Ideal Marketing Company Blog

Always include either an order form or a choice of ways that your prospect can get in touch with you. Imagine the scenario: I have picked up your brochure and have read with some interest about a product of yours that I wish to buy. I rip out the page and put it into a folder. Later that week I take it out and look at the page to find your contact details. I search both sides of the page to find them, but cannot find an e-mail address or a phone number in sight. Worst of all, I cannot remember the name of your company, and that is not printed on the sheet either. I would suggest that at the bottom of every page in your brochure you have at least your company name, a phone number and an e-mail address specific to the brochure. This way you will make it easier for people to reach you and make a spur of the moment call when they have seen something in your brochure that jolts them into action.

Risk Reversal idea number 2. Offer a trial membership: this is just risk reversal by another name. I would say that no brochure for a gym or health club is complete without a free week’s or month’s trial. By including it, you will substantially increase the number of people who are prepared to give you a go, provided certain safeguards are in place.

The power of risk reversal will help you sell to a stranger. The hardest sale that you will ever make is to a person who doesn’t know about your good reputation. In your brochure you are attempting to say to this stranger: look we have a good understanding of what your problems are, we can understand that you have found your current supplier a problem in the past, here is why we feel that we are different. If you are confident that your product or service is good, a very powerful way to dramatically increase the number of strangers willing to try your wares is called risk reversal. At the very least I’d urge you to experiment with this strategy, and a brochure is a very good place to do this.

If you know what the main concern of your client is, that should be the core focus of your brochure. Now, if you also happen to be competitive on price and offer a wider range of services, so much the better. But remember that these are extras. You must address their main concerns first, so if it’s speed they’re after, the whole body of the leaflet needs to focus on this. The sentences should be short. The cover could show a blurred member of staff running towards the reader. The colours could be red and yellow, subheadings could include words like ‘Rocket’ or ‘Rush’ or ‘Instant’. The whole style of the report should reflect that specific concern of your core customer.