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Five Tips To Better Brochures For Financial Advisors

August 28th, 2007

Brochures have the potential to pay off in spades for your financial service business. Or they can be a marketing sinkhole.

The president of an Asset Management firm (We’ll call him Charles) asked me to review his brochure. He is doing some things very well; still, I found areas where he could improve. As I looked over his brochure, I extracted these 5 tips for a brochure that can pay off for your financial advisory practice, too.

Five Tips For Brochures That Work

1. Be Clear About The Role Your Brochure
Plays Within Your Marketing Strategy

My first question to Charles was: How are you using this brochure?

He was ready with an answer. Good so far! Many financial professionals fall into the trap of producing a brochure and then hunting for a use.

Charles listed three main uses:

to sell new reps on his services. When his sales team is contacted by a rep, they send out the brochure with a cover letter to build the relationship,

to assist reps who want to get started, and

to supply material for the reps to use with their clients.

How else can you gain a productive brochure?

2. Be Certain Your Brochure Satisfies All Audiences

First and foremost, a brochure’s success depends on how precisely the information is targeted to your audience(s).

Typically, the broad all-things-to-all people approach doesn’t work. It ends up satisfying no one. One way around this is to produce 3 distinct brochures each with its own purpose. We often recommend separate brochures for very different audiences.

The second option - when you are speaking to diverse audiences - is to use a flexible format.

The Asset Management firm’s brochure is a pocket folder that holds 8-1/2 by 11 inch sheets. The information included can be customized for all three situations. It doesn’t have to be a glossy 4-color production as Charles’s brochure is; instead, it can also take a simple, unpretentious format.

What’s more, in his business frequent updates are vital, and the flexible format allows for easy changes. Otherwise, the brochure can swiftly slip out of date.

3. Take Seps To Ensure That Your Brochure Gets Read

Why should anyone read your brochure?

Charles relies on a cover letter to rev up interest in his brochure. In addition, we suggest a benefit headline on the cover of the brochure itself – whether it is a sophisticated pocket folder like his or a more modest 3-fold brochure. His has the name of the firm, its logo, and then four words with images. No real reason there to bother to read the material.

Because he serves three main audiences his headline must take in all three. What will appeal to all?

From the content we discover concepts that he could draw on for a compelling headline. His is a safety-first approach. It helps investors stay the course and achieve their long-term goals. This basic concept could spark a headline and reinforce his positioning.

4. Place Your Brochure Within A Series Of Contacts.

The brochure is only one step – and it can be an effective one - in the marketing sequence.

One contact and one contact only – even with a first-rate brochure - reduces opportunities for success. Charles’ firm, for example when the brochure is used with reps who want to get started, will go over the brochure in a phone conversation or, if possible, face to face. The idea is to get the reps excited and show them how to, in turn, grab the attention of their own prospects.

5. Always, Always Guide Your Audience
To Take The Next Step

For a brochure always be sure you are clear about the next step you want your prospects to take. Spell it out boldly. If it is to contact you, say so. If you are offering a complimentary consultation or a free report, do what it takes to prompt them to take action.

The brochure from Charles’s firm includes 21 separate pieces of information. A guide through the brochure would be useful.

The one thing he doesn’t want is for his audience to set it aside because going through it seems to be a long, slow, or daunting project. Suppose with each brochure he produced a READ THIS FIRST quick-start guide. The guide could present a Table of Contents that lists the important pieces in the brochure with a capsule reason why they are helpful (these would be benefits for the reader). Also, the guide would hand readers a route and a map through the maze of materials.

The route and map, of course, would create a path to the final step you want your prospects to take. And that’s to give you your desired response.

There they are: Five ideas to save you from becoming a “Brochure Victim.” That’s how your brochure will be a star of your marketing plan for your financial advisory practice.

Discover more information about brochures in this article, “How To Write A Marketing Brochure That Really Works” at http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/write-a-brochure.html

Entry Filed under: Financial Lead Generation, Direct Marketing, Financial Advisor Marketing Plan