Avoid These Mistakes in Your Online or Paper Brochure

Someone who picks up your brochure or clicks onto your World Wide Web page is thinking, "Why should I buy from you?" or "What's in this for me?" And right at the top, during the first moments of contact, those are the questions your marketing piece should answer.

Suppose I tell you I'm interested in five plain-paper fax machines, and ask why I should buy them from you. Would you stand up straight and proclaim, "We're Frank Fenn Faxes, serving Sinclair City since 1985"? I doubt it.


Yet that's exactly what hundreds of thousands of you have been doing, in effect, for years on printed brochures and more recently, on electronic World Wide Web pages. "We're Frank Fenn Faxes, serving Sinclair City since 1985" will not move even a motivated buyer closer to the decision to buy. Nevertheless, it's the most common (and ineffective) message on the front panels of printed brochures or headline for home pages on the Internet.


Someone who picks up your brochure or clicks onto your World Wide Web page is thinking, "Why should I buy from you?" or "What's in this for me?" And right at the top, during the first moments of contact, those are the questions your marketing piece should answer.


Computer consultant B.F. Boudreau of Waltham, Massachusetts, heads her brochure, "Puzzled by computers?" If I'm an appropriate prospect for her services, I'll think "yes!" and turn the page. Similarly, the Sagat Speech Institute would do better with "Secrets of Spectacular Speaking" as a World Wide Web page headline than with the name of the organization.


Once you motivate your reader to find out more, spell out what you sell or do for people in language that makes sense to your customers, not your own jargon. Someone who is indeed puzzled by computers responds more readily to "We patiently get you past the frustration of learning your software" than to "Specializing in Windows applications, SQL and RDBS's." A homeowner needing trash disposal should encounter, "We get rid of it safely and legally," not "We comply with all 5.4893 regulations."


Yet another common mistake is citing credentials and achievements as if they were selling points. Notice how the "After" statement in the following pair slants the facts to show prospects vividly why business qualifications matters.


BEFORE: From 1987 to 1997, Keith Stone served as outplacement director for Textron, Inc., and started his own firm in January 1998. He holds an M.A. in counseling from the University of Wisconsin.


AFTER: With a decade of corporate outplacement experience and a counseling degree, Keith Stone offers jobless or job-unhappy folks guidance and support while shortening their path to the ideal job.


A fourth common mistake in brochures is failing to ask for action. After you catch prospects' attention, describe your product or service and bolster your offering with qualifications, explicitly ask your readers to do something. "Call 800-XXX-XXXX for a free evaluation of your business lease today." "Call 213-XXX-XXXX from your fax machine for a catalog of free legal reports available through our fax-on-demand system." A parting gesture like this makes an enormous difference, either because we human beings are obedient creatures or we enjoy being reminded to take action.