Brochures That Get Action

Effectively communicating the most important fundamentals about your business and your products or services prompts your prospects into action. Brochures that use solid testimonials can create the trust a potential buyer needs about your service or product. When done properly, they guide your prospect through the steps you want them to take so they can move ahead logically to purchase your product or service.

Creating Attention Grabbing Brochures

• Write a front cover headline that speaks directly to your reader and addresses their needs.
• Communicate the most important benefits about your business and your products or services.
• Use solid testimonials that can create the trust a potential buyer needs about your service or product.
• Give the reader action and steps you want them to take so they can move ahead logically to purchase your product or service.
• Tell your customer how easy it is to operate or implement your product or service.
• Use headlines to summarize content.
• Organize content to cater equally to readers that scan from beginning to end, or who jump around from topic to topic.

Getting the Most of Your Brochure

• Send as an introductory mailer.
• Leave behind at initial sales calls.
• Send as part of your literature fulfillment for potential clients responding to an ad or a phone enquiry.
• Display it in reception area.
• Display in your referral partners reception area.
• Hand out copies at seminars and exhibits.
• Send with proposals.

Focusing Your Brochure
The focus of your brochure determines its usefulness to the reader. No matter the topic you choose, you must key in on the benefits that your product or service provides. Remember, people do not buy products; they buy what the product promises them.

Software Screen Shots for Brochures

Having worked in and for software development companies ranging from global enterprises to startup businesses I often struggled with one continual marketing challenge: how to graphically capture the power and benefits of software. A screen shot of your latest and greatest user interface is meaningless on it own. Shrink it to fit the average size column width of a brochure and you might as well have added a block of color.

For home based business owners the issue becomes a budget challenge as well. Do you include screen captures in your standard 11 x 8.5 three-fold brochure, or do you invest in a larger marketing piece?

When it comes to software screen shots the parts are greater than the whole. My experience has found that the zooming into specific areas of a screen shot to highlight functions, features, and output allows the reader to visually connect the software with your copy. Here are a few tips for integrating software screen shots with your brochure copy:

1. Select screen shots that correspond with the headlines of your brochure copy.
2. Zoom and crop screen shots to highlight the specific function, feature, or output your copy is discussing.
3. Add captions to screen shots for further details.
4. Group function shots with output shots using arrows to visually connect and depict the process flow.