How to Create a Catering Brochure


By Lanee’ Blunt

Creating a catering brochuremight help you get your foot in the door, or help you generate leads.Presentation skills and the ability to make food look fancy go a long way, andkeeping up with the latest trends in food and party ideas will help make yourcatering business a success. A brochure will help you showcase your cateringbusiness and helps the customer get a detailed account of your company orservice.

Service
Explain completely what yourservice is about.  What type of food doyou make and what are some of the parties that you have catered.  Do you handle weddings and work with weddingplanners. What type of service do you offer? What do you offer the client thatis different from your competition? What are the types of accounts you handle?

Headline
Write a strong headline onthe cover of the brochure and make it something that the customer will remember.Many prospects will only read the first page and glance through the brochure.Gain their interest in what you are selling with the headline. “The cover of abrochure works like the headline of a print advertisement. State your positionor promise a benefit to the reader,” according to Kenneth Roman, Jane Mass, andMartin Nisenholtz, in their book, How toAdvertise.

Sections
There are many sections thatyou can use in the brochure. Sections can include information about product,service, price, ordering, and information on the owners or the cooks andservers. Use headings and subheads with bullets. Keep it simple by breakinglarge text into easy to read sections.

Reference:
Kenneth Roman, Jane Mass& Martin Nisenholtz; How to Advertise; Thomas Dunne Books





Advantages of Direct Mail for Mortgage Brokers


By Lanee’ Blunt

A direct mail can beproduced with a laser printer, letterhead stationary, and a qualified mailinglist. If the sales message is what it should be a percentage of readers on yourmailing list will respond about the advertised product or service. When youneed more leads for your mortgage business there are some advantages of using asales letter to generate leads.  Directmail is not just for large corporations, if it is written correctly, it will beto your advantage to use.

Sales Letter
A sales letter is used inthe direct package. It is a powerful tool if written properly. The lettershould drive home your selling points and the benefits of using your mortgagebusiness. A careful analysis of the market has to be made when you write theletter. For example, it requires that you know your audience. The letter has togain the attention of the reader and specify your selling points. Most of theselling in the direct mail package is done in the sales letter. Sales lettercan outdo most of the direct mail packages that don’t have a letter.

The Direct Mail can be Tested
A great benefit of using adirect mail is that it can be tested to see how well it will do. Before youinvest your time and your money in a direct mail program you should test yoursales letter.  You have to know if theletter will pull a response.  You can usea small sample of one hundred letters, mail them and test your response.  If the letter is not strong enough and youreceive no response then you must revise your letter.

You Can Determine your Response
Lead generating direct getresults. Each time you send it out you can expect the package to pull in thesame amount of leads. You can determine the result of your direct mail afteryou send out the package.  After you havetested the sample your response rate should be the same every time you send thedirect mail. According to C.A. Nolan and R.F. Warmke’s book, Marketing Sales Promotion and Advertising, “Largebusiness organizations make every attempt to predetermine the market before asales letter campaign is started.”

Reference:
C.A. Nolan and R.F. Warmke’sbook; Marketing Sales Promotion andAdvertising; South-Western





Advantages of Direct Mail Advertising for Computer Technicians


By Lanee’ Blunt

A direct mail package hasmany advantages to offer your computer repair business. There are many benefitsto using direct mail for a computer technician. Your advertising efforts willposition your company name in the customer’s mind so when they think of hiringa computer technician they’ll call you.

Reaches a Target Market
Your direct mail can betargeted toward a group of people and written just for that group to interestthem in your computer repair service. “Direct mail is the only mass medium thatcan be directed toward target groups or prospects. The message may be highlypersonalized and can also be designed as an effective market research tool,”according to B. Charles Ames and James D. Hlavacek, in their book, Managerial Marketing for Industrial Firms.

Low Cost
Your letters can be writtenon your computer. You can send out as many or as few as you like.  You can send out a batch of 500 letters withonly the cost of postage, envelopes and paper. Personal letters are low cost, you can send out as few as oneletter.  According to Jay ConradLevinson, in his book, GuerrillaMarketing, “The writing of personal letters, not direct mailings of largequantities of letters and brochures, but simple, personal letters, is one ofthe most effective, easy, inexpensive and overlooked methods of marketing.”

Leads
Direct mail can generateleads. If you don’t like cold calling, then you’ll love direct mail. You cansend out hundreds or even thousands of letters without ever having to make onephone call. The prospect will call you if you provide your contact information.You will have a ratio of how many letters to send to receive a reply.

Reference:
Jay Conrad Levinson; GuerrillaMarketing; Houghton Mifflin
B. Charles Ames and James D.Hlavacek; Managerial Marketing for Industrial Firms; Random House