipe on the back of the order form.
That's because they know their customers are usually women, and
they are likely to keep the recipe...and thus the order form!
Put these eight tested and proven ideas to work in your
brochure, and you can be sure you'll get more prospects calling
about your products and services. And that means you have the
chance to turn those prospects into paying customers, the real
goal of a carefully-designed brochure.