All businesses need a brochure of some form to promote products or services.  It’s important that this brochure hits the mark in its message. In order to ensure your message is the right one for your target audience, you first need to identify what your mark is.

First, follow the AIDA model, when creating any marketing material, including your brochure.

• Attention – Grab their attention on the first page/section. These pictures and words should be about the problem the customer wants to solve or the outcome they are seeking so that you immediately build rapport with them.
• Interest – The next page/section should build the audience’s interest in how you can help them achieve the results they desire.
• Desire – In this section include why your product or service is the best they can buy and the reasons it is. Make sure you use words and language they would use and relate to.
• Action – Finish with a “Call to Action” – What do you want them to do next? Tell them what to do and make it easy for them to do it. For example, look up your website, call your sales office or the go to the retail stores. Choose your words and the call to action at the end to meet your objective for the brochure.

With the AIDA model in mind, you can follow these 5 steps in designing and writing for a great brochure.

1. Using the strategic choices described in the previous blog post (see Writing a Brochure That Sells Your Products and Services), list the key points for your audience. Set it out in the order they will want to look at it. What are the main categories of information or aspects of your product or service that they want to know about?

This will set out the outline and structure of your brochure and the main headings or sections of information.

2. Select high quality photographs, pictures or graphs for your brochure that best represent what the target customer wants to see. Ensure they:

• Set the style and the scene for the positioning
• Show the product in the best possible usage or illustrate the service or image of it
• Create the image of the outcomes the target customer is seeking

People are attracted to colour and pictures more than words. Use as many relevant images as you can. Make sure you have permission to use them.

3. Write your brochure copy or content in the language of your audience.

Use questions to encourage your audience to think about what they want. Questions also help build rapport with your audience. After you have written it, go through and remove all the extra words you can. Aim to keep the amount of words to a minimum. It is best to get a professional copywriter to write this for you.

4. Put your brochure together with the content and the photos.

Choose the size and format that suits the content and your objective. Use a graphic designer to layout the brochure for a very professional finish. Otherwise there are many templates available on the internet to help make it look the best you can. It might be a postcard, an A4 sheet, a two-sided tri-fold DL or a booklet, depending on how much information you want to include and how much you want to spend on the printing.

5. Print your brochure on the optimum paper for your design and budget.

If you follow these steps, you will have an amazing brochure that will attract your customer and hit the mark in motivating them to buy your product or service. Make it fun as you go through this process as that will come out in your brochure and people will want to read it more.