Creating a good brochure needn’t be difficult or particularly time-consuming. All that’s required is careful planning and a little forethought and you’ll soon be on your way to an creating eye-catching, professional and memorable brochure that will effectively communicate and promote your company to its best advantage.

What’s the brochure for:

Ask yourself what you want to achieve. Do you want to identify a new product, or raise the profile of your company? Maybe you simply want to increase the level of your sales. If you can clearly identify your purpose, then it’s much easier to set the tone and the content of the brochure appropriately.

List all the information you wish to include:

Make a list of all the information you want to include in the brochure and try to prioritise it: view it as a kind of information hierarchy.  Make sure that the most important information is placed at the top, so that the layout can be set accordingly.

Only use high quality images:

Any images you use should reflect the values and professionalism of your company. You want to create the best possible impression with your customers; therefore it makes sense for you to use the best possible imagery. Rather than skimping on costs, use professional images: in the longer term these upfront costs will pay dividends.

The words you use are as important as the images:

The written content of your brochure is just as important as the imagery. The words chosen need to accurately reflect the personality of your company and need to appeal to your target audience.

Fonts:

Simply because particular fonts may be in fashion doesn’t mean they’ll work well in your brochure. Fonts need to be appropriate and also need to be able to stand the test of time. Above all else, they need to look good and reflect the general feel of the message you’re trying to get across.

Always proofread:

It goes without saying really, but always check and double-check before sending your brochure for printing. Mistakes are avoidable and costly. It’s best to get it right the first time.

Paper Quality:

Always try to use the best quality paper you can afford, within your chosen budget of course. The choice of paper should reflect your message. Normal paper weights for brochures are generally in the range 80gsm to 350gsm.

Finishing your brochure:

There are an infinite variety of finishes you can use – gloss varnishing, embossing, foiling, laminating etc: the choices can be mindboggling and confusing. Make sure that whatever finish you decide upon looks good and re-enforces your company or product message.

Personalise your brochure:

If possible always try to use the personal touch wherever you can. Using personal URLs has been shown to work and produce greater response rates: people generally like to see their name in print. Modern tracking systems also mean that you can capture any returned data and use this in any future personal and targeted campaign.

Remember the brochure isn’t an end in itself:

No matter how good a brochure may look, always remember that it is there primarily to stimulate interest. It won’t guarantee increased sales. Follow up the brochure and any leads that are generated by capitalising on this interest. All success is built on long-term marketing: follow up with emails and sales calls that continue to deliver your relevant message.

What’s the best way to ensure you create the perfect card?

• Carefully consider what you want the business card to say about you or your company and keep the message appropriate. If your company specialises in the use of eco-friendly materials, use recycled card. You might also want to think about the shape of the card – it doesn’t always have to be oblong you know. Consider using shapes that might match your company’s profile or products: if your company manufactures nuts and washers, why not make the card hexagonal? It’s slightly more complex to do, but it will make it memorable.
• Make sure you have a clear understanding of the purpose of your business and its hopes and how it would like to be perceived by its target market. That might sound so obvious as to be almost ridiculous, but, if your thinking is muddled on this one, imagine how your potential customers might feel.
• Decide on which font type you’d like to use. You don’t have to stick to the ordinary or conventional. The internet is crammed full of interesting fonts that might just be appropriate for your business and a careful and inventive choice might just give you a competitive edge.
• Always include your company name, email address, phone number (if appropriate) and company logo. If the contact details aren’t immediately identifiable, you might miss out on potential business and be wasting your money producing your card.
• Visualise how your card will look before you commit to print. Make sure that any text you include on the card doesn’t overlap or interfere with any images you might also want to include. Bear in mind that the space is limited, so the placing of all relevant information is critical. The use of shading, italics and underlining can also create problems, so there may have to be a trade off between creativity and practicality.
• Request samples before you finally go to print. Make sure the quality of the paper and materials meets with your expectations. Don’t be afraid to shop around either and compare your sample to those offered by the competitors.
• Send your finalised design off to your chosen printer. Most printers will accept your design by email to upload to their website. Turnaround is generally very quick, so you could have the cards back in a day or two.

The answer, contrary to what you might think, is that it makes sense. Companies have to speculate to accumulate, even when times are tough. A recent Royal Mail survey threw up some very interesting statistics with regard to the buying habits of consumers. It highlighted what it termed the ‘flick and click’ effect. The survey polled some 30 major online retailers, from mail order companies to grocers.

From the 1800 responses it received Royal Mail concluded that printed catalogues and brochures still have a surprisingly profound effect upon the buying habits of consumers.

• Customers who received a printed catalogue were 76% more likely to subsequently buy online, compared to those who didn’t receive printed brochures.
• These customers spent on average an extra £110.
• Over 70% responded that receiving a brochure/catalogue would definitely prompt them to follow it up and visit the website.
• Retailers who included leaflets and flyers with their brochures increase their online sales by 30%

It’s pretty clear from those statistics that print, whether it be a brochure or a leaflet, is a supremely effective way of building loyalty and driving customers to websites. If you add to that the fact that another survey found that 73% of customers prefer to receive offers in the mail, then it’s pretty clear that the printed medium offers many unique and effective marketing advantages.

Online sales are totally reliant on traffic being directed to websites, whether by emails or online advertisements. Even when customers find the site they have to spend time browsing and building trust before they commit to any purchase. Printed catalogues and brochures land on the doorstep and can be browsed at leisure anytime or anywhere. By the time the customer logs on to the computer, they’ve already made the decision to buy. All thanks to the humble brochure.