Your Hawthorn Creative wedding or event brochure is ready – the ink is dry on the paper and the pixels are set in the digital version. Now what? After all the work that goes into a brochure – from the design to the copywriting to the approval to the printing – by the time it arrives in your hands, you’ve made a substantial investment into this one piece of print marketing. So, how do you make sure you’re getting the absolute best ROI for all that time and money? We’re spelling out what we recommend to our clients so that every corporate event and wedding brochure we produce is a powerful sales tool that helps land bookings.

Printed Brochures

First, create a protocol for handing the brochures out. At what point in the sales process does a client get a hard copy? Where are they stored? How do you track how many have been given out? Because printing is an upfront investment, make sure you’ve got a game plan, and that everyone is on the same page.

Share them with your entire staff

Your sales team is a powerful source, but you also want your receptionist, your catering manager, and your event designer to be as comfortable as your sales reps in handing out your new brochures.

Place them in prominent locations around the property

Think beyond the card rack. Is there a table where you could create a vignette with flowers, your brochures, and tabletop accessories? Draw people in with aesthetic touches so that they crave more information.

Mail hard copies to top wedding/event planning partners

Your partners are your best advocates, so if they have a client they think might be interested in your venue, you want to make sure that your brochure makes the stunning impression you’re not there to make in person.

Bring the brochures to wedding and trade shows

It’s common sense, but it’s easy to overlook that stack of wedding brochures when staff is packing up for a major marketing activation event.

E-brochure

Since you’ve paid for the design of a brochure, of course you’ll want to leverage it across all mediums. While being able to send a link to an e-brochure is a lifesaver in this increasingly digital world, it also allows anyone browsing your site to see that gorgeous brochure, even if they haven’t set up a tour of your venue. But we’ve found that an e-brochure is a huge resource that clients don’t always use well.

Blast it out on social media

Visual content performs far better than any other sort on social media, so make good use of the eye-catching design you invested in. With your brochure, you’ll get an image file of the cover, a perfect visual to post across platforms, or even make the background image your profile. We recommend Instagram and Pinterest most because they’re highly visual and are where event planners and brides live. Through careful use of hashtags and tagging vendors, solid traction can be gained on Instagram, while good keyword usage will ensure your Pin shows up when users search.

Post it prominently on your website

You want to make sure anyone who comes across your website in their search for a venue (if they find you, you’ve done your SEO right – well done!) has ready access to your e-brochure. They can bookmark it or print a copy of their own to go in that all-important wedding planning binder.

Put it in your email signature

You’re in dialog every day via email with various people connected to or interested in your venue via email. Offer them every opportunity to see just how spectacular it is by adding a hyperlink to your new e-brochure.

Include it on the “Contact Us” form

When a prospective client is interested enough to give you their personal information, that’s a lead that’s ready for your brochure. Consider adding the same cover image and link to the full e-brochure in the “thank you” page that appears once they’ve submitted their contact info. It makes sure they have something beautiful to look at while they wait for your (speedy) reply.

Give email campaigns a try

Email newsletters are currently experiencing a renaissance after spending a few years as the old-fashioned aunt who still wears scrunchies. If you’d like to jump in the email newsletter game but worry you don’t have anything to send out, your e-brochure makes a great first round volley.

Send it out to your wedding planning partners/event planners via email

For the partners you know prefer digital or communicate primarily with clients who don’t live locally and thus might not have a face to face meeting where your partner could hand off your brochure.