Why Brochures Suck
By Michael Senoff
It seems like not a week goes by that I don't get a small business owner who wants my help with their brochure. They need help with the copy, with the design, with the layout -- all of it.
They are usually ready to pay me good money, too. Only problem is I tell them there's no way I would ever waste my time with a brochure. I've never used them myself and I've never known anyone who used them and reported it made a big difference in their profits.
So I always tell people to forget the brochure. Instead, use a sales letter. A sales letter is much more effective than a brochure.
Why do I say this?
Well, for one thing if you get two pieces of mail one day -- one a three cover folded brochure, the other a letter that looks like it’s hand-typed and personally signed and personally addressed in a number 10 white envelope with a stamp on it -- which one are you going to read first?
Fact is a simple, even ugly, sales letter is more personalized than a brochure. And so they are way more likely to be noticed and read and acted on.
In my humble opinion, brochures are losers as far as communication. They're cold, ineffective, institutional advertising pushed by people by producing such materials.
There is nothing a fancy, expensive brochure with pretty pictures and designs and curly cues can offer and do for you that a letter -- a plain white piece of paper with words -- can't.
If you don't believe me test it yourself. Test a regular, typed up letter (or letter that looks typed) against a fancy brochure.
You'll see what I mean.
Michael Senoff is a sought-after Internet marketer, interviewer and business coach with more than 50,000 students on four continents.