5 Tips on Creating Marketing Brochures that Win Big Contracts
August 27, 2019 | Read: 8 minutes
In the field services, attracting the attention of potential clients to secure contracts can be challenging. The competition is tough, particularly from the larger and more popular contracting businesses, who have access to larger budgets and can make better bids.
So we’ve enlisted the help of marketing expert, Ronita Mohan from Venngage, the online infographic and design platform, to bring you 5 easy tips for creating an amazing field service brochure.
We’ll let her take it from here:
“First of all, why should you use brochures instead of more glamorous and popular marketing techniques?“
In the contemporary marketing age, there are a number of methods you can use to reach clients, particularly in the digital sphere—such as social media, SEO, and email marketing, to name a few. But an over-reliance on digital marketing methods is unlikely to earn you contracts—if you want to reach prospective clients, you need to be innovative and versatile.
While you can use digital media to reach you, you should also consider traditional marketing methods, such as the humble marketing brochure.
Brochures are a physical reminder of your company and services, as opposed to the ephemeral nature of digital media. Additionally, marketing brochures can be referred to at any time. On the other hand, clients who see a post on social media or a Google ad may forget about your company once they scroll past it.
To make the most of your business growth strategy, it’s a good idea to combine digital and traditional media.
With that said, many bidding companies don’t know how best to make a marketing brochure so, here are our top five brochure-making tips:
1. Identify Your Potential Client
When creating your field service brochure, you have to first decide who the brochure is targeted towards. While you may be using a template to create it, you still need to target it to your audience.
You can’t create a field service brochure with a one-size-fits-all attitude. If you have a plumbing business, you will likely be aiming to get a contract with a restaurant, a residential building, or a school.
Each of these potential contracts needs to be treated differently—for one, their requirements will be different and so are the people who will be looking at the contract. Study the area you are planning to approach and customize your brochure template accordingly.
2. Optimize Your Brochure Layout
Field service brochures are usually bi-fold or tri-fold. Depending on the type you plan to create, the flow of information will change. For instance, in a tri-fold brochure, the pages are narrower, and that will affect what kind of information, and how much of it, you can include on a single page. A bi-fold brochure has more room for you to have expansive headlines and body copy.
Either way, you need to grab your audience’s attention on the front page with a strong headline, and attractive and relevant imagery. Tell your audience enough about your service that they will want to read more.
When it comes to the middle pages, that is where you will host the bulk of your information. What you do, how you do it, and what your audience can get out of it.
Your last page shouldn’t have too much information on it—this is your wrap up section. If you’re relying on readers to get more details on this last page, your field service brochure design needs a rethink.
In summary, the front page of your brochure needs to incentivize your readers to move on to the next page, while the middle pages inform the reader of your services and prices. Leave the last page to share contact details and a final call to action (more on that in a bit).
3. Choose a Color Palette
Colors can make or break a field service brochure. An attractive enough color palette will entice prospective clients to read it, and eventually skew their interest towards your bid. But how do you choose colors for a brochure?
The general rule of thumb when it comes to field service brochures is to limit the number to two colors. Too many can be confusing for the reader and can potentially muddle your message, especially as people tend to associate colors with emotions.
You should focus on your brand colors—the colors of your logo, or the colors that you use most often in your marketing materials. Your brand colors should already be a part of your branding guidelines, but if you don’t have a set, there are some color trends that you can follow.
For instance, stark contrasting colors are all the rage at the moment. You could have a monotone brochure with a single pop of color—usually something vibrant or neon—that will make your name instantly noticeable. Alternatively, you could adopt gradients, which have also been coming back into fashion this year.
The important thing to remember when using colors in your field service brochure is that it isn’t solely about attracting attention. Colors should highlight your services and make the information more readable.
Make sure that no matter how beautiful the design is, you keep in mind basic readability principles.
4. Don’t Sell; Present Solutions
With such stiff competition in the field services arena, it can be tempting to use your marketing brochure as a sales tool. But this isn’t the best way to use it. People don’t want to be sold to, even customers who are actively looking for services to give contracts to.
If your brochure comes across as overly sales-focused, you could lose that potential client. Instead, use it to inform your audience about what you can do for them. Do they have a problem that needs solving? You have the solution. That is how you will gain new clients in small business marketing.
You also need to avoid filling your field service brochure with information. If you offer multiple solutions, don’t include every single one in there. People don’t have time to read that much—if they pick up a brochure with walls of text, they are more likely to throw it away.
Choose a few key solutions to present then direct the reader to your website for more information. Don’t treat your marketing brochure like a printed version of your website—it is meant to encourage people to seek you out, not to make a sale right then and there.
5. Include a Call-To-Action in Your Field Service Brochure
You have created your brochure but what do you want people to do with? The field service brochure has only done part of its job if it told your reader what your company is about and what you can do for them. What are should they do with that information?
You need your readers to take some action after they’ve read your marketing materials. Include a clear call-to-action for them to contact you, visit your website, or to set up a meeting.
Avoid having too many calls-to-action in one brochure as that will be confusing to the reader. Instead, structure your design around your single call-to-action, and ensure that it is clear, concise, and well-displayed.”
Key Takeaways
Creating a field service brochure doesn’t have to be a difficult task. Choose a brochure template that suits you and then customize it for your target audience.
Make the most of the layout of your brochure and pick a muted but powerful color palette to attract attention. Remember not to be overly sales-focused in your messaging; instead, present solutions to a problem and leverage consultative selling methods.
And finally, don’t forget your call-to-action, as that will give your brochure a focal point, and incentivize a potential client to contact you for a contract.
With these five tips in mind, you can begin creating an enticing marketing brochure that will help you win big contracts. Be sure to download our guide to help you manage them, too!
