A Unique (and Effective) Pocket Guide Idea to Swipe

The past month has been a blur with attendance and exhibiting at several events for Infotail (the marketing and sales automation company I co-founded in late 2014).

In preparation for these events, I created a number of unique and powerful marketing pieces which I plan to share with you over the coming weeks.

I shared the David Ogilvy-inspired ad I created in this article.

And today I want to share a simple marketing tool any business owner can use in their business for event marketing like we did or for direct mail or online marketing.

It’s the development of a “pocket guide” relative to your products or services. This small, short book format is something I have been a fan of for years and have used it many times for many projects and showed a few examples in this past article.

This simple and portable marketing tool continues to generate profits for me every time I use it and this recent version, The Pocket Guide to Fix Your Follow-Up, is no different. People like it because of its unique format and the fact it’s a quick read.  There is also a very good chance it will not get thrown away like the traditional brochure.

You can download a PDF version of The Pocket Guide to Fix Your Follow-Up here.

The other smart thing we did for these recent events was to insert the guide into a similar-sized envelope that was a direct-response device. This envelope was printed on both sides and drove attendees to our booth to get another valuable gift.

I can see a similar strategy being used in a direct mail campaign and given the low price of printing these guides and envelopes (we paid around $1.00 per set), it’s quite cost-effective for small batch mailings.

If you decide to use this pocket guide device, here are a few important tips:

• Recommended size is 4” wide by 6” tall
• A color cover and black and white inside is sufficient for most applications
• Consider using “Pocket Guide to” as your guide title
• Minimum page count is 20 pages and maximum is 28 or so (otherwise it starts to get bulky)
• Make sure your font sizes are readable – the body copy for this pocket guide was Cambria 10 pt
• Insert graphics, cartoons, photos, etc. to break up copy
• Use bullet lists, check lists, etc. to break up copy
• Insert an evergreen call-to-action
• Print them in small batches and reprint as necessary (no matter how well you proof it there’s a high probability you will find necessary edits)
• Use it online and offline for lead generation, event marketing, new customer marketing, etc.

If you are interested in this concept of using educational short books (shooks) in your marketing, we just completed a brand new, comprehensive course on the exact steps to create and use shooks in your business marketing. Click here for this brand new Infotail training resource (scroll down to The Essential System to Creating Your Own Educational Shook).

If you have any questions or comments about this pocket guide, leave a comment below and I will get back to you.