Your Guide to Creating the Best Brochure for Your Business

Brochures might seem like a relic of long a bygone marketing era.

But you’d be surprised how effective they can be. Here are just a few of their advantages:

• They’re cheap to make and free to distribute.
• They’re physical advertising and will be referred to again and again, over time.
• They’re not competing with other adverts, as happens online.
• They’re handed out in person directly to your target market, generating business.
• They can leave a lasting impression, build brand awareness, and stimulate interest.
• The information can literally be handed from person to person.

As you can see, compared to alternative marketing forms, brochures have the potential for significant return on investment.

However, there are good and bad brochures.

Just as a well-made pamphlet can leave a positive impression about your brand, a bad one can turn you into a laughing stock. Want to create a brochure for your business? It’s in your interest to learn how to do it right.

Keep reading to learn exactly how to make a good brochure.

How to Make a Good Brochure: 9 Essential Components

Investing in a brochure for your business? Here’s how to ensure you do the best job possible.

1. Prior Preparation

A great brochure doesn’t just happen.

It takes some planning. Spend time thinking ahead. Consider the purpose of the brochure, where it will be displayed, how it will fold, the general layout, the number of words, and so on.

Having a design blueprint will make everything else that bit easier.

2. Attention-Grabbing Title

Imagine a stand full of brochures in a waiting room.

With dozens to choose from, which do you pick out?

Isn’t it usually the one with the best, cleverest, and most attention-grabbing title?

Pay close attention to the title of your brochure. It makes a major difference. The title should stand out on the front page. Think of it as a newspaper headline. You need to grab someone’s interest in a matter of seconds. The title is the key.

3. High-Quality Copy

Don’t let Eric the mail boy write your copy.

Your written content is crucial to success. It should be concise, well-written, and compelling reading. Have a pro copywriter put it together!

Oh, and be sure to look it over before sending it to print. Any print company worth their salt will remind you to do this. Do yourself a favour and have an editor give the copy a once over. There’s nothing like spelling mistakes and grammatical errors to damage your brand.

4. Relevant Necessary Information

Think about what you’re trying to achieve.

The planning phase of your brochure design should have you consider a goal for the brochure. Keep it in mind when you come to decide the information you include. Are you trying to promote a new product? Do you want to showcase your brand or service? Do you want to make more sales?

Your goals should directly impact your content. They’ll affect whether you need pie charts and product specs, pricing charts or feature pages; Pro and con paragraphs, or itinerary ideas.

There’s nothing worse than a brochure with loose, irrelevant copy. Your goal helps you be concise and on point.

5. Powerful and Professional Imagery

Humans are visual beings. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Your brochure is the perfect opportunity to leverage our preference for pictures. The right photo will draw the eye, capture attention, and compel a viewer to pick your brochure up. Great photos will also be a signal of professionalism.

People aren’t stupid. They can absolutely tell a well-designed pamphlet from a poor-quality one. An amazing set of photos will signal to a customer the standard of your business.

Don’t skimp on the photos. Sure, you could snap the shots yourself, or pay for stock photos. But that’s a recipe for poor quality, impersonal imagery. Pay a pro photographer to do this for you. Sure, it will cost more upfront. The long term benefits will make it a worthy investment though.

6. Quality Paper

Paper is paper is paper, right?

Wrong.

There’s a world of difference between an A4 piece of printer paper, and a weighted, textured pamphlet. Of course, better quality paper costs more. But, again, remember that your brochure represents your business and brand.

Imagine potential customers literally picking up your business and feeling it between their fingers! The paper quality says a lot about your priorities.  

7. Company Branding

There’s almost no point making a brochure without including your company branding.

Have your logo on every page, and design the brochure to fit the style and aesthetic of your brand. This is your brand image in the physical form. Match it to the style of other aspects of your business. Think of how you’ve designed your website, online content, and physical products. The aesthetic should align throughout.

Solid branding starts with a concrete idea of your ideal customer. How do you want to come across to potential customers? Keep them in mind as you design the brochure.  

8. Beautiful Design

This isn’t a high-school art class.

There’s no room for word art in your business brochure.

Brochure design is vital. Sure, we could give you a run-down of basic design principles. But in reality, if art and design isn’t your forte, you should almost definitely hire a professional to do it for you!

Let them know the specifications and ideas, then give them free rein. They’re literally trained to do this for a living. You can trust they’ll do a good job.

9. Call-to-Action

All adverts need a call-to-action.

Your brochure needs one too.

Again, this relates entirely to that goal you should have kept in mind throughout this process! In essence, you need to tell the reader what you want them to do. It’s the ‘buy now!’ the ‘Contact us today!’ and the ‘visit our website!’ on the last page.

Fail to incorporate a call-to-action and risk missing the mark with your pamphlet.

Time to Get Designing

There you have it: how to make a good brochure for your business in 9 easy tips.

Brochures may seem old-school. However, they still have a definite place in your marketing budget. After all, they cost a pittance compared to modern forms of advertising. And the benefits don’t stop at the lack of expense.

However, it’s all too easy to make a bad brochure. It’s in the absolute interest of your business to know how to make a good one. Hopefully, the tips here have made that possible.

Are you hoping to get some brochures printed? Contact us today to see how we can help.