Do You Still Need a Company Brochure?

Courtesy of Andrea Balzano (flickr)

I’m a member of a LinkedIn group called The Association of Independent Business Consultants and had the opportunity to participate in an interesting discussion recently that got me thinking.

I remember back several years ago when I was first considering opening my doors as a freelance copywriter, long before I ever made my first cold call or snagged my first portfolio sample, I felt the need to design, write and print several copies of my company brochure.

Don’t laugh too hard. You probably did the same thing.

So Carolyn‘s question was:

Do you use a brochure to market your business? If so, how? What are the most important topics to include?

Here’s the link to the full discussion, so you can benefit from everyone else’s insight also. Basically, some gave some great suggestions about focusing the brochure on the customer, some suggested not even using one, but going in favor of the online alternatives now available, and another recommended creating ultra-specific brochures for each potential client.

Here’s my take:

I agree with the majority of responses. Here’s my take as a content marketing specialist:

The value of a traditional brochure is severely limited by the far more effective and less expensive online alternatives available. At the same time, as Jerry mentioned, the personal touch is extremely powerful, and I see plenty of consultants (myself included, at times,) hiding behind an electronic smoke screen and wondering why they’re not getting results.

That being said, I do recommend at least giving a traditional brochure a try if 1) you’re just starting out and your target audience is fairly local, or 2) you find your website and social media presence aren’t accomplishing what you need.
Just, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t spend thousands on a huge print run of ultra-spiffy brochures unless and until you have solid proof that it’s consistently bringing in paying customers. A perfectly acceptable brochure can be designed on Microsoft Publisher and printed on your home printer in a pinch.

As to content,
1) Make sure the brochure speaks TO your target customer, not at them or about them.
2) Don’t brag about your accomplishments or your degrees. Instead, let your satisfied customers brag about you via testimonials.
3) Make sure you include an obvious, concrete call to action: “Call me for a free 30-minute phone consultation today!” or “Download my free report right now!”
4) Don’t make the mistake of trying to fit every possible option your customer has into one brochure: “Call me here, or go to my website, or e-mail me here, download my free report, or let me mail it to you, or I can drop by with a copy…”
5) Give them a taste of who you are, what you do, why they should care, and then one thing they need to do to move things forward.

See, the bottom line of this question really rings true when considering any marketing tactic:

What’s going to get your unique twist on solving your customer’s problems out in front of your customers?

If you analyze all the possible answers to that question, and a spiffy company brochure floats to the top of the list, then go for it! As a matter of fact, here’s an article I wrote about writing it a little better.

But if you really look hard at your options, and you realize (like I eventually did,) that your brochure kind of sucks and/or it’s more likely to sit in a drawer looking pretty rather than making you money… well, you know what to do with it.

What’s your opinion? Let me know in the comments.

How to create a Brochure Site with WordPress and Genesis (desperatelyseekingwp.com)
Avoiding Brochure Printing Disasters (pagesla.wordpress.com)
First Rate Brochure (firstrate.co.nz)
The One Content Question Marketers Should Ask (hubspot.com)
Resources Every Copywriter Must Have (logicpath.com)

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Who Gives a Crap About Another Company Brochure? The immortal company brochure is one of the three standard items every company feels is required in order to actually be "in business". The other two, of course, are business cards and a logo. So, since it's essentially a necessary piece of paper, millions of company brochures have been written, but I'd guess about 10% of them are worth reading. ...