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Who is your 'brochure' written for?
| Guest post by: Sue Barrett |
Article Overview: We are sick of apologising for our businesses not being able to live up to false expecations and promises too frequently splashed about with gay abandon in the marketing materials, annual report, PR hype et al that we are required to use.
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Who is your 'brochure' written for?
Have you ever looked at who most company brochures are written for?
Every sales person or manager I have posed this question to looks at me sheepishly. Their gaze is averted and they appear embarrassed. They know exactly what I am talking about.
What they are embarrassed to admit is that most of the brochures or advertising material that we come across is written for the company - glorifying the company and its products, its commitment to customers, its founders or CEOs and so on, rather than speaking directly to the customer about the customers' issues, concerns or aspirations and how the company is best suited to help them solve their problems or realise their goals.
Or at worst, it can get really out of hand where the company puts itself on such a pedestal about how holy and pious it is and how the customer will be welcomed with open arms and bathed in something esoteric and will be changed forever. What will change - well that wasn't stated and we have no idea what will really happen to us if we talk to them - in short, lacking in fact and substance but very long on effect.
The book The Cluetrain Manifesto (a resulting force that rose out of the discontentment people are having with businesses and how they fail to communicate with people) really nails it when it says:
"Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies.
"No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ‘listening to customers'.
"They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf. While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it."
Get the message? All I want is someone to communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and even shocking if need be.
All I want is for someone to do what they say they will do in the time frame required for a price that is fair and I can trust them to deliver something of substance that I can benefit from.
All I reckon you need to do is write a brochure or ad campaign or marketing communications piece that says just that.
That's all that most sales people want as well. We are sick of apologising for our businesses not being able to live up to false expecations and promises too frequently splashed about with gay abandon in the marketing materials, annual report, PR hype et al that we are required to use.
In a sea of spin, it is quite refreshing to have an honest, open and uncluttered approach that speaks in plain language I can understand - as the customer and as a sales person.
Remember everybody lives by selling something.
How to Create a Powerful Brochure for Your Business
Marketing With Brochures
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Too Dull? Too Sharp?
Article Tags: abili, advertising material, aspirations, brochure, busy signal, ceos, cluetrain manifesto, company brochures, corporations, founders, gaze, human voice, lip service, mission statement marketing, nails, pedestal, real human beings, sales person
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About the Author: Sue Barrett RSS for Sue's articles - Visit Sue's website Sue is one of the leading voices commenting on sales today. Sue has a unique way of getting to the heart of the matter - she combines extensive knowledge, research, insight, and practical experience with a deep sense of compassion to bring forth a more enlightened way of thinking and participating in the world. This makes her stand out from the usual crowd of existing business commentators. Her ability to distill complex ideas and relate them to life's everyday challenges and opportunities has audience members and readers leaving with a stronger understanding of "self" and how they can begin to achieve excellence through purposeful action. Presenting and writing on a wide range of topics about the world of 21st Century selling Sue's presentations and articles include sales philosophy and culture, sales leadership and coaching, sales training, selling skills, resilience, neuroscience in selling and more. Sue's articles are some of the most widely read in Australia and she is gaining a following overseas as well. Besides publishing on Barrett Sales Blog site, Sue has been the lead sales writer for www.smartcompany.com.au since 2007, and is also regularly published on other highly regarded publications such as Australian Anthill Magazine, Niche Magazine, Marketing Mag, Business Chicks, and Business Deals. Click here to visit Sue's website   Healthy Salespeople Healthy Sales Results Your precall postcall checklist The coming together of Sales Leaders in Austalia Create your Ideal sales force blueprint Common Sales Mistakes Part 1 |
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Re: Search Engine Optimization
- there are companies offering more than brochures, they are offering more than ideas so besides a brochure you can get many tools and services allowing you to increase your business. Check it out and take from there as much as you can
Re: Do Articles For Businesswomen need to be written differently
- One of the best books ever written to illustrate this point beautifully, half the book is written in a story style and then the same thing is written again in more of a text book style.
The book is The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen.
Quite different and I am sure that each half appeals to different people in different ways.
MichelleJ
Re: Do Articles For Businesswomen need to be written differently
- [quote="MichelleJ":2h1ltzqp]Hi
I don't think article need to be written differently for women. I know that with the amount of reading
one has to do on the internet these days, the shorter and more to point the article is the more likely I
am to read it. Too long winded and I get bored halfway through.
MichelleJ[/quote:2h1ltzqp]
hi Michelle,
i agree with you,articles dont have to be written differently for women.our targets determines the way article should be written.
I Agree...
- ...with Evan.
I love how you have written so many fabulous books (the 365 manager things is one I wish I'd written!). The business books need to be on their own page and driving traffic through that channel will maximize exposure and relevance too.
I also love the photos of nature on your books, and I want your Avatar!
Thanks for sharing!
Something to laugh
- Hi There,
Errors in language translations. As I speak several languages, it caught my attention:
In a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner:
Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.
In a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo:
When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.
Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
- English well talking.
- Here speeching American.
Have a nice Christmas
Beat
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