Four Booklet Topic Ideas for Your Business

Professionally printed booklets are excellent marketing tools you can distribute to prospects and customers in person, at point-of-sale locations and through direct-mail marketing. The secret to booklet success is giving your customers something valuable in exchange for their time. Your customers should find your booklets to be relevant, informative, entertaining and - most of all - useful. If you can put together a booklet that contains these elements, you'll have a marketing package with staying power that motivates response. If you're not sure what to write about, browse the following booklet topic ideas for inspiration.

How to ...

Booklets that detail how to do something are popular with many customers, no matter what your niche industry is. Think about what knowledge gaps exist for your customers. A mechanic might distribute a booklet titled "How to keep your car running for 200,000 miles," while a pet store might go with "How to set up a self-maintaining saltwater aquarium." Microsoft once sent direct-mail booklets on how to set up a pay-per-click ad campaign using the company's ad serving network.

Why you should ...

A distant cousin of the how-to booklet, the "why you should" booklet doesn't stop at telling your prospects how to do something, but why they should do it in the first place. Using our previous examples, a mechanic might want to distribute a booklet titled "Why you should get regular tune-ups" or a pet store could pen the volume "Why you should have your dog's nails professionally trimmed."

About so and so ...

Biographies can be interesting, especially when they're filled with colorful stories that enlighten, entertain and inspire. If your company founder or a certain employee has an amazing story to tell, do it through a booklet that relates how that person's experiences have helped shape your company's vision. An alternative take is to highlight several of your customers' own stories in one booklet. Perhaps that details how a mechanic's father and grandfather taught him how to fix cars, a legacy and tradition still seen in his craftsmanship today; or a pet store booklet that tells the individual stories of pet owners with their pets, complete with photos and what pet store products they (and pooch) prefer.

The way it is and how to change it ...

Another type of booklet recognizes a problem and suggests solutions. It could be as simple as why mold grows in basements and what you can do to get rid of it; or as complicated as a multinational lobbyist effort. Either way, you can promote your cause and explain how your customers can either join it, or use your products or services to solve their own problems. A mechanic's booklet might lament that, unfortunately, tires break down over time ? and then celebrate that a certain mixture (that the mechanic sells) can increase tire life. A pet store booklet might discuss the many animals that are euthanized each year because they have no home ? and then talk about how pet adoption saves money and lives. If your booklets are interesting and useful, your readership will be engaged. That's when the real marketing kicks in. Your text, ads, and other booklet content should serve as reminders that you're the expert in your field, and that you can solve your readers' problems. It establishes brand credibility and authority; and motivates response. When you're planning your next marketing campaign, don't forget the attention-holding power of booklets.