Brochure Copywriting

A brochure is a booklet that introduces either your company or a particular product or service to a prospective client. It can come in many shapes and sizes and can range from one page in length to multiple pages.

Basically, a brochure is one of the first steps in the selling process. A brochure will often introduce someone to your company for the first time, so it's very important that it contains all the elements that will cause interest and action. A brochure can be glossy, have multiple panels, high resolution pictures and all the bells and whistles a good graphic designer can offer, but the copywriting is the most important part of any brochure.

If a brochure is well written, it can lead to a new customer, if it's poorly written, there's a good chance you'll never see that prospect again.

A traditional brochure might be organized in the following order:

1) An introduction to the company, similar to an About Us page on a website.
2) A list of products and/or services your company offers to consumers.
3) In certain cases, a biographical snippet about the company owner. This may be necessary to build credibility.
4) Testimonials to add credibility.
5) Calls-to-action, to compel a specific action from the reader. For example, to get them to visit a website, make a phone call, send an email, request more information etc..
6) Contact information

In addition, when I write a brochure I always add the following elements and I can't stress enough how important they are. Adding these two components can mean the difference between someone taking action and throwing your brochure in the trash.

i) An overview of the problem a prospect is facing.
ii) Specific benefits a reader gets by choosing your company.

What's the first thing you usually see when you open a brochure? It's often a description of or introduction to the company.

This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

With any piece of marketing, whether it's a webpage, a brochure or a sales letter, you're facing the same problem. That problem is the reader's limited attention span.

By starting out with a factual description of your company you run the risk of losing the reader before you can make your 'pitch'.

Instead, I recommend you discuss the common issues or problems faced by your target market right at the beginning.

For example, let's say you're an electrician who works with construction project managers as a sub-contractor. Sit down and think about what problems they often face when dealing with people like you.

Write these problems down!

1) Sub-contractors don't show up on time.
2) Sub-contractors can do sloppy work if they aren't supervised.
3) Sub-contractors charge too much.

Now that you've come up with several common issues facing your potential customer, address these problems directly.

"At ACME Electrical, we understand how hard it can be for project managers to find the right electrical sub-contractor. If you've ever hired an electrician who doesn't show up on time, does poor work if you aren't peering over their shoulder and then overcharges your company, you should consider giving us a call today. At ACME, we arrive at the job site when we say we will, guarantee our work on every job and on top of that, we always stay within the agreed-upon budget."

If you're able to do this right, you're prospect will be nodding their head as they read your first paragraph. Now you've got them saying yes, even if it isn't to your call-to-action at this point, they're in a positive frame of mind. And that is where you want them to be.

See, what you're doing is talking to the consumers issues rather than trying to talk about yourself. And after all, people are generally self-interested. If you're showing how you can solve their problems, they will be much more likely to choose you over a company that's droning on about how wonderful they are.

Now that you've got the prospect interested, you have to keep them reading. Once again, it's time to appeal to self-interest. We do this by adding to the traditional approach of listing features of your product or service with some direct benefits the consumer will get by choosing your company.

Many writers will list features as if the benefit is obvious to the reader. Well, in some cases it might be. Teasing the reader's imagination is a powerful weapon in a copywriter's arsenal, but I believe some people have limited imaginations or are just plain unfamiliar with what you're talking about.

Let me illustrate my point by going back to the electrician for a minute.

Ok, so we've said that one problem project managers face when they hire an electrician is the sub-contractors don't show up on time. Well let's turn that into a positive feature for ACME and then explain the benefit to the project manager.

Try to come up with five or six points. Once again, write them down and then organize them in order of importance. Not what YOU think is important, but what your PROSPECT will consider important.

FEATURE: Acme shows up on time
BENEFIT: Project manager can focus on the overall job

Let's add them together and see what we get.

"ACME Electrical shows up on time so you can get on with managing your project instead of worrying about where one sub-contractor is"

Knowing that a sub-contractor will show up on time is a massive benefit to a project manager who has to keep track of dozens of tasks every day, and showing the prospect how exactly this benefit will play out will go a long way toward convincing the reader to hire your company.

After you've laid out your features and benefits, it's time for your first call-to-action. Hopefully, you've done enough to convince the prospect that you're the company for them and they'll take the action you'd like them to take. At this point they probably need more convincing, or at least more information about your company, but this is still an acceptable place for your first CTA.

Sum up the important benefits in your call-to-action.

For a reliable and reasonably priced electrical contractor, call ACME Electrical today at 1-800-123-4567

Now that we've covered the most important points, at least from the perspective of your prospect, we can start talking about ourselves a bit. But still, this is only to add credibility to what's come before and to further convince the reader that he or she should choose your company.

How should you approach the company description? I suggest you try and create the impression that you're both professional and approachable. People want to deal with real human beings not jargon-spewing robots. Speak in a friendly tone, but talk to your companies strong points.

Let's have a look at ACME Electrical's company description...

"For nearly 30 years, ACME Electrical has offered good-quality work at reasonable prices to construction companies big and small. We're a family-run business and handle every sort of job you'd expect from certified electricians including wiring, lighting... (and so on). We've been around for so long because we understand what our clients need from an electrician; reliability and reasonable prices. We guarantee our work and personally train all of our employees so you know the electrician doing your work is a professional."

It's friendly in tone and gives ACME some personality, but it's also professional in that it speaks to credibility and specific services as well. It's not really about ACME as much as it's another opportunity to connect with the reader's needs and wants.

I don't bother with mission statements and the like. They usually add up to a whole lot of words without any real meaning. People can tell it's BS in 99% of cases.

For example, have you ever read something like this?

"We are passionate about electrical services and dedicated to providing a superior level of customer service. Our passion is satisfied when we see our clients smile at a job well-done and our customers are much more than clients, we see them as friends!"

Unfortunately, this is the lazy approach that many copywriters will take. It's very easy to write something like that because it's all fluff without any real meaning. Don't do it.

Often, a brochure will contain a biographical snippet of the owner or important company employees. In, my opinion, not every brochure needs to contain this information.

I would only add it if you have to further convince a prospect by explaining your credentials.

For example, if you're a healthcare professional, a dentist or a doctor, credentials and experience might be the final tipping point that drives a new patient to book an appointment. Other cases where a biography might be important could for highly technical jobs such as an electrician or web designer.

To give you an example of where a biography might not be important. A toy company president... no one cares that he played with toys as a kid and that's what provides his qualification for manufacturing toys today.

There is an exception. If your story is quite unique or inspirational then go ahead.

For example, If the toy company president had been on the Titanic and salvaged just one toy. And if that toy inspired him to survive the cold journey on the open sea and never left his sight from that time forward. And he always knew from that moment on that toy manufacturing was in his future because he wanted to provide the same joy to children that his toy gave to him. That would definitely be a biography to include!

But be careful... because if your story isn't truly interesting to others, you're wasting the prospect's time and all the progress you've made to this point in your brochure could be lost.

Adding testimonials is a great way to connect with readers and add credibility. After all, if Joe Average is praising your service, then surely your prospect, Jane Average, might like your service as well.

A single testimonial can help greatly and can be placed in a prominent place on the page. Or, if you have more than one testimonial sprinkle them in between sections or in call-out boxes.

Ask your graphic designer about using visual elements to make your testimonials stand out.

I recommend you add calls-to-action liberally throughout your brochure. You never know when a CTA will work, and I'm definitely of the school of though that within reason, the more calls-to-action the better.

What should you include in your CTA?

1) A sense of urgency. Call today, email us right away etc.
2) Reiterate benefits. For the fastest delivery service...
3) Any offers or deals. To get 20% off your dry cleaning, email DC Cleaners....

I'm a Toronto Copywriter and marketing consultant.

If you need a hand with your brochure, visit my website to learn more about my Toronto Copywriting Service.