On Useless Brochures

A recent post from Seth Godin's blog talks about his take on brochures. Basically, he says that the one truth about corporate brochures of any kind is that nobody will read them.

Having gobs of copy trying to explain in-depth who you are and what you do is bad. Photos, captions and testimonials are good. Pique their interest and leave them wanting more.

Godin's suggestions for an effective brochure:

• overinvest in paper and design. Spend twice or even ten times more than you planned. If you can't afford to do that, don't have a brochure. Especially if your competition does.

• use less copy. Half as much.

• use testimonials. With photos. Short captions. It's hard to have too many of the good ones.

• make it funny enough or interesting enough or, hey, remarkable enough that people will want to show it to their friends.

• show, don't tell. Don't say you have a tranquil setting... I won't believe you.

• and most important, make sure you leave several obvious things out... so that people need to talk to you.

Food for thought.