Tweet

6 Steps To Design Effective Brochures

Guest post by: Stuart Ayling

Article Overview: Have you ever decided you need a brochure or other piece of printed marketing material? This could happen after you see a brochure from another business (maybe a competitor) and you think “I need one of those too”.

6 Steps To Design Effective Brochures

Have you ever decided you need a brochure or other piece of printed marketing material?

This could happen after you see a brochure from another business (maybe a competitor) and you think “I need one of those too”.

Usually the first thing you will do is visualise what it will look like. How big? The colours? Where will you put your logo?

Stop right there! Colours and size of the brochure should be among the last things you consider.

If you want to create truly effective brochures and marketing material, follow these six steps.

1. Define Your Purpose.

Why should your prospect choose your business? What is their problem? What action do you want the reader to take? You need to have a distinct purpose for your brochure. Focus the content on answering the key questions your prospects will have.

2. Define your Audience

Hand-in-hand with Defining Your Purpose, you need to have a clear picture of who your audience will be. Segment the market to make sense of the different types of clients – try to picture the type of person you are writing for. Identify what they need to know. Understand what else they are reading. That is, review samples of competitor communications for style and content.

3. How Will Your Customers Use Your Brochure?

Is your brochure to introduce a new service? Is it to provide technical data? Is it to generate sales via a ‘fax back’ order form? Remember to focus on the action you want readers to take. The content and design should support that objective.

4. What Is The Message?

Make sure the text (also called the ‘copy’) of your brochure uses strong sentences, that are easy to read. Avoid using clichés like: “Latest equipment”; “Highly trained staff”; “xx Years of experience”. Focus on the benefits you can provide. And make sure you use an attention-grabbing headline. Headlines can make or break a brochure.

5. Which Format?

The size of the brochure must be sufficient to communicate your message. Clearly this will vary from business to business. Common sizes are A4 (nearly US letter size); A5 (half of A4); DL (common business letter size); or as a stand alone insert, sometimes with multiple pages.

These page sizes can be folded to create multiple panels, such as folding an A4 page using a tri-fold to create a DL sized finished item.

6. What Will It Look Like?

Now you can consider the paper stock, colours, type styles (fonts) used, and the use of ‘white space’ to make the brochure easy to scan and understand. Never use more than 3 different font styles, and keep the size at 10pt or above. Be aware that using reversed text (like white words against a dark background) can be difficult for people to read.

Remember - The ultimate outcome of your brochure is to get people to take the action you desire. Design your brochure to achieve that purpose.

Related Articles
  Why Use an Advertising Agency
  Offline Marketing for Website Promotion
  Graphic Design Goal
  Too Dull? Too Sharp?
  Marketing With Eco-Friendly Brochures

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Join Hand with Developer - If you know about traditional businesses then you will know that they require start up capital for premises/ equipment etc. Web businesses in reality are not that different other than their premises are predominately their website. Effective you have a number of options which in order of up front capital is: 1) Design yourself with the likes of Frontpage or trial of Dreamweaver 2) Off the shelf solution 3) Off the shelf script and/ or purchased template
Re: Top Banner Help - [quote:35xjo6uq]Good job on the banners BennyBoy![/quote:35xjo6uq] No probs:) I agree Online Marketing and Publicity Search Engine Optimization - Web Design and Programming Blogging also may be... Web Design Tutorials Looking to Hire - jobs section Interesting Articles / websites
Your Intial Mistakes Business - Hi, When I started my business I had made a lot of mistakes initially. These helped me in learning the art of the trade and today when I look back, I feel that these mistakes were quite silly. I had made my learnings then and those learnings have helped me time and again. Some of the mistakes I made were - i. Wrong Time Management ii. Wasting money on glossy Brochures and Business cards iii. Believing what they taught me at school was 100% correct iv. Giving too much when it was not required...... I would like to find out what have been your faltering moments in Business when you had started and what/how did they help you grow. Regards
Re: what position to request? - Hi Michael, Great suggestion from David, or you could try something around a design consultancy, How about Website Design Consultant, Design and Development Manager, Website Support and Development Manager or maybe Internet Business Development Consultant. Ultimately whatever you are comfortable with and good luck for the future, Mal.
Re: Money Does Not Guarantee Happiness - Thanks for singling this point out, Chris. One book that comes to mind that covers it in an overall approach is "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. He addresses our inner life and the way it can change our effectiveness home and at work. There are corporations who have taken this model and effectively molded their business around it.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Promoting your company and self with verve

Maximum Impact Restaurant Greening

Using Social Media Marketing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.