In the hands of your target audience, a business card or brochure can be a powerful marketing tool. Business cards and brochures alike can reignite a prospect’s interest in your business, strengthen your brand and even close lucrative deals.

Unfortunately, however, getting your business’s marketing materials into the right person’s hand can be significantly more challenging than you’d think, especially if it’s something you’d like to do en masse.

Luckily, there are solutions available to make your business’s marketing materials more appealing to prospective customers. Read on to learn five ways to encourage prospects to take your brochures, business cards and other marketing items.

Offer a special discount with the brochure

Have you ever received a brochure from a business with a voucher inside? There’s a reason this technique is so popular with marketers, particularly small businesses: it works, often really well.

Giving away a discount or special offer with a brochure, business card or sales letter is a great way to give your target customers a reason to read your business’s content and keep your marketing materials.

It also gives prospective customers a reason to contact your business or visit your retail store – the discount you’ve offered. Think of a great offer that you can give as part of your brochure or business card and put it into action.

Include detailed, engaging information

How detailed and informative are your marketing materials? Many businesses hand out brochures, sales guides and other marketing items that are sleekly designed but full of generic, unengaging information.

If your brochure has something interesting to say, people are far more likely to take it, as well as far more likely to keep it. Stand out from the crowd of dull, boring and largely worthless marketing brochures by talking about something interesting.

You could talk about your company’s unique history and story, the most exciting new elements of your product or service, or simply share a story about how your business has helped its customers in the past.

Use an attention-catching headline

Just like great headlines are essential for effective retail signage, good headlines are a key component of any successful brochure. The headline will sell prospects on the value of your brochure and encourage them to read past the front cover.

Ask an engaging, interesting question or lead with a provocative statement and you will catch people’s attention and draw their interest. Use a generic headline and it’s far more likely that your brochure will be passed over in favor of another.

Attention-grabbing headlines are great ways to stand out, especially if your business operates in a crowded market with lots of competition. The more different you are, the greater the positive effects for your business’s marketing efforts.

Pre-sell to customers for better results

Have you ever attended a trade show? By the end of the event, you were probably carrying around more brochures, business cards and product manuals than you’re capable of reading in a year, let alone an afternoon.

Trade shows and other industry events are great marketing platforms, but it’s easy for attendees to feel overloaded with brochures, business cards and other swag by the end of the event.

Make it clear to your prospective customers that your marketing materials offer real value by pre-selling to them – either through a sales pitch or a simple conversation – before handing them your brochure or business card.

Make your business card a hot item

Most business cards are extremely generic – they list a person’s name, position and contact information with very little else. Some business cards, however, are unique and remarkable, either due to their design or their content.

From minimalistic business cards that tell people to Google you for information to ultra-complex business cards that tell a story, sometimes the best way to make sure people remember you is to stand out from the crowd.

Turn your business card into a hot item – something people will want to show their colleagues when the event is over – and you’ll massively increase its retention rate while giving your business the marketing exposure it needs to thrive.