You spent thousands, perhaps more, in marketing. You created a full color, glossy brochure guaranteed to attract millions and spent thousands having it bulk printed and mailed. The brochure has everything: information, pictures and a pretty layout. Why didn't you get the returns you expected? For that matter, did you get any returns at all? Is Direct Marketing Dead? Absolutely not, although after having a failed marketing campaign, many business owners think direct marketing is dead. However, direct marketing is still one of the most widely used ways of marketing today. The ROIs for business brochures are still high, and consumers are still responding. In other words, direct marketing isn't dead. To put it bluntly, your business brochure failed because there was something wrong with it. What Went Wrong With My Business Brochure? With your business brochure in hand, look over these top 10 reasons why brochures fail and apply them to your own with a fresh eye: 1. Design - The right design and graphics on a full color brochure can make a huge difference. In fact, recent studies from top marketing companies have shown that the right design/graphics can bring in 5% more consumers than bad design/graphics. However, as any designer will tell you, too many colors (or too many graphics) in the design can overwhelm. A good design should hold no more than four colors, sometimes less. Don't be excessive. You're not trying to create a work of art for consumers to hang on a wall; you're creating a brochure to catch the consumer's attention. 2. Pictures - An excessive use of pictures is a sure business brochure killer, with few exceptions. If your brochure is meant to sell a single product, one picture of that product is more than enough - if you need a picture at all. Exceptions to this rule might be theme parks or resorts. In this case, pictures can show people having the fun you're selling. However, you still want to keep them minimal! 3. Headlines and subheadings - Does your brochure have nothing but blocks of text? Have you forgotten headlines and subheadings? Good design may bring in 5% more consumers, but great headlines can bring in up to 21 times more consumers than just a block of text. 21 times more! That's a huge group of consumers lost without adding headlines and subheadings to break up the text blocks. 4. Too much text - Just as you can have too many pictures, you can have too many words. Well-placed copy is especially important; you need to leave "white space". White space is the places on the brochure with nothing in it, whether they're graphics or copy. Use proper paragraph spacing, with paragraphs no more than three or four sentences. Use headlines to separate important parts. If your copy overwhelms, you've lost consumers. 5. Brochure doesn't meet your purpose - What are you trying to do with your business brochure? Are you trying to give them information or are you trying to bring new consumers to your store? If you want to do both, it might be better to create two business brochures rather than one. The first would focus on bringing in customers - where you're at, what you sell, etc. The second would focus on information about your product and how it can help them. By putting both into the same brochure, you're working at cross-purposes. They don't need a whole bunch of information if you want them coming in; if you're just trying to let them know about your new product, they only need a tidbit of how to reach you. 6. Forgetting your competition - Okay, so you know you have competition, but how do you deal with it? Have you filled up your business brochure with "we're the best, choose us"? If so, keep in mind that most of your competition has probably done the same, and consumers are getting tired of "we're #1" marketing messages. Instead of saying your product or service is best, show that you're the best by comparing your product/service to the competition. You know what makes you different - now tell them! 7. Lack of offer/bad offer - Every business brochure needs to have an offer. What's yours? Do you even have one? It could be something as simple as "Call now for more information" or "Find out how we can help you". You're offering more information. The offer, no matter how big or small, needs to be written in engaging, appealing fashion that grabs their attention. 8. No call to action - Along with the offer comes the call to action. The call to action is that "call now" or "visit our website today" piece that urges them to do something with what they've just read. You have to tell them what to do or ask them what they would do if... Something that makes them stop reading and answer the call! 9. Selling to slow - There's a possibility that you may have spent to long "talking" and not enough time selling. Read through your business brochure. Is all the text relevant or do you have a lot of words that don't absolutely have to be in it? Remember, the idea is to sell or inform, not overwhelm. Too much information or too much irrelevant facts can kill an otherwise great business brochure. 10. Too impersonal - One of the worst mistakes anyone can make with a business brochure is to sound too impersonal. Focus on one imaginary person; talk to this person directly about their needs. Share the features and benefits in a way that describes how your product/service will fill those needs. A great, full color business brochure can bring high returns, but you have to know what you're doing. Don't make the mistakes that too many business owners make. Read your business brochure aloud, look at the design with an unbiased eye and figure out what you can do better to get the ROI you need!