No matter its size, every company should have an arsenal of print marketing collateral to use in all types of situations. From trade shows to cold calls, these pieces are essential to the sales process and can help convert potentials into customers.
Of all types of print collateral, brochures are probably the most common and most effective. If marketers accurately identify where and how they will be used, brochures can be vital to advancing consumers down the path toward purchasing.
Unlike catalogs, brochures are designed to zero in on a small set of goods and services and often only focus on a single offering. They are designed for informative and educational purposes, where a catalog will attempt to sell directly from the page.
Brochures can be physically handed to potential customers. They can be addressed and mailed on their own. They can be inserted into direct mail sales packages. They can be used at trade shows, or they can be used as leave-behinds after meetings.
Brochures are versatile, but why should every company have one?
5 IMPORTANT REASONS FOR CREATING A BROCHURE
Whether creating a brochure for a product, a service, or as a simple showcase of your entire company, here is why they’re important:
1) Cultivate Credibility
Yes, credibility is often immeasurable but its value is essential. Like it or not, companies that have their own collection of print marketing collateral are viewed as being serious players versus those that do not put value in things like brochures.
Think about it. You first meet two different businesses at a trade show, and one gives you a glossy brochure compared to a tiny business card from the other. From which company will you most likely gather information and be apt to buy?
2) Branding Opportunities
Staying with the business card vs. brochure comparison, the latter option gives companies a greater opportunity to make branding statements.
Visually, messages are conveyed using carefully selected images, graphics, and design choices. A brochure advertising expensive sunglasses will have a completely different appearance if it attempts to market a young, hip demographic versus one of older age. Copy and content will also reflect these same branding principles. Business cards cannot offer the same branding potential.
3) Speed Up the Sales Process
While you’ll probably never sell goods or services directly from a tri-fold brochure (nor should you try), when done effectively, they will help advance the sales process. Any good piece of print marketing collateral will contain some sort of call to action that should create a continuation of this progression. Instead of trying to sell “widget services” from the brochure, use it to facilitate a phone call between the potential client and a member of the sales team. Close the deal with an interpersonal exchange, and let the salesperson sell the widget.
4) Increase R.O.I.
Brochures can increase your return on investment. Not only can you effectively inform your audience and move it down the sales progression, you can also use brochures as valuable time savers.
Instead of individually crafting marketing collateral for each of your potential customers or clients, brochures give business owners the freedom to carefully target multiple people in a variety of situations with a single effort.
5) Develop Internal Communications
Though not as effective as internal newsletters for distributing information to a workforce, brochures can help prepare employees to accurately describe their companies as efficiently as possible.
Essentially, a brochure can be a glossy table of contents for a product or an entire company. Use them as tools to help the sales team when developing pitches. Brochures are like “elevator speeches” on paper.
