Brochures About Your Customers

One of the most powerful all-purpose tools for your small business is a good brochure. A brochure is a bit like an extended business card - it can tell people what you do, how you do it, get and keep their attention and remind them of your name, address and telephone number. Use it to get business or simply to raise your profile. You need something that's general enough that it can be used in all kinds of situations but which gives the necessary information in a clear and concise manner and leaves a good impression. No matter what it says, your brochure has to show that, when you do something, you do it well.

To be universally useful, your brochure must be small. The accordion-folded styles, either a three-pane 8.5" x 11" sheet or a four-pane 8.5" x 14" sheet are very common because they are compact, fit in a standard business envelope and have room for lots of information. Since the two-sided brochure of this style will have six or eight "pages", you can organize your material to address particular issues on each page. On the cover, limit yourself to a logo, contact information and a line or two about what you offer, without any hype. A related photograph would also go well here. For the inside, keep your text brief and to the point. Very few people are going to read pages of fine print. Introduce your points in large type and then follow with the minimum amount of text to convey the information. Good graphics and pictures of you, your staff and your facilities are also very effective.

Contrary to what you might think, the best approach to this kind of brochure is to avoid introducing yourself and your company. You will need name, address etc.and a brief summary of your capabilities and qualifications of course, but the remaining and larger part of the brochure should be addressed to your potential customers and their problems. Rather than describing your powerful computer system, highlight how the computer system will produce superior output for your customers and how it will do so very quickly. Rather than describing your extensive qualifications, give examples of projects where you drew on your knowledge to produce dazzling results. If page one shows your logo and some company information, devote page two to the biggest problem facing your customers, how you can help and how you have helped others. Your customers will read that.

One last tip: have fun producing your brochure because it will show and a fun brochure will beat out an earnest one in most businesses.

FIRST PUBLISHED AT SUITE101.COM