If you receive a direct response package in the mail you’ll probably pull out both a sales letter and a sales brochure. What you’ll notice (if you have a trained copywriter’s eye) is that they are very similar in certain ways. They have very similar techniques and characteristics and they obviously share the same objective – to get you to buy the product or service!

Here are some of the ways that direct response letters and direct response brochures are similar:

They are written in the reader’s language. Never, ever, use corporate speak or corporate jargon when writing to sell (unless, of course, you’re selling to corporate executives of course). In order to get that sale you must talk to your reader as if you were one of them, just like a good friend would.

Benefits, benefits, benefits. Did I mention benefits? Just like a great sales letter, brochures focus on a product’s best benefits. An effective brochure will show exactly what the product or service will do for the reader. Is it dentures you’re selling? Then the brochure would highlight how the dentures make the reader feel younger by enjoying the foods they enjoyed at an earlier age.

Call now to take advantage of this great offer!!! The brochure, just like the sales letter, includes a call to action. This is important because you’re never sure that the prospect will read both the letter and the brochure so the call to action must be on both.

Yes there are many important similarities between a brochure and a sales letter. They both are trying to accomplish the same goal so naturally you would want them to include the same sales technique.

However, there are many differences between the two because a brochure can offer unique opportunities that the sales letter cannot. These are some of the main differences between the sales letter and the brochure:

Pure novelty. Sales letters are more “real” in that they are created to resemble an actual correspondence and the more “real” they are the more effective they become. A brochure has no derivation other than something used in sales and marketing so they take on a more novel approach. Design and novelty take the place of personalization. This novelty can be more attractive and this increases the brochure’s effectiveness. People, especially the more jaded prospects, are used to seeing sales letters so the appeal has worn off. The uniqueness of a well-designed brochure can break down the jaded prospect’s cynical barrier.

The brochure is “real life.” The brochure can often be a case sample. The letter is written to grab the reader’s emotions, to play on their senses. The brochure is written to be the equivalent of placing the product in the reader’s hands. When finished reading the brochure the prospect should have a really good idea of what owning the product is like.

Brochures are not designed “top to bottom.” Letters are written to be read from top to bottom, start to finish. There’s a narrative, a story that must be told in a letter. Brochures on the other hand are modular. They have panels that can be assigned different benefits, features, calls to action, and even reply cards.

Pictures, graphs, charts, and other visual things. Brochures can feature eye pleasing pictures of the product. They can feature graphs and pie charts, and graphics that illustrate the various benefits and features of the product. A well-designed brochure can be a work of art in that it’s so pleasing to the eye that it’s hard for the reader to put it down. Not every prospect wants to read a long sales letter, but if you have a beautifully designed brochure with graphics that encapsulate the main benefits, it will be hard for the prospect to ignore it.

Source by W Allen