When you go to trade shows you probably pick up brochures.

What do you do with them?

In the majority of cases I’m willing to bet you either leave them to fester in the lovingly designed show carrier bag or you scan some of them and then throw them away.

Do you read any of the brochures you get through the post or left by sales people?

If you don’t read brochures why do you think your prospects will?

If your brochure is all about you and very little about your customer it wont get read. If it’s not read it can’t sell anything. That means you’ve just lost another prospect because your brochure didn’t do its job right.

What A Brochure Isn’t

Designing a brochure is not simply the managing director, marketing director or Mr Average Copywriter simply dumping everything they can think of about your company and its products into a four page 4 colour brochure.

Explaining how your business has grown from strength to strength over the last 5 years, or how the new widget is now also available in puce and lemon is boring.

In fact most brochures are deeply boring. Maybe not to you as the business owner - but to the most important people you know.

Your customers and prospects.

Neither are brochures an art gallery for your in-house or external graphic design team to show off their brilliance with well produced photos, line art and consistent house style.

After all winning awards for your brochure is not as important as winning sales. Is it?

Have you found salespeople who are unwilling to give customers your brochures? That’s because good sale staff instinctively know whether your brochure helps or hinders sales.

So What Is A Brochure?

It’s purely and simply just another sales tool. It’s part of your marketing tool set. Please treat it that way.

Use Sizzling Copy To Hit People Between The Eyes.

Don’t take up the space on the front, or back, covers with your logo, managing directors head shot or a stock photo of a forklift truck or someone attractive sat gazing transfixed at a computer screen.

Smash Through Buyer Inertia With A Captivating Headline

Instead use a great headline to encourage people to open and investigate what you’ve got to say.

You could use any of the following headlines:

If you’re in the car hire business you could say "7 Reasons Why Car Hire Is Costing You Too Much". Then explain why in your copy inside and further explain how you can make sure the prospect avoids those costs.

Perhaps you’re in IT or software services? Your headline could be "How To Sell More to Your Old Customers". Then you explain how implementing a customer relationship management system gives the ability to follow-up properly.

But whatever company you’re in tell your customer something you know they want to know.

Write Copy That Tells And Sells

When you’re writing the copy inside your brochure make it interesting, arresting and intriguing.

Give your prospects some interesting facts they don’t know.

Stir in some great customer testimonials. If you don’t have testimonials start talking to your customer to get some.

You’re writing the copy to sell your product or service. So the writing is vitally important. Next you need to make sure that you’ve got necessary line art, photos or other graphics at appropriate points in the brochure. Whatever you do remember graphics are there purely to support the copy.

Any graphics you’ve got make sure that you have a caption so that people don’t get distracted and keep wondering what it’s about.

Make sure that your brochure has all the ways your customer can get hold of you and order. That includes having an order or enquiry form they can fax to you.

Finally, one of the most important elements in the brochure: The Offer and action.

You need to offer your customer something for doing business with you.

You could offer any of:

- free bonus reports
- audio CDs
- DVDs
- Different payment options
- Strong guarantees
- Bundled with other products or services

Whatever you do make sure you’ve a call to action with a deadline for your offer. Your brochure needs to make clear the next step for your customer.

How Do You use Your Brochure?

Don’t leave it lying around like yesterdays newspaper. You’ve paid good money to produce it. Treat your brochures with respect and give them or send them to people you want to do business with.

At trade shows a good approach is to suggest that you’ll send a brochure to your prospect. That way you can keep following them up with further offers.

Jay Abraham is the world’s highest paid marketing guru at $5,000 per hour. He notes that sending a brochure to a prospect without a well-written and interesting covering letter reduces response.

Stapling an envelope with an interesting headline, such as "5 Ways To Slash The Cash That Drains From Your Web Site" gets people interested.

They’re going to read that letter.

The letter needs to spell out what the major benefits are and where they are in your brochure.

Proof of effectiveness of adding a letter is given by Troy White, writing in Duct tape Marketing, he says:

"…Info USA who sells direct mail database lists started testing this (sales letter,Ed) with their catalogs and saw an immediate 300% improvement in orders. All with a simple letter attached to it!"

Similarly use direct mail and send them out to the companies you’d love to do business with. Make sure you’ve a personalised selling letter with every brochure you put out there.

Write and design your brochure as if you were standing in your customers and prospects shoes.

Do it right and you’ll deliver a brochure that gets read from cover to cover and prospects find informative and buy from.

Remember if you’re not willing to invest up front in producing a brochure that sells you can’t expect anyone to take action from it and you’ve completely wasted the money to produce it.

Get more free tips from the Marketing Magician’s Blog go straight to http://www.acornservice.blogspot.com and sign up for a regular email feed. (The blog currently has over 12 months of solid postings so you’re going to find a gem you can use.

Get a free copy of Jim’s book for SME’s called "How To Leap Ahead Of Your Competitors by emailing him at web@acornservice.com with "ezine" in the subject line.

Check out Acornservice’s site to opt in to Jim’s free and no obligation seminar series on profit-driven business growth.

Business cards are the most underutilized and misunderstood marketing tool in business. Many people spend the bucks for cards and don’t make an effort to get them into the hands of those who can hire them or buy from them.

Everyday people throw away stacks of undelivered business cards. Money down the dumper.

Your goal is to design and use a memorable card and get so many delivered you have to re-order. Forget about those clever articles about what to do with stacks of leftover cards.

The only time you should have cards still in the box is when something on the card becomes outdated or obsolete.

If you designed your cards as a marketing tool and planned your distribution, tossing unused cards in the trash should become the exception rather than the rule. If one item on your card changes the cards are obsolete and should be pitched.

Car dealers are famous for finding ways to save money on business card expense. With the revolving door turnover of salespeople, many dealers stopped ordering individual cards for new hires. They print a master card with color dealer logo and phone numbers and leave a big space in the middle for the new salesperson’s name to be penciled in. That way, when the would-be fast talking, glad handing flannel mouth doesn’t work out, no new cards need be printed.

A swell image: handwritten business cards.

It would be interesting to run the numbers on how much money was saved at the printers versus how much business went somewhere where the salespeople appeared more professional. With car dealer margins, one sale would buy a lot of business cards.

Worse is using a business card with a black or blue marker blotting out a line of type and a new name,address or phone number written (or typed) above the black line. Ugh!

Some people painstakingly cut itty bitty strips of computer labels printed with the new information and stick them over the old just to save a few bucks. Calculate what your time is worth and the savings turn into an expense, not to mention what the "corrected" card does to future business.

Dig out that stack of business cards you have been collecting for years and flip through them, you will see at least one with a correction.

If you are in any business and venture outside your cubby-hole for any reason, you should carry business cards at all times. You should be able to "whip one out" without diggout out your wallet and digging thru pics of the kids, or plunging to the bottom of your purse past the hair spray.

You card says a lot about you. And you say even more about you when you offer your card.

Say it in business-like, professional style.

For more about buiness cards, get my article "What Does the BACK of Your Business Card Say?"

©2005 BIG Mike McDaniel All Rights Reserved Mike@BIGIdeasGroup.com BIG Mike is a Professional Speaker and Small Business Consultant with over 30 years experience, http://BIGIdeasGroup.com

eMail: BizCardBack@BigIdeasGroup.com

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Do you remember how proud you were the first time you saw your name in print?

Most entrepreneurs feel that same flush of pride when they gaze on their new business cards. That small piece of paper represents years of planning and effort and hard work and dreams. The thrill of seeing "your name in print" on a business card is hard to beat.

Unfortunately, other people couldn’t care less. Your business card, the one you’re so proud of, is just another advertisement ? another piece of clutter to file. It’s no more or less important than any of the many business cards that cross a prospect’s desk at any given point in time.

So how do you make sure that your card is one of the few that attracts attention, gets kept, filed, and actually used when your prospect needs your product or service?

It pays to think about the reasons people keep cards to begin with. Often, it’s not for the reason you expect. Understanding this critical concept can dramatically affect the design and ultimate effectiveness of your card.

Let’s say that you install and maintain swimming pools. You meet Nancy Newcomer and have a great conversation about landscaping around in-ground pools. You’re eager to conclude the conversation by giving her your business card because she certainly displays a lot of interest in your service. She’s a "hot prospect" for sure!

Not necessarily.

Nancy could just as easily be asking because her neighbor has a pool, or because her mom had a bad experience when they installed their pool, or because she’s always liked to swim and loves plants too, or because she collects business cards and doesn’t have one with a pool on it, or because she’s new in town and you’re the only friendly person she met today.

In fact, according to Dr. Lynella Grant, author of "The Business Card Book", there are eight reasons that someone may decide to keep your business card.

1. As a link to a potential customer or client

Let’s say you’re in network marketing, and John Johnson mentions that his wife used to be in MLM, too. She liked the business model but just wasn’t happy with the company. Odds are you’ll keep John’s card because it’s a means of contacting John’s wife about your own business opportunity.

2. As a link to a resource or a supplier

If you’re in the construction business and meet someone who sells hard-to-find lighting and fixtures, you’ll probably keep their business card.

3. As a link to a colleague

Many business people keep business cards of colleagues and competitors. Perhaps you refer business to each other during busy periods, or work together as members of an industry association.

4. For social, non-business reasons

Maybe you couldn’t care less that Kelly sells car insurance. She’s awfully cute, though…

5. For referring business - it may be passed on to someone else

If your neighbor has had a hard time finding someone who washes windows, and you meet someone who’s just started a residential window washing service, you’ll probably accept their business card and pass it on to your neighbor.

6. To update information they already have

Maybe they have an old card of yours with your old phone number on it, or without your website address.

7. "Just in case"

Some people have a hard time parting with anything because they might need it someday.

8. Finally, a business card may be kept because of something likable, unusual or useful about the person or their card

I kept the business card of a police officer named "Sarah Justice" just because I think she’s got a great name for her line of work (it’s called an "aptronym"). Other people keep business cards that contain useful information such as amortization schedules or lists of emergency phone numbers.

Keep these reasons in mind when designing your card. Make it clear what you do and who you do it for. Your card may be passed on to someone else, or the recipient may be trying to remember you later after a long day of meeting people at a convention.

More strategies:

Stuck with boring or generic company-designed cards? Create your own online and choose from thousands of business card templates for a truly unique design.

About The Author

Diana Ratliff of GreatFX Business Cards helps business people get great business results through effective business card marketing. You can get more free articles and order business cards online at the company website, http://www.greatfxbusinesscards.com.

info@greatfxbusinesscards.com

Aggressive business card marketing isn’t about handing your business cards out to everyone you see.

The card itself must have a new use, an innovative design, or something other than the usual contact information printed on it. To make your little card stand out, try these other ideas.

Print something other than a business card on biz card-sized cardstock.

You may have seen loyalty cards for "buy 10 get one free" offers; why not print one of your own? Print a frequent buyer card or other promotional offer on your card. The whole card can be a coupon for a free consultation, a discount, or a free gift with purchase. Remember include an expiration date on them! Then hand them out to all your customers.

Print a short survey on a card.

Offer an incentive for people to return the card to you with the survey answered–they can get a free gift or a discount just for answering a few simple questions. Then give them a new card with your contact information on it.

Other things you might print on this size cardstock include:

• Hangtags
• Nametags
• Tickets to an event; or
• Tiny greeting cards you might attach to a gift basket or other gift.

It’s always nice to handwrite a personal note when using them as greeting cards. A quick "thank you" or "best wishes" goes a long way. Or, announce a special event and enclose the cards with all your outgoing correspondence.

Make your business card a referral card for your organization or club.

That will make it easy to invite a prospect to your next meeting or to introduce the organization to them. On the front, print a form to fill in the date, time and location. On the back, include a brief overview of the club. Let members hand them out to potential recruits.

Turn them into appointment cards.

On one side, you can print your name, address, phone, fax and email plus your business name and logo. On the other side, leave room to fill in the date and time of your customer’s next appointment. They will keep it in their wallet or planner and always have your information at their fingertips. You could also print a map of your location on the back or directions on how to reach your store or office.

Whatever you choose to do, remember that a little card can have a big impact on your marketing if you employ some creativity.

Do your business cards work as hard as you do to gain new contacts? If not, you need cards that will grab attention and spur curiousity.

Choose from thousands of free business card templates and have professional cards delivered to your doorstep in days.

©2004-2005 GreatFX Business Cards. All right reserved.

Sure, everyone needs business cards. But why not make your business card do double or triple the work of an average business card.

Here are 4 proven ways to supercharge your business card into a powerful business tool.

1. Use the back of the card to include sales info. Good marketers know that customers need to be reminded at every opportunity how your product or service will help them. Even though business cards are small, you can still include some information on the back of the card that will remind customers how you are unique, better, and valuable. You could include a short bullet list of features and benefits. You could display some stats and figures, mention awards your product has won, or list a brief testimonial or two. Just a little bit of extra sales information can make a big difference in building relationships and encouraging sales.

2. Use the back of the card as an appointment card. Dr.’s and dentists do this frequently. But other businesses can use the same concept. Sales people of all kinds, realtors, consultants, professionals and more can use the back of their business cards as an appointment card. This is a good idea for several reasons. First of all, it increases the likelihood that a prospect will keep your card close by – at least until you have the appointment. Second, it gives you a reason to give customers more than one business card. The more cards they have the more likely they are to always have one handy when they need it. This is especially important if they are referring you to a friend or relative. They may have an extra card of yours laying around that they can give to someone.

3. Use the back of the card as a map to your store. Maps are important for people who are new to the area, or people who aren’t familiar with your part of town. Also, with just a mailing address listed on the front of the card many people don’t know exactly where you are. A map will clear that up and again help increase the chances of them hanging on to your card

4. Place a 12-month calendar on the back of your card. This is a very clever technique that is sure to have people keeping your card handy at all times. Believe it or not a 12-month calendar fits nicely on the back of a standard size business card. I remember when I got my first card that had a calendar on the back of it. It was from an insurance salesman and I literally kept it by my desk at all times. I found it to be much quicker to glance at this card than to thumb through a wall calendar or even to visit Outlook. Each time I picked up the card I remembered who had given it to me. This practice is applicable to any business and in any industry.

Using even one of these 4 tips will greatly enhance the impact that you business card will have. With just a little creative you can turn your business card from a necessary evil, to a powerful tool.

Brett Curry is a Marketing Consultant and Marketing Director for Brochures.com. Brochures.com is the home of top quality, full color brochures, business cards, postcards and more at up to 70% off of retail. http://www.brochures.com marketing@brochures.com

Does the signage in your company make people do a double take? Do they look back to see what it says? Does it spark curiosity in the viewer? What I am asking is; does your company have a signage double-take strategy to capture the mind and attention of your future customers? Well if your answer is know then you need think a little bit about how to change that. You see in my company our signage does compel the viewer to take another look and to ask the question, what is that? And your company signage needs to also.

In order to get the future customer to take a double look and concentrate on your business’s signage for that extra split second as they drive buy you have to use strategies which are automatic responses of the human brain. Many people say sex sells and if you put a pretty girl in a bikini up their then they will look. Well, sure they will, now then will they remember the name of your company or the image of perfect 10 gal in the picture?

I consider you use colors and a logo, which is unique and a three or four word catchy phrase with words of no more than three syllables. Short, sweet and too the point, but not just a catchy phrase, it also must describe your product or service and say something about your customers. Do not simply pick the first phrase you come up with think hard on this as it is very important for the success of your business. Think on this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

“How brochures can help you stand out from the competition, close the deal, and even build repeat business.”

Most brochures are nothing more than a collection of a few pictures and a few details about a business. However, brochures can be used as powerful tools that distinguish your company from your competition, further sell prospects on your product or service, and even build repeat business.

Here are a few things to keep in mind that will turn your brochure into a powerful sales tool.

1. Focus on your customer. Most brochures are written with the focus on the company. When this happens the brochure can sound braggadocios. You must remember that customers care little about your business. They are only interested in their fulfilling their own wants and needs. So talk about how your product or service meets their wants and needs. Focus on the customer and they will love you and they will reward you by making a purchase.

2. Present your case. As long as you write everything with your customer in mind it is important to show how your prospect how you outperform your competition. Be specific here. If you are faster than a competitor, tell how much faster you are and translate that into the benefit it will bring to the customer. If your product is of better quality than your competitor, tell why it’s of better quality and what that will mean to the customer. By doing this not only will you be persuading prospects to do business with you for the first time, you’ll also be preventing them from doing business with a competitor in the future.

3. Give a special incentive that’s only good with the brochure. One way to ensure that your brochure will be kept and used is to put a special offer on it. This offer could be for a discount, a FREE report, membership into a VIP program, or any thing else that might appeal to your prospect. With a special offer on your brochure it will become much more valuable to your prospect and will decrease the likelihood that a prospect will throw the brochure away.

Most companies that use brochures aren’t getting the maximum result possible from them. By following these three simple steps you can turn your brochure into the ultimate sales weapon.

Brett Curry is a Marketing Consultant and Marketing Director for Brochures.com. Brochures.com is the home of top quality, full color brochures, business cards, postcards and more at up to 70% off of retail. http://www.brochures.com marketing@brochures.com

I’m in the advertising business. At least that’s what they’re still calling it. Significant blocks of time transpire, however, where nothing resembling advertising passes through my company’s job queue, or past my desk. I checked again just to be sure. Yep, Web site designs, optimized web site re-write, corporate identity package, radio spots (there’s something), video production and streaming, html emails, logo designs, CD package design, article development and submissions, sign graphics, travel brochure, banner ads, SEO work (plenty of it), news releases. I was right - no full-page advertising in queue this week - no string of print ad copywriting assignments, no huddling with the creative team to concept for an upcoming campaign (radio spot concept and copy is complete).

Oh, sure we have been frequently required to write some so-called “ad copy” full of key words. I hold hope that someday, search engines will code their bots to rank search results based on “strength of benefit” (SOB).

To top it off, I even had a friend who sells print travel advertising begin to tell me how in the age of Tivo, broadcast advertising was a short-timer in the marketing mix. I didn’t have the heart to ask him if he felt the same about print advertising, based on the proliferation of online tools available to advertisers…the ones who sustain my business and his.

All of these issues led me to wonder if print advertising is a dying art?

I peeled myself from my computer, where I’ve been engrossed in three hours of blurry-eyed internet research, finding better, more efficient and cost-effective promotional opportunities for clients, including SEO, PPC, RSS, forums, article submissions, directory listings, AdWords, search engine advertising (well, really not advertising, is it?), podcasting, blogging, webcasting, and on and on. Where did my time go?

Deciding that my work day was over, I left the office. Later, I walked into my living room to find my beautiful and charming wife lounged on the sofa reading Southern Living. She looked peaceful, blissful even, there flipping the pages and sipping her freshly brewed chai tea latte with milk and Splenda. I sat down beside her, silent, and observed as she lost herself in the magazine. A couple of times she uttered “what?” I said “Nothing. I’m just enjoying the quiet.”

She scanned it all, read some of it, including ads. She even turned down corners on some of the pages – “Must be a recipe,” I thought. Then it struck me: she’s been doing this since I met her, even before that. She wasn’t lounged on the couch with a laptop computer diligently, wirelessly downloading web page after web page of 256-color heaven. And why not? I mean, ads in the online version of their print counterparts are much less intrusive on the reader. Right?

Okay, now I was curious. And I tried to do some quick and meaningful research…online of course. What I found was a confusing array of seemingly contradictory information from various sources, some known, many unknown. Some said magazine and dailies readership was going up due to the internet. The other side was saying, you guessed it, the opposite.

I shut down my computer.

I’m going with my intuition on this. My own experience has taught me that sometimes your hunch on going with one headline over another is dead-center. So, here I go.

Magazines - and even newspapers (despite recent decline) - and those who choose to advertise in them are not going anywhere. The names might change, but periodicals as a media form has made it into the stubborn fabric of our culture. We read. We like to look at things, and at our own pace. A magazine, in this light, is even more user friendly than a computer. No typing is required. No booting up is necessary. No downloads delay us, just a cup of your favorite brand of chai tea latte to sip between articles. Was this the same brand advertised in Southern Living? Probably.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that the internet has created another media (despite many arguments that the internet is not a “media”). And, it offers many opportunities to disclose and distribute information, and promote a company, individuals, group, products and services. And it does so – brilliantly in some instances, and clumsily in others – just as other media…imperfectly.

But, as for print advertising? I believe that as time goes by, it will retain its importance in the marketing mix. In fact, I believe it will become more segmented and targeted, as the media that contain it and thrive on it, will continue to be forced to evolve.

In response to my travel advertising friend, who prophesied the death of television advertising…perhaps I’ll cover that in another article.

For over 20 years, Mick Danskin has been obsessing over marketing and advertising strategy and execution. He brings that passion, along with an open mind and a team of seasoned professionals to his clients’ marketing communication challenges.

Danskin Creative Communication services small to medium sized companies who need business to business or consumer advertising, Web site design and marketing, SEO, video production, PR, and general graphic design services.

Opportunity: If you would like Danskin Creative Communication to help you develop your advertising strategy, media plan or individual advertising concepts, feel free to contact us by phone or email.

As technology continues to improve, the quality of digital prints also improves. Technology advancements have also made it easier for more and more businesses to enter the printing industry. Good digital printers cost a few thousands dollars…good offset printing presses may cost a few million dollars.

For those companies interested in conveying the best possible image at all times, it is important to evaluate which printing process will bring the greatest result.

Let’s compare the two processes briefly:

Digital Printing: If you want a sample of digital printing, simply look at a piece that you print from your inkjet printer at your home or office. Digital printing uses a series of dots printed on top of the paper that form an image.

Offset Printing: Offset printing is done on large presses that use plates and ink. As your piece is printed on an offset press, the ink bleeds into the paper and bonds with it.

Because of the plates used, and the way the ink is absorbed by the paper, most people feel that offset printing provides deeper, richer, fuller color saturation than digital printing. While digital printing has certainly improved over the years, most printing experts would agree that it still hasn’t reached the quality level of offset printing.

Brett Curry is a Marketing Consultant and Marketing Director for Brochures.com. Brochures.com is the home of top quality, full color brochures, business cards, postcards and more at up to 70% off of retail. http://www.brochures.com marketing@brochures.com

In part one of this article we discussed the importance of the look or appearance of your brochure.

The look or image that your brochure conveys is vastly important. In fact, the appearance will determine how most people form their initial impression of your company. But, the message on your brochure is just as important. Ultimately you need to say something of value in your brochure if you want it to move people closer to the sale. Here are a few tips to keep in mind to ensure that your brochure has the right message.

1. Speak in Terms of Your Prospects Interests. There’s an old saying that all people are tuned in to the same radio station – WIIFM, which means “What’s In It For Me?” That is the question that all people will be asking on a conscious or subconscious level as they read your brochure. Only talk in terms of your prospects wants and interests.

2. Focus on Benefits, not Just Features. Features are the technical aspects of your product – i.e. power sunroof. Benefits are the enjoyment or satisfaction your customer will get from that feature. Remember that people buy the benefit that your product will bring them not the features. For example people don’t want to buy a treadmill; they just want to loose weight and look great. They don’t want to buy a washing machine; they want clean clothes with no effort and so on. Don’t stop at features; make sure you mention all of the benefits that you offer.

3. Brand Your Logo and USP. This falls under image and message. Make sure you put your logo and your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) together. You want to reinforce the fact that your company is different and better than the competition.

4. Have Some Kind of Offer. To get the most out of your brochure have some kind of offer. Offer a discount, a free report, a sample, a free trial, or whatever makes sense for your business. Having some kind of offer will increase the chances that your brochure will generate sales.

Following these 4 tips will greatly increase the likelihood that your brochure will be noticed, and read, and, hopefully it will aid in making a sale. If you don’t follow these 4 tips, then you brochure is probably headed for the trash.

Brett Curry is a Marketing Consultant and Marketing Director for Brochures.com. Brochures.com is the home of top quality, full color brochures, business cards, postcards and more at up to 70% off of retail. http://www.brochures.com marketing@brochures.com