Is a brochure worth the investment?

To Brochure or not To Brochure? That is the question (and it’s a tricky one, for sure).

There has always been much debate over whether a small business will benefit from creating a corporate brochure and where they will see a return on their investment.

When considering whether or not to invest in creating a brochure for your company several other questions always rear their heads and get in the way! For example: Will not having a brochure lose you work? Do your clients expect you to have a brochure?Are you creating more headache for yourself by committing to a brochure –surely it will become outdated too quickly?

Once you negotiate your way around these hurdles, there are two more things to consider:

  1. If you decide to have a brochure, what is the best way to go about it?
  2. If you decide not to have a brochure, what are your alternatives?

Fear not! Fishtank is here. Yes, once again we have grappled and wrestled with the niggling doubts, pricked our fingers on the thorny issues, and groomed that hairy dilemma into submission! Read on...

The Big Why?

The first thing to think about must surely be “why is a brochure in any form important for your business?”. At the most fundamental level the act of creating your brochure will serve to really make you think about your company’s offering. It’s very easy to get carried away and talk at length about your innovative approach, and your unique solutions – but can you distill this into an easy to read, high impact statement? By committing to producing a brochure in some form you are forcing yourself to encapsulate your company’s key messages once and for all.

Ben King, Marketing Manager at Win plc offered us his insight into the Big Why?: “Salesmen (especially those selling to the old fashioned industries – financial services and utilities) somehow feel more comfortable having some tangible assets to accompany them to use during meetings with prospects. With some of the networking events that we attend the literature is a good way of jogging the memories of buyers who may have met several suppliers over the course of a couple of days.”

So it could be the case that your sales team would welcome the idea of having something tangible in their toolkit to aid their conversations with prospects at meetings. A brochure can serve as a “leave behind” reminder of the meeting and enable you to stay front-of-mind once the salesman is no longer face-to-face. With this in mind, it is worth remembering that if you reach your audience via exhibitions and conferences the majority of people that attend these events will not be the ultimate decision makers – many will be on fact finding and information gathering missions. If you can give them something to hold in their hot little hand and make it compelling and punchy enough, chances are they will present this back to the decision maker on their return to the office.

Interestingly, Ben goes on to remark: “I actually find brochures more valuable [as] internal marketing tools than an intranet!” So by creating up to date, informative literature Ben can communicate key messages and new products to his employees as well as his customers. So it would appear that in the right circumstances a company brochure can operate as a door-opener and a reminder, and that hard copy brochures are appropriate but only in the right situation. Don’t brochure for brochure’s sake – think about what you will use the brochure for, what do you want it do for your business and what opportunities do you have to use collateral of this nature?

If you’re the kind of company that attends trade shows and exhibitions, or has a customer base that effectively needs an up to date catalogue of your services then a brochure would seem vital to your survival. If you fit into this category, your next step is to make a good job of it!

Getting it right!

You’ve decided that you need a brochure so let’s make sure it’s worth having! Here are some key steps to making sure you get it right.

Be different – A good brochure should allow you to stand out from your competition; consider the design, the shape, the images used, and go all out to motivate your readers to look inside.

Impress your customers – be clear about how you are going to use your brochure in front of your customers. Is it fundamentally a “leave behind” that you need to sell for you when you are not there? If your customers need time to consider their purchase they will welcome a brochure to remind them of your added value – so make sure it does just that!

Be compelling – a professional brochure must be articulate and concise – remember you are committing yourself to print here. Your customers and prospects must be able to read the brochure and have a good understanding of your offering and your unique value - you won’t be around to expand or clarify so you have to get it right first time. You must write your brochure from your customers’ point of view – consider their requirements and the typical questions that they will ask and ensure that your brochure unfolds in a logical order.

Make it personal – of course this is your chance to praise your company, but keep it brief and to the point. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and tell them how you can help them. By addressing common scenarios and problems that your customers have, it will feel like you are talking directly to them. If they can recognise their need in your solutions you are halfway there! What are the alternatives? If you have weighed up your company’s needs and decided that a hard copy brochure is not entirely appropriate for you, there are other ways to create a “shop window” for your business.

Some ideas...

The Flexible Friend: Flexibility and keeping it current are two of your key factors when considering what people receive about your company. One of the easiest ways to ensure that you always carry the right information is to create branded folders or document holders. This allows you to insert the relevant sheets of information according to the occasion. For example, a simple one-pager “About Us”, and then a single sheet per product or service mean you can select the right information for the right situation, be it an existing client that you want to update, a leave-behind for a prospect meeting, or a comprehensive pack of information to be picked up at a conference or exhibition. You can also choose to add in case studies or testimonials – the possibilities are endless. The flexible folder approach is substantially more cost effective than creating a new glossy brochure every time you want to update it, and is easily customisable therefore ensuring it always hits the nail on the head.

The Wonder Web: Of course the easiest way to keep your information up to date and on brand is to use your website as your shop window. A website offers you the opportunity to provide dynamic, interactive content that will draw your audience back time and again. The website enables you to carry much more information than you would normally cram into a brochure because visitors to your site are able to pick and choose the information they view. This is, of course, the environmentally friendly option too!

Halfway House: The halfway house is the pdf file. It’s like a little piece of your website, all nicely packaged and ready to be unwrapped by your customers. By creating an electronic brochure that can be easily sent out over e-mail and equally easily updated and changed you are not only saving money, but also ensuring your information is sent out quickly and efficiently and in a format that is accessible to all. It also means that should the need arise to provide a hard copy of your brochure, all you need to do is hit the print button! Perfect!


Pulling it all together

So we can see the benefits of a brochure, and we know how to do it right. We’ve also considered the alternatives that are available to us – but what do we ultimately need to consider in order to make our decision?

With small businesses one thing that is always key to anything you do, is your budget. With a limited budget you need to be clear about the best place to invest your hard earned cash in order to make the biggest impact that will really work for you. When considering your business’s proposition and how to position your information make sure you know what you want your brochure to do for you. In what situations do you envisage needing a brochure of some sort, and how will it work for you in terms of capturing new business? What type of audience do you typically deal with and how do they like to access information? What does your particular sales process look like and how do you want your prospects and clients to respond to your company information?

All these points will help you build a picture of the most appropriate way to display your wares. It seems the hard copy brochure is fast becoming the property of companies that have a specific product list to advertise, and as Catherine Kenny from LDL points out: “For us the “mini brochure” is more of a catalogue than a marketing tool.” The long and short of it is that every business is different. There is no magic answer and one size almost certainly does not fit all. Your business is unique and so are your customers, provide them with a window to your company in a way that works for them.