Do Your Marketing Materials Pass the 10-Second Test?

How a brochure is used will shape the tone and the level of detail. As we talked about this, Carl said that he was looking for something that would be versatile enough to use for a variety of purposes. He was clear that the brochure had two primary goals:

1. To engage and interest prospects to motivate them to sit down and meet.

2. To be something that prospects could take away from initial meetings that would reinforce the value of working with him and reassure them of his professionalism.

In light of those goals, we talked about the content of the draft material.

The cover

The front cover sets the tone for any marketing material. Carl and I discussed some alternative titles that would have more teeth and set the tone for a conversations with prospects. Whatever he came up with, it would almost certainly be more differentiating than “Helping you reach your dreams.”

We also spent some time talking about the photos on the front cover. My suggestion was to avoid stock photos that evoke tired industry clichés. Instead I suggested that he consider a photo of him and one or two of his team meeting with a client couple, in which he and his team face the camera and the couple’s backs are to the camera to mask their identity. For that photo, I proposed that Carl and his team appear with their jackets off as they normally would when working with clients. This doesn’t represent breakthrough thinking but is less of a cliché than what had been used in the draft.

We also talked about the back cover of the brochure. This is often the second place that prospects look after glancing at the front cover. The back page of the draft brochure wasted the opportunity to tell his story. It featured his logo and address and regulatory disclaimers.

Carl had read my articles on The Four Questions Every Prospect Wants Answered and The Message that Wins Clients. These contained two key messages: First, prospects are primarily interested in the outcomes that you deliver and are only interested in your process, background and credentials to the extent that they help deliver those outcomes. And second, you need to deliver your message in a way that is persuasive and engaging, by wrapping it into a story.

As a result, for the back cover Carl and I talked about featuring a case study in which the client was masked to preserve confidentiality but that used the classic problem, solution and outcome approach – beginning with the challenges that clients faced when they began working with Carl, talking about the solutions that had been put in place and finally outlining where these clients are today as a result.

Discussing your process

An area where many advisors go wrong is in discussing their process. Carl’s draft brochure is typical in that it devotes three pages to his process.

There is a page devoted to the three steps that new clients go through, titled “Reveal,” “Review” and “Recommend.” Each of those are covered using more technical language and in much more detail than the typical prospect is likely to read.

Then there is a page describing his investment process, with a graphic depicting how he screens companies to identify a short list that he researches in depth, listing 15 variables that he examines when evaluating companies.

A final page, titled “Other Ways that We Help,” lists a dozen areas in which his team provides financial advice beyond investments.

Nothing on these pages is objectionable and likely to hurt Carl’s chances of winning prospects, but this content is so indistinguishable from the standard industry rhetoric that it’s unlikely to help him either.

That said, it’s incredibly hard to set apart the way you work in a written brochure such as this one. That’s why one approach is to save conversations relating to your process for face-to-face meetings, when it’s easier to engage prospects and you can get into a discussion. While a marketing brochures needs to touch on your process, that shouldn’t be the focal point as it is here.

Providing team background

Having said that prospects are primarily interested in how they’ll be better off working with you, it’s still essential to give them a sense of who you are and why you and your team’s backgrounds and expertise will help them achieve their goals.

The draft brochure featured a large picture of Carl and everyone on his team standing and smiling at the camera. The brochure then contained a “head shot” of each team member with some brief background on his or her tenure in the industry, licenses held and a bit on their family.

Again, I told Carl that these photos were generic and undifferentiating. If he wanted to have a photo of his full team, it should be one in which they are portrayed with their sleeves rolled up around a boardroom table working on a client situation. Still a bit of a cliché, but at least there is a sense of action.

We also discussed moving away from smiling headshots and toward less formal and more casual pictures of his team in order to provide more of a sense of personality. Finally for the content of the bios, we talked about less generic content that would capture the essence of the personality of each team member and that would discuss what made them excited about coming into work each day.

Developing marketing material that sets you apart is not an easy task. But by being specific rather than general, by focusing on differences rather than similarities and by trying to avoid industry stereotypes, you’ll substantially raise the odds of getting a payoff from the investment of time and money in putting together marketing material.

If you’d like to read more, Getting Past “Blah, Blah, Blah” When Talking to Prospects provides additional information on the challenges of differentiating yourself when talking to prospects.

Dan Richards conducts programs to help advisors gain and retain clients and is an award winning faculty member in the MBA program at the University of Toronto. To see more of his written commentaries, visit www.danrichards.com.

Read more articles by Dan Richards