What does a marketing brochure do?
10 March 2008A lot of thought must go into a brochure, because the copy and design need to complement each other. Effective design adds to, and is part of, the copy’s sales message, so the two processes have to be undertaken in tandem.
This means either the copywriter must also design the brochure, or the copywriter must work in tandem with the designer.
A brochure can therefore be double-trouble. The process of design and copywriting are conjoined – so if someone demands changes to the copy, it can also affect the design, and vice versa. Costs can go up if many changes are made.
Creating design to engineer response rather than interest or admiration is a specialist task and does not come cheap.
But a good brochure will boost response remarkably, so the extra expense is paid back many times over.
3 ‘must-haves’ for your brochure
The secret to a brochure is to ensure that it:
1. Is opened and read
2. Contains responsive copy and design
3. Can be used for at least three years ahead
21 hard-won creative guidelines
Our special issue of the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter contains many hard-won tips that will save money and ease the process of creating a response-boosting brochure. You’ll learn about:
1. Why it’s worth using quality pictures in your brochure
2. How to ensure effective design
3. The difference between a consumer and B2B brochure
4. How to ensure your direct mail pack brochure can be used for years ahead
5. When not to use a brochure
6. How to create a mini-brochure to cut costs
7. The difference between a direct mail brochure and a stand-alone brochure
8. How to create effective brochure copy and cover lines
9. What you need your editor to confirm
10. Maximising your audience
11. Why the right free gift never fails to increase response
12. Establishing the authority of your product
13. What to put in your coupon
14. Why your brochure needs a source code
15. Why not to sell ‘news’ and ‘opinion’
16. Why you need to put a value on a free gift
17. Using an editorial ‘preview’ to sell, just like Amazon
18. Linking in to an event
19. Positioning your publication as better than newspapers and the Internet
20. Using the biggest and best benefit of all
21. Testimonials – the two kinds to use
Some important points about creating an effective brochure:
• A brochure’s pictures and illustrations are expensive to produce, but can also be used for website pages, etc.
• A B2B brochure should usually look more serious than a consumer brochure.
• As with a magazine, art and copy are produced together to good visual effect. But unlike a magazine, the design must work with the copy to achieve the maximum response possible from the reader.
• Printing a colour brochure is expensive but costs can be amortised if you choose pics and words that do not date it. For example: put the offer deadline in the letter, not the brochure, use a dummy cover with no date, use editorial summaries that are not time-sensitive, do not refer to a ‘launch offer’, etc.
• The brochure should explain and show why the publication is unique or different.
• Sometimes there is no need for a brochure – some information products such as financial and other newsletters are best promoted through a long letter. However, see the final point below:
• A mini-brochure with a picture of a free gift incentive and a cover shot will pay for itself many times over.
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