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Secrets to Sales-Driven BrochuresSecrets to Sales-Driven Brochures by Lisa Sparks, http://www.integritywriting.comAfter you’ve gotten past the basics of identifying your audience, knowing your message and determining the right tone of voice, you have to do one of the toughest jobs that even some professional writers haven’t mastered yet - spill the beans about your product or service’s benefits. How Not to Fall Into the Features Trap Why is it so hard? You’ll have to step outside of yourself and look at things from the reader’s point of view. Bottom line: Read your brochure the way a customer would. Does it answer the question, "What’s in it for me?" If it doesn’t then it’s a feature. Your Clear-Cut Benefit/Feature Examples Benefits: A Resource You Can Trust Double Your Revenue in 6 Months Your Guide to 2004 Business Tax Compliance Features: 15 Years of Automotive Industry Experience Easy-to-Read Format Winner of 16 Graphic Design Excellence Awards See the difference? Benefits are about the client/prospect. Features are all about you and your firm. Both are great. But one is easier to write about than the other. You know yourself. But you have to know your audience as well as yourself. Why Features Shouldn’t Be Ignored Don’t get me wrong, features are an important part of the buying process. They build confidence and credibility in the minds of your prospects. But you won’t keep their attention long enough to get to all of that if you don’t list the benefits first. That’s why benefits should pull double-duty. 2 Must-Use Secrets In a brochure, benefits should be listed as bullet points and as headlines. This one technique alone will ensure your brochure gets read from start to finish. The benefit guarantee: Any time you want to make sure you’re writing a benefit and not a feature, add the words "you" or "your" to the sentence or phrase. Combine those elements with a call to action and you’ll have a sharp, sales-driven brochure that will work wonders for your business. See these ideas at work at: http://www.integritywriting.com/brochures. About the Author Lisa Sparks, author of 'Power Words: How to Write Ezines that Increase Your Sales,' has more than 13 years of experience in journalism, copywriting and marketing. Sign up for her ezine, a $197 per year value, at no cost by visiting http://www.integritywriting.com
8 Tips to Get Publishers to Notice You By: Brandie King, Copyright 2004 If your articles aren't getting published very often, or you just want to increase the chances of them being published, then you will benefit from the tips in this article. 1. Article Length You should always keep you article 500 to 800 words long. If you can't fit what you want to say into that amount of space, then break your article up into more than one p. . .
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