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Simon Townley is a freelance copywriter, editor and journalist. He writes brochures, websites, adverts, direct mail, articles, newsletters, blog posts and more. He has been a freelance writer for 15 years and has produced compelling copy for clients large and small in just about every sector of the UK economy.
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Working for a better small business community
Writing Tips
Writing is so much more than typing
Brochure Writing
 | A badly written brochure will be an embarrassment for years to come. Since brochures are relatively expensive to produce, skimping on the writing side is definitely a mistake. Whether you pay a professional or do it yourself, you need to judge the end results and make sure the content is right, that it achieves your aims, and that you can hand it over to a potential client with pride and confidence. |
It's tempting to assume your company brochure is about you, your company, your product and services. No: it's about your customers, and what you can do for them. A common mistake is to start with an introduction to the company: "Acme Ltd was founded in 1953 by blah blah blah...." Who cares? Start with point one: addressing what your customers want - and how you can help them. Keep the company credentials information for later as a reassurance, once the real 'sale' has been made. Some brochures have specific tasks: it might be a recruitment brochure, or focused on a particular product. Most company brochures, however, may be seen and used by a wide variety of people, including customers, suppliers, shareholders, potential employees, investors and bank managers. You need to be clear in your mind who you are addressing in your brochure. If customers are included on the list, make them the priority and talk directly to them. Other readers will accept this as natural. Together you need to decide how many pages the brochure will have, how many of those pages will have words, rather than just pictures / white space, and how many words per page. You'll also need to decide on things like headlines, subhead lines, picture captions and pull-out lines. Some information can go into tables, which may need designing. Most people won't read the whole thing. They'll skim through and pick up on headlines, picture captions, pull-out lines, first paragraphs - just like you do with a newspaper or magazine. Make sure these elements contain the core messages and tell your whole story. Headlines are especially important. Don't try to pack in too much information: keep the word count down. Remember, you can't force people to read it. Aim for between 50 and 300 words per page, depending on the design. This is rule one of writing marketing copy. You take the features of the product and turn these into benefits for the reader. Avoid industry or internal jargon and make sure everything is written in clear / plain English. Don't let your brochure end with a whimper. Compel the reader to take action. Urge them to call you, visit your website, request more information - whatever it is you want from them next. Tell them clearly what the next step should be. A professional copywriter brings much more than just writing skills and marketing expertise. They also bring an external, objective perspective; experience of providing copy ready to go into design layouts; plus the ability to get the thing written on time. Link to this page: Related: TAGS: Brochure Writing, Copy, Copywriting, Brochure, Writing, Graphic Design, Page Layouts
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