After nearly 20 years in the industry, I am not 100% sure why companies have such an obsession with a company brochure! Yes, by all means have one so that you and your staff have a leave behind, but it is very unlikely to be a means to winning new business i.e I doubt whether potential clients are going to make their selection of provider based purely on it. In my opinion, a company brochure is something that can act as a showcase for your business that organisations will treat as a calling card at best and junk at worst.
Sorry to open with a bit of a downer this week, but getting the brochure to become a live entity can very often be the result of months of gestation within a business – a birth process that often produces great passion and/or great rifts as it is often an initiative driven by the MD, but becomes a committee process!
When the beautifully printed brochure finally arrives in their thousands in numerous boxes after vast expense, most companies have a question – “what do we do now?” The answer usually has a predictable logic: “well, there’s no point in having them here gathering dust, send them out.” This means that these expensive documents are sent out to anyone with their details on your files or anyone you have crossed paths with and guess what, nothing happens. No letters of thanks, no congratulatory notes and no new business.
In my experience most brochures are full of words like “we” and “me” meaning that they tend to concentrate on the business and what it offers i.e. “we do this” and “we have 20 years experience”…..
Does any of this sound familiar?
I don’t see the company brochure as a sales vehicle. I see it is as a way of showing your prospects what you can do for them. You MUST think about how you want to use them, what they will say and what they hope to achieve.
Tomorrow’s article will be Bath Marketing Consultancy’s suggestions on how to utilise the company brochure…..
