Millions of dollars are spent annually on creating and sending brochuresand cover letters. Most of these dollars are wasted, because thesemarketing materials don't do what they're supposed to do: get a prospect toact, either by requesting further information, picking up the phone andmaking an appointment, or actually buying something. These are the solepurposes of marketing documents.If the brochure and cover letter you create don't do one of these threethings, they have failed. Completely. Which brings us to the first rule ofthis game: the brochure and cover letter you produce must have a purpose.And since the only real purpose of any marketing document is motivatingimmediate prospect action, the purpose of what you create can only be oneof the three things above.Your brochure and cover letter exist either to:. get the prospect to request more information;. call up and arrange an appointment, or. buy something, by either filling in an order coupon, or walking into yourest ablishment.Prominently post the purpose you have selected before you write yourbrochure and cover letter. Everything you put into this brochure, thiscover letter must work towards achieving this single objective. Nothingelse must be allowed in. The truth is, when most marketers create their brochures and cover letterthey get off the track. They forget what they're doing... and why. Don't beone of them. There's a very easy trick to seeing if your brochure and coverletter are correct: after you write each sentence, ask yourself if it'shelping achieve your overriding objective. If it isn't, it's wrong. Andthat's a fact.Focus On The Prospect, Not YourselfEverybody supposedly knows that all marketing documents ought to be aboutyour prospect, not about you. Sadly, the vast majority of brochures andcover letters fail to achieve this objective. Take a brochure I received intoday's mail: on the mailing panel it simply says, "Instrument Calibrationand Repair. Calibration: Standardizin g a measuring instrument." That's it.Now, I ask you: are these words about the sender, or about the recipient?It's obvious, isn't it! Lines that are about the marketer rightly elicitthis response: "So what!" "Instrument Calibration and Repair". So what!What does this have to do with me, your prospect?Lines that are about the prospect, the most important person in everybrochure and cover letter, get this response: "Aha!" The prospect isinterested in knowing one thing and one thing only about you: "What can youdo for me?" And when that question is answered, he's interested in thesequestions: "When can you do it?" And "How much will it cost me"?When you're writing a brochure, do this simple test. Read each sentence andask yourself if it's about you or your prospect. If it's about you thesentence will feel incomplete, because it won't have the persuasiveinformation the prospect wants. No wonder! Your prospect is saying, "Sowhat?" to it. But if the sentence is focused on your pro spect, offers himhonest, believable benefits, and motivates him to take immediate action,it's finished.Doing Your HomeworkThe big reason most people's brochures and cover letters fail is becausetheir creators don't do any homework before writing them. Most people hatewriting; their objective is to get it out of the way as quickly aspossible, right or wrong. But not your savvy marketer! He may hate writingas much as the next person, but he never loses sight of his objective: thateach marketing piece will either make him a profit, or be a dead loss. Andthat if he's to achieve the former, he needs to get other people, hisprospects, to act... NOW! Homework helps achieve his objective.What You Have To Know Before You WriteThe first thing you've got to know before you can successfully create anybrochure or cover letter is who you're talking to. The best marketingdocuments, even if millions are sent out, are conversations between twopeople... you and just one prospect. You have to know who this prospect isand have to understand what he wants, when he wants it, why he might nottake action to acquire it, and how much he can afford to pay for it. Allthese points must be dealt with in your marketing materials.Without a doubt, one of the greatest single reasons why marketingcommunications fail to get people to take action is because those peopledon't feel that what they're being asked to consider has anything to dowith them... it doesn't speak to them about what's important to them and,therefore, doesn't motivate them to take immediate action. In marketing,this is disastrous. Hint: don't create brochures and cover letters for a mass. Create them fora single person, a person who represents your market. Make yourself focuson this single individual, perhaps someone you know; certainly someone youknow about. This will help you create just the right tone and style. Inwriting to this individual, consider what he wishes to achieve, when, whatspecific benefits (in priority order) will motivate him to act, and what hehas to do to get these benefits... NOW! Fashion The Components Of Your Brochure And Cover LetterCreating a brochure and cover letter is rather like making a quilt. Youneed to fashion each individual square before you knit the whole together.Start with the Anxiety Component.Using Anxiety InformationPeople act when action is less threatening and more desirable thannon-action. Most of us are pretty lethargic; even when we have problems,our inclination is simply to hope they go away without us having to exertourselves. This is one of the major problems each marketer must overcome.Identifying and utilizing prospect anxiety helps us achieve this objective.What is happening to our prospects? What are they likely to lose if theydon't take immediate action? How believable can we make this loss? Who iswilling to testify that these things will happen? This is the kind ofinformation you need to use in your Anxiety Component.Remember: fear of loss is always a greater motivater than hope for gain.Your prospects know what they have now... and even if it isn't what theywant, they are still afraid of losing it. Be specific! Don't just vaguely intimate to your prospects that they willlose something by failing to act. Be specific. Tell them how much they'lllose, when they'll lose it, why they'll lose it. Use numbers... and thenames of real authorities. In short, make the anxiety you use authoritative.Turn The Features Of What You Produce Into BenefitsIf you want your brochures and cover letters to get fast prospect response,you've got to turn the features of what you produce into buyer benefits.Features are things that pertain to what you're selling... color, size,weight, payment terms, delivery information, etc. But these things are onlyimportant insofar as they can be transformed into benefits that motivateimmediate prospect response. In other words, the fact that your widgetcomes in blue is no necessary adv antage; it's merely a feature whosesignificance you must establish and sell to the prospects.Here's how to handle this problem: list all the facts (features) about whatyou're selling. Now transform them into buyer benefits by starting asentence about each one beginning, "You get..." A feature is merely afeature until you turn it into a client-centered benefit using a "you get"sentence.When you're finished with this activity you should have dozens of "you get"sentences. Now the trick is to prioritize them... which are the mostimportant to your prospects and which most likely to motivate them to takeimmediate action. Remember: all benefits are not equal. Some are moreimportant than others. And these are the ones you should lead with andemphasize in your brochure and cover letter.Find And Use TestimonialsYour prospect is a skeptical creature. Take my word for it. He's beenburned in the past... and knows his judgment is questionable. Because ofthis, his natural inclination is to do nothing... the very thing everymarketer fears and is constantly working against. That's where testimonialscome in.Recognize that your prospects are skeptical and need to be convinced to actNOW! Believable -- specific -- benefits achieved by people just like themwill help motivate them. The key words here are: "believable," "specific",and "people just like them." Don't make your testimonials vague. Make them specific. Don't say morewidgets were produced in an hour... say how many more... and how much moneythe satisfied customer made as a result. In short, quantify yourtestimonials... and give them teeth by making them specific and detailed.This is the way to overcome prospect inertia, because with these kinds oftestimonials here's what you're saying: do you want an extra widget eachhour (with corresponding profit)? Of course you do! And that's why you needour product. Take action now to get it... or keep losing an extra widgeteach hour of every day.Turn Your Bio Into A Ma rketing HookMost brochures are packed with biographical data about the sender, datathat does nothing more than make the prospect scream, "Who cares?"Remember, what I said: EACH line of your brochure and cover letter eitherworks to compel an immediate prospect response, or it shouldn't be there!Thus, every line of your bio must be turned into a reason for the prospectto act.Thus, don't be like this marketer whose brochure I'm looking at: "MaryPretzer is a graphic design consultant with extensive experience in the useof desktop publishing software and hardware." So what!!! What benefit doesthe prospect get from this... does her experience mean she can show you howto produce books faster and cheaper? How much faster? How much cheaper?Make the benefits believable and specific! Keep in mind that biographical details are not there for your greaterglorification (which most brochure creators seem to believe), but tomotivate a prospect to take immediate action. Thus even the biograph icalfeatures of your life must be transformed into benefits the prospect wishesto achieve and which he understands he can get only with your help.Make An OfferMost brochures and cover letters fail because they leave it up to theprospect to decide when to respond. They say, essentially, "Respondwhenever you want to. It doesn't matter to us." But we know in reality thatit does matter to the marketer when the prospect responds. The marketer hasinvested time, treasure, trouble, and talent creating his brochure andcover letter... and the only justification for this is getting moretreasure back as fast as possible. That's where the offer comes in.The offer provides the prospect with the justification he needs forimmediate action. It says, "It's not only okay to act NOW, but acting NOWis the only sensible thing to do." As a result, he does act.Offers come in many shapes and sizes... two for the price of one, gettingsomething free (that costs others money), getting more for your mon ey, youname it. But a few things are common to all: they must offer perceivedbenefits to the prospect and they must be limited in some way, either intime, quantity, or otherwise.Thus, you should never offer a prospect something like a free audiocassette. That's a feature. And you know people act to achieve BENEFITS.Thus, "Learn the 6 secrets of producing more widgets each hour... and paynothing. This $14 audio cassette is yours absolutely free when you get(name of product)... but only if you act within the next thirty days! Afterthat, you have to figure out these secrets yourself!" See the difference?Don't offer people a feature... offer them the benefit that that featuredelivers. Don't offer them anything free... offer them something that'sfree to them, but costs everybody else. And never leave your offeropen-ended. The whole purpose of an offer is to induce immediate action.And something open-ended torpedoes that objective.Now Bring It All TogetherAt this point, it's a goo d idea to remind yourself what you really want toachieve with your brochure and cover letter. Whatever you've selected...getting your prospect to request more information, make an immediate phonecall or buy something... involves action. And it is this action you mustwork to stimulate. Remember, this stimulation begins where the eye of your prospect firstalights. Thus, don't build up to what you want the prospect to do... hithim with it right away... and pile on the reasons why it is to his benefitto do what you want him to do. Too many brochures and cover letters fail because it takes the marketer toolong to get to the point. Your point -- whatever your objective -- isn'tsomething you build up to; it's something you begin with... and whicheverything in your marketing communication reinforces. Because thiscommunication only has one point... the one you selected at the verybeginning.Now ask yourself: which of the necessary components of effective marketingcommunications will b est help me realize my objective? Starting with atestimonial... prospect anxiety... an offer... a client-centered benefit?The answer depends on your market. But one thing is certain: whatever youselect should be a deliberate decision solely determined by your desire tomotivate the greatest number of your prospects fastest.
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