by Lisa Kryder, NetProfitMarketing.com

You want a magic formula for producing the perfect brochure every time. But that’s wishful thinking. Each brochures has a life of its own based on differing objectives and your business’ changing needs.

Yet starting every brochure has these key questions in common:

• Who is your intended target audience?
  

• What is their plan?
  

• Why do they need your product and service?
  

• How will they benefit from working with you?
  

• Most importantly, why should the reader care?

When you have answers to these questions, you’ve addressed the brochure’s content. But, truthfully, you have barely started. Consider these 10 issues as you move forward:

• CONTENT: Define your target audience, objectives, and messages by writing down answers to the questions above. The more thought you put here, the better your results will be.
  

• EXPERTISE: Select the professionals you want to work with. Ideally, you have on your team a marketing strategist, a writer/editor and a graphic designer who can deal with production concerns. You rarely find all three in one person. Trust that the collaborative process will work to your advantage.
  

• DISTRIBUTION: Based on your target audience and your marketing strategy, determine how will you send out this brochure.
  
  • Direct mail.
    

  • Tradeshow.
    

  • Piggy back mailing.
    

  • Fax.
    

  • Drop from a hot-air balloon.
  Be innovative!
  

• IMAGE: Again depending on your target audience, decide how you want your company to be perceived.
  • Does it have an image of class?
    

  • Affordability?
    

  • Friendliness?
    

  • Casualness?
    

  • Innovation?
  Your brochure reflects the image and quality you set for your business overall.
  

• VERSATILITY: The effort you put into creating a brochure can have multiple applications. Think of how content and design translates into fax and web site formats. Look at doing inserts with information such as price lists that might change. You may consider printing letterhead, envelopes, business cards, postcards, thank you cards at the same time. Build in consistency as well as versatility.
  

• TESTING: Consider test-marketing your brochure. Before you put it on the printing press, have several people in your target audience give you feedback by showing them a mock-up brochure. Ask specific questions. Determine if they "got" the same message you want to send.
  

• INVESTMENT: Your views on image reflect the amount of money you invest in content and design. Your distribution strategy dictates your hard costs to get your brochure "out there." It also determines quantity which sets up printing costs. Your quality decisions affect the design and printing elements (paper, ink colors, etc.) you chose. Be sure to consult with someone who can explain your choices clearly.
  

• FOLLOW-UP: Once you’ve put your materials out into the world, feel proud but not overconfident. Follow-up phone calls will increase the impact of your brochures substantially. Realize that they have found a dusty corner on your prospects’ desks. Your phone call gets them to blow off the top layer of dust, look at your masterpiece again, and grant it their attention. Give your brochures a second lease on life!
  

• EVALUATION: A tracking system to help you measure responses to your brochure mailing tells you a lot. Design it. Use it. Pay attention to it. This information will help you clean up your mailing list, if nothing else. Make notes about what you would do differently the next time. Get input from your team; they want to make you and your business look good.
  

• NEW CYCLE: Plan how you will use this brochure again and make a schedule. You may want to develop your next brochure right away. The main point: keep your marketing going so people will remember you.
  

  © Lisa Kryder, NetProfitMarketing.com. All rights reserved.
  

  Lisa Kryder is known as the "ultimate networker" by an increasing number of people in the Denver area. As owner of NetProfitMarketing.com, she’s putting companies like you on the cyber map! She can be reached in the daytime at 303-286-8342 (office) for the latest marketing information.
  

  
  

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