Fall, 2005

Whatever you do, focus on your audience. Get rid of fluff-filled, self-important statements like, “We at Blessing to the World, Inc. believe…” One of the things your audience wants to know is, do you know who they are. They also want to know they can trust you to deliver something they value. Before you tell them how good you are, make sure you’re focused on them—what they want, or fear, or dream about. If you want to be heard and remembered, get concerned about what your audience is concerned about.

Note: This is another archive article from today’s website consolidation project. If only I would have pursued the “sticky” thought while I had the chance (before the Heath brothers got so famous off of Made to Stick). Lesson to me and probably many other entrepreneurs/solo-preneurs: go ahead and do something now! Don’t keep waiting for the perfect time. Yes, it’s good to strike while the iron is hot, but as I heard Zig Ziglar say, “It’s better to make that iron hot BY striking.”

“Know your audience” is not only what your speech teacher told you, it’s also a foundational principle for creating sticky communications. Part of knowing your audience is understanding why people do what they do.

One audience I write for regularly gets an overwhelming amount of mail: prospective donors to charities. Fortunately, they have well defined “buying” habits.

Donors tend to give to charities who:

• Are seen as a leader
• Connect with donors both emotionally and rationally
• Help provide relevance and meaning
• Offer significance and fulfillment
• Help donors make a statement about who they are and what they value
• Help donors fulfill their vision for their community or the world
• Contribute to the donor’s sense of belonging to something greater than one’s self
• Provide the donor with a sense of true partnership in making something good happen

Donors enjoy doing the right thing and putting their money into something that will create a profitable return on their investment. The return isn’t usually measure in dollars but in terms of lives saved, lives enhanced, obstacles overcome, and good accomplished.

As you read this list, you may be thinking, “Hey, I suppose MY audience probably values the same things when they’re looking for the products and services I offer.”

I think you’re right!

Note: This, too, is a nostalgic walk. This “post” is THE first “article” for my first website. That site was www.PennGroup.com. Economic factors lead me to drop the domain name around 1997. Now an insurance company owns it and I regret it about three times a year. For now, here’s the post exactly as I first published in in 1994.

Your competitors are fighting hard to get your customer’s attention and money! Rising printing and mailing costs are making it tougher for you to reach your customer. You have to do something creative to capture your customer or prospect’s attention. You must develop promotion pieces designed to persuade—to convince your audience to buy your products. These 12 steps will get you headed in the right direction toward writing more effective and profitable brochures.

STEP ONE: Clearly identify your audience.
What is the intended reader’s age, educational background, social status, and possible interests? Are you writing to satisfied customers, or unknown prospects? What are the informational needs of your audience?

STEP TWO: Determine the desired end result or purpose for the brochure.
This may seem obvious, but many folks either try to include in the brochure everything about the company since it began, or they just start writing with no clear goal in mind. Before you begin writing the brochure, write a concise purpose for creating the brochure. Is your goal to sell a specific product? To provide information only? To prepare the way for a follow-up phone call by a salesperson? To ask for an appointment to demonstrate the product? Is it a “leave behind” to be used after meeting with a prospect? Will it be used to respond to customer or prospect inquiries? Knowing why you are writing will help you define how to say it.

STEP THREE: Put a strong selling message on the cover.
Many times the outside of your brochure is the only thing your audience will see. Communicate enough to let the reader know what you’re about, but be sure to lure him inside the brochure as well. Don’t try to be clever or try your hand at comedy here. Build anticipation of some “reward” to be gained through reading the rest of the brochure. In addition to a strong headline that clearly identifies the product, picture the product in use or picture the end results of using the product on the front cover. A strong headline is one that clearly states a benefit the reader will find intriguing. The dictionary defines benefit as anything that is advantageous or for the good of a person. Your headline should tell your audience what advantage they would achieve with your product or service. Remember the universal question each potential reader asks, “What’s in it for me,” and answer it on the cover. Just in case you’re wondering, it’s okay to start your body text on the cover. The reader’s eye will naturally travel to the lead paragraph. If the message is right, the reader’s hooked. Just because tradition says to put only a headline and graphic on the cover doesn’t mean you can’t start your body text there.

STEP FOUR: Use photographs, graphs, charts, Illustrations, and diagrams to show the reader what you mean.
While illustrations can help show a product, photographs are more effective. Photos are more believable and communicate that the product actually exists. The best photos are those that show people successfully using your product.

One caveat, though—don’t put too many photos on a page. One large photo is better than several small photos.

STEP FIVE: Use captions under photographs, graphs, charts, illustrations, and diagrams.
Those people who do look further than your brochure cover may not read every word on the inside, so include captions. Captions, because they are short, aren’t intimidating to the harried reader. They get noticed. Use captions to tell the whole story. Include key benefits. They’re more likely to be read.

STEP SIX: Give complete information.
Stop to think about why your reader will read your brochure. Most likely he recognizes he has a need or desire and believes you may have what he needs/wants. Before he can make that determination, though, he needs more information. Give him all the information he needs to intelligently take the next step in the buying process. Photos and graphs are great, but be sure you give the reader what he really wants—information that will help him solve his problem.

STEP SEVEN: Make the brochure easy to read by dividing the copy into short non-threatening sections.
Short sections give the reader visual “breathing room.” Use subheadings to break the text into “bite-size” pieces.

STEP EIGHT: Make your headlines & subheadings work double-duty for you.
Some readers will only skim quickly through your brochure reading only the headlines. Think of your own reading habits. When you read the Sunday paper, do you read every word, or do you scan the headlines? Use headlines to get attention and to communicate buyer benefits. Make them a powerful story-telling device. For instance, instead of “Fast Delivery Systems,” write “Impress Your Customers With A Two-Day Delivery System That Gets Your Package There On Time, Every Time.”

I’ve heard some copywriters say the ideal headline should be no more than seven words. Forget them. Make your headlines as long as they need to be. Don’t worry about the number of words. It’s better to have a long headline that makes a point than a short headline that says nothing.

STEP NINE: Make it exciting.
Think of your brochure as a story—a story that convinces your prospect that you can solve his problem. Don’t just state a bland, uninteresting series of facts. Write about what is important to your reader—more money, more leads, more appointments, quicker turnaround, more sales. Find the element of excitement in your product, and let your reader know about it.

STEP TEN: Don’t date your brochure.
Think about the expected life of the brochure. Will you reprint it every season, or once every three years? Don’t include any information that would make your brochure inaccurate or useless in the near future. If prices are to be changed soon, you’d be better off putting them on a separate sheet.

STEP ELEVEN: Tell your reader what to do next. Tell him how to take the next step.
Determine what the next step is, and clearly tell the reader how to take it. Is the next step a demonstration? Tell your reader to call to arrange an appointment. Make sure your phone number is in an obvious place. Is the next step an estimate? Tell the reader what information is needed for you to calculate an estimate, give your phone/fax number, and tell him to call today.

STEP TWELVE: Include all the details.
In your pursuit of creativity, don’t leave out important information like your company name, address, phone numbers, email address, logo, store directions, list of distributors, credit cards accepted, guarantees and warranty information, shipping, trademarks, disclaimers, form numbers, key codes, and copyright lines.

Note: This is a clip from a nostalgic walk down memory lane. This “post” was one of the first “articles” on my very first website. I reserved the domain name in 1994 for something like $375 and renewed it the following year for $250. In 1997, I had to let some brilliant, short domain names go because I just couldn’t afford to renew them for the incredibly expensive price of $150 each. I’m glad things have changed! But, I sure do wish I had some of those domains back. Encourage.com would be worth building today.

Next time you get stuck developing a marketing place or writing an ad for your product, take a look at these idea stimulators to help get you going again…

Exaggerate
Take your product or idea to the extreme. For example, if you manufacture gas fireplace logs, what would you do if the supply of natural gas dried up? What would you do if the government required every home to heat only with natural gas? What would you do if your largest customer suddenly became your fiercest competitor?

It’s important to take these concepts and run with them till breaking point. Many companies, from tiny start-ups to larger companies, rely on a variety of information to help them ascertain how resistant to extreme changes in the commercial landscape they are. The data can come from anywhere – from your personal accounts and statements to information summaries at lovemoney.com as long as you’re willing to take the information and twist it into the worst possible scenario. It’s a scary thought, but sometimes these things do happen, and the more prepared for it you are, the easier the future is to think about.

Be Crazy
Make fun of your product or idea. What’s crazy about it? How would someone from a third world nation view your product? What’s silly about your product? What doesn’t make any sense at all? Being less than serious about your product will help you see it from a difference perspective. Creative genius Roger von Oech says, “There’s a close relationship between the ‘aha’ of discovery with the ‘haha’ of humor.” Being wacky tends to stimulate your creative juices.

Get Lots of Ideas
Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize winner, gives a clue to his success, “The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.” For the corollary of this advice, philosopher Émile Chartier adds, “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.” Get out a pad of paper and write down all the characteristics of your product and of those who buy it. Who else should buy it? Why? Who should not buy it? Why? Are you sure?

Keep writing down your answers and ideas without judging the merits of any. After 30 minutes, you should have enough raw material to being piecing together a sales story that would compel your prospects to buy from you. You may also discover a new prospect group you never knew existed. Or, you may find that with a little “tweaking” of your product or idea, you can make it a perfect solution for a new group of prospects.

Imagine How Others Would Do It
Think of someone you admire and respect (maybe a teacher, a successful friend, your grandfather, or maybe a historical figure. How do you think they would attack your problem? Imagine they were in charge of your project. What is the first thing (or last thing) they would do? What would their goal or top priority be?

Thinking about how someone else would approach your situation will help you escape your own biases.

Set a Deadline
When you’re really up against a creative roadblock, find a good reason to set a deadline for your project. A tight deadline can help you set aside what would otherwise be very good excuses for not getting the project done. A deadline will help you “get with it.”

Give It a New Name
If an architect looks at an opening between two rooms and thinks “door,” that’s what he’ll design. Creativity begins when the architect sees something outside the bounds of the ordinary. If he sees “passageway,” he may design something freshly different like a courtyard or maybe a hallway.

Names have their own built-in assumptions. Change the name and you change the fundamental assumptions. The new assumptions will lead you creatively down a different path.

Solve the Right Problem
Marketing matches solutions to problems. To create an ad that works, you have to craft a message that addresses a problem your prospect knows he has. Don’t assume you’re automatically solving the RIGHT problem. Ask yourself again, “What problems do I solve for my customers?” Is there another problem you may be overlooking?

“Creative thinking may simply mean the realization that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done.” (Rudolph Flesch, educator)

July 12, 2009: Installed new theme. Alex Karis is planning on installing it on his blogs. Copyblogger has been using it for years. Thesis looks like the ubertheme for WordPress. Now all I need to do is learn how all the incredibly cool-looking options work. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow.