Your Guide to Designing a Great Printed Brochure

Creating a brochure is an inevitable journey destined to be taken by a business at some point in their life time. In fact, for most – it’s a regular thing. But what differs those printed brochures that get stuck to the fridge to the ones that end up stuffed in a drawer, or worse – stuffed straight into the bin? This comes down to the fundamentals involved in building a great brochure; from design to print, there are no small decisions that should be taken lightly. This is because brochures need to be interesting, attractive and informative. Here’s how to do it.

How to Create an Engaging Brochure

1. First Define Your Customer and Then Define Your Brochure

Finding out who your customers are will define your brochure. If you think your answer is “everyone”, you are likely to be mistaken. In the world of business, everyone needs to target to a certain extent. This may be by age, location or social status. An expensive product needs to reach the right person; there is no sense in casting a wide net. If you retail a higher end product or service, your brochure will have different needs – for example, you may want to print it on luxury paper. In the same way, if you retail a cheap, standard product – you will still need a certain amount of targeting and this has requirements.

2. White Space

White space is vital in not just brochures but in all marketing material. Never underestimate the power of clarity, it speaks volumes. Printing a brochure means you need to be clear on everything; your products, services, contact details, brand etc. White space is synonymous with readability; you should never underestimate this.  

3. Design

Only consider designing your brochure if you have the professional in house capabilities to do so. Outsourcing design can scare companies because they feel they are losing control – this is far from the truth. What it really means is you get a helping hand with producing your best possible brochure. You may think that designing your own brochure will save you money, but actually – in the long term, printing undesirable brochures that no one will read will actually cost you a lot more in time, effort and of course – money too.

4. Brand

In keeping in line with the above suggestion on design, good branding is essential.  Branding is vital in every business but branding your brochure and other marketing material is up there with the most important type of branding. You print a brochure to inform your customers, informing your customers is useless if they don’t know you- or worse, they don’t remember you. Create brand guidelines and stick to them. If you don’t have a strong brand identity or you want to update for the sake of creating a fresh new brochure, then outsource this to the professionals too.

5. Copy & Proof

Last but by no means is least, creating great content and proofing your copy is crucial. Think about design and market research as the build of your house, and your content the interior.

In a world where you will be judged completely on your brand and offerings, content plays a key role in this process. So, if you don’t have the in house skill to generate great content for your brochure – do some research and outsource it.

You’ll find that this extra effort in research and outsourcing will help you create an amazing brochure that helps you get stuck on fridges, kept around offices and shared around. Great brochures are read and shared – don’t make your brochure standard, create something great.