Build Sales with Brochures for Each Stage of the Buying Cycle

Over the past few weeks, FEI marketing whiz Marka has given the FEI tribe some tips on creating effective brochure promotions. This week, she shares a final practical brochure tip. Remember, fire = print.

Marka and Zoot were eating take-out frozen yogurt at the office. It had held up surprisingly well, even after the hot chariot ride back from the store.

“One limitation of sales brochures,” Zoot said with a mouth full of frozen yogurt, “is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution that can address the needs of suspects, prospects, new customers, and repeat customers.”

“Who said brochures must be a one-size-fits-all solution?” Marka asked.

Zoot groaned. He felt a lecture coming on. As he predicted, Marka stood up and began writing on the whiteboard in his office.

Have different company brochures for each AIDAR Stage.

“AIDAR stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action, and Reorder,” Marka reminded Zoot. “This acronym represents the five steps of the fire buying process. Every marketing tool we use should focus on moving prospects through AIDAR, from ignorance to purchase. Our brochures are no exception.

“As you suggested, fire-buyers at each AIDAR stage have different sales and informational needs,” Marka continued. “While a new suspect simply needs basic information to help decide if they want to explore FEI further, qualified prospects with specific buying objections need materials that address those concerns.

“Intelligent fire businesses—ahem, like FEI—will arm their sales and customer staffs with different brochures geared toward each segment of the AIDAR funnel,” Marka said. “Here are some examples of brochures we might create for each AIDAR segment.” [She then began scribbling more on the whiteboard.]

• Awareness

“To create awareness among potential fire buyers, we start by simply letting them know who we are,” Marka said. “Brochures focused on generating awareness should include all the important basics: a list of services, company overview, mission statement, Unique Selling Proposition, key staff, etc. We want to give suspects the answers to three questions: who is FEI, what do they do, and do I have a need for it?” [Marka returned to the whiteboard to cover the remaining letters.]