Best-practice tips for crafting the perfect send-ahead or leave-behind Now that the web is here, brochures are a thing of the past. Right? Wrong. In many circumstances, they’re not only helpful, but downright mandatory. “Send me your brochure.” “Leave me your brochure.” It’s a common request. What would you rather your response be: 1) Proudly hand over something you’re confident will close the deal? or 2) Humbly confess, “Uh… we don’t have one”? So let’s proceed. Now if you already do have a website you’re proud of, you’ll have a lot of good material you can leverage for a brochure. But it’s not apples-to-apples. A website has no sexy center spread, no flaps that can cleverly (and literally) help your story unfold, no instant feel of the weight of the paper stock, no sheen of the varnish, and so on. Similarly, a brochure has no hyperlinks. So bear that in mind as you proceed. If you don’t have a great website, not to worry. You can still create a great brochure. And you can pretty much apply the previous paragraph in reverse: Once you’re done, you’ll be able to leverage a lot, but not all, of your new brochure’s content for your eventually-updated website. Here, then, are some tips—some will be more obvious than others: Consider the audience. Sure, you’re making a brochure for your company, but your prospect only cares about what you’ll do for them. So first (and we’ve said this zillions of times before) know who you’re addressing. How broad of an audience? How narrow? This is actually an area where brochures have a edge over websites: Sometimes (and remember, this is your call), it’s simpler and more effective to create two brochures: one, say, for dealers, and another, say, for end-user retail customers. You can gang up the jobs together on press so the difference in the printing budget is negligible (or nil), and end up with some really good focused stuff. Another tried-and-true way to do this: Inserts/tabs. Picture a nice presentation jacket with your logo on it. Open it up, and there are pockets inside. What goes in those pockets? Any combination of stuff you want. So (re-using the previous example), you could have one set of inserts for dealers, and another set for end-user retail clients. This wheel was invented a long time ago, but it doesn’t make it any less useful today. Consider the story. That’s probably not a word you thought you’d encounter in an article about creating a brochure. But it’s actually what will hold your whole brochure together. It has—literally and figuratively—an opening, a middle, and a closing. Think of it this way: If you were the prospective customer, what would you want to get out of this brochure? And how much time would you ideally be willing to invest in reading it/finding the information you seek? If you answer those questions honestly, you’re well on your way to not only crafting the story of the brochure, but closing in on its ideal format (which we’ll discuss in a minute). Here’s a simplified way to sketch out the “plot” of your story: 1) Prospective client is in distress/has a problem/has a need. 2) You/your company enters as the superhero, prepared to solve the problem/make the client’s life better. 3) You provide just enough information to cement your credibility/show how you would tackle the problem. Just enough… but not all. Remember: No matter how good it is, a brochure is never an end unto itself. You can win all the awards you want for its design and copy, but what you really want is more business. A brochure, then, is never a “closer.” You are. The brochure is there to get your phone to ring—and then save you and the prospect time during that call which you would have otherwise spent covering the basics. In that regard, a brochure can be very similar (in its intent) to a website. Find the format. Of course your budget is limited. Whose isn’t? (If you have a good lead in that regard, send them our way.) But if you’ve already followed the steps above, you won’t do more—or less—than you need. If you’re selling million-dollar products or services, your brochure better look like a million bucks. If your market position is high-end, then look high-end. Bigger isn’t always better. And there are plenty of standard formats to choose, not to mention an unlimited variety of ways to go custom. As noted above, there are presentation jackets. There’s the classic tri-fold brochure, which has a cover, a fold-over flap which is revealed when the cover is opened; it, in turn, reveals the inner center panel and inner far-right panel when opened. (The “back cover’ is actually the back of the inner center panel.) A tri-fold also has its own “psychology.” The reader will read the cover. They’ll open it and see it’s a trifold. Meaning, they’ll spend about two seconds on that fold-over flap before popping the whole thing open. That’s not a problem; that’s an opportunity. You can easily do a 1-2-3 narrative this way: 1) A teaser question posed on the cover via the headline; 2) A real brief follow-up headline, on the fold-over flap, that partially answers the cover headline’s question; and 3) the “meat” of the story in the big three-panel spread that’s revealed once the fold-over flap is opened. This is laborious to describe, but take a sheet of paper and fold it in thirds (as if you were preparing a letter for an envelope), and you’ll see it easily. Scribble all over it: it’s your first layout! Consider the relative importance. Unlike a website, you have limited space here. And, truly, limited time: Your prospect probably wants to devote minutes, not hours, to reading about you. So weigh what’s vital vs. what’s trivial, and dump the latter. Of course, hew to your mandatories, such as phone number, web address, logo, disclaimers, trademark info, etc. Write the headlines. If your structure is good, the intent of the headlines and subheads that appear throughout your brochure should be very easy to figure. Not that writing them will be. See any of our previous posts, such as this one or this one, to help you get those creative juices flowing. Save the body copy for last. Remember that most readers subvocalize (i.e., they “hear” themselves speaking your text inside their head as they read). So “talk” your copy, and read it aloud. If it helps to simply record your talking and then transcribe it as a rough first draft, that’s fine. Whatever works for you. The trick is to 1) hew to the story you’ve crafted and 2) make the language elegant and not clunky. Consider getting help. Very few people sit around writing brochures all day. (Which, frankly, is a good thing.) But that means you may not get much practice at it, making it harder than it should or could be. To get the right words (not to mention the ideal look), consider enlisting help. The results will be the best you can get, and the investment will pay strong dividends. Contact us and let’s get a quote in your hands.
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Best-practice tips for providing info—not spam—and getting more work “We should do a newsletter.” We’ve heard that a lot from different clients over the years; who doesn’t want to do a newsletter? After all, it seems like a perfectly logical way to maintain top-of-mind awareness with clients and prospects while building your brand. And as postal mailings become ever less relevant, an e-newsletter becomes all the more enticing a prospect, because it’s so inexpensive. Often, it’s free. So there are plenty of advantages for you to be gained by producing an e-newsletter (or even a paper/postal one, if you like). But before you take the plunge, consider the following best-practice tips—some more obvious than others—for making the phone ring and business grow: Consider your audience. Notice a recurring theme? We could copy-and-paste “Consider your audience” for Step One of virtually every one of these how-to blog posts. The e-newsletter is no exception. There’s only one difference: anti-spam laws. You can include your clients and former clients and others you’ve interacted with, but be careful about hitting on total strangers. Consider using a service to get a vetted/legal list that suits your needs; here’s a good source you can check out. What do they want to know? You can safely assume that your clients already have their go-to news sources/daily habits. What websites do they read? Who do they follow on Twitter? What news outlets do they turn to first? What industry publications do they read? Putting yourself in their place, what’s the kind of info they’re getting-but-not-getting from those sources? Give up? The answer is: Your expertise. This is the key to a successful e-newsletter; it also happens to be the key to a successful blog (as we’d noted in our popular post: How To Promote Your Independent Consulting Business). It’s pointless for you to scour the news (no matter how specialized/arcane) and rehash it to your clients and prospects; that doesn’t add any value. What adds value is your take on the news. What’s your opinion, as a thought leader? How would you “editorialize” on a news story that falls squarely within your domain expertise? This, incidentally, segues nicely to: Develop a structure for your e-newsletter. You can do anything you want, but here’s a simple and easy suggestion for a basic structure: Open with a quick (one- or two-sentence) greeting, then dive into some quick bulleted stories. For stories in the news, you can write your own provocative “grabber” headline that entices the reader to want to learn your “take” on the story. Open with a one- or two-sentence summary of the actual news item itself, including a hyperlink to a good news source for the story. (Make sure it’s not a subscription-encumbered source; you don’t want to turn off your reader by taking them to a site they can’t access.) Then, simply write, say, 2-3 sentences with your opinion of the story. A generic example: “We like the way this is headed. While it may erect some higher barriers to entry for some, it actually ensures that you end up with a better product, thanks to the added scrutiny which this new regulation requires.” Get it? You can even italicize it, just like we did, so it’s even easier for the reader to visually pick apart your newsletter, and “skip to the good parts” for stories they already know about. (Here’s a sample of that basic format which we did for a client in Europe.) Brag—humbly. Some of your “news” will be internal: e.g., you just landed a big overseas gig, or a recent client just scored a big win, thanks to your help. You can—and should—include these items (your readers may not learn about them otherwise, and they add credibility to your brand), but go easy on them. Consider the “greed test”: If you’re the reader, you want to ask yourself, “What’s in this for me?” It needs to be viewed through the lens of information that helps clients see the need for your services—not mere chest-pounding. Keep it short. Most people will read this from a phone, tablet, or laptop. Don’t make them scroll too much; more importantly, don’t take up one more minute of their time than is necessary. Better to send out a half-page newsletter than a three-pager. Create a publishing calendar. Of course, you can’t predict the news. (If you can, feel free to send us some good stock tips.) But that doesn’t mean you can’t create an editorial calendar. Look ahead to what’s coming up the rest of the year, in terms of events that will have meaning for your clients, such as big trade shows, holidays, elections, anniversaries of important events, etc. (Want a cheap trick? Go to the “Advertising” section of a trade journal you follow, and look up their editorial calendar. It’s probably posted online. You can look it over for any events that may have slipped your mind.) Your calendar, naturally, must be flexible. You’ll be looking for pop-up opportunities (in the form of breaking news) and seize them as they come. But this way, you’ll be able to do a bunch of the work in advance, reducing the pressure on you for each newsletter. Consider the frequency. This is a big decision, and a big commitment, which you need to make up front. Will your newsletter be weekly? Monthly? Daily (gasp!)? You need to balance 1) what you can actually produce, 2) how much/how often your clients want to hear from you, and 3) just how much newsworthy stuff is out there. Make it pretty. Fortunately, there are lots of services out there today for laying out a very nice-looking e-newsletter, managing the lists and mailings, measuring response rates, and so on. Big players include ConstantContact, MailChimp, and iContact. Most offer their entry-level services for free. And once you create your first newsletter—picking out your fonts, colors, column layout, etc.—you can simply clone it/do a “Save as…” for all your future issues, which you can then lay out in minutes. It will simply be a matter of dropping in new text, links, and images. Caveat call-to-action. Of course you want your e-newsletter to make the phone ring, or in-box chime (does yours chime? whatever). But don’t put in too much “call us” or “contact us” verbiage in your newsletter: spam filters often look for just that. Make the content itself the star; better that your clients take the effort to reach out to you than your hard work gets trapped in their junk folder. Leverage. Got a new blog post? That’s newsworthy. Feature it in your newsletter and cross-link to it. Re-purpose the content for the “News” section of your website. Tweet that you’ve published a new newsletter—the goal, obviously, is not just to get more eyes on your content, but to get more people to sign up as subscribers. Don’t stop. If you call your newsletter “The August Issue,” you’d better have one ready in September. Newsletters that sputter over time will actually backfire: rather than building your brand, they’ll make clients question your staying power and credibility. Consider getting help. Done properly, an e-newsletter can be a great and cost-effective business-builder. But it requires work and commitment. Following the above best-practice guidelines will maximize your odds of success. But if the prospect seems daunting, consider feeding your thought-leading ideas to an expert writing source, and freeing up more of your time for core activities. Fortunately for you, we have the unique combination of consulting, marketing, and creative skills which have let us help independent consultants and boutique agencies to boost their billing for more than 15 years. Best of all, we’re fast, efficient, and surprisingly affordable, given the value we provide. Contact us right now and let’s talk about growing your business as quickly and productively as possible. |
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