Secondly, while you want to conceive of a clear message from your side of the divide, you want the prospect to understand your message – for them to understand the problem they have, for them to realize this can be tackled and that it is in their interests to act, and when they decide to act, that they understand you are the provider of the solution above all others. This is a lot to take in but we can boil this down to very simple concepts and the most important is to focus your ad, your section of a brochure, your chapter in a white paper – whatever the print project is – to focus on selling one thing at a time! Let’s take an ad – how many times have you seen an ad which has a great product or service with a fantastic price, but you can’t see where you have to call or email or what you are supposed to do?  There is just too much information being thrown at you from the piece that you suffer overload? In fact, you probably are not aware of any such ads because your brain has automatically shut them off from your consciousness - it is only when you go looking for bad examples that you will become aware of them.

The rule is – one ad – one message. This does not preclude you from exercising your creativity – it is not enough to say, “Buy this one now! Call 800-800-8080!” Pick one of your products and then reverse engineer; look at what the product is able to do, what purpose does it serve, what unique problems or applications does it have?  Once you have identified these, what are known as Unique Selling Points or USP’s, you can then identify the target market which this problem afflicts; you can now craft your ad very specifically and very deliberately telling this target section that you have the answer and they need to buy your product. This is important as if you leave focus, your ad, your brochure, even your simplest of business cards, will become muddled and incoherent and this reflects on your business and you.

Originally posted here:
Focus on One Message at a Time

Here we continue with Booklet Design 101. A guiding principle is to add value to your reader and their investment of time in reading what you wrote.  Provide information which is practical and usable by the reader.  A good example is a home improvement company – give advice on how to fix a shelf; a garage – car care; a doctor – healthy living or how to give up smoking. Maintain the “uniformity of message” and this means being consistent throughout the booklet – a simple way of doing this is to ensure you use the same images throughout the booklet or if you are using different ones, that you ensure they are all to the same consistent quality, subject and format.

If you use diverse images and formats, you will detract from the impact and allow the booklet to deteriorate into a patchwork of ideas which will become easily lost, not least because you will easily lose the attention of the reader. It’s a good idea to allow for some space for your reader to make some notes – a “jotting pad” at the end of each section or page,   By doing this you are personalizing the booklet to your reader and this is especially effective if they make use of the invitation – people rarely dispose of a document upon which they have written some notes! As with any business literature, make it easy for a reader to find your contact information.  It may not be possible for you to have your telephone, email address or mailing address on every page but it is certainly practical to try or to have contact information repeated throughout the booklet.

Do not ignore this because when a reader encounters a piece of information in your booklet, they are likely to experience a “Eureka” moment – that is, they understand how your information can provide a solution to an issue they have – when that happens, they will want to contact you quickly. Though a booklet may not be a purebred sales document (although it can be), this does not mean that you abandon marketing principles – as a reader goes through the booklet, there should be calls to action provided.  Examples are: an electrician – make sure you perform an annual electrical equipment safety inspection; medical – contact your doctor for a cholesterol test on a regular basis; garage – make sure you rotate your tires every 7,000 miles. There are many other issues to cover but just because the document is a booklet and not a full-blown book does not mean you should skimp on the creativity or thought behind developing it. We will continue with Booklet 101 in Part 3 with more hints and practical tips for you to improve the effectiveness of your efforts.

Read the original here:
Booklet Design 101 – Part Two