Brochure Marketing Tips for Small Business

Brochure Marketing for Small Business:

Get other businesses and organizations to advertise for you by offering an exclusive brochure that caters to your target market and their customer base. This brochure marketing tactic works.

Creating an Effective Brochure:

1. A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words.

A brochure can't do its job unless it gets picked up in the first place. Pictures and graphics, much more than wordy text, will entice a customer to choose a particular brochure or piece of literature. 

Try and use at least one photo, or color graphics, to portray an overall image and elicit a feeling from the onlooker, so that they will pick up your brochure in the first place.

2. Say Less, Get More.

While it is important to communicate important information, and a brochure gives you the space to do so more than a business card or flyer, it's also important not to let any piece of marketing literature be too wordy. Especially in today's environment, saying less has a better effect on potential customers, who have less and less time and attention to spare.

3. Call for Action.

Without quick and easy suggestions for how a customer can take action (i.e. getting more information, signing up for a trial, or making a purchase), a brochure, like any piece of direct-response marketing, is useless. 

Considering the target market and the goal of the literature piece, make sure there is at least one "next step" that encourages the action to pursue further a purchase or next phase of the buying process.

4. Long-Lasting Capability.

Unlike a flier, magazine ad, or coupon, brochures aren't typically created with a date-sensitive event or promotion in mind. They are generally more informative and captivating marketing tools that small businesses direct at targeted customers who have already expressed some interest in a product or service that they offer. 

This means you'll save money by not having to print new brochures when the old ones become out-of-date. Also, targeted brochures are less likely than fliers, ads, or coupons to go to waste by going to customers who aren't interested in them.

Creative Brochure Dispensing:

Some very successful small business owners I know make customized brochures and, instead of handing them out themselves, lets other businesses with similar target markets hand them out. Here are some ways they do this:

1. Construction Company - stocks brochures at an architectural and design firm, and offers a free quote for customers who have their design work done at that firm.

2. Bookstore - creates a brochure with the summer reading list for each school, prices, and an exclusive coupon for the students/parents/teachers of that institution.

3. Adoption Agency - makes a brochure about the reasons to choose adoption over abortion, and stocks area churches and places of worship with their company literature.

4. Wholesaler - makes a brochure about a particular product and its advantages, and exclusively puts the retailer's logo and "Where to Buy" information on them; and that retailer hands out the literature in the store and next to the product kiosk.

While you can bust your butt handing out brochures one by one, you can exponentially increase your visibility by taking specific elements of your business and creating custom brochures for other businesses, who will hand out your information on a larger scale. If creating brochures is difficult, hiring a freelancer may be the most cost-effective choice for small business owners.

When you distribute brochures, the marketing strategy goes beyond name recognition to establish a more in-depth working knowledge among your target audience of what products and services you offer.

 

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What's Next

Next In This Guide
Part 27:
Writing a Press Release for Your Small Business - 11 tips for writing a press release that will draw attention to your small business. Use this page as a checklist when creating your next release.

Previous In This guide
Part 25:
Sponsoring Events as a Marketing Strategy - Sponsoring a community or online event can be a great way to associate your small business with a well-known event that attracts your target market.

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Street Smart Guide to Small Business Marketing

 

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