I want to make brochures/flyers/guides that actually convert..

(if you are too busy SKIP this post and just comment on the ad in the second post please!)

I have always been curious of what the best way is to approach brochures/guides/flyers.

After going to my first homeshow this weekend, I noticed most of the bigger business's seem to use information packed brochures/guides/flyers. But then I read on ilovemarketing.com how these guys seem to value short, personal types of direct response marketing. Where they literally write like one sentence and try to actually engage people in dialouge, get them to call, rather than to try and make a sale all in one shot.

Then I read "tested advertising methods" and it seems that having enough information about your business is vital. Building that trust, social proof, having a great headline, and taking more of a traditional kind of advertising approach.

My question is this. I don't like wasting money. I'm trying to learn how to write the best ads I can. I just have no idea what angle I should be approaching this from.

Shoud I:

try to think of something extremely creative, short and concise, that comes off personal and attempts to engage people in conversation?

or should I write a long guide, with tons of testimonials, social proof, trust, benefits driven, things that lower risk for the customer?

It seems theres 2 ways to approach lead gen with mail. Short and personal, or long and nonpersonal. I think in either direction whatever I write should not come off like an ad. But something that increases buyer motivation/trust/desire.

When you guys do brochures (I'll be handing these out in hospitals, lobbies, waiting rooms, gyms, cafeterias, really anywhere local) how do you approach them?

I have a section of my brochure right now that says "need more proof?".. basically more proof of why our system works. And what I do is build the value of the proof I'm about to talk about. Talking about how its so awesome and how no other companies know about it basically. I talk about how times magazine couldn't even offer this form of proof when they were trying to convince people to buy high efficieny energy systems for their home. I don't focus heavily on our business or the fact WE are selling a system. I talk about times magazine, star ledger, and attempts that companies like these have made to convince people that energy efficient systems are worth it.

And I finish off essentially saying that there is no room in the brochure for the proof because it has a lot of numbers in it. I talk about how the chart has more value than a times magazine publication made not too long ago.

I essentially build it up into this type of valuable secret, but what it really is is a break down of interest rates and inflation down the road. Its a chart with a lot of math, but once buyers read the chart it enables them to see "wow, theres no way I can lose money buying one of these systems". I don't want to show them the chart in the brochure and tell them "you won't lose money". Id rather its implied, and that they call for the brochure out of their own motivation.

Is this strategy of building secrets effective? It seems like it could be. I'm trying to make it look like our business has a form of information that noone has, and if customers want that information, they need to call. I do a ton of preselling prior to that that doesn't come of salesy. I motivate people with first person story appeal, and use other business's (like times) to help build value. Because if times magazine once said people need to get energy efficient systems I feel its better to quote their words, than write my own basically.

I know this post is a jumbled mess of **** too. Could have definitely organized it better and waited till I had the brochure right by me. But I just want to know if I'm going in the right direction. And if anyone else has any ideas or feels creative today please let me know what you are thinking!

thanks