“BizBox” – Is it a brochure, a flyer or a sales kit?
Often at BrandMoxie we have a client who comes to us asking for a ‘brochure’ without a clear strategy on what the piece of marketing collateral is intended for. Here we offer insight on how to fine tune your marketing collateral to fit your specific business needs.
Usually marketing literature are required to help a customer make a buying decision. Because the development of such material can be costly in design, content creation and production, it is important for the business to determine the kind of ‘collateral’ required to achieve the specific business goal (which is almost always to convert a potential customer into a real customer).
The “Hand Out and Leave Behind” Brochure
As the name suggests, this is the brochure that you leave behind after your contact with the prospective customer. This brochure provides a good outline of your products and services and with it the specific benefits it offers the customer. It is important that your copy is punchy and has a clear ‘call to action.’ It also has to be relevant otherwise your ‘leave behind’ brochure will probably be left behind in the garbage bin!
The “In Response’ Brochure
This is the brochure that you send when someone is interested in your product or service and you want to provide information that could help them make a buying decision, basically to take them to a ‘stage two.’ This brochure should list all the strong benefits and features to persuade the customer, and hopefully close the deal.
The Catalogue
This is ‘brochure’ that is a listing usually in photos and prices. It is important that the catalogue does justice to the products otherwise it is best that it should be produced at all. So the quality of the photos and printing are immensely important to market the products. Such catalogues can be expensive to produce, and distribute, if they have many pages. These days ‘catalogue’ dependent businesses produce small printed versions and ask customers to browse more expanded online versions.
The Point of Sale Flyer
This is usually located strategically at retail points, and usually come in the form of a quick and brief read – often a flyer – to help the customer progress towards the buying decision as they come close to the ‘buying window.’ Or it is something the customer may scan over quickly and take with them to read at home. For the flyer convenience, visibility, attractive design and brevity of copy are all important.
The Direct Mailer
Sometimes a marketing strategy calls for a direct mail campaign, and this works best when the target group is relatively small and identifiable, and that the contact information is available to the marketer. In this case, the best collateral type is the direct mailer. Here the mailer should provide your product or services’ key selling points, and also some level of personalization so the recipient places a greater value since the mailer is intended for him or her. Here try to include the person’s name, title and address, and if at all possible personalize the letter (rather than sending it to ‘dear customer’).
The Sales Support Brochure
In some businesses a sales person has a short time to make a sales pitch to a customer, and that might involve showing the prospect a ‘brochure’. In this instance the brochure needs to serve as a selling aid, and showing the products in large photographs and headlines helps. If produced well, this kind of brochure, even if it is left behind with the potential customer, doubles up as a ‘leave behind’ brochure.
