A tip sheet is an article or mini-report that is published as a series of numbered tips. They can be very helpful to your customers, and therefore to you, but they are often overlooked in favor of sales literature, white papers, websites, and other technical documentation.
Here are some reasons why you should focus on improving your tip sheets.
1. They educate your customers and prospective customers.
Why would someone want to purchase your product if they don’t know how to use it?
In the case of Nestlé chocolate chips, the “tip sheet” can be the Tollhouse cookie recipe printed on each bag of chocolate chips. Customers have more reason to buy the chocolate chips because they don’t have to go looking for the recipe.
2. They help you establish your professional expertise.
When you’re just starting out, people don’t know who you are, what you do, or why they should come to you in the first place. A well-written a tip sheet can help you bridge those gaps.
If, for example, you are opening a garden shop, creating a lawn maintenance tips sheet (or even a lawn maintenance schedule) for your region of the country can help your customers take better care of their lawns—and buy your products to do just that.
3. They provide a soft-sell approach to you and your products and services.
Often, a tip sheet focuses on how to use a particular brand of product. Such tips sheets can be helpful, to be sure. Yet if they focus less on a particular brand, and more on a particular type of product or service, they can be even more helpful.
For example, instead of talking about how your type of automobile tire is best equipped to handle driving on snowy roads, talk about the types of features a tire should have for successful driving on snowy roads.
Effective tip sheets offer more than just tips. They can help you increase sales and revenue through helping people understand your products and services. They can help you reduce costs by providing information you’d otherwise be proving through calls to your service department. Through growing revenue and reducing costs, effective tip sheets can help you improve your overall profit.
Consider these ideas when you plan to create your tip sheets.
