5 Tips to Get the Most From Your Marketing Brochures
Brochure printing has always been one of the backbones of marketing materials. Brochures have been around a while and you can use them in a variety of situations, from trade shows to direct mail materials and even as sales presentation closers. The following tips can be useful to help you create an effective marketing brochure that can educate your customers, give a good identity and credibility to your business, and encourage customers to take action.
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Get creative! Who says your marketing brochure design has to be the standard sheet of paper folded equally in a trifold? Break the rules with a custom die-cut. (PrintPlace.com can make these if you call for specifics.) If you’re promoting an ice cream shop, design your marketing brochure in the shape of an ice cream cone. If you’re spreading the word about your dance shop, try a dance shoe or footprint design.
Experiment with different folds like the gate fold or add perforation for a detachable business card. Plain Jane marketing brochures are a dime a dozen. Try something out of the ordinary to grab your customer’s attention.
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Clear and vivid images are a sure way to grab your customer’s eye. Photos can sometimes tell a reader more about your item or business than written information can. People process visuals faster than they do words, so use high quality images whenever possible to explain your product. Use words to convey benefits or anything that can’t be seen in your image.
Don’t be afraid to take advantage of full bleed printing. Your images can run off the side of the page or even into another panel. Images don’t have to be stuck in the middle of a page to pop. Be sure that any content you are placing inside the brochure meshes with the images you’ve selected.
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Keep your content simple. Printed brochures are small by their very nature and people don’t expect to have to concentrate very hard when they are reading them. Make it easy for customers to understand your brochure. You should also avoid the temptation to list too much information on your brochure. Too many messages will confuse your audience and take away from your main marketing goal. You can add photos or illustrations to paragraphs of text, to make it easier to rearrange them while you are preparing your marketing brochure layout.
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Your brochure’s purpose should be to educate the customer or prospect and to generate sales leads. Most people will just skim through your brochure for key points. Be sure to use plenty of headlines to grab their attention. Design your brochure to bring in sales leads and to answer basic customer questions, but don’t forget to include a point of contact so they can get in touch with you should they need further assistance.
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The final step is the 3 “P”s: proof, paper, and print. Sometimes while you’re designing the layout of your brochure, it seems like you’ve looked at it 100 times. You’ve read it and read it again. Let someone else take a look. The last thing you want is a brochure with misspelled words or grammatical errors.
Once your brochure has been proofread by a few pairs of eyes, you should decide what type of paper selection you’d like. The right stock can enhance your message, so choose carefully between glossy or uncoated, text or cardstocks to add more appeal to the brochure.
All that’s left is printing.
