brochures Archives - Scott Flood Writing

REPEATING YOURSELF ISN’T A BAD HABIT

September 21, 2010 by Scott Flood

I’ve noticed that many companies exhibit an unusual paranoia about repetition. Once they mention something in an ad, a brochure, or on a website, they don’t think they should mention it again. I’ll often hear them react to a recommendation by saying “we promoted that already” or “we already told our customers that.”

The same thing often happens when they’re reviewing copy for a website. “We’ve already mention this on another page, so we shouldn’t repeat it here.” Okay, why not? “Because we don’t want to repeat something we’ve already said.” Again, why not?

ARE YOU TELLING THEM WHAT THEY ALREADY KNOW?

March 11, 2010 by Scott Flood

Are you wasting precious time in ads, direct mail, and brochures telling prospects what they already know?

Instead, tell them what matters. Talk about benefits, not features. Don’t say your product uses a three-handled veeblefetzer unless you can explain what that will do for them. “The three-handled veeblefetzer lets you core twice as many radishes in the same time.”

YOUR SILENT SALESMAN

February 25, 2010 by Scott Flood

What is a brochure? An ad? A radio commercial? A website? You get 5 points if you said they’re all marketing communications channels. But they’re also something more.

You can’t be everywhere, and that includes everywhere your prospective customers are. So you develop materials such as ads and brochures to stand in for you. In essence, they’re actually salespeople for your organization, conveying messages when you can’t be there to do it.

DELETE WHAT DOESN’T MATTER

November 5, 2009 by Scott Flood

While waiting for a flight yesterday, I heard the same PA announcement several times: “Effective June 30, 2008, smoking is prohibited in the airport.”

The “smoking is prohibited” part I fully understand. But what’s the bit with the “effective June 30”? That’s more than a year ago. Does the date the ban went into effect really matter? Do we want people to think, “Gosh, I shouldn’t smoke in the terminal,” or is it really important that they mentally add, “and I haven’t been able to do so since June 30, 2008”?

REPEATING YOURSELF ISN’T A BAD HABIT

ARE YOU TELLING THEM WHAT THEY ALREADY KNOW?

YOUR SILENT SALESMAN

DELETE WHAT DOESN’T MATTER

Contact Scott.

Get your free copy of our special report: The Smarter Strategy for Selecting Suppliers