Marketing Information

Brochures that Generate Sales Leads (and How to Write Them)


One rule in direct mail is that your letter sells your offer and your brochure sells what you're selling. For example, let's say you mail a classic direct mail package to generate sales leads for your enterprise software product. Your classic package will consist of a #10 mailing envelope, a sales letter, a brochure (perhaps an 8 1/2×11 sheet folded twice), a reply device and a #9 return envelope.

In this package, your letter sells your offer (which might be anything from a white paper to a complimentary audit to a discount) and your brochure sells your product (describing in detail the tech features that are too cumbersome to include in a letter). Here's how to organize and write that brochure.

1. Create a compelling and memorable theme
Don't just name your product on the front cover, or simply feature a photo of your manufacturing plant taken from the air. Instead, craft a theme that captures your prospects attention and stimulates interest. Turn this theme into a headline for your front cover. Include a customer benefit, clearly stated or implied, whenever possible. Here are some examples:

(a) Committed to Memory (manufacturer of computer RAM)
(b) Now you're Talking (Voice Over IP service)
(c) We go the Distance (distance learning software)
(d) Get Online Without a Line (wireless email service)

2. Carry your cover theme throughout the brochure
Use images, subheads, captions and body copy that continue your front cover theme throughout the brochure. If your cover theme is "Now you're Talking," for example, a subhead inside the brochure might be, "Talk about a great deal." Your call to action might be, "We need to talk."

3. Start your selling message with your prospect
Inside the brochure, the first image and headline that your prospects see should speak directly to them and the problem they face. Don't start with you or your product. Start with the prospect.

4. Grab attention immediately
Arrest your prospect's attention and show that you understand their problem (the one that your product or service solves). For example, a software vendor sells an application that manages enterprise storage from a single management console. Here is how they grab their prospect's attention:

[Cover theme]
Get more storage without buying more storage.

[Inside headline]
Adding storage solves your storage problems. True or false?

[First line of copy]
Is your distributed storage ballooning by 75% a year? If all you do is add more storage, all you do is compound your problems.

5. Describe your top benefits first
List the top five features of your product or service, and the benefits that customers get from these features. Remember that a feature is something that your product does, while a benefit is what that feature does for your prospect.

Now rank these top five features and benefits in order of their importance to your prospect. Then write your copy so that you mention the top benefit first, the second-most-important benefit second, and so on.

In the above example, for instance (point 4), you would list the following benefits, in this order, and flesh out each one with persuasive copy:

(a) reclaim up to 30% of your storage space enterprise-wide
(b) prevent premature and costly storage purchases by predicting when your servers will run out of space
(c) reduce data access problems and storage-related failures before they threaten your mission-critical data

6. Present proof
Back every claim you make with the kind of proof that resonates with your prospective buyer. In business-to-business mailings, some of the most compelling proofs are testimonials, comparisons with competing products, test results, case histories, industry awards, and names of well-known companies who are your clients.

7. Ask for the order
Treat your brochure as a salesperson who has to give your entire sales pitch. That way, if your brochure gets separated from your sales letter in the prospect's office, the brochure stands alone as a sales tool that can generate a sales enquiry. So ask for the order, usually at the end of the brochure. Tell the prospect exactly what to do take things to the next level (call your 1-800 number, call you, return the reply card, visit your website, download a demo, and so on).

Alan is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation consultant. As President of Sharpe Copy Inc. (http://www.sharpecopy.com), Alan specializes in helping businesses generate leads, close sales and retain customers, using cost-effective, compelling direct mail and email marketing. Alan also uses his direct mail advertising services to help charities raise funds and raise awareness of their causes, using fundraising letters.

  


MORE RESOURCES:

PR Web

How to Use Pinterest for Marketing Strategies with New RAW Training
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Finding out how to use Pinterest for marketing is one of the newest and most useful tricks in a marketer's arsenal, and Digital Marketer is helping with its new RAW Training. Austin, TX (PRWEB) May 26, 2012 Learning how to use Pinterest for marketing ...
“Pinterest for Marketing from the Leading Gurus in Social Media,” Says Online ...Albany Times Union

all 16 news articles »


Search Engine Journal

Can Online Video Marketing Rescue Businesses from Google's Panda & Penguin ...
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
With the recent updates and changes coming out of global search engine Google, the online world has had to review their marketing methods across the board. Many traditional techniques of gaining rank position and driving web traffic have become ...
Practical Post-Penguin Marketing Ideas for Small BusinessSearch Engine Watch
Maximizing Video SEO: Tips and Tricks You Should KnowBusiness 2 Community
3 Post-Penguin Online Marketing Tips for Small Businesses; Focusing on the User!Search Engine Journal
Houston Chronicle -Search Engine Land
all 46 news articles »


Kaizen Way Marketing Now Offering Guaranteed Results from SEO Services
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Kaizen Way Marketing is offering guaranteed rankings for local, national and international websites when obtaining their professional SEO services. Better rankings equals increasing online visitors to a business website and dominating the competition.

and more »


Smart Dental Marketing Ideas: IDA Simplifies Managing Multiple Websites And ...
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Strategic dental marketing ideas from IDA let dentists easily manage multiple domains, websites and marketing campaigns from their own online Control Panel. (PRWEB) May 26, 2012 Smart dental marketing dental marketing calls for more than one domain ...

and more »


Revel adjusts marketing strategy after first month's disappointing revenue
Press of Atlantic City
One analyst characterized the giveaways as a complete turnaround in Revel's marketing strategy — one that shows Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis is adjusting to “a fast and brutally changing Atlantic City market.” “Kevin has proven he can change directions ...

and more »


HiveMind Marketing Retained to Provide Integrated Inbound Marketing Solutions ...
Sacramento Bee
By HiveMind Marketing, Inc. CAMPBELL, Calif., May 25, 2012 -- CAMPBELL, Calif., May 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- HiveMind Marketing, Inc., a digital inbound marketing agency based in Silicon Valley, has been retained by established San Francisco Bay ...

and more »


Content Marketing Conversations
Sacramento Bee
By PR Newswire SAN FRANCISCO, May 25, 2012 -- /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Together with the Business Development Institute, PR Newswire hosted an interactive event, the Content Marketing and Communications Leadership forum, on May 16th in San Francisco.

and more »


Notchnet's Veronica Francis Certified as Local Search Marketing Expert
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Veronica Francis of Notchnet Web Services is now a certified Local Internet Search Marketing Expert Littleton, NH (PRWEB) May 25, 2012 Veronica Francis, President of Notchnet Web Services, is now a certified Local Internet Search Marketing Expert, ...

and more »


Minnick Insurance Services, Inc. Offers an Interactive Way to Purchase ...
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Minnick Insurance Services has partnered with Astonish Results, LLC - a digital marketing and insurance sales training company that specializes in modernizing the way by which the independent insurance industry does business - to create an innovative ...
Price Insurance Unveils Its New Custom Virtual Insurance Office and Digital ...DigitalJournal.com (press release)

all 15 news articles »


Market forecaster for May 25
Midwest Producer
As we highlighted in the Market Insider Trade Alert Newsletter, this market could be explosive this summer as the weather cycle suggests a hotter and drier period of weather during the rest of May and through June. Corn has averaged a rally of $1.25 in ...

and more »

Google News

Article List | Index | Site Map
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved.