Are you showing your customers the way …?

I sat down recently with a guy to talk about his brochure. To spare him any blushes let’s call him Fred.

The job was simple.

He was clutching a years-old brochure that he wanted to freshen up a bit.

Nothing too complicated. Perhaps a colour change here and there, a few new graphics and a small number of text amends to bring things up to date.

He’d already spent several hours poring over it, but he’d got stuck and wanted some help.

After listening to what he wanted to do we rolled up our sleeves, grabbed a veterinary prescription strength coffee and got to work.

Pretty soon, we were both stuck in a metaphorical mess. Every time we changed something here, it impacted on something over there and I very quick realised that we weren’t making any progress, and I wasn’t bringing any value to the table.

It was time to have another think.

Reaching for a fresh sheet of notepaper I quizzed Fred on what exactly it was he wanted his brochure to do, the audience he wanted to reach and … what he wanted them to do once they’d read it.

Very quickly, it all fell into place.

Once he’d got the outcome crystal clear in his mind, everything we did was geared to helping his customers along each small step leading to that outcome.

Just like a set of safety lights when the power goes off. You don’t have to know the way, just follow the lights leading you to safety.

And that’s what we made Fred’s brochure do.

He’d got horribly tangled up in the what but failed to explain the why.

Simple really.

If you want a hand getting your message straight, please drop me a line and I’d be delighted to help.

Have a great week.

Alec