A sales brochure on technical products has to both answer customers’ needs and appeal to them. Although the focus of this article is on technical products, the fundamental principles outlined in it for creating a powerful brochure, apply to any field or niche.
Marketing collateral on steroids: How to write the ultimate sales brochure for technical products (and other products and services)
One of the responsibilities of the advertising sales manager for a process equipment manufacturer is to serve as liaison between the advertising agency hired by the company to produce its marketing campaign and print brochures, and the staff engineers.
The engineers usually complain the advertising copywriter doesn’t understand the product or the audience – and that the copy is, many times, way off base.
The ad agency counters that engineers may know technology but don’t know writing, marketing, brochure designs, or selling – and that they want to cram the sales brochure with too many unnecessary details. A brochure, after all, is not exactly a technical communication!
Who was right? As a matter of fact both arguments have some merit.
On one hand, clients – especially the engineers – complain that the agency’s brochure copy is superficial. Often the cause is insufficient research on the writer’s part in order to understand the technology and the needs, concerns, and interests of the target audience. The copy he writes reflects this lack of understanding.
Another problem with agency-written product literature is a tendency toward cleverness for the sake of being clever. The reader often doesn’t get the joke, pun, or reference in the headline and she is turned off rather than engaged.
On the other hand, the agency’s advertising strategy is for the brochure flyer to gain attention and be clear to the reader. The engineers, though, write in-depth about their product and its technology, and tend to assume that the reader knows as much as the writer, speaks the same jargon, and has the same level of interest in the technology. And often this is not the case.
Given these conditions, how can you – as an engineer or a manager, who either writes copy for the business brochure, performs the copyediting, approves copy, or provides input for ad agencies or freelance industrial copywriters – do your job better so the finished sales brochure is the best one possible?
In other words, how do you reconcile the agency’s advertising strategies with the engineers’ technical communications? How to write a technical product brochure that sells? (Please note that although the focus in this article is on brochure of technical nature, these are fundamental principles that can be applied to any field or niche.) Here are 6 tips for writing a powerful sales brochure:
1. Define the topic. Is your company brochure about a solution? A system? A product line? A product? A specific model? The support services you offer for that product? The accessories? The narrower the topic, the more focused and effective your sales brochure is within the limited space available.
Tip: Your brochure doesn’t have to cover everything. You can always decide to have other pieces of sales literature that go into more depth on certain aspects of the product.
2. Know your audience. Are you writing to engineers or managers? The former may be interested in technical and performance specifications. The latter may want to know about support, service, ease of use, user benefits, or return on investment.
But even when engineers are your audience, keep in mind that they still may not know nearly as much about all aspects of the industry outside their expertise. So, when in doubt, it is better to explain so everyone understands, than to assume that everyone already understands. No engineer has ever complained to the author that the company brochure he wrote was too clear.
3. Write with your objective in mind. Most brochures on technical products or services support the selling process but are not designed to complete it on their own. That’s why you need to clarify the sales brochure’s objective.
Is the objective of the marketing brochure to convince the prospect that your technical design is superior to your competition? Or show that you have more features at a better price? Or demonstrate that your system will pay back its cost in less than 6 months?
4. Include the two things every brochure should contain. These are (a) what your prospects need and want to know about your product to make their buying decision, and (b) what you say to persuade them that your product is the best product choice – and your company is the best vendor.
5. Be selective. While the advertisement agency’s copy is sometimes too light and tells the reader too little, engineer’s copy often makes the opposite error, attempting to cram every last technical fact and feature into a tri fold brochure, or even a four or eight page brochure.
6. Understand the selling environment. There are three basic selling situations for process equipment, chemicals, and other industrial products. You must know what situation your product falls into, so you can market it effectively.
The first situation is that the prospect is not aware of the problem he has that your product can solve, or does not consider it a priority. To get this prospect’s attention, your marketing brochure must dramatize the problem and its severity, and then position your product as the solution.
The second situation is where the prospect is aware of the problem, but is not convinced that your type of product is the best solution. A reprint of test results plus an offer of a free trial can go a long way to give credibility to the company and draw customers to try your product.
The third situation is when the prospect knows what his problem is, believes your type of product is the right solution, but needs to be convinced that your product is the best choice in the category.
Some ways to demonstrate your product’s superiority are with a table comparing your product with the other companies’, by giving specifications or talking about functionality, technology or design features.
There are many other copy writing techniques available to produce a superior technical product brochure in any of these three situations. But if you follow the basics in this article and do nothing else, you are guaranteed to see a substantial improvement in your brochures that you, your sales reps, and your customers will appreciate. You might even some day receive that rare compliment: “You know, I actually read your brochure. It wasn’t boring, and it told me what I needed to know!”
For more helpful tips and information about copy writing and marketing please visit www.bly.com/reports.
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