Brochures

When potential customers request additional information about your company, your product or your service, you need to have a professional-looking brochure to send them. Your brochure should be designed to sell or help sell your product or service to the customer.
When potential customers request additional information about your company, your product or your service, you need to have a professional-looking brochure to send them. Your brochure should be designed to sell or help sell your product or service to the customer.

Use these tips to help guide you through the process.

• The cover of a brochure, whether it carries a headline or just a title, must do a strong selling job. Graphics should be carefully chosen to entice the reader. The job of the cover is to get the reader to open it to learn more. If its not catchy, the rest of the copy won't get read.
• Don't use graphics, photographs or other artwork just for the sake of having it there. If you use a graph, make sure it tells a story (for example: our sales are increasing), and back up that story with a caption ("Acme's sales have risen tenfold in the past 2 years"). By the way, one large photo or graphic is better than several tiny ones. It makes a bolder statement...and it's easier on the eyes.
• Be aware that some people will only skim your brochure. You can make sure they get key information by using descriptive headlines, and dividing your brochure into short-easy-to-read sections. Separate each section with a subhead - a secondary headline that describes the copy that follows.
• A brochure is an information tool...it needs to support your image, but it also needs to have substance. Stress the benefits of your product or service. Talk about features. If you're writing about a product, show how a typical customer would use it. Describe how your product or service has solved a problem for a specific client. Think about including testimonials from satisfied customers.
• Tell readers what action to take. Don't leave them hanging. Ask for the order. Give them a mechanism for buying your product or service. And don't forget these important details (as applicable):
  • Your company's name and address
  • Your phone number, toll-free phone number, fax number, and Web address
  • Distributors, sales reps, dealers
  • Directions, prices, branch locations
  • Shipping and service terms
  • Guarantee or warranty information
• If you're mailing out your brochure in response to a request, you want to make sure the envelope gets opened. Put something like "Here's the free information you requested" on the outside of the envelope. And don't just send out the brochure - include a motivating