Tips to Writing a Business Leaflet That Doesn't Suck

You’re launching a new business, service, or maybe you have a recent promotion and a first-rate offer that people offline just have to know about.

A key piece of content marketing material is an eye-catching, service-selling leaflet or brochure.

Don’t be fooled however, into thinking that because it’s only a small leaflet or 2 page brochure that it doesn’t deserve the same care and attention as your website, business brochure, or any other weapon in your marketing arsenal.

A great leaflet can:

• Grab the attention of potential customers
• Sell the benefits of your business
• Make someone keep hang on to it
• Make someone buy from you

However, a poorly written or put together leaflet can:

• Go completely ignored (not even to be used to wedge under the leg of a wobbly table)
• Bore your audience
• Not inform an audience about your business benefits
• Make you look unprofessional

Remember, with a great leaflet comes great responsibility – and you owe it to your super new fangled business / service / product / widget to give it the best possible introduction to potential customers that you can.

So, to improve your chances of your leaflet being kept in a warm pocket rather than under a cold table leg, here are some simple tips to bear in mind.

Know what you like
Go to the nearest shop, train station, pub or café and you’ll see thousands of different leaflets. If you’re taking the time to write a leaflet, it’s worth checking out the competition. Which ones catch your eye? Which ones hit your blind spot? Make a pile of the good versus the bad and try to identify the trends.

Chances are the good leaflets:

• Have an interesting design (not necessarily elaborate)
• Are easy to read
• Use language that appeals to you
• Are clear in what they offer

And the pile of bad leaflets:

• Look dull and /or are boring to read
• Are unclear, or have too much information
• Insult / patronise or annoy you
• Sound insincere
• Have grammatical or spelling errors (I know this is enough to send some people into a rage)

So once you have the good the bad and the ugly examples, it’s time to start drafting your own.

Write to your audience

This might sound a little obvious, but the main thing to remember when composing any content marketing material is that, it’s not about you.

It might be about your business, but it’s not actually about you, it’s about your audience. It’s about their problems, their needs, their dreams. Before writing your leaflet, take some time to think about who will be reading it and who you are trying to appeal to.

By thinking like your potential customer you can answer their questions with your leaflet rather than hoping that the information you include will be of interest to them.

Take some time to ask yourself these questions:

• Who do you want to appeal to?
• What are they interested in?
• What questions might they have?
• What do they want to achieve?
• What problems do they have?
• How can you solve their problems?

Key benefits

Once you have a picture of what your audience is interested in you can start to compose the copy of the leaflet. The main thing you want to do is to sell the key benefits of your business to someone who might be interested in them.

A commonly used method of writing this is to think about the services that you offer in terms of features and benefits. For example you want to think about the features of your business and how that can translate into a benefit to a potential customer.

Let’s say for example we are the Acme Corporation in the Roadrunner Cartoons. Our features and benefits listed might look like this:

“The Acme Corporation offers a rapid it postal order service, and we deliver to even the most remote parts of the desert so you can be certain that you will have your flightless bird-catching devices as and when you need them.”

If you want your key benefits to stand out a bit more then consider using a bullet point list:

• Fast postal order service-you receive your product within days of ordering
• Remote delivery option-receive our products anywhere in the world

Call to action

One thing that many people forget was leaflet is the very important call to action. A call to action is an incentive for your reader of the leaflet to do something with regards to finding out more by your service, using your service or buying your product.

The call to action should be clear concise and offer no doubt about what you want the customer to do. Never assume that your potential custom will know exactly what action to take the response to your leaflet.

You want to make it as easy as possible for your customer to follow reading your leaflet with an action.

For example you want to have things on your leaflet such as:

• To find out how you can increase your chances of catching that doggone bird with our devices, call ACME today on 1-800-500-500.
• To claim your 10% and order discount visit www.Acme.com.
• To see the latest demonstration of the Acme device visit our shop on Main Street this Wednesday.
• To download your free book on how to catch a road runner visit www.acme.com.

Notice how we don’t just say call the office or visit the website. You want to make sure that your instructions are as explicit as possible.

And don’t forget to include clear (and correct) contact details.

Good luck in crafting your own!