A powerful brochure can educate its readers, convey good credibility and authority to the company, increase the target audience, and persuade consumers to take action. Colorful and informative representatives of what you have to offer, an effective brochure should distinctly and succinctly detail what your business is about and what you can do for your customers. Brochures have lasting power, and a well-designed brochure will linger with a potential client, serving as a reminder of what your business is all about. Your brochure tells customers what sets you apart from your competitors. Follow these 5 tips for creating an effective brochure for your business.
Know Your Objective
To make your design effective, it’s important that you understand what your brochure is designed to accomplish. The purpose, or objective, of the brochure, will help point you in the right direction. So, before you do anything else, sit down and write out the purpose of your brochure. Is it for an event or an advertising tool? Decide who your audience is and what needs to be communicated. Get as much information about the objective of the brochure as you can so that you can properly choose its design. Brochure content, copy, images, and design need to work with your overall brand strategy and purpose of your brochure. Preliminary strategizing is the best way to make sure your finished product is aligned with your brand and speaks to your target audience.
Know Your Customers
A brochure is a communication tool, and it’s important that you know your target market in order to effectively capture their interests. Think of your brochure as a story that you are telling, and great pacing is the key. The right pace of content and images creates engagement as readers move from one page to the next. Put yourself in the shoes of your target market and incorporate their desires into the design.
Get Straight to the Point
Remember that this is a brochure, not a book. Steer clear of the temptation of listing down all the achievements and successes of your company. Avoid putting in all the information about your product or service. While we like to think there is no such thing as too much information, in a brochure it will just confuse the readers and dilute the main point you are trying to get across. Instead, focus on what will catch the attention of your target market. Pinpoint an interest succinctly so the readers can easily grasp what you’re communicating to them.
Design For Your Readers
Prioritize your brochure design for your readers. Choose a legible typeface and font size. Use body fonts for main copy sections and save fancier fonts for special purposes like headlines or titles. Be sure the fonts you select look compatible with each other. Show restraint when choosing which font or fonts to use. If your company already has a signature font, then go from there. Keep imagery consistent throughout your brochure. If you are using stock photos, choose images that are unique, but look like they belong together.
Using imagery that’s in the same style throughout the brochure creates a polished look. Creativity is important to set you apart from your competition. Aim for a design that is original and can stand out even when it’s shuffled with other leaflets in a rack. Keep your brochure interesting by adding variety, for example, a full page of copy may precede a full page of images. Think of the brochure cover as a hook that grabs viewers’ attention and compels them to pick up your brochure and open it.
Make Your Content Skimmable
Avoid big words. The more complex the words you use, the less the credibility you’ll receive. You don’t have to impress your audience with hefty words. In fact, the more you use complex words, the harder it is for you to convey your main point. For brochures, simple English is the best route to take.
Resist the urge to fill every page with words and images, instead focus on making your content skimmable. Even if you have created a perfectly articulated brochure, readers will skim the content, and that’s okay. Don’t expect or require readers to start at the beginning and read every word through to the end. Make it easy to flip through the pages of your brochure. Focus on crafting small, easy to digest paragraphs.
Provide plenty of entry points for readers, such as callouts, captions, and lead-in paragraphs. Balance copy and images with white space. Blank spaces offer the reader a visual rest as they flip through your brochure.
Valuable content, choosing the right fonts and colors and using quality paper all work together to create a brochure work keeping. Safeguard by Prime has the printing and marketing resources you need for your business. We offer all of the graphic, layout, and print services required for creating an effective brochure, and we do it at more reasonable prices. Contact us today to get started on your next print project.