filename: CEPBRO1
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length: 1,800 words
How to Write More Effective Technical
Product Brochures
by Robert W. Bly, Director
The Center for Technical
Communication
Key words and phrases:
brochure
copywriting
marketing
advertising
writing
AUTHOR:
Bob Bly
CTC
22 E. Quackenbush Avenue
Dumont, NJ 07628
(201) 385-1220
January 25, 2001
How to Write a
More Effective Technical Product Brochure
by Robert W. Bly
When I was the advertising manager for a process
equipment manufacturer, one of my responsibilities was to serve as liaison between
the advertising agency we hired to write our ads and product brochures and our
staff engineers.
The engineers, because of their technical expertise
in the subject matter, were responsible for reviewing the agency’s work.
As is often the case in our industry, the engineers
complained that those “ad types” at the agency didn’t understand the product or
the audience -- and that their copy was way off base.
The agency countered that engineers may know
technology but don’t know writing, marketing, design, or selling -- and that
they wanted to cram the brochures with too much unnecessary detail that would
dilute the sales message.
Who was right? The fact is, both arguments have some
merit.
On the agency side, ad agency folk often have a
flair for creative, colorful communication, which can help a brochure gain
attention and be noticed.
On the other hand, clients -- especially the engineers
who review the agency’s brochure copy -- often complain, sometimes correctly,
that the agency’s brochure copy is superficial.
Laziness is often the cause. The writer did not do
sufficient research to understand both the technology and the needs, concerns,
and interests of the target audience. The copy he writes reflects this lack of
understanding. When you read it, you immediately think, “This person doesn’t
know what he is talking about” -- and you are probably right.
Another problem with professional or agency-written
product literature is a tendency toward cleverness for the sake of being
clever. “Be creative!” the client instructs the agency. But the reader often
doesn’t get the joke, pun, or reference in the headline, the creativity goes
over her head, and she is turned off rather than engaged.
Engineers who write their own brochure copy are
rarely superficial; they usually have a solid understanding of the products and
its technology. However, engineers tend to assume that the reader knows as much
as the writer, speaks the same jargon, and has the same level of interest in
the technology. And often this is not the case.
Take jargon. People today frequently use the term “open
systems architecture” in sales literature. But do they really know what this
means? Write down your own definition, ask five colleagues to do the same, and
compare. I guarantee they will not be the same. Engineers who write often don’t
strive for clarity. So they fall back on buzzwords and cliches that,
unfortunately, don’t get across the messages they wish to convey.
6 tips for writing better
technical product brochures
Given these conditions, how can you -- as an engineer or manager who either writes brochure copy, edits copy, approves copy, or provides input for ad agencies or freelance industrial copywriters -- do your job better so the finished brochure is the best one possible?
Here are some simple
guidelines to follow:
Define what the piece is about. The narrower the
topic, the more focused, specific, and effective your brochure can be within
the limited space available.
Tip: Your brochure doesn’t have to cover everything.
You can always decide to have other pieces of sales literature that go into more
depth on certain aspects of the product.
For instance, you can talk about satisfied users in case
histories. You can expand on specifications in a spec sheet. Some marketers use
application briefs to focus on a specific application or industry. Others
develop separate sell sheets on each key feature, allowing more in-depth
technical discussion than is possible in a general product brochure.
1.
Know your audience. Are you writing to
engineers or managers? The former may be interested in technical and
performance specifications. The latter may want to know about support, service,
ease of use, scalability, user benefits, or return on investment.
If you are writing to engineers, are they
well-versed in this particular technology? Or do you have to bring them up to
speed? Just because someone is a chemical engineer does not mean they know
nearly as much about industrial knives, turbine blades, corrosion-resistant
metals, ball valves, or your particular specialty as you do. Indeed, they
probably don’t.
When in doubt, it is better to explain so everyone
understands than to assume that everyone already understands. No engineer has
ever complained to me that a brochure I wrote was too clear.
2.
Write with your objective in
mind.
Unlike a Victoria Secrets catalog, which gives the buyer all the information
she needs to place an order, most technical product brochures support the
selling process but are not designed to complete it on their own.
Is the objective of the brochure to convince the
prospect that your technical design is superior to your competition? Or show
that you have more features at a better price? Or demonstrate that your system
will pay back its cost in less than 6 months?
Establish a communication objective for the brochure
and write with that goal in mind. For instance, if the objective is to get a
meeting for you to sell consulting services to the client, you only need to
include enough to convince them that the meeting is worth their time. Anything
more is probably overkill.
3.
Include the two things every
brochure should contain. These simply are (a) the things your prospects need and want to know
about your product to make their buying decision and (b) what you think you
should say to persuade them that your product is the best product choice -- and
your company is the best vendor.
The things a prospect wants to know about an
industrial product might include weight, dimensions, power requirements, operating
temperature, and whether it can perform certain functions.
Things you might want to tell them include how the
performance compares with competitive systems in benchmark tests (if you were
the winner, of course) or the fact that it was cited as “Best Product” by an
industry publication, or won an award from a trade association, or is the most
popular product in its category with an installed base of more than 10,000
units.
4.
Be selective. While ad agency copy is
sometimes too light and tells the reader too little, engineer copy often makes
the opposite error, attempting to cram every last technical fact and feature into
a four or eight page brochure.
Keep in mind that your prospect is bombarded by more information than he can handle on a daily basis. Everyone has too much to read, and not enough time to read it. According to a study by the School of Information Management & Systems at UC Berkeley, each year the human race produces about 1.5 exabytes of unique information in print, film, optical, and magnetic content worldwide—roughly 250MB of new information for every man, women, and child.
Be selective in your presentation. Copywriter
Herschell Gordon Lewis has a formula, E2 = 0. Or as Lewis says, “When
you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.” If every fact about your
product is given equal weight in the brochure, the key facts that make the most
persuasive case for buying the product will not stand out.
5.
erstand the selling
environment.
There are three basic selling situations for process equipment, chemicals, and
other industrial products. You must know what situation your product falls
into, so you can market it effectively.
The first situation is that the prospect is not acutely aware of the problem he has that your product can solve. Or he is aware of it but does not consider it a priority. In this situation, to get your prospect’s attention, your brochure must dramatize the problem and its severity, then position your product as the solution.
Example: Mainframe computer operators did not realize that certain operations accidentally overrode and erased files stored on magnetic tapes. A brochure for a utility that prevented this operation from occurring began, “Did you know that your storage devices may be accidentally wiping out important files even as you read this sentence?” It alerted them to the problem in a dramatic way.
Once alerted to a problem they didn’t know existed, the readers were eager to find a solution, which the utility handily provided. Sales were brisk.
The second situation is that the prospect is aware
of the problem or need your product addresses, but is not at all convinced that
your type of product is the best solution.
Example: A chemical manufacturer warned wastewater
treatment plants that their current activated charcoal bed systems were too
costly.
The plant managers believed that, but didn’t believe
that the manufacturer’s alternative filter technology was a viable solution. A
paper reprinting lab test results plus the offer of a free trial overcame the disbelief
and got firms to use the new filter system.
The third situation is when the prospect knows what
his problem is, believes your type of product is the right solution, but needs
to be convinced that your product is the best choice in the category, and better
than similar products offered by your competitors.
One way to demonstrate superiority is with a table
comparing your product with the others on a feature by feature basis. If you
have a more complete feature set than they do, such a table makes you look like
the best choice.
Another technique is to give specifications that
prove your performance is superior. If this cannot be quantitatively measured,
talk about any unique functionality, technology, or design feature that might create
an impression of superiority in the prospect’s mind.
There are many other copywriting techniques
available to produce a superior technical product brochure in any of these
three situations; this is why I’ve devoted the past 20 years, my entire
professional life, to practicing and studying copywriting -- just like an
engineer practices and studies his specialty.
But if you follow the basics in this article and do
nothing else, I guarantee an improvement in your brochures that you, your sales
reps, and your customers will appreciate. You might even some day receive that
rare compliment: “You know, I actually read your brochure. It wasn’t boring, and
it told me what I needed to know!”
For further reading:
The Copywriter’s Handbook. Robert Bly. Henry Holt
& Co. 1986.
Effective Chemical
Marketing, Advertising, and Promotion. J. Roger Hart. Noyes Publications. 1983.
Confessions of an
Advertising Man. David Ogilvy. Atheneum. 1963.
About the author:
Bob Bly (phone 201-385-1220; fax 201-385-1138;
e-mail rwbly@bly.com) is an independent copywriter and consultant who
specializes in writing brochures, direct mail, ads, and PR materials for
industrial and high-tech marketers. His clients include IBM, McGraw-Hill, Becton
Dickinson, Nortel Networks, Grumman, ITT, Alloy Technology, York Saw &
Knife, and Lucent Technologies. Bob holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from
the University of Rochester and is the author of 50 books including Internet Direct Mail: The Complete Guide to
Successful e-mail Marketing Campaigns (NTC Business Books).
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