How to Get More Prospects to Read Your Brochure, Not Trash It!

A recent study showed that up to 75% of traditional sales brochures wind up in the trashcan. There can be many reasons for this, but the most common reason involves some form of error in targeting, for example:

• The brochure incorrectly targeted content information,
• The brochure was sent to the wrong public, or
• The brochure was used for the incorrect purpose.

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Many brochures are written and designed by folks who are creative and articulate, but ironically have never personally sold anything. The full color brochure looks great, but does not effectively sell the product or service. At the end of the day, a full color brochure for a business is a sales tool. If it does not cause someone to want to buy something or at least want more information it is a waste of money.

A marketing brochure for a small business has two basic purposes:

• One, is to generate leads, and
• Two, is to help close interested prospects.

These two purposes should not be mixed in the same brochure. Trying to combine these purposes to save money has caused many businesses’ brochure to end up in the trash. The reason is that the brochure usually ends up with too much information and becomes burdensome to read.

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The Lead Generating Brochure

The first purpose of generating a lead is you have to sell the idea of AND the need of what you sell.

By design, this type of brochure always creates a sort of mystery sandwich for the prospect causing him to want reach for more information. The main goal is to get the attention of your prospect and cause him to reach for more information.

A lead generating marketing brochure purposely leaves the reader with more questions than answers. What happens when a person has a question? They reach for answers.

The Closing Interested Prospects Brochure

The second type of brochure has the purpose of helping to close the prospect. It provides the answers to questions, builds creditability and validates claims. This type of brochure is designed as a tool to help your sales team close the customer or to reinforce claims made by your company. There is an adage that says if it is not written – it is not true. People tend to believe what they see in print. 

*A special note here—the information on your website does not count as print. Due to the nature of the Internet, people tend to believe less of what they see on the Internet. The feeling people have is that people lie on the Internet all the time. Anyone can create a webpage and call it truth.

Keeping in mind the two purposes above, the effectiveness of your brochure will depend on the message it contains and how well that message is written.

Step 1: Knowing your prospect is the first step to creating an effective marketing brochure.

What problem are they solving with your product or service? What are the benefits of doing business with your company?

Step 2: Keep your purpose true.

Keeping in mind the two different purposes, what type of brochure are you creating? Is it to generate a lead or to help close interested prospects?

If you intend your brochure to be a lead generating piece then you would focus on the problem the customer would be wanting to solve with 85% of the copy content. After presenting the problem you would say something to the effect of, “There is a low cost solution to this problem. We have helped others solve this problem.”

This brochure would also contain the ten points of an ad such as headline, color, call to action buttons and a strong offer. You have to make a strong offer that gives them a reason to call you now.

The brochure that is intended to generate a lead would usually be printed on less expensive paper. The idea is to keep the cost down because you are going to pass the brochure out like it’s tissue paper. Full color printing is a good idea because you can use color to help pull the eye in and sell your message.

The lead generating brochure has the purpose of generating leads so it would be the one you would pass out at trade shows or home shows for example. You would use them wherever you had exposure to a lot of people. The lead generating brochure is made for giving out to people with a mild or passing interest or otherwise known as Tire Kickers.

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If you intend on using the brochure as a closing tool with your interested prospects then you would focus more on the benefits of your product or service with the intention of answering questions and validating their decision for buying.

You would still touch on the problem the customer wants to solve, but most of the content is answering common objections and validating their buying decision. People want to be right in the decisions they make and anything you can give them that demonstrates that they are making the right decision is vital in closing the sale.

This type of brochure might be printed on nicer paper in full color and maybe a larger size. You would invest a little more money on this type of marketing brochure because it is used in the sales cycle to close the sale. You want to give the impression that your business is established so quality counts. You would also be distributing less of this type of brochure overall.

Creating an effective brochure is much easier when you have clearly defined your purpose. Wilson Printing USA can help you create a brochure to help you increase your leads and close more deals.