Taming Customers through Smartly Created Brochures

We humans have many shortcomings and flaws, chief among them our poor attention span, and constant need for stimulation and lack of willingness to accept or endure something we don¡¦t like. We are easily distracted and when trying to process information we are more likely to have our attention drawn to something else that is more interesting. It is almost a reflexive action, if something is perceived as dull and boring, our brains disengage.

This poses a rather substantive obstacle in terms of marketing, after all, marketing and advertising is all about trying to appeal to consumers and persuade them to buy your products and use your services.

* Brochures and leaflets, whilst offering a condensed form of info, still suffer from the rather selective attention of its readers. Rather than reading your carefully created information packages from start to finish, people will browse through them at random and simply focus on the parts that attract their attention the most.

„X This chaotic and random reading pattern makes conveying information much more difficult than it should or indeed could be.

„X It is impractical to make every page stand out, and also include a summary of your entire corporate profile and message on them. Luckily, there are some tricks you can use to allow the random reading pattern to work more effectively for you than against.

As a general rule of thumb, the more specific the purpose and reason for a brochure, the more likely people will be to actually read it in a more linear and sequential manner. Many people do absorb brochures in the usual order, and even if they don't they still expect to find introduction at the beginning, the substantiations in the middle and conclusion at the end.

„Ï This approach is useful for the moderately subject-specific document, like a leaflet about a new service or a brochure about a new line of garden furniture.

„Ï In order to more effectively achieve this, make sure you structure the essential points in sub headings which are in bold type so as to catch the eye and maintain the attention of the readers.

Given how short people¡¦s attention spans tend to be, and how susceptible they are to even the slightest distraction, bold type is crucial for those are skim reading and do not have the time or indeed patience for copious amounts of raw information.

In order to ensure the proper syntax and direction of your brochure, make sure that each of the sub headings actually makes sense by itself, and that the reader is not actually compelled to read them in a linear fashion, as this will very likely put them off bothering to read at all. Another sad fact of human nature, as soon as we perceive that we must do something, our level of commitment typically drops off.

Try to write in a plain manner, don¡¦t fall into the trap of relying too heavily on corporate speak, as this will also further alienate your readers.

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