Some B2B marketers believe that brochures are no longer important in our digital world, but our clients have told us they want to avoid an overreliance on any one channel and a balanced B2B marketing strategy is needed to cater to various types of decision-makers.
Our not-so-secret recipe for writing an effective B2B brochure is to always answer the who, what, when, where and why questions that your audience will have. By doing so, you avoid confusing and frustrating your audience and chasing them into the welcoming arms of your competition. Other B2B brochure writing tips include:
Nobody wants to read large chunks of wall-to-wall text. There has to be something to break up the monotony – an image, a section breaker, a diagram. That’s where the copywriter and the designer need to complement one another. Bullet-points are another way to break up large chunks of text that are often forgotten. If you’re listing any more than 3 points in a sentence, a bulleted section usually works best.
The headlines in your brochure are usually the first thing the reader notices, and they help guide the reader through. Without character limitations to contend with, and algorithms to impress, you can tend to be a bit more creative in your brochure headlines.
It’s natural to be proud of your company and want to showcase the features of your solutions, but remember, while reading your brochure, your audience will be asking themselves, “So what?” While educating your prospects on your products, it’s equally important to answer this question. To do this, your content writer should be thinking about and asking questions about how the features affect your customer’s emotional needs.
Yes, B2B customers have emotional needs too. It could be reducing stress, saving time or money or minimising uncertainty. Knowing this can help the writer address those needs in their writing, which can help get your customers on board much quicker.
A common misconception is that plain and conversational language means your brochure is dumbed down, but when you try to impress readers with complex sentences, and flashy vocabulary in an academic manner, you can sacrifice readability and credibility. Long sentences and big words do not necessarily make your business sound smarter. Since when has anyone complained that something was too easy to understand?
There are so many reasons why your website copy should be different from your brochure copy, but let’s just look at the three main ones.
To determine what should go into your B2B brochure, the first thing we will ask is your purpose. Usually, it’s to sell products or services, but sometimes it’s about building a brand image or even relaunching it. The next thing we’ll ask about is your target audience, and then we’ll study your solutions, and check out your competitors. With that information at hand, we’ll be able to guide you on what should be included via an outline proposal. Once the outline is approved, we can then go about writing a clear, succinct and memorable message.
One common thing we often see forgotten is contact information. It’s important to include your contact details as well as your social media handles. A QR code is another great way to continue the conversation by guiding people to your website for more information.
We understand – that’s why Etymon offers revisions above the average agency standard so that you can consult your technical teams and ensure technical accuracy, as well as ticking all your marketing boxes.
After an initial couple of marketing reviews, we ask that you combine all feedback from other stakeholders before passing it to us. If the feedback is not consolidated, we find that we end up with conflicting instructions, and it’s hard to satisfy multiple stakeholders. We can help you make sense of the conflicting instructions and will propose a way to keep everyone happy.
Even the most talented content writer will need some information from you to get started. We’ll immerse ourselves in the relevant information in your industry and study your competitors closely, but we would also like to look at as many other materials you’ve written such as previous brochures, your website, and marketing communications to get a sense of what’s required and see the bigger picture. Sometimes we may like to speak with key people in your business to hear their perspectives too.
As we are a specialised copywriting agency, we do not have an in-house designer in our team. However, we have worked with many full-service agencies that we can outsource the design services to, or we engage a freelance designer from our network. By working with one of our designers, it’s often easier for the copywriter and designer to work side-by-side, but we are also open to working with your in-house designers or creative agencies.
We are not a design agency so we would recommend you get advice from a printer or designer on this matter. However, we are reminded of something that we read that said a firm brochure is the equivalent of a firm handshake – it promotes confidence and competence so high-quality marketing materials are always our recommendation.
