Marketing Brochures
When it comes to engaging and educating the audience, brochures come as a handy marketing tool. But if the brochure design isn’t relevant, it will end up in the trash bin.
A well-designed brochure clearly tells what your business is all about and inspires the readers to consider your products/services. On the flip side, a poorly designed brochure will most likely to turn-off potential customers for eternity.
But here comes the question — what exactly is a brochure? To put simply, it’s a type of leaflet that features various information about a campaign, company, an event, products or services. Usually, a brochure comes in a single sheet form in a bi-fold or a tri-fold variation.
So, how to design an amazing brochure? Taking help from brochure design templates available online is the best way. But what if you have to design one right from scratch? Here we bring you a list of top 10 tips that will help you design a great brochure.
1) Find out the Purpose Before you Start:
Before you start designing a marketing brochure, ask the clients why they need a brochure. Find out the objectives behind it. Sometimes the need for one comes up because the last brochure wasn’t up to the mark or didn’t work. If they provide you a brief about it, take your time and consider what it is that they want to achieve.
2) Understand your Consumers:
Understanding your customers is very important before you start designing or writing brochure content. You need to design different brochures for different audiences, and if you aren’t clear on your target audience, you may end up choosing the wrong designs. Ask a few questions to yourself like— who are your ideal customers? What type of information are they searching for? What kind of copy should you write for them — informal, corporate, serious or humorous?
When you know your customers, you will be able to create a brochure that feels right to them. In case you don’t know the answers, ask your salespeople or marketing team. Use their answers as inspiration and start with your design work.
3) Identify your Message:
You know what are you going to design, but do you know what are you going to say in your brochure? It is very important that you know what you are going to say in your information sheet and how you are going to say it before you even think of designing. You need to know it because your message is the key ingredient. Again it all comes back to knowing your audience. If you do not have a persuasive message that speaks to them in crystal-clear language that they can relate to, your brochure will fail.
For example, suppose you were designing a brochure for parents to advertise your childcare business. The ideal message might be— “We are fun, friendly and caring—come to join our services!” So you need to use simple, friendly and understandable language with parents’ and kids’ images to appeal to your audience. On the other side, if you are designing a brochure for a financial product or service, your message and imagery will change.
Knowing your message before designing will help you make the right design decisions. Even you can take inspiration from various brochure designs samples available online.
4) Focus on your Brand Identity
Keeping your brand identity in mind is of great importance while taking off the design process. These tiny but relevant elements bring out the visual identity and feel of your brand. No matter what type of brochure you’re creating, the design has to be consistent with the overall branding.
Pick design elements such as colors, fonts, and images in sync with your brand. Also, consider the tone and content for a consistent flair.
5) Choose the Ideal Brochure Type:
There is a long list of options when it comes to choosing the brochure type. The list of the way it is folded is also long. They are:
- Half-fold
- Tri-fold
- Half + tri-fold
- Half + half-fold
- Half-fold (letter)
- Single gate fold
- Double gate fold
- Accordion fold
- Parallel fold
- Roll fold
- Z-fold
If you have to include less content, you can keep it simple with an all-time favorite Tri-Fold. However, if you need to communicate a lot of information in your brochure, choose a type that has more space such as a 16-Panel Fold or an Eight-Panel Roll Fold.
Also, consider the ways it is going to be distributed. Are these going to be stuffed in a bag and then delivered for promotion? Are these brochures going to be sent via mail? The way it is planned to be delivered or displayed also plays a crucial role in determining which fold would be the best choice for you.
6) Organize your Copy and Images
Have your copy and images in place before you kick-off brochure design. This will help you in deciding the length, layout and font size. Begin with the perfect amount of content. Including a lot of information may overwhelm the readers. Use subheadings, bullets, and text boxes to break up and organize the content. Do the same with the images. Keep them handy and figure out where they should be placed and which ones will go with the copy. You only have one chance to grab your customers’ attention. Keep it easy to scan and read for them.
7) Keep your Brochure Clean and Simple:
Too much bling, 3D elements, and glitter will confuse your readers. You don’t want to choke up your brochure design with too many images, too much text, or too many design elements that target your audience’s attention, do you? Simple design can be incredibly effective in conveying your message. Therefore, keep it simple, clean and easy to understand for the best results.
8) Dare to be Different & Unique
Customers these days are smart and savvy. They don’t want to hold the same old when it comes to brochures. So, to make an impact on them, don’t make it look like every other brochure they have had. Think outside of the box and make your brochure design different to grab attention. You can inspire your creativity by visiting Designhill and browsing their numerous brochures accessible online.
9) Put Strong CTAs Strategically:
The reasons you are creating your brochure different is to encourage your audience to take action, right? No brochure design ideas will inspire them to do so until you place your CTAs in it. But placing CTAs in a pile-up of text or on the last page isn’t going to work as well. Therefore, if you want your CTAs to inspire your consumers to take action, you need to present it in a big, bold way. Put them throughout the brochure strategically that would make it impossible for people to overlook.
10) Do the Final Check:
Once you have designed your brochure, it’s time to do the final check. Keep in mind that it’s your last chance to do the modifications and perfect your design. Check to see if your design grabs the attention, conveys the message clearly, your CTAs encourage you for action and if the whole theme matches up with your brand.
Get a second opinion by showing your brochure to your colleagues and friends to figure out the chances of improvement. Once everything is in line, it’s time to get it printed!
Consider the tips provided above and be ready to design an excellent marketing brochure!